' Shaky recalls, "A few of us formed this group and I was picked as a front man. That was the bit I liked. The band didn't last long but I had the taste so when the rest dropped out I carried on: So Shaky turned out armchairs by day and pulled in the crowds by night. He learned his trade the hard way - by playing all sorts of venues in all sorts of places. Like many of his contemporaries, Shaky ate so many meals in motorway cafes that he almost became addicted to grease.

In 1969 he supported the Rolling Stones at a concert in London at The Saville Theatre. It looked as if fame was just around the comer but Shaky had to wait another eight years for his big break. But the hard work on the road was helping to build up a following. In 1970 he celebrated his nineteenth birthday by turning professional and recording his first album, 'Legend,' which was produced by fellow Welshman Dave Edmunds. Shakin'Stevens and the Sunsets hit the road with a vengeance and toured almost continuously from 1970 to 1977 when Shaky was offered a part in the West-End musical, 'Elvis: " Before 'Elvis' I was paying my dues; he explains.

I played universities and clubs up and down the motorways, taking the rough with the smooth. It was landing the part in the musical that made me - that was the turning point. In the old days we'd leave Cardiff at 6 a.m. and go straight to Aberdeen, hurriedly change in a cramped room, play our music and then worry about finding a place to sleep. Most nights we'd just sleep in the van, we certainly couldn't afford hotels. My first fee as a singer was £6 for 6 hours work and it had to be divided between 6 of us!

But throughout all of the hard times Shakin'Stevens performed vintage rock & roll music and so he, understandably; resents the critics who say that he is cashing in on the post-punk boom in simple rock music. In his opinion - he is not keeping up with the times, the times have simply caught up with him. The rockabilly boom, spearheaded by artists such as The Stray Cats and Matchbox, is just one example of the need to return to basics which has become evident in the wake of the punk and new wave explosions. Shakin' Stevens' success may be part of the same movement but he has been playing the same music for fifteen years and so he can hardly be accused of jumping onto the bandwagon. I suppose I have to thank punk music for getting back to basics: 'he admits. It did pave the way for rock & roll again!' But, as he is quick to point out, Shakin' Stevens and The Sunsets stuck to Rock & Roll throughout the lean years - even when the music was distinctly unfashionable. 'We always stuck to our guns. We rehearsed in back sheds, then began playing seedy clubs and church halls. We spent our lives driving up and down motorways, sleeping in vans and often having to wait for the A.A. to rescue us. At a few places the audience would hiss and boo, tell us we were old hat or throw the odd beer can, but mostly we attracted a loyal following of genuine rock & rollers!'

Even when the rest of the country seemed to be joining the hippy revolution the band kept performing good-time rock & roll music. Psychedelia, flower power, drugs, alternative religions, political stances, sophisticated contemporary pop music from The Beatles, folk rock from Bob Dylan - nothing tempted them from the straight and narrow confines of their chosen calling.

A chap came round once to show me his jeans:' remembers Shaky. "He'd frayed the bottoms and put patches all over the place. He said he was freaking out and that this was the scene to get into. I told him he'd ruined a perfectly good pair of jeans! It wasn't my scene anyway. So I carried on wearing the clothes that I liked and carried on playing the music that I liked. It was always rock & roll. Even when we used to do gigs with the freaks sitting cross-legged on the floor saying that they'd seen God. Mind you, by the end of the show they were on their feet dancing!;

But while the band was building up a following and polishing their stage act, chart success eluded them. Seeing that law suits are still flying around relating to this period of his career, Shaky is understandably reticent on the subject. It would appear, however, that one-off deals and limited pressings were the order of the day: I didn't receive a penny from the stuff I did with The Sunsets:' says Shaky. You need involvement from a record company and good management if you're going to make it. I feel that I've got the right set-up now. I've got a good manager, more say in what I record and more copies are being pressed. Noway can you make the charts with only a few hundred copies being made:' But back to 1977. All Shaky had to show for the years of hard work was lots of experience and a knowledge of Britain's road system that would shame many a long distance lorry driver. Like other artists treading the long and winding road that leads from Obscurity to Stardom he found that talent and experience were not enough. He needed some luck and he needed a helping hand. It was at this point that rock entrepreneur Jack Good entered stage left waving a magic wand and doing a rather fine impression of a fairy godmother.

Jack Good is one of popular music's mavericks. He is an intellectual who loves rock & roll and can recite Shakespeare's sonnets as well as he can recite Chuck Berry's lyrics. He is, in short, a character. Wearing black spectacles and a permanent, enthuasistic smile, he came into Shaky's life and began to make things happen. Educated at Balliol College, oxford, Good had been the enfant -terrible of British Television in the Fifties. He had produced the legendary '6.5 Special' for the B.B.C. and then joined! TV to launch 'Oh Boy! As well as producing two of the most innovative! pop shows on television, he found time to create images! for Cliff Richard and Adam Faith before departing for America. During his time in the States Good made the television series 'Shindig: put together stage musicals! promoted tours and produced television spectaculars for Andy Williams and The Monkees. 1977 found him back in London organising the stage musical 'Elvis! Good looked around for somebody to play Presley between the time that he met 'Colonel' Parker and the time he enlisted in the United States' Army. He gave Shakin' Stevens the part and the rest! as they say; is history.

'Elvis' was voted 'The Best Musical of The Year' and played to about eight thousand people a week for nineteen months. By anybody's standards the show at the Astoria Theatre was a critical and commercial success. Jack Good was so impressed that he asked Shaky to star in two television series a revamped 'Oh Boy!' and 'Let's Rock.' Shakin' Stevens was on his way to the top. But like many people who find success after years of effort, the singer suddenly came under fire from the c ritics. He was subjected to a torrent of vicious criticism and he was accused of being a Presley ;imitator, a second rate Elvis. The memory of that criticism still rankles. Shakin' Stevens is Shakin' Stevens:' he says defiantly. I don't look like Elvis and I haven't moulded myself on him. I think about the Elvis tag a lot but Jack Good was not looking for an impersonator, he wanted someone who could put across the feel. To be honest, I was never much of an Elvis fan myself. I respected him a lot and, let's face it, he was the launching pad for everything that's happened in pop music. I look upon Elvis as a great enter-tainer and I respect him for what he did for music. That is why I turned down the part at first. It was only when I became convinced that the, musical was going to be a tribute not a send-up that I agreed to appear in it. Shaky not only dislikes comparisons with Elvis, he also hates to hear people say that he is selling nostalgia or that he is part of a rock & roll revival.

;...I'm a 1980's artist, doing 1980's Rock & Roll.; ;Revival? I don't like the word at all:' he confesses, It's stupid. I'm a 1980's artist doing 1980's rock & roll. You have to look forwards not backwards. You can't revive rock & roll it's never gone away. Jack Good agrees. Rock & roll is no more nostalgic than Verdi's 'Requiem: It's classic material. Not so much 'Do you remember?' as 'How can you forget? After the success of 'Elvis: Shaky quietly consolidated his success and things really began to take off after he signed a management deal in December 1979 with a dynamic lady named Freya Miller. Just two months later Shakin' Stevens made the charts for the first time with 'Hot Dog'. By August he was in the top twenty with 'Marie Marie' and in March 1981 he topped the charts with 'This Ole House! The Overnight Success had arrived at last - after just 11 years of hard slog. But why did things just slot into place after all those years of near misses? There was no strategy; says Shaky's manager Freya Miller. It was just a matter of working together and putting out the right thing at the right time. The talent's always been there. It was just a matter of getting the right format which we evidently did!' Nowadays Shakin'Stevens does not have to sleep in the van anymore. During the last year his records have sold well all over the world and the financial rewards have been considerable. He now lives in his own luxurious home in Surrey, has a veritable mountain of gold and silver dics and drives a Cadillac Deville. If you visit his dressing room these days you'll find him shipping dry white wine which his contracts stipulate has to be provided by the mana- gement. He is a star at last.

luxuriously upholstered Cadillac? "I thought about a Rolls Royce:' says Shaky with a grin, "But a Cadillac is more like a rock & roll car so I decided on that!' Watching Shakin' Stevens perform his chart-topping hits on 'Top of the Pops' it is easy to see why he has been so success-ful. The apprenticeship that he served has stood him in good stead - he is now a trained crafts-man, a true professional. The years on the road and the months on the stage in the West End have equipped him with an armoury of skills. He flashes that mean and moody look, shakes that famous right leg, moves every muscle of his.six foot one frame. He involves the studio audience, captivates and mesmerises. On a show where clever but clinical promotional videos have become all powerful he is like a breath of fresh air. He is not an anachronism, he is not selling nostalgia - he is selling enter- tainment. He is, as he put it him-self, "a 1980's artist doing 1980's rock & roll!' But, while Shakin' Stevens is tremendously effective on television, you have to see him on stage to appreciate just how much he controls and dominates his fans. His concerts sell out and the scenes in front of the stage bring to mind flashes of different eras. Young girls scream as if they were at a Beatles' concert, people jive in the aisles as if Bill Haley and his Comets were playing 'Rock Around the Clock' again. Everybody has a good time, especially the tour promotors and the owners of the theatres. In Liverpool they had to get police dogs out to control the crowds backstage," says Shaky. "The manager of the Empire told us that we were the first act to fill the place for nineteen months. At the moment nobody's doing any business except us.

WE'RE NOT LEAVING PLACES HALF EMPTY, WE'RE GETTING, 'WHY DON'T YOU PLAY HERE AGAIN TOMORROW?' PEOPLE COME ALONG TO MY CONCERTS IN FAMILY GROUPS, THEY'RE LOOKING FOR A GOOD TIME:' AND EVERYBODY DOES ENJOY THEMSELVES AT SHAKIN' STEVENS CONCERTS. ROCK & ROLL ALWAYS WAS ONE BIG TECHNICOLOUR MOVIE. PINK SOCKS, BLUE CHEVROLETS, WHITE SHOES, GREEN DOLLAR BILLS AND GREASY; BLACK HAIR. THE MUSIC WAS THE SOUNDTRACK AND SHAKY'S CONCERTS TAKE YOU BACK TO THE TIME WHEN ROCK & ROLL WAS ABOUT CRUISING DOWN THE HIGHWAY LISTENING TO THE RADIO, DATING THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, HAVING FIGHTS WITH YOUR PARENTS AND DREAMING OF BEING A STAR.

"... I DON'T SET OUT
TO BE SEXY."

And yet, curiously, the music is not being revived as such. How can it be nostalgic when so many of the audience are teenyboppers who don't even remember The Beatles let alone Elvis, Gene Vincent or Eddie Coachran? Back to the technicolour movie. Shaky is wearing a pink jacket, black trousers and white, crepe-soled shoes. He is juggling whith the microphone stand, shaking his legs like a drunk at a bus stop and grinding his pelvis as if he had never heard of Mary Whitehouse. I don't set out to be sexy. He maintains, but when the beat gets going my legs and pelvis go wild. I don't get up there to be a sex symbol. That's the way that the music takes me. It's my way of putting over a song.

The star of the movie sings his hits - 'Hot Dog,' 'Marie Marie: 'This Ole House'- they are all greeted with cheers and screams by the audience. Policemen in blue uniforms, ladies with blue rinses, ten year olds with white socks and thirty year olds with green jackets and pink ties. The colours are amazing. Shaky plays his part in the movie with great skill and the fact that he does act out his role is demonstrated by the difference between Shakin'Stevens on stage and Mike Barratt behind the scenes. The mask slips in private. The brash, confident performer becomes an engagingly shy 30 year old from Wales. Away from the spotlight he seems like the sort of bloke who would be too self-conscious to make a speech at a wedding let alone shake his pelvic structure in front of thousands of people. That's how good a performer he is.

rhythm and blues. It doesn't just mean 'Long Tall Sally' and 'Blue Suede Shoes! In the halcyon days of the Sixties, pop columnists used to judge success by such strange criteria as fan mail and fans' detennination to reach their idols. Shaky is doing well in both areas. He gets thousands of fan letters every week and one from Holland arrived safely even though it was just marked 'Shakin' Stevens, England.' Then there was the girl on a recent tour who tried to bribe a hotel porter with £50 to find out Shaky's room number. Another interesting pointer is what other stars think of your success. How did veteran entertainer Frankie Vaughan take to this young whippersnapper having a hit with 'Green Door,' for example?

It proves you can't keep a good song down;' says Frankie, I'm also thrilled because his version is similar to mine. When I met Shaky he told me that he always listened to my records when he was young. I hope he stays in the hit parade as long as I did." Frankie Vaughan, Jack Good, girls with £50 to spare, 18 month old babies with toy hammers, married couples, old aged pensioners, teddy boys - the list of Shaky's admirers is long and impressive. But enough of the past and the present - what of the future? More hits and more standing room only concerts are assured but what about the music? Will there be more versions of old hits from the fifties? Probably. Shaky loves the fifties but his musical tastes are a lot broader than one might suppose. "I like music from the thirties and forties as well and I also like what's happening today. But fifties' songs have the ability to make people happy. It was a very optimistic era!'

And perhaps the inherent optimism that is evident in all of Shaky's work is one of the reasons for his success. Just as paperback sales have soared during the recession, which indicates that people need escapism when times are bad, so the sight of Shaky clicking his fingers and stomping his feet on the television represents a valuable escape valve in these troubled times. But will Shakin' Stevens continue to perform his good-time brand of rock & roll music or will even he be forced eventually to change with the times? It is highly unlikely that he will change the music that he has been

"... I HOPE ONE OF MY SONGS,
WILL LIVE ON AFTER I'M GONE."

playing for over fifteen years, but we might well expect to find more new songs in his repertoire in the future. And those songs could well be written by the man himself. Fans who have bought the album 'This Ole House' will have noticed that the tracks 'Baby If We Touch' and 'Make It Right Tonight' were composed by Shaky and this is an area of his career that he wants to expand in the future. Yes, I'm writing more of my own songs now;" he says. "Like any other writer I hope that one of my songs will live on after I'm gone!'

Looking back on his career, what were some of the most memorable moments? "Landing the part of Elvis:' he cites as one of the highlights. "That meant that the days of living with my Mum were over."But it was while Shaky was working on a Madrid television show that a telephone call brought him the best news that he had ever heard. "Guess what, 'This Ole House' has reached number one:' said a voice and Shaky knew that he had really made the big time. "1 was speechless:' he recalls, "It was the best moment of my life!' But stardom brings its problems. Travelling between concerts and on European tours can be a problem because Shaky is petrified of aeroplanes. "I hate flying," he admits, "I get so frightened that I break out in a cold sweat." Apart from a fear of flying Shaky seems to have everything under control these days. Even his coverage in the media is rigidly regulated and, for an artist of his stature, he gives relatively few press interviews. His privacy is jealously guarded by manager Freya Miller who has been known to interrupt journalists in the middle of an interview and deflect personal questions. Her policy of shielding Shaky and his private life from the media has been so successful that even the singer's marriage was a closely guarded secret until recently:

Top 30," she says proudly and obviously believes that this piece of information is infinitely more interesting than what Shaky eats for breakfast. The singer's slight distrust of the press goes back to the scathing criticism that he experienced after playing Presley in the musical 'Elvis! He not only rations interviews carefully but admits that he has his own system which affects how many he does in the future. "We have two boxes, "he reveals, "A red box and a black box.

The ones with the bad interviews go in the black box and we don't do interviews with that person ever again - or even with the paper. Shaky's whole attitude is admirably positive. He stuck to his kind of music throughout all of the hard times and, now that he is successful, he is still as determined and ambitious as he was in the beginning. He is happy to take criticism which he believes is constructive but has little time for the knockers and the trendy critics in music papers who sneer at his popularity. His record sales and the range of people who attend his concerts indicate just how popular he is. Now that he has finally made it to the top he intends to stay there for a long time. And so we come to the end of our story. Mike Barratt - the miner's son from Wales is now a big star called Shakin' Stevens who lives in Surrey. "My way of relaxing is just to get out and walk in the fresh, country air, "he says and you believe him. He has an unmistakeable air of integrity and he says so little about his private life and his personal preferences that what he does reveal has the ring of truth about it. Shaky likes walking in the country and hates keeping his white boots clean. His favourite breakfast is scrambled eggs, his favourite drink is dry, white wine. His favourite performer is Bruce Springsteen.

..."I SEE MYSELF AS A
KIND OF A DOCTOR."

I see myself as a kind of doctor:' says Shaky and that is as good a description as any. Most of his patients seem to be thriving and, thanks to Shaky and one or two others, rock & roll itself is alive and well in the space- age 1980's. The doctor in the salmon-pink, drape jacket is still on the case. He enjoys his work and looks like having busy surgeries for many years to come.