SS BRITISH ROCK STAR WHO HIT THE TOP AFTER 12 YEARS:

When twenty-year-old Mike Barrett from South Wales put together his first rock and roll band in 1968, and then quickly got offered the support spot at a major concert by the Rolling Stones, he must have dreamed of a speedy rise to stardom for his Fifties-style music and stage act. He eventually got his enormous success, but only after over a decade of touring the pubs and clubs of Britain, enduring punishing schedules, greasy motorway food and cheap accomodation. He did make the occasional record, usually on one-off deals, but with no great success although his slowly increasing following of loyal supporters still regarded him as the country's finest rocker.

BREAK THROUGH

But in 1977, Shakin'Stevens did finally make that all-important breakthrough when he was offered one of the starring roles in the West End musical Elvis. His success there led to a contract with Track, and then to the present link-up with Epic which has given him a series of massive hits, and made him one of Britain's most successful singers this year. The recent flood of publicity which he has received has tended to overshadow the years he spent before getting the Elvis role, or else has used them merely as an excuse for scandal-mongering; but in fact they produced some excellent records which have long been favourites among rockabilly and rock and roll collectors.

Shaky in the mid-70´s,
complete with gold lame suit
and Gene Vincent guiff, in 1974.

Certainly Shaky (as he seems to be known to fans and friends alike) has done his best in recent months to keep the details of his past career hidden, with the result that unimportant matters like his real name and date of birth have become shrouded in controversy, Again, this has tended to hide the excellence of his original band, the Sunsets. His stage act hasn't changed much over the years: he has always been a great mover in the Elvis tradition, something which comes across very strongly on his television appearances. Throughout his career he has made little concession to changing fashions, and all that has happened over the last year is that fashion has finally caught up with him. Whether or not you think his hit records are as the material he used to perform with the Sunsets, it's hard to begrudge him his success, as unlike many groups who have jumped onto The rock and roll bandwagon over the last few years, Shaky has always had his roots into the music.

LEGEND:

Stevens and the Sunsets made their first even recordings in 1970, under the guiding hand of producer Dave Edmunds. Parlophone had signed Stevens up on the strength of his popularity as a live performer, but unfortunately this didn't translate into record sales and the contract ended after only one single, Down On The Farm and one LP. That first album, A Legend included several songs sung by the band's drummer, Rockin' Louie, much to the disgust of Stevens, who threatened to quit unless he sang all the lead vocals in future. It also contained a version of the old Smiley Lewis hit, I Hear You Knocking complete with vocals Louie. Edmunds was obviously impressed with their performance, as he recorded a version of the song himself and had a British No. 1 hit on the MAM label that Christmas. This set Edmunds off on the successful career which he still enjoys today, but apparently rebounded on Stevens and the Sunsets. Parlophone were annoyed that Edmunds hadn't given them the single, and as Dave had been responsible for getting the Sunsets their contract in the first place, they retaliated by not taking up their option on the band.

As a result, that Parlophone album is now worth about £15 (although it has recently been reissued in EMI's NUT series) and the single is also pretty scarce. In 1971, the Sunsets moved on to CBS for another short-lived deal, resulting in only an album, I'm No JD which received almost no publicity and wasn't even given the luxury of a single to help boost sales. 1972 saw a brief encounter with the Polydor label, which only produced one single, a cover of Chuck Berry's Sweet Little Rock 'N Roller which suffered from a rather dull production. The band's sound came across a lot better on the flip-side, White Lightning Again, copies of this release are getting hard to find these days. Over the next few years, Shakin'Stevens and the Sunsets were unable to land a contract with a major British company. The small Northern Irish label, Emerald, took them on, and released a single Honey Honey and an LP Shakin'Stevens and the Sunsets in 1973. Their patience was rewarded eight years later, when they were able to cash in on Shaky's success by reissuing the LP (on the Mint label), together with some new material recorded in 1976. The line-up at this time consisted of Stevens (vocals), Rockin' Louie (drums), Mike Lloyd-Jones (guitar), Mal Preest (bass) and Ace Skudder (piano). They were an excellent live band, who went down well in Britain and even better on the Continent, where they were for once able to travel in style and topped the bill over many well-known progressive groups like Argent. All the time, they, and Stevens in particular, watched with envy and a certain amount of anger as groups like Showaddywaddy and Mud scored huge hits with pop versions of rock and roll, dressed up in drapes and quiffs,

The new look Shakin´Stevens with a smoother image than
before. One major ingredient of his success has been his
skill as a live performer, which has helped ´sell´ his records
on television appearances.

When the Sunsets were regularly packing out college and club dates without gaining any recognition. They were always asked back for return bookings, and got called back for encore after encore, but without the publicity that a major recording contract could bring, they were still restricted to small venues and wage-packets. The Sunsets act was fast, musically tight and very visual. Their lead guitarist, Mike LIoyd-Jones, remembers clearly what made the Sunsets so exciting to watch: The visual side of our act included myself and Mal the bass-player jumping off the stage, and playing guitar in the audience with extra long leads. Meanwhile, Ace, who must still be one of the best rock and roll pianists around, would do somersaults, give me a piggy back on his shoulders and run round the stage. While all this was going on, Shaky would be spinning his mike and stand, jiving, twisting, turning and dancing and still managing to keep in tune/p>

ACROBATICS

The venues where the Sunsets were playing didn’t always allow the room for too many acrobatics, and often they would get just a little carried away, as Mike recalls! At one gig in London, the stage was on the same level as the tables where the audience were sitting. One particular night we all climbed on the piano, rolled onto the floor, climbed over the amps and got crazier and crazier. Finally, Shaky, almost out of his mind with the power of the music, stepped onto the nearest table. The crowd loved it. Shaky stepped onto the next table. More cheering. Then the next table, knocking over a drink with his foot. Within seconds, he was in the middle of the audience, still on the tables, kicking drinks and ashtrays everywhere! After the gig, we had to pay out most of our money in cleaning bills for members of the audience!

At another gig where we were going down well, Shaky leapt up and grabbed the overhanging lighting above the stage. As he swung backwards and forwards, the whole of the stage holding the lights ripped away, and fell down. The crowd went wild, but the club manager didn't. The fee for the gig was £100 and so were the damages. Nobody spoke to Shaky in the van that night! One time Shaky's antics got himself into deeper trouble. Unlike the big bands who had their tours organised so that they had all their gigs in the same area within a short period to cut down on travelling, we had to go where the work was. Often we went from Scotland to Cornwall, back up to Carlisle and then down to Bournemouth on consecutive nights. As well as spending half our lives on the motorways, we often played doublers that is, two gigs in one night. The first would be at about 8.30, while the other, which could be a hundred miles away, would start at midnight

DASH

The night that Shaky finally came a cropper, we were doing a doubler Cardiff, and then a quick dash across the country to Oxford. Cardiff was a local gig for us, which was always nerve-racking, as our wives and friends would be there. By the time we got on stage that night, we were all completely drunk. The gig was at a college, which boasted a great big stage, complete with expensive velvet curtains. During the last number, Shaky did his Tarzan act, climbing up the curtains and swinging to and fro. Unfortunately, the curtain ripped under the strain and Shaky fell to the ground. But he got up and carried on singing, finishing the set.

Back in the dressing room, we discovered that he'd broken his ankle, and his foot was swollen up like a balloon. However, the show had to go on especially as we stood to make £50 each that night! By the time we got to Oxford, Shaky was in a lot of pain though he was helped by the attention of several girl fans who made a fuss of him, so he ended up sitting in the dressing room, with his foot stretched out in a chair, being waited on with drinks and food appearing whenever he wanted them! When the time came, Shaky went on stage with a stick and used his injured foot for dramatic effect, dragging it around just like Gene Vincent!

Despite their frantic gigging, the Sunsets weren't getting very far with records. They recorded an album worth of material in Holland, which only appeared five years later on the Mint label as Manhattan Melodrama Also in Holland they made an LP now known as At The Rockhouse recorded live in the studio on a four-track machine with no over-dubs. At the time this appeared as a 10" LP (Come To Memphis) in Holland only, though later two more tracks were added and the LP became a 12" again for Dutch release. The Dutch label (Dynamo) also issued an EP from the sessions, and a single; and last year the Magnum label in Britain issued an EP from the sessions with a different track listing. The recent releases are still available, but the original Dutch records are now very collectable.

Shaky and the Sunsets at Breda, in HOLLAND, in 1975, with the line-up
that played together until stevens left to play "Elvis". Left to right:
Mike Lloyd-Jones, Mal Preest, Rockin´Louie, Shaky and Ace Skudder.

BAD LUCK

The story of the Sunsets bad luck was compounded in 1976, when they released their first British single for two years, a version of Jungle Rock on Mooncrest. They had popularised the number with the teds, but their thunder was stolen when national radio played Hank Mizell's version and not theirs. Mizell's single took off and got to No. 3, leaving Shaky and the Sunsets nowhere. In 1977, when Shaky was asked to take one of the three leading roles in the musical Elvis he was very reluctant at first, because he was worried that it might prove to be send-up of Presley rather than a tribute. But eventually he agreed, and became one of the main reasons for the show's massive success, which was, of course, boosted by Elvis untimely death that August. The following year, Jack Good, the brain behind most of Britain's pioneering TV rock shows in the Fifties and early Sixties, was planning to restage his 'Oh Boy' shows with a new young cast. Stevens was a natural for the show, and this gave him the regular and national exposure which undoubtedly prepared the public for his recent success. He also linked up with a professional manager, Freya Miller, in 1979, in a controversial relationship that has certainly brought Shaky more success than he could have imagined was possible after so many years on the road.

MUSICAL

Stevens already had a contract with Track which coincided with the Elvis show, and an album of performances from the musical, only available at the theatre, had proved a steady seller; but he only made the charts in 1980, with a new, slightly more mainstream image and some impressive publicity and marketing. Obviously, Shaky needed no instructions on how to sing or move; the talent was always there, all it needed was the exposure. The popularity of the groove into which he has fitted over the last couple of years can be seen from the sales figures, not just in Britain but in Australia, South Africa and throughout Europe. Hot Dog and Marie Marie established the style, and This Ole House provided the killer punch. Since then the hits have kept coming, and Stevens has begun to write his own material for LPs. As usually happens, his rise to stardom brought a few recorded skeletons out of the cupboard, and almost everything Shaky has ever issued has recently been re-released. To add to the confusion, Epic, his present label, withdrew the Marie Marie album, changed a couple of tracks, and retitled it This Ole House after the single was a hit leading to complaints that some people were buying it expecting a completely new album. Jungle Rock has made a reappearance on the Battle Of The Bands label; Mint took a single from the Manhattan Melodrama LP; and Solid Gold released a medley of extracts from the Elvis cast album.

Other steady sellers have been picture sleeve versions of the earlier Epic singles, now fetching as much as £5, and an American 10; EP which contains Marie Marie and Hey Mae plus the flip of 'Marie' and a new track, Is A Bluebird Blue This will no doubt prove a collectors item of the future, along with the Track releases that haven't been reissued (yet!) and all the earlier recordings with the Sunsets. It may be that Shakin'Stevens will gradually fade away from the charts, or that he'll move more into a middle- of-the-road image; but whatever happens, the collectability of his early records is already established among British rock and roll fans; and the recent interest from his younger fans has only boosted a market that already existed.

SETBACKS

Certainly, whatever you think of his music, Stevens is to be admired for having made it despite so many setbacks though there is always the regret that he didn't reach the top while he was still with the Sunsets, who proved themselves such a potent live band. They always knew that Shaky had the star quality, as guitarist Mike Lloyd-Jones confirms: I always knew that Shaky would do OK someday. Every time we needed new stagewear, me and the rest of the band would get a couple of cheap T-shirts Shaky always managed to fix himself up with a couple of £150 suits! He was always a stayer!

The Sunsets play the Torrington in London, the venue where
Shaky lieterally walked over the audience! Lead guitarist
Mike Lloyd-Jones and bass player Mal Preest are pictured here.