Kevin Coyne was an English singer and songwriter who began recording in the late 1960s. After starting his recording career with John Peel's Dandelion records, he signed to Virgin which was, in those long lost days, a small hippy independent label and London record shop which offered a home to avant garde waifs and strays. Coyne then went on to record a series of unevenly brilliant albums including Marjory Razorblade, Matching Head and Feet, Dynamite Daze and Millionaires & Teddy Bears. Coyne's ouvre varied more than most, from the beautifully weird, the righteously angry to the plaintively lyrical, but always focused on an extraordinary voice: a kind of English music-hall blues. Of his albums, I listen to Dynamite Daze and Millionaires & teddy Bears, but have opted to focus on the latter here because the album's out of print. Come on Virgin, get your act together. Of all those '70s albums, this was probably his most tender and reflective. This is reflected in the two tracks chosen here, the last two tracks off the album. Wendy Dreams of a celtic mist far away from what I have always had in my mind's eye as the Seven Sisters Road (Tottenham, London, for those who don't know; for those that do, plastic palm trees); the World is Full of Fools, but what's new?
There is a youtube video of Coyne performing Having a Party. Also on youtube, Houses on the Hill and I Want My Crown, showing the blues singer side.
Bonus track off Dynamite Daze.
What characterised all of his music was a deep, underlying faith in the human spirit despite it all, befitting a man who had worked as a psychiatric nurse and went on to suffer mental health and drink problems himself. He died in 2004, still active. Buy some Kevin Coyne here. Virgin, do it.
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