Johnny Kidd and the Pirates

Kidd, Johnny [real name Frederick Alfred Heath] was born at 3 Shrewsbury Road, Willesden, London, on 23 November 1935, the third and youngest child of Ernest Harold Heath and his wife, Margaret Louisa Voyce. His father was a builder and a partner in the family firm Heath Brothers. Two of Fred Heath's uncles were amateur musicians with their own dance band. After evacuation during the Second World War he attended Leopold Road primary school, Wesley Road secondary modern school, and Willesden Technical College.

After leaving school in 1951 Fred Heath worked at a variety of jobs, including house painting, in a laundry, and as a bookmaker's runner. His musical interest was sparked by the gift of a banjo for his sixteenth birthday. He soon graduated to guitar and began to write songs. In 1955 he formed a comedy skiffle group, the Five Nutters. It won third prize in a skiffle contest at the Willesden Carnival in 1957 and the talent show impresario Carroll Levis booked them for appearances at several London variety theatres. On 22 May 1956 Heath had married Ada Price, a machine operator in a food factory, with whom he had two sons. After that marriage ended in divorce he married, on 18 February 1966, Jean Yvonne, a hairdresser and daughter of Edward George Complin; they had a daughter.

Heath sang with the Fabulous Freddie Heath Band and joined the Mike West Group before signing a recording contract with HMV, a subsidiary of the EMI company. It was at EMI that Heath was renamed Johnny Kidd and his backing band became the Pirates. Their first recording, a Kidd composition entitled ‘Please don't touch’, led to radio and television appearances and a tour of US military bases in late 1959.

By 1960 the Pirates had become a trio of guitar, bass guitar, and drums, creating an unusual and highly dynamic sound to accompany Kidd's powerful rock and roll voice. In the same year the group adopted flamboyant ‘buccaneer’ stage outfits and Kidd himself appeared wearing an eyepatch and carrying a cutlass that he would thrust into the stage at the climax of each performance. Mick recalled the origins of the group's name, and Johnny's trademark eyepatch.

"He was playing Wandsworth Town Hall and he was tuning the guitar up and snapped a string which hit him in the eye. It didn't actually do any damage. It was watering and all that so they put an eye patch on it. Then he went out and he decided after that to wear it all the time and changed the name of the band from Fred Heath and the Nutters to Johnny Kidd and the Pirates."

Kidd's most famous song and most remarkable recording was ‘Shakin' all over’, a top ten hit in Britain in June 1960. The dramatic guitar part played by session musician Joe Moretti perfectly complemented the charismatic force of Kidd's singing.  The Who would later cover it on their album Live at Leeds proclaiming in the liner notes that the original was Britain’s best pre-Beatles rock single.

Three years elapsed before another Kidd record was as successful. The group was to some extent out of step with the fashion in the early 1960s for softer pop music, but suffered also from the attitude of their HMV recording manager Walter (Wally) Ridley, who was no lover of rock and roll. Nevertheless, they remained popular with concert and dance-hall audiences all over the country. They also took part in ‘package tours’ featuring six or seven acts and headed by a visiting American star such as Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis, or Brenda Lee. 

In 1963 another Kidd composition, influenced by the new music coming out of Liverpool —‘I'll never get over you’—became their second and last top ten hit. The Pirates, whose line-up was always changing, now included guitarist Mick Green, whose rhythm and blues style was to influence many younger musicians. By this time, too, the Merseybeat style of the Beatles and others was growing in popularity. It had much in common with the music of Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, who had been the first London rock group to play at Liverpool's famous Cavern Club and had performed alongside Liverpool groups at the Star Club in Hamburg. The Hamburg club-owner presented the group with a large backdrop of a pirate schooner, which was used to decorate the stage for Kidd's performances in later years.

Despite these favourable circumstances, Kidd's popularity subsequently waned. HMV failed to promote his records actively and withdrew an offer to issue an LP of his music. In 1966 Kidd formed the New Pirates and decided to forsake the rock clubs for week-long bookings at cabaret clubs. Shortly after this change of career strategy he was fatally injured in a car accident near Bury, Lancashire, and was declared dead on arrival at the Royal Infirmary, Bolton, on 8 October 1966. Despite his relative lack of success during his lifetime, Johnny Kidd is now recognized as an influential pioneer of British rock music.