Martin Kemp: 'Gardening is all I think about now'
You expect Martin Kemp to be as fun as he seems on Celebrity Gogglebox, bantering with his son Roman. As the bassist from 1980s pop sensation Spandau Ballet and one of the most memorable villains on EastEnders, you expect him to have a few showbiz stories. You also expect his eyes to be very blue. But what you might not expect is his passion for mowing the lawn.
“There is nothing more satisfying,” he enthuses. “Everything about it – the smell of the cut grass mixing with the smell of the petrol – takes me back to the joy of being a kid. Even in bad weather, it’s bliss.”
Gardening wasn’t always his thing. “I once thought it was a chore,” Martin admits. That changed when he and his wife Shirlie, a former backing singer for Wham!, moved to their home in Hertfordshire a few years ago. Now, “pruning that tree or raking those leaves is like a meditation,” he says. “It’s all I think about. I head out in the morning and, the next thing I know, I’m getting called in for dinner.”
To wander through the Kemps’ sumptuous, sprawling garden is to understand why it has become the couple’s shared passion. The property hadn’t been touched for half a century, but in two years, they’ve carved it into “pockets of different textures and colours”. There’s a formal lawn flanking the drive, a whimsical, grassy mini meadow and a cosy outdoor room with a fire and squashy sofas.
But it isn’t a grand estate managed by a team of landscapers. The couple are hands-on. “I’m the same as everyone else. I watch Gardeners’ World to find out what I should be doing,” says Martin, who relishes “the feeling of being covered in mud”. He credits Shirlie with the vision for the space. “I just go along with it,” he says – though occasionally he wishes she was as militant about weeds as he is.
The corner of the garden that Martin likes best is Piglet, named after the formerly dilapidated pig shed that, with hindsight, he’s grateful Shirlie insisted on restoring. The wood-panelled outbuilding adds rustic charm to the bottom of the garden – inside, dappled light spills over vintage furniture and pots of roses and cosmos.
Just next to Piglet, Martin grows vegetables as a tribute to his father. “We grew up in a council house in north London and our garden was the size of a postage stamp,” Martin remembers, “but my dad packed everything into it, including vegetables.” Martin delights in his small triumphs – for instance, outwitting the rabbits by planting spring onion decoys among his crop of carrots – and learns from his failures, including the runner beans that didn’t launch because he planted them too soon.
Pruning and tree-cutting also fall under his remit. “When you get that chainsaw out, the testosterone goes through the roof,” he laughs. “A bit of AC/DC on your stereo and, before you know it, all that’s left of your tree is a twig.”
Martin keeps a place in London, but their Hertfordshire home is his sanctuary. Countryside rambles and charming market towns are on the doorstep, but he rarely feels the urge to travel beyond his garden. “When I arrive here, I can literally feel my shoulders go down,” he says.
His son Roman teases him about not having any friends, but Martin considers this a by-product of a life in the public eye. “Fame can be stressful,” he says. “When you’re well-known, if people stare at you, it’s good to have a place to escape to.”
Anyway, he relishes time with his family. “We’re basically best friends,” he says about his long and happy marriage to Shirlie. Their three little dogs are always nearby – Poppy, a winsome toy poodle; Iris, a rescue pup from China (“the absolute love of my life and the real star of Gogglebox”); and Oscar, who lived with the Kemps’ daughter, Harley, before retiring to a life in the country.
Harley, a musician and production company founder, often stops by and, endearingly, Martin admits to co-hosting the frank, funny podcast FFS! My Dad Is Martin Kemp with Roman “just to spend more time with him”. The show is heartfelt and hilarious, with Roman quizzing his father on everything from the music he’d like played at his funeral to his conjugal relations with Shirlie.
Martin really values having an honest relationship with his children. “When I was growing up,” he remembers, “if two people kissed on television, my mum and dad would pretend to be asleep. I decided to be much more open with my own kids.” He doesn’t mind that both his children have also chosen careers in the public eye. “If they have half as much fun as I did, then why not?” he says. “I’d never discourage anyone from following their own path.”
Though his Hertfordshire home might give you the impression of a quiet, cosy life in the countryside, a scroll through Martin’s Instagram feed tells another side of the story. For the past couple of years, he’s travelled the UK to perform his sellout Back To The Eighties DJ sets. He posts footage from these exultant singalong sessions, where he plays the decade’s hits to an ecstatic crowd bouncing around in neon colours and ra ra skirts. “It’s the most joyous, euphoric thing I’ve ever done,” he says. “I’ve been performing since I was 17 – I’m almost more at home on that little stage than anywhere else.”
He’s thrilled that the music he remembers from his Spandau Ballet heyday still resonates with audiences; for him, the Eighties were a blast. “Being with the band was like being on a boys’ holiday in Benidorm for ten years,” he laughs. If he could relive one moment from that time, it would be performing at Live Aid in 1984. “That concert was a turning point for so many people,” he points out. “It seemed like the moment that everything – the TV, magazines like Smash Hits, the fashion – exploded from black and white into colour.”
What did the teenage Martin Kemp make of being a pop megastar? “Oh, my feet definitely left the ground,” he says. “When you’re 18 and have 100,000 people chucking their love at you every night, how can you not get carried away?” But he’s glad he threw himself into it. “I’d regret it if, looking back, I’d never been on tour, never thrown TVs out of windows or done the big parties.
After the band broke up in 1990, he starred in the critically acclaimed film The Krays and moved to Hollywood. But the party ended abruptly in 1995, when he underwent surgery and treatment for two benign brain tumours. “Up until that point, I was still a kid, I think. Shirlie was basically looking after me before then. But the brain tumour made me reevaluate everything.”
Unsurprisingly, the crisis intensified his desire for privacy. But it also left him with the resolve to savour every experience: “When you’re young, you race through life, always heading to the next big thing. I always tell my kids: when something good happens, remember to stop and breathe it in.”
Today, he combines DJing with television appearances and “one bit of acting a year”. Despite the success of his early films and the popularity of his EastEnders character, he’s most proud of how diverse his career has been: “I’ve been able to try so many things – and I’m still doing it all these years later!”
His next project is a role in a horror film called Doctor Plague. While he’s filming, Martin will have to leave the garden in Shirlie’s hands – despite the risk of weeds running amok. But as soon as his schedule allows, you can be sure that he will be making the most of his time in the garden – no matter what the weather.
“I believe that gardens are about moments, not seasons,” Martin says, thoughtfully. “I love the winter as much as the spring or autumn. Even in the heavy rain, there’s a satisfaction in looking after it. I never forget to stand back and enjoy it.”
Martin’s Back To The Eighties DJ sessions via martinkempdj.com. Listen to the FFS! My Dad Is Martin Kemp podcast. Shop Martin’s Union Works edit at tu.co.uk and selected Sainsbury’s stores.
You Might Also Like
