Shakin' Stevens was the UK's principal selling male performer in the 1980's. Shakin' who?, I hear you cry! Born Michael Barrett during March 1948 within a suburb of Cardiff, South Wales, our young Welsh rock 'n' roller began his profession in school together with a a small number of school friends and became the singer for the band they referred to as The Olympics. The rock band performed in their own neighbourhood of Cardiff along with the South Wales area while they underwent several name variations, including the Cossacks and The Denims. There was a story that one of Shaky's school friends in the school playground was jiving about with an air-guitar and unexpectedly announced "Shakin' Stevens and the Sunsets". The adolescent Michael Barrett thought how the name sounded crazy but later adopted it for his stage show.
Shakin' Stevens turned pro and gave up the day-job of a milkman in 1969 however success wasn't instantaneous. He fronted Shakin' Stevens & The Sunsets, a 1950's -influenced band from Penarth also from South Wales. They were so good that they was supposedly given a supporting slot for the Rolling Stones in December 1969 even though there's some doubt regarding this. A lots of years of on the road and recording enabled the group to improve their repertoire as well as enhance their show. During a Sunset's gig in London Jack Good saw Shaky and personally invited him for an audition for 'Elvis!' the popular West End musical he was producing. This performance ran for nineteen months and won quite a lot of awards, including the Evening Standard 'Best Musical' award. Playing Elvis for the duration of his army and movie-star years the subsequent hype let the entire United Kingdom grasp who Shakin' Stevens was. The 'Elvis!' show was interspersed with appearances by Shaky on Jack Good's rejuvenated TV show 'Oh Boy' in addition to a thirty week deal on a brand new small screen show titled 'Let's Rock'.
Near the end of 1979 Shaky signed with different management by the name of Freyer Miller. She recommended that Shaky to cut off communication with the Sunset's and concentrate on a solo career. Listening to his fresh management instruction Shaky achieved his primary UK chart topping number one single with 'This Ole House'. It raced up the UK charts towards the number one spot that placed Shakin' Stevens in practically every home inside the United kingdom as soon as the weekly chart show "Top of The Pops" was broadcast on a Thursday evening.
Shakin' Steven's first hit was closely followed by ten further songs that made the chart top 5, including 3 number one hits such as "Oh Julie", "Green Door" and "Merry Christmas Everyone". The latter being postponed by a year in order that it didn't conflict with Band Aid's giant selling charity hit 'Do they know it's Christmas?' It went on to become the number one Christmas hit in 1985 and has been played over the radio every Christmas time since. During his career Shaky released numerous albums of which the best selling was titled "Shaky" which reached number one and remained in the LP charts for 28 weeks this was superseded by 'This Ole House' that climbed toward number two.
To reinforce his title as the United kingdom's greatest selling performer Shaky had a total of thirty eight hit singles of which 36 had been consecutive. That was 32 hit singles achieved the top forty in the UK singles charts with all but half in the top 10 and four at number one. This achievement meant that he dominated the UK singles chart for a total of 277 weeks and backed this up with a series of lucrative hit albums. He has earned dozens of Gold, Platinum and Double Platinum Discs and various universal honours and industry awards, together with 'The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles', who awarded him a Number One Gold Award to expose his chart achievement. Shaky was also ranked as the sixteenth highest selling performer within the UK, ever.
Shakin' Stevens continues touring and recording in the present day. The latest album 'Now Listen' was released during December 2007. He opened the Glastonbury Festival on Saturday 28 June 2008 with a full crowd at 11am whilst the British broadcasting corporation with their accustomed competence missed filming it, turning up quite a few hours afterward. In an effort to showcase the release of the Epic Masters Box Set, Shaky performed a one-off gig at the O2 Academy in Islington, London, which additionally coincided with the thirtieth anniversary of his original hit 'Hot Dog'.
As per Shaky's authorized website, he is going to be doing a tour in the UK opening 12th October 2010.
Maybe I'll see you there!
Author Resource:
I have been a fan of Shakin' Stevens ever since he exploded onto our screens in 1981. Being raised on Elvis, Jerry Lee and Buddy, the music was already in my soul, but Shaky brought it home to the UK. If you haven't heard of Shakin' Stevens visit my small tribute to him and catch a few videos of the man in action.
www.squidoo.com/ShakinStevens
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