Kemp was born in Salerno, Italy, to an Italian mother and an English army father. He joined Wolverhampton Wanderers as a 15-year-old apprentice in April 1961, signing as a professional in May 1963. He made three Football League appearances for the Wolves before Ted Bates signed him for Southampton in June 1965 for a fee of £5,000. He made his debut at The Dell playing at inside-left against Preston North End on 27 November 1965, when George O'Brien was ill with hepatitis. He scored the Saints' second goal with a "brave header" in a 5–2 victory, and retained his place in the forward line for the next three matches before losing his place to Norman Dean. Southampton finished the 1965–66 season as runners-up in the Second Division, gaining promotion to the top division. Kemp spent two years in the reserves as a forward before being converted into a wing-half with goal-scoring ability in March 1968. On 24 August 1968, he returned to the first team replacing Hugh Fisher at right-half, scoring the opening goal in a 2–1 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers. He retained his place for the remainder of the season, making a total of 37 appearances with four goals as Southampton finished seventh and qualified for European footballfor the first time, in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. Although Kemp made one appearance in the Fairs Cup, he lost his place to Fisher in November, with his final first-team appearance coming on 31 March 1970. Known as "Fiery Fred" and described as "a delightfully tippy-toed runner", Kemp's "crowd-pleasing surges down the right wing" were not popular with his teammates, including Joe Kirkup and Ken Jones, who considered that the team needed the more defensively-minded Fisher at right-half to allow Terry Paine the freedom to operate on the right wing. Paine himself considered that Kemp's runs "didn't warrant all that energy" and, while exciting the crowd, they became "infectious" and began to "rub off on the other players" to the detriment of the team. Following the signing of Brian O'Neilin the summer of 1970, Kemp was no longer required and was sold to Blackpool in November for a fee of £35,000. Kemp stayed only a year at Blackpool before moving on to Halifax Town in December 1971. He stayed at The Shay for 2½ years, during which time he was a virtual ever-present making 111 league appearances with 10 goals. In the 1974 close season, Kemp was signed by Colin Addison for Hereford United but before the season started Addison was replaced by John Sillett who recruited Terry Paine as his assistant. Kemp considered Paine as his "nemesis" and, after only 13 appearances, left the club to rejoin Addison in South Africa at Durban City in March 1975. By the following spring, Kemp was back in England and joined Telford United as team captain for a season before his retirement in the summer of 1977.
Later career
While at Telford, Kemp played charity football in Wolverhampton and worked part-time selling furniture to offices and schools. The business expanded and Kemp's son-in-law, the former Fulham midfielder, John Marshall joined the family business. Kemp now lives close to Wolves' training base at Compton.
