Plumber lands record deal after casually belting out a song on job — he had no idea his client was a music mogul

Singing at his plumbing job opened up unexpected doors for a man from Leicestershire.

PUBLISHED MAR 6, 2025

(L) A builder engrossed in singing while working on a client's house. (R) A musician recording a song in a studio. (Representative Cover Image Source: Pexels | Left image by RDNE Stock project and right image by Anna Pou)

There are many people working jobs where they don't get to showcase their real talent. But for this plumber from Leicestershire, his talent was not meant to be kept hidden. According to BBC, a 51-year-old man named Kev Crane was working as a plumber, fitting a client's bathroom, when he started belting out a song. Luckily, the owner of the house overheard him. It turned out the owner was none other than Paul Conneally, the owner of New Reality Records in Loughborough.

Intrigued by Crane's voice, Conneally started chatting with him and Crane revealed he had built a music studio for himself during the lockdown. Crane had once started working on a music album 25 years prior and he wished to finish it. His chance encounter with the music executive helped him secure a record deal at Conneally's label. To make things even better for Crane, a film inspired by his story is set to be made in Hollywood and he has met with people in the industry to sell the rights for a film adaptation. Crane even joked at one point that he would love to see George Clooney play him in the film.

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One of the film producers who took an interest in Crane's story was Stacy Sherman, the wife of screenwriter Billy Ray, credited for movies like "The Hunger Games" and "Terminator: Dark Fate." "I hadn't heard much of his signing, to be honest, it was only during lockdown that he began to ignite his passion and that's what the movie is about second chances," Crane's wife Karen told BBC Radio Leicester. At first, when Karen heard the news about a movie adaptation of her husband's life, she thought it was a scam. But meeting up with Sherman and Ray in Beverly Hills cleared her doubts. By the end of 2023, the script for the movie was almost done and was passed over to a film agency where the directors were about to read it.

"It has been written by British sitcom and film writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais," Crane revealed to the news outlet, talking about the duo who brought classic comedies like "The Likely Lads" and "Auf Wiedersehen, Pet." "There were moments while we were out there I kept thinking to myself, is this really happening? We got invited to the house of the co-CEO of Netflix for a gala, we met Esai Morales from Mission Impossible. It was mad," Crane added. He was also invited on "This Morning," where he detailed about his life becoming a Hollywood film soon.

Crane opened up about getting tons of invites for popular talk shows like "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" too. Conneally also appeared on "This Morning" and revealed his thoughts about Crane and his first impressions. "I didn't believe it would go this far," Conneally admitted. "I had no expectations. All I knew was that I really liked Kev, and that was the first thing about anyone that came onto the label. I had to like him as a person. I have heard builders sin,g but Kev sang in a perfect pitch,h and he was singing right across the neighborhood."