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Martin John Kemp (born 10 October 1961) is an English musician and actor, best known as the bassist in the
new wave band
Spandau Ballet
Spandau Ballet () were an English new wave band formed in Islington, London, in 1979. Inspired by the capital's post-punk underground dance scene, they emerged at the start of the 1980s as the house band for the Blitz Kids, playing "European Da ...
and for his role as
Steve Owen in ''
EastEnders
''EastEnders'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the Ea ...
''.
He is the younger brother of
Gary Kemp
Gary James Kemp (born 16 October 1959) is an English singer, songwriter, musician and actor, best known as the lead guitarist, backing vocalist, and principal songwriter for the New Romantic band Spandau Ballet.
Kemp wrote the lyrics and music ...
, who is also a member of Spandau Ballet and an actor. In 2012, Kemp finished third in the
tenth series of ''
Celebrity Big Brother
''Big Brother VIP'', is an adaptation of the '' Big Brother'' reality television series. It is the celebrity version of its parent franchise ''Big Brother'', the celebrity version airs in several countries, however, the housemates or houseguest ...
'', and in 2017 he appeared as a judge on the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
series ''
Let It Shine''.
Early life
Kemp was born to Frank and Eileen Kemp at their house in
Islington
Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...
, north London,
and attended
Rotherfield Junior School. From the age of 7 he attended the
Anna Scher Theatre
The Anna Scher Theatre is an independent and co-educational performing arts school based in Islington, Greater London. It was founded in 1968 by Anna Scher. It is considered among the first schools of its kind geared towards working class studen ...
drama club
with his brother Gary, and appeared in many TV shows, including ''
Jackanory
''Jackanory'' is a BBC children's television series which was originally broadcast between 1965 and 1996. It was designed to stimulate an interest in reading. The show was first transmitted on 13 December 1965, and the first story was the fairy-t ...
'', ''
The Tomorrow People
''The Tomorrow People'' is a British children's science fiction television series created by Roger Price. Produced by Thames Television for the ITV Network, the series first ran from 30 April 1973 to 19 February 1979.
The theme music was c ...
'' and ''
Dixon of Dock Green
''Dixon of Dock Green'' was a BBC police procedural television series about daily life at a fictional London police station, with the emphasis on petty crime, successfully controlled through common sense and human understanding. It ran from 19 ...
''.
In his last year with Anna Scher, he won a role in ''
The Glittering Prizes
''The Glittering Prizes'' is a British television drama by Frederic Raphael about the changing lives of a group of Cambridge students, starting in 1952 and following them through to middle age in the 1970s. It was first broadcast on BBC2 in Jan ...
'', appearing alongside
Tom Conti
Tommaso Antonio Conti (born 22 November 1941) is a Scottish actor, theatre director, and novelist. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1979 for his performance in '' Whose Life Is It Anyway?'' and was nominated for the Academy Aw ...
and
Nigel Havers
Nigel Allan Havers (born 6 November 1951) is an English actor. His film roles include Lord Andrew Lindsay in the 1981 British film ''Chariots of Fire'', which earned him a BAFTA nomination; as Dr. Rawlins in the 1987 Steven Spielberg war drama ...
.
Kemp grew up in north London and attended
Central Foundation Boys' School
''(By hope, by work, by faith)''
, established = 1865
, closed =
, type = Voluntary aided school
, religious_affiliation =
, president =
, head_label =
, ...
, Islington. Along with pictures of other famous ex-pupils, a large photo of him adorns a wall of fame at the school. After leaving school at 16, he began an apprenticeship in a print factory
but soon became disenchanted.
Spandau Ballet
Kemp's life changed when Steve Dagger, the manager of his brother Gary's band the Gentry, suggested Martin should replace the band's bass-player.
Kemp learned to play bass in three months and performed for the first time with the Gentry at a college party.
Eventually the band was renamed
Spandau Ballet
Spandau Ballet () were an English new wave band formed in Islington, London, in 1979. Inspired by the capital's post-punk underground dance scene, they emerged at the start of the 1980s as the house band for the Blitz Kids, playing "European Da ...
and Kemp left his printing job to concentrate on the band full-time.
Spandau Ballet went on to have a great deal of success in the
New Romantic
The New Romantic movement was an underground subculture movement that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The movement emerged from the nightclub scene in London and Birmingham at venues such as Billy's and The Blitz. The New ...
era, with four of their albums reaching the top ten of the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
. ''
True
True most commonly refers to truth, the state of being in congruence with fact or reality.
True may also refer to:
Places
* True, West Virginia, an unincorporated community in the United States
* True, Wisconsin, a town in the United States
* Tr ...
'' also gave the band their first UK number-one album and, with the album's
title track
A title track is a song that has the same name as the album or film in which it appears. In the Korean music industry, the term is used to describe a promoted song on an album, akin to a single, regardless of the song's title.
Title track may al ...
, single. Kemp also performed with the band on the popular 1984 famine-relief-project song "
Do They Know It's Christmas?
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" is a charity song written in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. It was first recorded by Band Aid, a supergroup assembled by Geldof and Ure consisting of pop ...
", written by
Bob Geldof
Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof (; born 5 October 1951) is an Irish singer-songwriter, and political activist. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as lead singer of the Rock music in Ireland, Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, who achieved ...
and
Midge Ure
James Ure (born 10 October 1953) is a Scottish musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. His stage name, Midge, is a phonetic reversal of Jim, the diminutive form of his actual name. Ure enjoyed particular success in the 1970s and 1980s ...
. Because of a dispute over royalties, the band split up in the early 1990s.
Spandau Ballet announced they had reformed at a press conference on on 25 March 2009. The band also announced a world tour, beginning with dates in the UK and Ireland in October 2009.
Later career
Kemp and his brother Gary returned to acting in 1990, both appearing in the British film ''
The Krays'', in which they played the notorious gangster twins
Ronald and Reginald Kray. Their performances received a great deal of critical acclaim.
After ''The Krays'', Martin Kemp moved to Los Angeles in the early 1990s and made appearances in television series such as ''
The Outer Limits'' and ''
Highlander: The Series''. He also appeared in several Hollywood films, including ''
Waxwork II: Lost in Time'' (1992) and ''
Embrace of the Vampire
''Embrace of the Vampire'' is a 1995 American erotic thriller-vampire film directed by Anne Goursaud. It stars Alyssa Milano as Charlotte, a chaste girl who is haunted by a vampire played by Martin Kemp.
Plot
Charlotte is a " chaste" good girl, ...
'' (1994).
In 1995, Kemp moved back to the United Kingdom and took a break from acting for a short while, recovering from removal of two benign
brain tumours
A brain tumor occurs when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant tumors and benign (non-cancerous) tumors. These can be further classified as primary tumors, which start within the brain, and secondar ...
.
He resumed his acting career in 1998 when he made a guest appearance in the
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
police drama series ''
The Bill
''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, first broadcast on ITV from 16 August 1983 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, '' Woodentop'', broadcast in August 1983.
The programme focused on ...
''. He went on to become popular for his role as villain
Steve Owen in the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's top soap opera, ''