Spandau Ballet bassist and EastEnders icon Martin Kemp joins hosts Jason Plato and Dave Vitty on the award-winning podcast Fuelling Around to discuss his career, his new radio show and becoming an author.
The 62-year-old has been one of the most recognisable faces on television since the 1980s thanks to his time in one of the biggest bands of the 80s, the BBC soaps and hosting Martin and Roman’s Weekend Best alongside his son and Capital Breakfast radio presenter Roman Kemp.
During the episode Kemp opens up on what it was really like to be a star in the 80s, his love of Porsches, especially 911s, his electric motorcycle being the most dangerous vehicle he has ever owned and why the Jaguar E-Type has a special place in his heart.
Martin Kemp on becoming an author
Kemp has been in showbusiness since the early 1970s through his pop career
and his time playing Steve Owen in EastEnders.. But he has now taken a different avenue by becoming a published author as he explains during the episode.
“The book is called The Game, it’s my first piece of fiction that I’ve ever written. I’ve written biographies and I’ve written film scripts in the past and the book is kind of everything that I’ve learned along the way about how to write fiction,” he said.
“It’s something that I’ve always wanted to have a go at. This is a story about an 80s rockstar called Johnny Klein. See, my biggest fear in the 80s when I was in the band was what would happen if by 1986, when we were probably one of the biggest bands in the world, even if I say so myself.
“My face was on so many kids’ walls and you become super famous in the rock world, but what would happen if all of that was taken away from you, and you had nothing left apart from a famous face? Where do you go with that? How do you live and get back into ‘normal life’? And what would your life look like if you were stuck with that hindrance of a famous face?
“It was something that scared me all the way through the 80s, so I thought that would be a nice premise for a book.”
Plenty more episodes of Fuelling Around to enjoy
Series seven is stream rolling around the track, but if you haven’t listened to Fuelling Around before, you’ll be glad to know there’s a wealth of previous episodes from six series, and the current seventh, for you to listen to.
A host of celebrity guests have littered the award-winning podcast that has so far produced a string of excellent shows to listen to.
You can also tune into Fuelling Around on Spotify, Apple, YouTube or various other platforms if you want to see what all the fuss is about.
