| Martin KempInstrument: Bass Born: 18 February 1950 Place of Birth: Hillingdon, Middlesex |
Martin's first performance was with a few school-friends at his local youth club. That was in 1964 and at the end of the year his family moved to Southend on Sea in Essex . His chosen instrument was always the bass guitar and, after playing with various line-ups (none of which came to anything), his brother, Norman , recruited him into his new band which went under the rather unlikely name of The Exploding Monocle . The line up was: Norman Kemp (vocals) Wilko Johnson (guitar) Martin Kemp (bass) and John Martin (drums). Within a few weeks Wilko left the band to go back to university and was replaced by Joe Ryan who had previously played in The Tender Trap with Norman . (Note: John Martin (aka the Big Figure) later joined Dr Feelgood with Wilko) When the band turned professional in 1970 Norman did not want to give up the security of his day job and was replaced by Keith Radford (ex lead singer with Playground ).The name was changed to Trampus and Terry Moore was brought in on guitar and vocals to expand the sound. The influence was very much Beach Boys and Four Seasons . Dave Smith replaced Terry before the band's next major upheaval in 1971 when Joe, Martin & John took the band back to a four piece, recruiting vocalist Paul da Vinci. By the end of 1971 Paul had left the band to pursue a solo career and Norman was persuaded to come back as front man. Whilst the music worked, the logistics didn't. Having agreed to work round Norman 's other work commitments Joe and Martin soon found this was a difficult compromise and left to join forces with Brian Johnson and Roy Morgan of Pebbles. The band kept the name Pebbles and on New Year's Eve 1971 the new line-up did their first gig at RAF Northolt. (See Brian's biog for more info. on Pebbles) When Pebbles came off the road in September 1973 Martin got married, gave up the music business and returned to his old job in the glass industry until he got a phone call from Mick Tucker! After playing in Angel throughout 1974 Martin returned once again to his old job. When the firm he worked for closed down he spent two years working for British Rail until starting his own double glazing business in 1978. He played with a semi-professional band called Cartoons in 1980 but did little else and hasn't played live since that time. His business did well and he and his business partner later sold the majority of their shares and went their separate ways. Martin now spends his time running a small glazing business in Essex and writing scripts for corporate videos.
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