Kevin Bloody Wilson

Kevin Bloody Wilson (born Dennis Bryant on 13 February 1947 in Sydney, Australia) is a comedian, singer/songwriter, satririst and parodist who is perhaps best known for his comical songs, utilising his heavy Australian English accent. Despite lack of radio or television coverage (due to the explicit, crude and sexual nature of his songs and general humour), he has built up a widespread cult following. Since 1984 he has released 21 albums.

Early career

Bryant was born in Sydney, New South Wales, although he identifies himself with Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, where he was an electrician in the gold mines.

In the 1970s, Bryant fronted his own band called 'Bryan Dennis and the Country Club'. He also used the name 'Bryan Dennis' when he hosted a country music show on radio 6KG in Kalgoorlie from 1973 to 1980, before he was thrown off air for playing the parody song, "I'm Heaving on a Jet Plane".

He moved to Perth and began playing bawdy songs as a hobby, singing at pubs and Australian rules football clubs. In 1984, he put together a cassette of his songs called Your Average Australian Yobbo, which he sold at gigs and by mail order. He managed to sell 22,000 copies of the cassette before it was eventually transferred to LP, where it went on to sell many thousands more.

He is notable as Perth's most famous comedian.^[1][2] His humour is regarded as politically incorrect. As one of Australia's most successful comedians, he continues to tour and perform an average of 120 concerts worldwide each year. In 2009, he released his 14th album Excess All Areas.

Wilson is married, and his wife Betty comes on tour with him.^[3] She can normally be seen selling merchandise – and has even appeared on guest vocals in a few of his songs, including "Dick'taphone".

Kevin appeared on the popular television show Enough Rope with Andrew Denton in October 2008, which resulted in the show's highest ratings of the year. On the show, he told of how he met his wife Betty, who was originally from Kalgoorlie, but lived in Perth at the time they met. She had returned to the town to visit friends and her brother who still lived there and they met when she attended one of his shows. Betty, who was in the studio audience, told Denton that Kevin was a romantic who regularly bought her flowers.

"The Genie in the Bottle" is a country song Kevin co-wrote with Adam Harvey that spent more than 6 weeks on the Australian Country Singles chart as well as reaching the number one video spot on the Country Music Television Channel in 2008.

Discography

His songs generally consist of irreverent humour and plenty of swearing with eclectic musical backing.

He has been nominated five times for Best Comedy release for the Australian ARIA Music Awards:^[4]

• 1987 for Kev's Back (won) (also nominated for Highest Selling Album)
• 1990 for My Australian Roots
• 1992 for Let's Call Him Kev
• 1995 for Let Loose Live In London
• 2002 for The Second Kumin' Of Kev^[1]

Wilson's recordings are mainly sold through his website, and he has licensed them to mail order companies in different countries to provide easier distribution. In 2003 he placed a free mp3 on his website called The Shane Warne Song, a song about the extracurricular exploits of the controversial Australian cricketer.

In 2007, Agence France-Presse noted that Wilson's Christmas songs were popular downloads on YouTube.^[5]

Touring

He regularly tours, spending about six months each year overseas.^[3] His tours include visiting less populous venues such as small towns in New Zealand where he has a large following. The majority of his fans are male and drawn from a wide age range - from 14 to 90. A favourite pastime of his (he almost always meets his fans afterwards) is autographing bare female breasts.^[3] When dedicating an autograph, it is not unusual for him to put "To _____, get fucked! Kev!". During several tours, Kevin has been joined by his daughter Jenny Talia.

While visiting Canada on a world tour, Wilson alleges that he was told that due to the high level of taboo surrounding the word, he was not allowed to say "cunt" in Canada. It is unknown whether this was an order or a suggestion. Whatever the case, Wilson made a note of this and walked onto the stage in Toronto and the first song he sang was his now somewhat infamous "You Can't Say Cunt In Canada".

Website

Wilson was the first Australian performing artist to have a website which a friend set up for him in 1993, which has since been a major source of album and product sales. He also runs an internet radio station kevfm.com, which was the first 24-hour adult comedy radio station.^[3]

Recording and production studios

In 2006, Kev expanded his business interests by purchasing the recording and production studios that he recorded his first 2 albums at some 20 years earlier. PARAMOUNT MEDIA is a state of the art studio in Wanneroo in Western Australia that diversifies Wilson's media empire to create documentaries and pilots for TV shows.

List of some better-known songs

Daughter

Tammy Jo "Jenny Talia" Bryant has followed in her father's footsteps singing similarly bawdy songs, some of them being reworded Kev songs, but done from a female perspective.^[6][7]

References

Further reading

• Britton, David (1985) Perth comic warned on language. The West Australian, 1 November 1985, p. 14.
• Nicholson, Brendan (1986) It’s no joke for Kevin. Daily News, 4 January 1986, p. 4.
• Cornish, Patrick (1996) The Kalgoorlie kid comes home. West Australian, 12 October 1996, p. 4, (West Magazine).
• Chris Thomas (1996) Kevin's bloody well back home. Sunday Times, 13 October 1996, (Rock On).
• (1997) Wilson curse threat case. The West Australian, 20 February 1997, p. 40.
• Jansen, Ara (2004) Kevin Bloody Wilson Esquire West Australian, 10 April 2004, p. 10-13, (West Magazine).

External links

• Official Website