Here’s a man responsible for bringing some of the biggest names in music to the backstreets of Sheffield. Elliot Kennedy, born in 1969, songwriter and record producer, owner of Steelworks Studios on Brown Street.
He started writing songs at 13, formed a band at Dinnington High School and has made million sellers for the stars, including Mary J. Blige, the Spice Girls, Celine Dion, Boyzone, Bryan Adams, S Club 7 and Take That.
Kennedy’s first record that saw the stars align was Take That’s Everything Changes, co-written with Gary Barlow (1993). The next milestone record was Say You’ll Be There – his first global success for the Spice Girls. Kennedy went on to have a hit record in the charts every month for the next five years.
“It became this incredible factory for writing and producing records – S Club, Five, Billy Piper. Then I had a big hit with Boyzone, Picture of You (1996).”
Kennedy wrote Baby When You’re Gone (1998) with Bryan Adams, featuring Mel C, and he also penned the Aretha Franklin and Mary J. Blige song that won a Grammy, Never Gonna Break My Faith written for the 2006 film Bobby, about Robert F. Kennedy.
Still making hits, Kennedy’s branched into musicals – Finding Neverland and Around the World in 80 Days with Gary Barlow and Calendar Girls with Tim Firth.
And I bet if you bumped into him in the street you wouldn’t have a clue who he was.
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