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KRAZY KEVIN, the flamboyant radio and TV presenter who left Bahrain to start a new life with his family Down Under, is flying back to the kingdom to host a one-off party to help revellers see in the New Year.
He will be spinning the old-school charts and dance hits at Sealoft, Amwaj Islands, adjacent to the Dragon Resort, tomorrow, and plans to catch up with friends and fans during a 10-day flying visit.
He said: “Life in Australia has been amazing, but I still miss my beloved Bahrain, and am so very excited to be coming back to bring in the New Year.”
The popular showbiz personality – once described in a glossy monthly magazine as arguably the kingdom’s ‘biggest celebrity’ – boasted an army of fans particularly amongst school-age children and their parents after hosting shows on Radio Bahrain which coincided with the morning or afternoon school-runs.
Kevin, renowned for his outrageous colourful outfits and odd socks, said: “I plan to catch up with as many old friends as possible and hope to make plenty of new ones too.”
The venue will be erecting a special tent for the Krazy Party with an outdoor buffet by the pool, revealed organiser Vinita Iyer, marketing & administration officer for Gama Hotel Management. “The theme of the party is 70s, 80s & 90s and to properly achieve that it must be done by an iconic DJ of that era … and Krazy Kevin is a perfect fit!”
The Oldham-born entertainer, who also hosted the Music Mania chart show on Bahrain TV, launched into showbiz as a disc-jockey in the English seaside resort of Blackpool. He was judged ‘DJ of the Year’ at the Empire Leicester Square in London and went on to be voted ‘UK Personality of the Year’ two years running by DJ colleagues and club managers.
His career took him to Hong Kong, Italy, Spain, Germany, Iceland and Dubai before he settled in Bahrain in 1999 spinning the discs at Manama hotspots BJ’s and JJ’s. He was regularly snapped up to host parties, VIP events and product launches and for several years penned a ‘Kid’s Klub’ page in GulfWeekly.
The big-hearted presenter also offered his services to local charities and helped raise funds for many of the island’s good causes such as Bahrain’s BSPCA animal sanctuary and the Think Pink Bahrain breast cancer awareness campaign. The larger-than-life character would often get mobbed by fans even when he was out shopping for groceries with his family.
There was a storm of protest when Kevin was ‘moved’ from his Radio Bahrain morning show to an afternoon slot as punishment for alleged time-keeping misdemeanours and a row over New Year’s Day attendance after hosting a party into the early hours, so there’s a touch of irony that he is returning to Bahrain to help bring in the New Year again.
Thousands of listeners signed petitions urging the station’s bosses to change their minds but their pleas went unanswered and one furious senior manager allegedly told staff he would not be ‘dictated to by a load of 14-year-olds’.
Kevin followed his Australian wife, Wendy, the former personal assistant to Ed Goodwin, Principal of St Christopher’s School, and their daughter Hannah, in Toowoomba in 2011, after fulfilling all his festive engagements and has settled in well.
He said: “I’m still working in radio and DJ-ing at local events; probably doing more weddings than ever before. I’m also very involved in community and charity events, playing music every year during the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers and the Cultural and Languages Festival.
“I also do a lot with Endeavour, an organisation that cares for children and adults with special needs, and have fund-raised every year for the Leukaemia Foundation.
“There is always something happening in Toowoomba such as Spring food and music festivals, an active horse-racing calendar, agricultural shows and diverse theatre, so I seemed to have landed in a pretty perfect spot. And, of course, Toowoomba is also famous for its great schools and university and each year I do a fair number of school discos and socials too.
“The city is experiencing tremendous growth right now with new shopping centres, new airport, new bypass happening and even new rail links also in the pipeline, so I think we’re going to be both busy and happy here for quite a while. But life is not all about ‘work’ – it’s taken some time, but we’ve made some great new friends here, and it has been lovely for Wendy to be able to spend so much time with her folks.
“Our daughter Hannah now has an amazingly close relationship with her grandparents. She is doing really well at school and, can you believe it, she’s starting high school in the New Year!
“I get to have plenty of fun too, and now play football three-nights-per-week, which is great fun especially as the teams I’m in consist of such a random group of Aussie and foreign nutters. I’m even going to New Zealand to represent Toowoomba in an international football tournament in February. I think I’ll be happily running around in circles chasing an inflated leather bag until the day my knees refuse to do it anymore!”
And continue to spin the discs, tell terrible jokes and wear outrageous outfits too, of course.
The tickets to the New Year’s Eve event with krazy old school music played by Krazy Kevin are priced at BD40 a couple, inclusive of food and table (will be seated on a table-of-six) and BD20 a couple, entry only. Call 17292304 for more details.
