Kevin Whately Folk Musician

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: Hamish
Date: 09 Mar 09 - 04:32 AM

Ah, yes, Woody - that makes more sense. I didn't catch that implication.

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: GUEST,Woody
Date: 09 Mar 09 - 03:36 AM

From: Hamish
Date: 06 Mar 09 - 05:54 AM

Yeah - I thought that was odd. He reckoned he'd played in that rather large theatre. I'd've expected to have known that.

I thought the point was that he'd played there in charity gigs since becoming famous for his acting.

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: Gurney
Date: 09 Mar 09 - 12:21 AM

So, Kevin was a musician, and then an actor.

As Mike Harding gets asked, "Do you do this for a living, or have you got a proper job?"

I didn't think any of the accents in 'Auf Wiedersehen, Pet' were too strong, but I come from 20 miles from Brum, worked in the mines with Geordies, and lived in the West Country. The nominal Germans in that series spoke the clearest English, though.

I do have trouble understanding hip Negroes from American cities.

Do we still say 'hip, and 'cool?'

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: Hamish
Date: 08 Mar 09 - 12:48 PM

And of course Jimmy Nail wrote Big River - the song that Bob Fox has legitimised as having been a folk song all along. ;-)

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Mar 09 - 12:36 PM

I didn't follow any of those links much farther than to get the basics of the sites. At the "pet" series they were speaking English, but as Robyn says, it was highly accented.

Ian La Frenais is known to American viewers of PBS and probably the A&E and other mystery channels as a writer of the Lovejoy series.

I did see a lot of YouTube information about Whately and fundraisers, but I didn't follow those. That may be where you find the performances mentioned for charity.

SRS

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: Blowzabella
Date: 08 Mar 09 - 12:12 PM

Just found a bit more out about the Sunday for Sammy shows here

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: skipy
Date: 08 Mar 09 - 09:03 AM

Cut & paste from Wikipedia:-
Before turning to acting Whately began his working life as a folk singer, and still plays guitar, performing for charity concerts:[3] Along with other Auf Wiedersehen, Pet stars, he makes an appearance at the biennial benefit concert Sunday for Sammy in Newcastle. Before becoming an actor, he started training as an accountant.


Skipy

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 08 Mar 09 - 05:22 AM

Any more info on Kevin's collection of German building workers songs?

L in C

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: Nicholas Waller
Date: 07 Mar 09 - 05:14 PM

Auf Wiedersehen Pet is currently being re-run on one of the ITV channels in the UK, ITV4 I think.

Written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, famous also - at least in the UK - for Porridge, The Likely Lads and other stuff, including the WW2 Oliver Reed escaping-POW elephant film Hannibal Brooks, and Still Crazy, about an aging rock band.

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: Little Robyn
Date: 07 Mar 09 - 03:13 PM

"Auf Wiedersehen Pet" was a very popular British programme about a team of brick workers who move to Germany to find work. You might have bother understanding their English because their accents were really broad. Jimmy Nail was one of the Geordie characters but there were others from the midlands as well as Kevin. I don't remember if Kevin actually sang anything but Jimmy Nail certainly did. There may have been some drunken pub singing and presumably Kevin would have joined in then.
The comedy came from the way the cultures clashed, the language problems and misunderstandings.
It was quite popular here in NZ and there were several seasons and a couple of spin-off series - one even in America, somewhere out in a desert.
My Geordie friend calls me 'pet' all the time - it's a common term of endearment in the north, like luv or mate further south.
Auf weidersehen pet is what they said to their girlfriends/wives as they headed off to Germany, or at any time they were saying goodbye or even just goodnight.
Robyn

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: John J
Date: 07 Mar 09 - 02:01 PM

I'm pretty sure it's not English they were speaking!

JJ

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: Crane Driver
Date: 07 Mar 09 - 01:59 PM

Just to add to the confusion -

Andy McKay is not me

and

I am not Andy McKay

Andrew McKay
Crane Drivin' Music

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 07 Mar 09 - 01:05 PM

"So, the collection of German songs may be a logical offshoot. "

Yes, that will be it then ...............

L in C

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Mar 09 - 12:44 PM

I don't think anyone thought you were dissing him.

I did a YouTube search on "Kevin Whately sing" and instead of the UK detective and other roles, seem to have come up with a bunch of German programs. Something called "Auf Wiedersehen Pet." But they're speaking English in it so I'm not sure about it. Is it a UK program set in Germany? I don't find evidence of singing, but there is clearly time spent in Germany. So, the collection of German songs may be a logical offshoot. This is an older program, a quite young Whately is in it.

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: MC Fat
Date: 06 Mar 09 - 12:43 PM

I started this thread and it wasn't to diss Kevin, I was merely intrigued as to where and what he played Folk Music as it appeared he was around Tyneside when I was there.

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: SylviaN
Date: 06 Mar 09 - 12:29 PM

Well, just to put a bit of balance on the thing - I know a number of folk musicians who have played in several known bands for much longer than 1 year, who have managed to stay under the radar as individual known names. Many of them are damn good musicians too - so it doesn't surprise me that one might have to do a bit of digging to authenticate a folkie who's career took a an unexpected and successful turn into acting after just one year's involvement. Also - I believe Andy McKay is indeed a subscriber to BritFolk - the pro-folk performers' cyber group headed by Jacey Bedford. I also believe that most of the earlier cast of Auf Weidersehen Pet had all been folk enthusiasts and/or particiipants of one kind or another (birds of a feather etc; - to quote another great TV show)for a good time before the show appeared - so without having done any more research (which I now intend to do) I'd say it's more likely to be true than false.
Interestingly enough, it appears there are quite nukber of so called folk/acoustic clubs who don't know who Martin Carthy is never mind Kevin Whateley........:-)
Keith Kendrick on Sylvia Needham's account...

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 06 Mar 09 - 11:12 AM

Apparently he has an extensive collection of German building workers songs, honest :)

L in C

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Mar 09 - 11:09 AM

Are there any examples of his singing in his film work, or any recordings of his early musical performances?

SRS

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: GUEST,Barnacle (at work)
Date: 06 Mar 09 - 11:02 AM

I thought that, too - maybe they worked more in Donegal ...

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 06 Mar 09 - 06:14 AM

You can find more here: Andy McKay: "I first entered the music industry as a performer when I formed a duo with Kevin Whately as a sixth former. Specialising in folk music of the Northern counties, we were variously known as the North Countrie Gentlemen, Border Folk and Infolkus. They then branched out into Irish music and toured Donegal for one magical summer."

Mick

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: bubblyrat
Date: 06 Mar 09 - 06:07 AM

This is a case for Chief Inspector Morse, I think.

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: Hamish
Date: 06 Mar 09 - 05:54 AM

Yeah - I thought that was odd. He reckoned he'd played in that rather large theatre. I'd've expected to have known that.

I have found this:

"he spent a year singing with a folk group and in a rock band, touring the North of England and Ireland. It only came to an end when musical partner Andy McKay responded to pressure from home to get a proper job and returned to train as a surveyor." (From http://www.wiki-north-east.co.uk/article.aspx?id=243903)

But Andy doesn't seem to have left an impression on Googleland.

Subject: RE: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 06 Mar 09 - 05:49 AM

I had heard the same thing some time ago however I have no recollections of him playing the North East clubs anywhere between 1966 and 1978.

Subject: Kevin Whately Folk Musician
From: GUEST,MC Fat (at work)
Date: 06 Mar 09 - 05:19 AM

The recent BBC 'Who Do You Think You Are' featured actor Kevin Whately. In it he stated he was a folk musician before he became an actor. Stikes me that as he was born 1951 and moi in 1954 that he must have been playing the clubs around the time I went to college in Newcastle on Tyne but I can't remember him. Has anybody got any recollections.