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Paul Kennedy was Salad's guitarist and backing vocalist as well as being a key songwriter. Of Salad's ten singles, six (Kent, On a Leash, Motorbike to Heaven, Granite Statue, I Want You and Yeah Yeah) were penned by Kennedy. His tunes tend to be more 'pop' than the other band members' songs. They are usually more accessible than those written by Rob and Marijne, but are no less interesting because of this. It has been alleged that Paul was in a punk band during the early 1980s, although there seems to be no evidence of this. Paul's distinctive guitar style is biased more towards rhythm than lead, although his cutting solos often give Salad's songs their memorable edge. Paul played two guitars whilst with Salad. One was a black Gibson Les Paul Standard with a black scratchplate and the other was a black Epiphone Les Paul with white trim and scratchplate. His effects system comprised Boss Flanger, Distortion and Digital Delay pedals. Amplification was, of course, provided by Marshall. |
On stage, Paul could be considered as the 'other' face of Salad. Whilst Marijne was the public front-person, Paul introduced many of the songs and often interjected Marijne's banter with a number of quick-witted comments. His typical introduction would be "Yes.... and another tune.... Thank-you", delivered in a deadpan tone. At a particular gig at Bath University, Marijne started to attack a security bloke because of his unwillingness to move from in front of the stage. Kennedy's sarcastic comment: "Let's have a heated debate!"
Since Salad's demise in 1998, Paul has been writing a book of poems for children to be illustrated by Julius Breeze. We can only assume that this will bare some similarity to the surreal reading, 'Harvey's Crystal Bream', the solo track Paul recorded for the 1996 Christmas tape. There is also talk of him forming a new band with an unknown female singer. More details, as and when...