THE wild boy of the violin, Nigel Kennedy, who announced his retirement from classical music in 1992, is making a comeback.
His first appearance will be at the Royal Festival Hall on April 10 when he will play pieces by Bach, Bartok and Jimi Hendrix.
Kennedy, a child prodigy, was hailed as Britain's finest post-war violinist before shocking the classical world by dressing as a punk and playing Hendrix songs. He has complained about the pressures put on prodigies.
Since "retiring", he has spent much of his time at his home in Malvern, Worcs.
His publicist, Neil Storey, said last night: "He's 40 now and he's just had a son. He's a lot more at peace with everything than he was."
A close associate of Kennedy said: "He has fire in his belly again and he's itching to make his comeback.
"But he wants his return to be as low-key as possible and nobody wants him to get frightened off."
Recently he has been practising for five hours a day.
In June he is to play Elgar's Violin Concerto, for which he is renowned, with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields in Hong Kong before the colony is handed over to China.
The following month he will perform the same piece under Sir Simon Rattle with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
Kennedy shot to popularity in 1989 when his recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons became the best-selling classical disc. It sold more than two million copies and was No 3 in the pop charts.
Kennedy adopted a wild image, with spiky hair and punk dress, loudly proclaiming his enthusiasm for Aston Villa and insisting that Hendrix was as important as Mahler.
At the end of 1992 he caused nearly £3,000 damage in a Berlin hotel.
Will the new Kennedy still dress as a punk?
"His hair doesn't stand up quite as much as it used to," Mr Storey said. "But I don't think you're going to get him in white tie and tails. He'll just turn up in what he turns up in."
