This Time It’s The Kevin Keegan Brand
KEVIN Keegan is returned to Newcastle United football club.
Keegan’s name harks back to another era in which footballers would appear in Shoot! magazine to tell us what their favourite colour was and how their wife Ann works as a nurse. They would then lean on their new Ford Capri.
When he wasn’t doing sit ups on Superstars, Keegan was advertising a scent, the proletariat Brut 33. “Good workout today, ‘Enry!” said Kevin to Henry Cooper… “And after a good workout … “said Henry “… nothing beats the good smell of Brut!” said Kevin.”
“Brut 33 – the deodorant with muscle!” The Hai Karate gig always eluded Keegan. But he refused to dwell on it.
In those days male grooming was simple. No men’s fragrance. This was aftershave. A wash with cold water, a tug and pull with a soap on a rope before a manly drenching in Brut.
Keegan did venture into pop music. Head Over Heels in Love, written by Chris Norman and Pete Spencer, was released on 9 June 1979, and peaked at number 31 in the UK charts. He released a second single, England, on his return to England from Germany, but it failed to chart.
Keegan also sang on This Time (We’ll Get it Right), which was the Official England World Cup Squad in 1982. The song did better than the football team as it reached number 2 in the charts.
But the songs were novelty, a bit of fun, and not serious attempts at celebrity. Now he’s returned to a club that bought into the Keegan dream, the Keegan brand. Only it’s looking dated and desperate, the hero coming back for last hurrah…
Posted: 17th, January 2008 | In: Back pages Comments (32) | TrackBack | Permalink
