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Working with Van Dijk, legends & releasing music – Marc Kenny’s Liverpool Life

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Marc Kenny is a Merseyside producer and musician, who has managed to combine his music career and love for the Reds, to lead an exciting Liverpool life.

You have probably heard some of the music Marc has helped create.

Having produced songs like Egyptian King (Mo Salah‘s song), and released his own album in 2022, Put Your Favourite Face On, he has become well-known on the Liverpool music scene and among the football club’s fanbase.

We caught up with him to find out more about his Liverpool-supporting life.

 

I started supporting Liverpool because…

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Tuesday, March 19, 2002: Liverpool's fans standing on the Spion Kop during the UEFA Champions League match against AS Roma at Anfield. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

I’m from a family of Reds so it was never in doubt who I was supporting. My first real memory of LFC was when I was about five years old and we were coming back from living in Australia.

I wanted to bring back a Perth Eagles shirt as that’s where we were living at the time. My Dad wouldn’t let me, saying we have the greatest team in the world and I don’t need any other shirt than the red one. He was right!

 

My first game was…

A 2-1 win against Luton Town in January 1992 – a Nick Tanner own goal gifted Luton the lead then Steve McManaman and Dean Saunders rescued the points for Liverpool.

I don’t really remember much from the game to be honest, but the noise of the crowd is something you don’t appreciate when watching the game on TV.

I think that’s the biggest thing that stuck with me, the level of noise inside Anfield.

 

My favourite season supporting Liverpool has been…

That’s a tough one as I’ve been lucky enough to remember some late 80s and early 90s glory, the treble of 2001, the miracle of Istanbul and our resurgence under Jurgen Klopp.

I think I’d have to go for a more recent season, 2018/19, for the obvious reason of the Champions League, but more because of the football we were playing – free-flowing attack with Mo Salah, Sadio Mane & Roberto Firmino.

Alisson had just signed in the summer and Virgil van Dijk joins in January; we win the Champions League at the end of the season and it set us up for our first Premier League title the next season. It was just an incredible time to be a red.

Marc produced the music for this fantastic video.

 

How has your music career become entwined with LFC?

I’ve always been singing around the Liverpool games, usually in a local pub where they’d put me on after the game had finished to keep the crowd in for a few drinks – songs like Fields of Anfield Road, Poor Scouser Tommy and You’ll Never Walk Alone.

Lately, though, there have been more & more songs, to a point there’s almost one for every player now – some of which I’ve released myself.

I originally started working on a few legend Q&A shows where I’d play a few songs here and there, which eventually led me to doing my own shows & putting on fan events all over the world.

I’ve loved every second of it and count myself incredibly lucky that my two biggest passions, Liverpool FC and music, go hand in hand.

 

Any famous faces you’ve met or stories from football?

I work with a team of Reds hosting our own fan events called KopConnect.

We do these quite regularly in Canada and the USA, so I get to spend quite a bit of time with lots of the ex-players on those, like Bruce Grobbelaar, Phil Thompson and Roy Evans etc.

Last year, though, I was lucky enough to work with Van Dijk and Luis Garcia for a Carlsberg promo, and I’ll never forget the introduction of big Virg.

The room was lively with everyone chatting, but went very quiet very quickly when we had word Virgil was on his way down. The silence of the room was broken by a huge scream stopping everyone in their tracks.

This was followed by Virgil popping his head through a curtain asking why is everyone so quiet. It really broke the ice and any nerves people had working with him.

After filming he asked me to play a song I’d done for Joel Matip which he recorded on his phone to show him. Virgil is a funny fella, unbelievably charismatic and as calm as you like!

 

If you could go back to any game and relive it, which would it be?

Corner taken quickly… Origi! That night against Barcelona at Anfield.

We should have known there was a sense of inevitability when Salah rocked up wearing his ‘Never Give Up’ t-shirt, but we all knew it would take another miracle night at Anfield.

We had a three-goal deficit to claw back without our star player and top scorer, but when odds are stacked against us, that’s when we see the best of this club.


Thanks to Marc Kenny for taking part in our My Liverpool Life series. You can listen to Marc’s album, Put Your Favourite Face On, here.