Shaky yelled his first notes on March 4th, 1948, in Cardiff. One of a family of eleven, he was raised in a home where a lot of early rock record received an airing. Little wonder then that he, like many others who latched onto the music of such ‘50s heroes as Elvis, Chuck Berry and Eddie Cochran, bought himself a guitar and began singing and playing with various bands in the Cardiff-Penarth area, gaining a regular place with a country-rock band sometime in 1963. Some of the outfits he worked with weren’t so hot however – one thought they had an ace bass player ‘till they realized he was making most of the best sounds not with his instrument but with his mouth!

1969, Shaky could be found leading The Sunsets, one of south Wales’ top rock ‘n’ roll units, their reputation gaining them a spot on a Rolling Stones show at London’s Saville Theatre, plus live broadcasts on the Beeb’s “Top Gear” and various college and club dates. Signed to EMI’s Parlophone label in 1970, Shaky together with such mates as guitarist Carl Peterson, drummer vocalist Robert Llewellyn (‘Rockin’ Louie’) and the other members of The Sunsets, moved into a studio with Dave Edmunds, who also hailed from Cardiff, the latter producing an album for the band. Titled ‘LEGEND’, the record proved to be a tremendous 16-track collection of oldies and newies, all dressed up in a greasy style by Shaky and his gang of rockers. Initially, all seemed well. The critics loved the album and it reaped praise all around. But at that stage of game, good old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll, played by guys who wore velvet faced jackets and boot-lace-ties, was not considered to be the ‘IN’ thing. So the album never sold. EMI and The Sunsets eventually parted company.

With no real management to guide them, Shaky and The Sunsets made their way through the ‘70s, recording for labels like CBS and Emerald and working when and where-ever gigs were offered. But generally the band was heading nowhere fast and in late ’77, when Shaky heard that producer Jack Good was seeking Presley-type singers to act and sing in the West End show ‘Elvis’, he jumped at the opportunity and soon convinced everyone concerned that he was the man to play the King of Rock’n’roll. Different singers were selected to portray Elvis at various stages of life and Shaky was chosen to enact Presley in his pre-Army era, impressing all who saw him and adding considerably to his growing army of fans. “I regard those eighteen or nineteen months as the turning point in my career,” he says now.

The boom in ‘50s nostalgia had got underway in 1974, when Shoaddywaddy sparked off their long, long line of revival hits with ‘Hey, Rock’n’roll. The death of Elvis Presley in 1977 added impetus to the trend as many members of the older generation suddenly began to realize that something that had once been part of their lives was slowly slipping away, while many of the newer generation, quickly becoming bored with the nowhere alley that was punk, began re-exploring the musical path once trod by Presley, Haley, Carl Perkins and other ‘50s faves, becoming fascinated with what they discovered. Soon, such names as Darts, Rocky Sharpe and Matchbox began appearing with some frequency in the charts. The rock’n’roll revival was really going strong. All that remained was for Shaky to move in and rightfully claim his place at the top of the pile. And this he did – in style.

Signed to a recording contract by Epic Records in 1978, he began putting some tracks together with his then manager and producer Mike Hurst, the man who had once masterminded hits for such singers as Cat Stevens and Colin Blunstone. ‘Treat Her Right’ and ‘Endless Sleep’ his initial Epic releases, didn’t make much headway but ‘Hot Dog’, which came out in January 1980, climbed into the lower reaches of the charts and things began looking rosy for the Cardiff rocker. But ‘Hey Mae’ which followed, proved a flop – at which time he signed with new management and grabbed himself a new producer Stuart Colman, the rock’n’roll freak and broadcaster who’d played bass on ‘Hey Mae’.

Colman immediately slotted together a band that just had a ball in the studio, one result of these spirited recording dates being ‘Marie, Marie’, the single which provided Shaky with his first top twenty hit, in September last year. ‘Shooting Gallery’, the follow up, failed to make much impression, but now Shaky’s star was in the ascendancy and ‘This Ole House’ which came out in February this year provided the final breakthrough, climbing to the No. 1 spot by April. ‘This Ole House’ was, perhaps an odd song for Shaky to record. It was originally penned by a country music singer named Stuart Hamblen back in the early ‘50s, following a hunting trip during which he’d discovered a dead man laying inside a run-down shack, miles from anywhere wrote the song on the back of and old paper bag and later recorded it, gaining a hit – though another singer, Rosemary Clooney, gained an even bigger hit with the song, selling over two million copies with her 1954 version. More recently, an American band known as NRBQ waxed the song once again and Stuart and Shaky, who heard the disc, decided that it sounded so good in a rock setting that they were inspired to try it out in a London studio. The results were so successful that ‘That Ole House’ became Shaky’s seventh single for Epic and the one which finally established him as a kind of star that reporters fall over themselves to interview.

Since that time, everything’s gone right for Shaky, his new found status being confirmed when ‘You Drive Me Crazy’ rocketed up the charts as if it owned them. And currently ‘Green Door’, his latest release, seems certain to add to the tall good-looker’s list of Laurels. So Shaky is now right at the top where he belongs and one sign of his success is that people are already beginning to knock him! Some claiming that the whole so-called rock’n’roll revival is just a passing fad and that all concerned will shortly be forgotten once more.

Not that Shaky seems likely to drop out of sight in the months to come – his revamped 'Marie, Marie’ album which had one track added before reappearing as ‘This Ole House’ has been a consistent seller and the next Shakin’Stevens LP, which will be with us in September, is to be a fourteen track, T.V. advertised affair that’s almost guaranteed top ten status in the U.K. Overseas too, Shaky has become a best seller achieving top singles in places like Australia and South Africa, while no less than three of his discs recently appeared in the German top twenty at the same time! Even in America, Stevens-fever is beginning to take affect thanks to a 26 show ‘Let’s Rock’ T.V. series produced by Jack Good. And such has been the response of these programmes that British T.V., who originally only decided to screen about half-a-dozen of these shows, will now be showing at least thirteen, if not more!

Meanwhile, Shaky’s been keeping busy, trying desperately to keep up with the flow of shows and radio and T.V. appearances his belated success has brought him. He’s even booked studio time during September to record yet another album, which will with any luck at all, be heading your way in January or February, 1982. Fading from sight then, is something that’s not on the Stevens agenda in the foreseeable future! One point that Shaky would like to make – although he’s charted with some old songs and has been accused of dealing in pure nostalgia, he’ll readily remind critics that such winners as ‘Marie, Marie’, ‘Hot Dog’ and ‘You Drive Me Crazy’ were all new songs and claims that three quarters of those to be heard on his next album, will all be newies too.

“ I’m not a rock’n’roll revivalist, because you can’t revive something that’s always been around,” he says. And in order to keep his beloved rock well and truly alive he’ll be singing more and more new songs in the hope that they woo will become rock standards alongside ‘Summertime Blues’ (his all-time favourite), ‘Roll Over Beethoven’, ‘Reet Petite’ and all the other tunes that so inspired him while he was still a kid. Shakin’Stevens is a man of both yesterday and today, but he’ll also be around tomorrow too. You can bet your blue suede shoes on that!