‘Curly’ from Coronation Street undergoes punk makeover after landing new role

Kevin Kennedy, 62, is known to many as Norman “Curly” Watts from Coronation Street. He played the character for 20 years, but now his career has gone in the direction of punk rock

Some soap characters stay with us forever – and one of them is “Curly” Watts.

The Coronation Street favourite spent two decades on our screens having arrived on the cobbles back in the 80s. Kevin Kennedy took on the role in 1983 before leaving in 2003. It’s hard to believe it’s been over 20 years since we last saw the character on our screens.

But, more recently, it’s been announced he’s taking on a new role by starring in a punk rock musical. New show – Pretty Vacant – will start touring in January 2025, and Kevin is set to play the narrator.

It will take audiences on a nostalgic tour from the beginning of punk in the 1970s right through to later movements in the 80s and 90s. The show will tell the tale of how the genre of music changed the world forever.

Kevin, who was in Paris Valentinos with Johnny Marr and Andy Rourke, who went onto form The Smiths, aims to bring his real life experience to the show.

He told WestEndBestFriend: “I’m so excited to be joining the cast of Pretty Vacant. When punk exploded on the scene in 1977, it truly was a revolution it changed our music, our fashion and every aspect of the arts! I witnessed it all… Let’s do it again… together.”

Pretty Vacant will feature fan favourites from music legends such as The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Blondie, The Damned, Ramones and Joy Division. But it’s not the first time the actor will undergo a big rock makeover.

Back in 2009, Kevin took on the role of aging hippie “Pop” in the touring production of Queen and Ben Elton’s We Will Rock You. He later went onto join the West End London production in 2010.

Five years later he was asked to take part in the launch of the world’s third-largest cruise liner “RCI Anthem of the Seas” where he played the role once more. He has since taken on the role of “Pop” many times, including onboard the UK Seacation cruises from Southampton in October 2023.

He may have started off as the humble paper boy in Corrie, but Kevin is now taking the stage by storm. You may not even recognise him these days following his rock and roll transformation.

The actor turned his life around after suffering a seizure and waking up in an ambulance in the late 1990s. The star’s addiction was so severe that even when his wife Claire left him, he wasn’t upset, as he thought it was a good thing because he could drink on his own without hiding, he told The Sun.

Back in 2022, he admitted the turning point came in May 1998. Kevin said he had just returned from a booze heavy holiday in Barbados with Claire and decided to go cold turkey. Two days later, during a shopping trip in Manchester, the actor drank a Diet Coke and blacked out.

He said: “I came to in the ambulance and it scared the hell out of me. I knew I would die if I carried on but emotionally I didn’t get it, the addiction was telling me it was normal.”

After that, he confessed his secret addiction to show bosses, and was sent to The Priory Rehab Clinic. Now, after over two decades of sobriety, Kevin said he believed the show “saved my life.”

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