Island Life Magazine Ltd April/May 2013 | Page 112

ENTERTAINMENT

Shock for Kerry as
Hendrix steps up
Kerry Burke was a popular musical
entertainer on the Island for many
years. He performed regularly at
many venues including the Shanklin
Conservative Club and the Wight
Mouse at Chale, before deciding
three years ago to close the lid on his
keyboard.
But what many of his followers
may not know that when Kerry was a
young man growing up in St Helens –
the one near Manchester, not the one
on the Island – he was an integral part
of the pop music explosion that took
the world by storm.
Kerry was the lead singer in a group
known as The Manchester Playboys,
and as such rubbed shoulders with
some of the biggest names in the
music industry during the Swinging
Sixties, as the era was famously
dubbed.
While serving as an apprentice
electrician in St Helens, Kerry sang
and played harmonica in a small
Rhythm and Blues band known as
The Denims. Then The Manchester
Playboys came calling, trying to
persuade him to join them.
Initially he resisted, and even moved
out of his home to keep them off his
trail, until sister Christine informed
them of his whereabouts. He finally
gave in and became a member of the
‘Playboys’ in 1964.
Kerry and the fellow group members
were soon touring Europe. He recalls:
“I had to get a passport quickly, and
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'To think I was on stage with not only
Hendrix, but groups like The Yardbirds
who had Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck in
their line-up at the time.'
then we were off to Frankfurt for a
month, and then to Cologne, even
though I didn’t have a work permit. It
was hard work; we would often start
at 7.0pm and be on and off stage all
evening, finishing about 1.0am.
“We were there shortly after The

Beatles had played in Hamburg, and
Germany was a good place to be. It
gave us a terrific repertoire, and built
up our stamina. We played all the big
venues.”
The Manchester Playboys had a No
1 hit in France with a four-track EP