Kevin Coyne - Burning Head & Tough And Sweet (CD)

Release Date: 12/08/23

Two 'Coyne classics' from the early 90s reissued as a double album. Coyne is back in top form in his new home Nuremberg/Germany after many low blows

Things were going really well for Kevin Coyne! His alcohol addiction was conquered, he had solid ground under his feet - thanks to Helmi, whom he married in 1986 - and a real desire for music, painting and writing again. His creativity seemed unbroken in the early 1990s. In 1992 he achieved the next big coup: Burning Head! The album was an extraordinary project: For each CD Kevin Coyne drew and signed his own cover. The album as a complete work of art appeared in an edition of 1000 copies and cost 350 DM. The project was so unique that even the 'heute-journal' (a news channel on German television) ran a report on it. Today, the CDs with the original drawings are coveted collector's items. In a review of the music magazine Zounds it says: 'Coyne has written some of his most intense and catchy songs for this CD, his longtime friend Hans Pukke accompanies him on guitar and keyboards, on two tracks Kevin's son Robert Coyne plays along. In between, the multi-talented artist reads three poems'. In addition to the CD, Kevin Coyne also published the poetry collection Paradise in 1992, which has so far only been published in German, and he received the Great Culture Prize of the City of Nuremberg in November. Kevin was finally recognized as an important part of the cultural scene in his new hometown.

The next project Tough And Sweet (1993) followed. This time the two sons Robert and Eugene were on board. A CD review praises especially the concise singing in the rocky blues numbers: 'Here the Englishman presents himself in his best and most conventional form. His singing is more spoken than sung, his lyrics are critical and by no means strike into the notch of any clichés. Worth listening to!' The following year Kevin played on the Tough & Sweet tour from April to May 1994 in England. The 20 dates - including three Burning Head exhibitions - took him from London to his hometown of Derby as well as Manchester, Edinburgh, Leeds and Brighton.

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