Always Irish: A Notre Dame Football Podcast - John Kennedy

There are, at least, two artists known as John Kennedy.

1) A musician, who was a five year old in Liverpool the day the President died. In Australia at the age of ten, he took the confirmation name of Francis to complete the famous "J.F.K." moniker. It seemed like a good idea at the time. The joke has long since worn off for him, but it still takes some explaining.

A young enthusiastic journalist once described John Kennedy as a humble genius. Kennedy is neither a genius nor particularly humble. He is the writer of many fine songs using a collection of pop, country, folk and rock influences to create the hydrid style he calls Urban and Western.

Kennedy formed his first band in Brisbane, Australia in ´80. His family had migrated from England in the mid-´6o’s and he was raised in the suburban wastelands on a diet of radio pop music. At the beginning of the 80´s, Kennedy brought his pop melodies and ideas to the flourishing post-punk Australian indie music scene. His name alone should have brought him commercial success. It didn´t, but he continued to release a series of successful independent records.

The penchant for funny names continued with his first band "J.F.K. and the Cuban Crisis". "The Crisis" and his mid-80's Sydney band "John Kennedy's Love Gone Wrong" became self-fulfilling prophecies. An invitation to perform at the inaugural Berlin Independence Days independent music conference in ´88 provided the incentive to leave Australia. In Berlin in the early '90's, Kennedy tried a more positive approach and formed "John Kennedy and the Honeymooners". Despite the optimism, the honeymoon ended and Kennedy went on to perform as a solo act.

Since Berlin he has lived and made music in Hong Kong, Holland and London; living by the motto “Have Songs, Will Travel”. Kennedy returned to Sydney at the start of the new millenium, has a new band, album and label and lives once again in Sydney's inner-western suburbs.

2) A a radio and club DJ who presents on London/Manchester radio station XFM (10pm to 2am Monday-Thursdays). He is the only DJ to have been with XFM constantly since its inception & the show is the longest running of all of the specialist shows (one year longer than closest rival 'The Remix', with Eddy Temple-Morris). Originally the show was broadcast on XFM London but, upon launch, XFM Manchester also broadcast the show. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.