Ken Taylor:
BIOGRAPHICAL
DETAILS
Adelaide, South Australia. July, 1946
Description: Vocal & Guitar-instrumentalist.
Known for: Live entertainment. Instruments: Guitar – modern and classical Music styles: Pop, Jazz, Easy Listening. Location:
Ken Taylor’s musical career began in Adelaide in 1959 when, at the age of 13, he started singing and playing guitar on the children’s radio program “Kangaroos on Parade” and on local television shows. In 1962, while a student of the Adelaide College of Music, he was awarded the “Bobby Limb Trophy” by the college for the best TV-radio performance of the year.
Over the next 7 years Ken made over 30 appearances on a variety of Adelaide TV shows plus 14 appearances on the country & western program “Reg Lindsay’s C&W Hour”. Throughout this time he also played and sang in a number of bands and groups. The first of these was in 1963 when he joined “The Thunderbirds” which was led by bassist, John Carlini in which he played regularly at the Delphic in Adelaide, plus a number of bookings at the KT Club.
In 1965 Ken joined the orchestra at Adelaide’s Wonderland Ballroom where he stayed for two years after which, in 1967, he joined the show-band “Howard Michael’s Luvable Brass” for a period of 6 months. Ken then took up a residency at the Freeway Motel (since renamed The Bridgeway), backing national & international cabaret artistes. In 1968 Ken returned to the Wonderland for a further 12 months where he also wrote musical-arrangements for the orchestra.
In 1969, Ken travelled to the UK and with just days before his initial 2 month visa was about to expire, secured a job as a redcoat/entertainer at Butlin’s Holiday Centre at Filey, Yorkshire which led to a 6 month winter touring show appearing 6 nights a week in the working-men’s clubs all over the UK.
This was followed by more summer seasons and touring shows and in 1974, Ken did a 20 week season at the Spa Theatre in Scarborough as one of the featured artistes in the Summer Revue “Dazzle”. Later that year Ken was in Scotland appearing at the Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow in their Christmas pantomime which ran for 15 weeks and was one of the longest running in the country.
Following a career in cabaret and theatre, Ken decided to remain in the UK and spent the next 11 years as a solo vocal & guitar-instrumentalist, appearing through the winter months in theatre, cabaret and working-men’s clubs throughout the UK; and in the summer months, in resident theatrical revue shows which typically ran for 16-20 weeks. In 1985 Ken recorded the “James Bond Theme” for EMI for inclusion in an album of movie themes called “A Is For Action”.
From 1969 to 1986 Ken’s solo act was predominately made up of pop vocals and ballads interspersed with guitar solos which included “Rondo Alla Turca”, “The Sabre Dance”, “Yakety Axe” (Benny Hill Theme), “William Tell Overture”, “Czardas”, “Tzena Tzena” and “The James Bond Theme” (with siren and gunfire effects which he created on the guitar). Changing over to the classical guitar Ken also featured finger-style arrangements of “Cavatina”, “Romanza” and “Classical Gas”
In 1986, using the stage-name “Kismet”, Ken was joined in the act by his wife, Rita who he’d met in the UK and together they became a vocal / instrumental duo. For the next 21 years they worked mostly on cruise-ships, initially as cabaret artistes and in the latter years, as a loungeduo. Their first contract was on board the “Cunard Countess” in the Caribbean where they stayed for 4 years (until 1990). This was followed by contracts on board the “Royal Viking Sky”, “Sea Breeze”, “Ocean Islander”, “Royal Star”, “The Black Prince”, “Song of Flower”, “Stella Solaris” and “Marco Polo”, between which they returned to the UK for club bookings. Besides their cabaret act on board, Ken also performed a separate 45 minute classical guitar concert. Adelaide, South Australia. July, 1946
In 2000, Ken & Rita were booked on the Ocean Majesty as a late-night Lounge Duo cruising the Norwegian Fjords, the Baltic and Mediterranean working 6 months a year. They stayed with the ship for 7 years until the company was sold in late 2007. During this time they also did 3 Rhine River Cruises through Holland and Germany on the “Regina Rheni” and a 4 week Mediterranean cruise on the “Princess Danae”.
Between 1989 and 2008 they made several trips back to Adelaide to visit Ken’s parents in Kings Park and their family and friends.
Now semi-retired, Ken & Rita live in Chesterfield, Derbyshire and as of 2019, are still entertaining at private functions.
All data has been supplied by Ken Taylor to musicfinder.online