Roman Kemp: Celebrity radio guests don’t faze me after my childhood

As a boy Roman Kemp remembers being shown Liam Gallagher’s Star Wars memorabilia and going to parties at the Spice Girls’ houses. Now the radio presenter credits his unusual childhood with putting him at ease with the star guests on his show.

Kemp, 24, the son of musicians Martin Kemp and Shirlie Holliman, became Capital London’s youngest host when he joined the station at 21. In May he took over its breakfast show, which runs 6am to 10am on weekdays and 6am to 9am on Saturdays.

He told the Standard: “I got to meet a lot of people growing up because of my mum and dad. I had a lot of weird experiences — I remember meeting Liam Gallagher when I was a kid and he was showing me all of his Star Wars stuff, and random memories of going to parties at the Spice Girls’ houses where they were all there.

“My parents have never been celebrity-focused, but I did have these odd moments growing up which I suppose have meant I don’t act like a fanboy around famous people now.”

Kemp left school at 15 to work for a music management company. He was identified as a potential star, signing a “development deal”, before finding his calling in radio.

He said: “I got to work on many different projects, learning about the business, songwriting ... my school was a bit shocked when I dropped out, but my parents were very supportive. My dad would always just say, ‘Well what do you want to do? Do what makes you happy.’”

He said his early songwriting days were not a success: “I wrote this song that had about two chords and it just went something like, ‘Girl, I love her, she loves me...’ I screwed it up and threw it in the bin.

“My dad found it later and took it out and made me play it for him. I think he knew how awful it was and he just wanted to laugh at me!”

Tune into the Capital London Breakfast show with Roman Kemp, weekdays 6am – 10am and Saturdays 6am – 9am.