Tony Kenning
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Tony Kenning (born 11 January 1961) is an English drummer, best known as the original drummer and one of the founding members of the hard rock band Def Leppard.
Personal life[edit]
Tony Kenning was born on 11 January 1961 in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. He has three children from a previous marriage. He plays both the drums and piano. He is currently a member of the band Shef Leppard, a tribute band based out of Sheffield; former bands include Atomic Mass, Def Leppard, Tour de Force, Cairo and Ministers of Inspiration.[1][2]
He is the only member of Def Leppard to have been excluded from the band's 2019 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. Kenning did not attend the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction.[3]
Atomic Mass[edit]
In early 1977, schoolmates Kenning and Rick Savage started talking about putting together a band. During a jam session at the local youth club, guitarist Pete Willis joined in. The lineup shifted many times over the course of the summer as the group became Atomic Mass.[4][5]
Atomic Mass played one non-paying gig: an end of term dance at their school, Tapton, in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Joe Elliott, future lead singer of Def Leppard, was in the audience that night.[6]
Def Leppard[edit]
In the summer of 1977, Kenning and Savage began working at British Rail as Signals and Telecoms Trainee Technicians. Once they met up again with Willis, the trio decided to start a proper band, with Savage and Willis on guitar and Kenning on drums. Savage agreed to take up the bass until the group could find a "proper" bass player and leaving Willis to handle guitar duties on his own.[7]
In September, Kenning found a room at the Portland Works spoon factory on Bramhall Lane. The room was two-and-a-half floors up and accessible only by a rickety outdoor staircase, so the owner allowed the band to rehearse there for £5 a week.[6]
Atomic Mass soon decided they needed a better name. Elliott proposed "Deaf Leopard", a name he came up with while designing band posters in art class. Kenning suggested they use the phonetic spelling so they would sound less like a punk band, crossing out the “a” in “Def” and drawing a line down the “o” in “Leopard” to change the name to "Def Leppard". The members agreed and the name Def Leppard became permanent.[8][9]
The band's first show as Def Leppard was at the Westfield School in Sheffield on 18 July 1978. This was followed by a second show at an open-air festival on 26 August 1978, where the power was provided by a long cable attached to someone's house and car headlights were used for the band to see once it got dark. By the third show, this time at The Limit Club in Sheffield, the band played a taster night along with three other Sheffield bands including electronic band The Human League. Their next show at The Limit Club saw them move up to headlining status and the local press began to take notice.[10][11]
Kenning's last live performance with Def Leppard was at the Wapentake Bar on 1 October 1978. Just prior to that, he played on Def Leppard's first demo tape. Sometime later, these recordings were released on bootleg albums called First Strike and Warchild.[12][13]
On 18 November 1978, after a meeting with Elliott and the other band members at a pub in Sheffield called the Wapentake, Kenning decided to leave the group. The Def Leppard EP was recorded just a week later, with studio musician Frank Noon using Kenning's drum kit.[14]
Tour de Force, Cairo, and Ministers of Inspiration[edit]
After leaving Def Leppard, Kenning quit his job at British Rail and took a position working for British Telecom, where he met Gerry Fletcher, a talented vocalist and guitarist. In 1981 they formed Tour de Force. Kenning found a rehearsal room for the quartet at Portland Works (a different room from the one he found for Def Leppard in 1977) and the group played a few local gigs around Sheffield before dissolving in 1982 and starting up a new band called Cairo. The group played regular gigs at pubs and working men's clubs around Sheffield and reached the final of Band ‘83 Competition at Sheffield City Hall. In 1984, the group recorded a self-financed single, "Eight Bells" (B side: "Inside Out"), at a studio in North London and converted the master tape to vinyl at Abbey Road Studios. The track received modest airplay on Sheffield’s Radio Hallam but eluded wider success.[15]
In 1985, a new iteration of Cairo called the Ministers of Inspiration was formed. The new group entered the Band of ‘85 Competition in Sheffield as a warmup gig and won. Ministers of Inspiration became a fixture on the local circuit and played a number of venues around Sheffield, including The Limit Club and Sheffield City Hall.[16] On 22 September 1986, the band was showcased at the Fulham Greyhound in Hammersmith, London where they were spotted by an employee from Utopia Records. The Ministers were invited to spend a weekend recording at Utopia’s 24-track studio in London, where the group laid down their entire catalog of songs live in a single day. The recording garnered some interest, but when nothing came of the tapes Kenning, disillusioned with the results of his hard work, decided to give up his career in music.
Shef Leppard[edit]
In 2019, Kenning formed the band Shef Leppard, the ultimate Def Leppard tribute band.[17]
In 2022 and 2023, Shef Leppard conducted their own "Stadium Tour" throughout the UK and in conjunction with The Stadium Tour featuring Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe. They played multiple shows with The Motley Crude Tribute Band and Poizon: World's No. 1 Tribute to Poison.
References[edit]
- ↑ Fricke, David (1987). Animal Instinct (0946391556 ed.). Great Britain: Zomba Books. p. 26. Search this book on
- ↑ Kershaw, Andy (29 June 2022). "Original Def Leppard drummer set for concert at Sheffield club in aid of Stan Shaw appeal". thestar.co.uk.
- ↑ Daly, Andrew (29 September 2021). "An Interview with Tony Kenning". vwmusicrocks.com.
- ↑ Fricke, David (1987). Animal Instinct. Great Britain: Zomba Books. p. 17. ISBN 0-946391-55-6. Search this book on
- ↑ LIFE, Def Leppard. 2022. Dotdash Meredith Premium Publishing. p. 10. ISBN 0-709891060-7-9
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Fricke, David (1987). Animal Instinct. Great Britain: Zomba Books. p. 18. ISBN 0946391-55-6. Search this book on
- ↑ Savage, Rick (2019). "Rick Savage Q&A by Mick Wall". Classic Rock Magazine, the Complete Story of Def Leppard: 32–33.
- ↑ Elliott, Joe (2019). "Joe Elliott Q&A by Paul Elliott". Classic Rock Magazine: The Complete Story of Def Leppard: 25.
- ↑ Benitez-Eves, Tina (5 August 2022). "Behind the band name Def Leppard". americansongwriter.com.
- ↑ Fricke, David (1987). Animal Instinct. Great Britain: Zomba Books. p. 24. ISBN 0946391-55-6. Search this book on
- ↑ "New Book Remembers When Sheffield Nightlife Really Was The Limit". mcmedia.co.uk. 30 October 2019.
- ↑ "Def Leppard Band Member / Tony Kenning". deflepparduk.com.
- ↑ "Def Leppard First Strike". internetarchive.com. 1979.
- ↑ Fricke, David (2021). Animal Instinct. Great Britain: Zomba Books. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-946391-55-4. Search this book on
- ↑ Fricke, David (1987). Animal Instinct. Great Britain: Zomba Books. p. 26. ISBN 0-946391-55-6. Search this book on
- ↑ Robinson, Simon (19 November 2023). "Limit Club". sheffieldmusicarchive.co.uk.
- ↑ Daly, Andrew (29 September 2021). "An Interview with Tony Kenning of Def Leppard". vwmusicrocks.com.
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