Kenny

One of the myriad bands thrust onto the British glam scene as it approached its end in the mid-'70s, Kenny was generally regarded, alongside the Bay City Rollers and Slik, as simply another in a long line of acts created by master songwriters Bill Martin and Phil Coulter. In fact, although the five-piece group's best-known material was indeed the work of that pair, Kenny's Rick Driscoll and Yan Stile were also very competent songwriters in their own right, as the group's final few releases proved. Indeed, the group had already existed for some three years before Martin and Coulter first encountered them. Under the name Chufff, the quartet were regulars on the free festival progressive rock circuit. They were discovered by Martin and Coulter in late 1974 -- according to legend, the band was rehearsing in a banana warehouse in the north London suburb of Enfield at the time and their initial response to the songwriters' overtures were disdainful. Martin and Coulter would not take no for an answer. Assured of stardom, Chufff agreed to become Kenny. In the event, stardom was to prove extremely fleeting. While "The Bump" made number three in early 1975, the group enjoyed just three further British hits, all penned by Martin-Coulter: the number four smash "Fancy Pants," "Baby I Love You OK" (number 12), and "Julie Ann" (number ten). The under-performance of Kenny's debut album furthered the band's desire to extricate themselves from their predicament and, in late 1976, Kenny went to court to free themselves from Martin-Coulter. They then signed to Polydor and recorded a new, all-original album, Ricochet, and the single "Hot Lips." Neither drew any attention whatsoever and when a serious road accident put Stile out of action, Kenny folded.