My links in the entertainment world go back a long time, and there are many stories to be told!

 

Suffice to say that what follows is a condensed history of my family’s time in music. In the future as I develop this website, I hope to add much more information and links.

 

My father Roy comes from London. He took a job working as a fitter for the Metropolitan Police, but music was his first love. His first love was the drums, and over time he formed small bands and gradually got bigger, ending up with his own ‘Roy Kenton Orchestra’. They worked on the London circuit (Hammersmith Palais, Café De Paris, The Ritz Ballroom Kingsbury, etc) and also worked around the country. On tour, he met up with a young lady from Birmingham, who eventually became the singer in the band and also Mrs Jean Kenton.

 

I was also born in London, at Lambeth Hospital. When I was 18mths old, my parents left London and went to work in the Midlands. After a few good years there the opportunity came to move to Cornwall to work at a nightclub in Falmouth. My father was the manager of the club and also the leader of his Drums/piano/bass trio. The venue previously had a dubious reputation and so he re-named it and re-launched it as ‘Club Internationale’, changing it into a cabaret club, with such names as Bert Weedon, James and Paul International, and a then-unknown ventriloquist by the name of Keith Harris.

 

After 3 years, it was time to move on and after a short spell on the road, Roy and Jean bought their own licenced premises in Redruth, the ‘Moonrakers’. This was a restaurant/nightclub, and ran for 7 years. During this time, at the age of 13 I was thrust into the frontline unexpectedly when the professional organist turned up drunk and I had to play for the night.

 

From then on, my father and I were an organ and drums duo, with mother still taking her turn to sing. When we left the Moonrakers, we started out on the road and built up a circuit of hotels, functions and social clubs. This partnership continued for some 20 years until 1995 when Roy retired.

 

I carried on for a few months as a solo act, by now using a modern ‘Korg’ keyboard. During that time I was introduced to a local girl by the name of Allison Olds. Allison had a fantastic voice, but up until then had only been able to use it in the local Operatic Society. We found that beside being very good friends, we made an excellent pairing as a boy/girl duo, under the name of ‘Impact’, and thus began a 10 year career that carried on from the groundwork of the Roy and Gary years, but gained new horizons such as the spell working on the P&O cruise ship ‘Arcadia’.

 

As the time ticked by the entertainment business changed, and we found that the preferred act was now a solo one. Allison and Gary therefore realised that the glory days were coming to an end, and thus a mutual decision was made to disband ‘Impact’ in 2006. We fulfilled the existing jobs, and during the run-down time I was able to plan for the future as a solo act again, and lined up new work.

 

I now have a full diary as a solo act, and I don’t foresee any change to this for the next few years. Who knows, perhaps Allison and I may re-form at some time in the future for a final musical fling on a round-the-world cruise  -  we always wanted to do that but never had the time to fit it in around a full diary in Cornwall!

Links to other pages:

 

Home  -  About Me  -  History  -  Gig Guide

 

Gallery Roy Kenton  -  Gallery Impact Duo  -  Gallery Gary K  -  Gary K CD’s  - Links