The Shakin'Stevens story began in a three bedroomed council house in Marcross Road, in Cardiff´s Ely district. That somewhat cramped house was home for the youngster who was born Michael Barratt, and then went on to achieve fame as Shakin' Stevens.The rather shy youngster, who was born on March 4, 1948, was the youngest member of a large, working class family.His parents, Jack and May Barratt, had 11 children and Shaky was the youngest member of the family.He has six brothers —Jacky, Kenneth, Jimmy, Freddie, Roy and Leslie —and four sisters — Nancy, Aileen, Joyce and Muriel."People say that it must have been hell to have been brought up with so many brothers and sisters. But what they don't realise is that we really were two families."Half of our family were grown-up, married and living away from home by the time that I came on to the scene. I basically grew up with mum and dad and Roy,Muriel and Leslie.

Leslie was just a couple of years older than me so that when I was attending junior school, he was at senior school."I grew up in a house full of noise, though and I suppose, since there always seemed to be music in our house, that was one reason why I was introduced early to rock ‘n roll. "A definite influence too, was my big brother, Roy, who had a collection of 1950s records. Roy used to also take me to the cinema when I was a youngster. Together we saw films like Rock Around The Clock. ‘All that certainly made a considerable impression,’ said Shaky.The Barratts were a down to earth family. Jack Barratt had gone to work at the mines when he was just 13, but later went to work in the building trade. Although the family didn't have very much money, those formative years in Cardiff hold happy memories for Shaky.

It was while he was a youngster in South Wales that he first heard the name that was to become his rock & roll alter ego... Shakin' Stevens. Like all young boys, Mike Barratt played football and other games with his mates. It was during a game of bat and ball in the street that one of the most significant events in his life occurred. When it was the turn of one of his mates to take the bat and face the bowler, the youngster, as he made a few practise swipes with the bat, joked... ‘And now, presenting Shakin&'Stevens! At that time the Welsh youngster thought that it was a great rock name. He remembered it and when he formed a Rock & Roll band years later, it became his stage identity."Somehow Shakin'Stevens just seemed to be the perfect name for a singer, beamed Shaky as he remembered those far off days. At school he could scarcely be described as the ideal student. The wonders of mathematics, English grammar, history and geography did not hold any great interest for him. I wasn't terribly interested in books, I suppose. At school I was basically an outdoor person, I enjoyed games and being in the fresh air.

So when it was time to leave school I didn't really know what I wanted to do. But I was certain about one thing I was never going to go to work at the mines, like my dad had done. He'd got out of that as fast as he could, and there was no way that I wanted to be a miner.

I had a lot of different jobs, doing everything from cleaning windows which I wasn't very good at to learning how to upholster furniture. I was also a driver's mate, which was my first job. I was paid £3 a week for that —before tax deductions; But music, music, music was the real interest that dominated his thoughts. Even at school he sung in the playground. His school music teacher however was less than enthusiastic about Shaky's efforts. He hated the songs that the young rock hopeful sang. But he did say something which proved to be quite prophetic...

"Son, you're going to annoy an awful lot of people, but keep going. You'll make it in the end". It was in the classroom that Shaky made what was possibly his first performance in front of an audience. One day he stood up in class to sing Rock Around the Clock. During these schooldays Shaky started to dabble a little seriously in the business of Rock & Roll. He was in the line-up of several groups, which included The Cossacks, The Olympics and The Derirns. Most of the time these enthusiastic youngsters couldn't play their instruments; which tended to be of the battered variety & terribly well.., but it was a start.

Shaky became group singer almost by accident. When one of the school groups was being assembled there was no instrument left for him to play, so he became the vocalist. Being a singer meant that Shaky had to overcome his natural shyness. As a teenager he was a]most painfully shy... particularly where girls were concerned. When he first started singing he even used to stand with his back to the audience, to prevent himself becoming overcome with shyness. Eventually, of course, as the stage persona of Shakin'Stevens developed, that character took over from the shy, quiet Mike Barratt, and an explosively dynamic stage performer was created. During his early years in that cramped council house in Cardiff, Shaky received tremendous support from his parents. One Christmas he actually persuaded his mother, May, to purchase a well-used and aged piano. This gave him the opportunity to try to create own music on the keyboards, although his mum would possibly have been happier if she'd heard some more familiar sounds coming from that instrument. After a while that piano finally

Disintegrated... the result of Shaky's pounding and all the wear and tear of being shifted from one part of the Barratt household to another. Jack Barratt, Shaky's father, was also a significant influence. During the days when Shaky was struggling to make a meagre living with his most famous group, The Sunsets, his dad was tremendous in offering encouragement. When I was doing all the usual clubs and things my dad was so very proud of me that he would carry my picture everywhere with him. He would take the photograph out and tell people... "That's my son, he is a singer"

Sadly Shaky's father died eleven years ago.., before the son of whom he was so proud went on to achieve worldwide fame. It's one of Shaky's lasting regrets that his father didn't live to experience all that has happened to him today. It's simply that I know that lowe so much to my dad. You could say that it was his love of the music of Al Jolson and J. H. Elliott the soft shoe shuffle star that actually got me interested in all this. If he was around today I'm sure he would be over the moon at everything that's happened. Shaky's Rock & Roll apprenticeship was served the way of many of todays established stars.., by experiencing the tough, relentless slog of touring small clubs, bars and college venues all over the country. It's the usual story of hard work and not very much in financial terms to show for it after driving hundreds of miles up and down the motorway.

This was the period of his career, from the late 1960s until mid-way through the 1970s, when he performed as Shakin' Stevens and the Sunsets. That was when I paid my dues. We travelled thousands of miles all over the country. It was when I truly discovered what Rock & Roll is all about. After his first gig; Ehich Shaky remembers was in a church hall in Wales and for which the group of six were paid the grand total of 6£ (out of that had to come the money to pay for the petrol for their van), his life revolved around a seemingly constant stream of one-night stands anywhere and everywhere in the United Kingdom. There's hardly a corner of the country which didn't experience a visit from Shakin'Stevens and the Sunsets.The routine tended to have a faintly similar feel about it, no matter where the concert venue was. For instance, we'd leave Cardiff around 6am in this battered old van and drive up to, say Aberdeen. We'd rush from the van into a tiny dressing room, wash, change and do our stuff on stage. Then, after the gig we'd wonder where we could sleep that night. Usually it was all crowded in the back of the van we certainly didn't have money for hotels.

In those days there was never much money to go round, as Shaky recalls, We just managed to get by and no more. The meals we had were the cheapest ones we could get in motorway cafes, we didn't have enough money for much else. But even in the darkest moments; and there were some of those. I never had the remotest thoughts of quitting, There was no reason why I should have considered calling it a day. Singing was what I enjoyed, what I did best, and I realised that. Another thing that kept me going was just working in front of an enthusiastic audience. That was great, singing for our audiences gave me a tremendous buzz ... it still does. There's really no accurate way for me to put into words just what that feeling is like. I suppose it must be like a shot of electricity, when the audience moves with your music. In 1969 it seemed that the time had come for Shakin' Stevens and the Sunsets to evolve from being one of Britain's many hard working bands into something much more significant. That was when; much to Shaky's surprise and delight they were asked to support The Rolling Stones when they played at a London theatre called the Saville;.. The Stones had sent a tour manager to watch Shakin'Stevens and the Sunsets in action. Then, convinced that they were what they were looking for, asked them to be their support act.

It was the first time that I had played on a stage which had curtains, so that you could make a proper entrance. Before the venues were clubs, bars and colleges, but this was a real stage! Shaky, and the others, brought their modest equipment — by the Stones & standards along in old, battered suitcases. But Shaky used Mick Jagger's PA. system that night when he went on stage. That proved to be a mistake, because it meant that all I could hear was my own voice. It was almost impossible to hear the music! I also recall that during our spot, the drummer's snare stand broke and he finished up having to beat his drumsticks off a fire bucket. Unfortunately that wasn't to be the start of great things for Shaky. Unlike the world of fairy tales, instant success doesn't happen very often. And so it was back to the grind of gigs and recording sessions for him and his group. During those years there were several records from Shakin'Stevens and the Sunsets, but none managed that all-important chart breakthrough in this country. Their discs tended to achieve more success in Holland than in Britain. A solo Shaky single Lonesome Town was a chart hit in the Netherlands.

Nowadays however, original pressings of those recordings — such as the album A Legend or the single Jungle Rock which was a chart hit for Hank Mizell while Shaky's version got nowhere; are valuable collectors items. But it was not until 1977 and seven years after he had turned professional that events started to move in an upwards direction for Shaky. That was when he met the legendary rock impressario, Jack Good and made his debut in London's West End, That crucial encounter happened after Shaky was asked to portray the middle period of Elvis Presley's life in the award winning stage musical, Elvis, At first the Welsh singer was reluctant to be involved at all in this production. He was concerned that the musical might not contain the essential elements of what made Presley unique. Also, he was worried that this stage role might not be right for him. So he didn't even go along to the audition that was being held. However, purely by chance, Jack Good happened to see the reluctant star perform at a London gig... and that was that. Good was convinced right there and then that the singer was exactly what he was looking for.

He persuaded Shaky that he certainly was not seeking to create a caricature or an impersonation of Elvis Presley on stage. Instead he wanted to find the right singer who could convey that special magic... the indefinable atmosphere and feeling which Presley conjured up every time he walked out on to the spotlight. So Shaky, impressed by the enthusiasm and genuine nature of Jack Good's attitude, agreed to play the part, After that Shaky and Jack Good formed what could be described as a mutual admiration society. They found themselves working together on two major television series... Oh Boy! and Let's Rock, Good, who had set the pattern for pop on the small screen way back in the 1950's with the original Oh Boy!, decided to recreate that show for today's audiences. And one of the vital regulars in his revamped series was Shakin'Stevens. After that series, which was screened by ITV in this country, Jack Good went on to create the 26 programme series Let's Rock. Again Shaky was included as a regular in the shows, which were shown on television on both sides of the Atlantic.

During one of his visits to nowadays is country, Jack, who is based in the Sates, paid tribute to Shaky, He's one of the most exciting rock performers around, said the doyen of Rock & Roll. No wonder that after all those years Shaky and Jack Good still keep in contact. The singer whom he described as ‘The best genuine rocker around today continues to make Jack Good's words of praise ring true. It was while he was still starring in Elvis and operating under Jack Good's wing, that Shaky met the person who, it could fairly be said, became the most important influence on his life his manager and friend, Freya Miller. Freya, who had been involved in directing the careers of The New Seekers, Joe Brown and J. J, Barrie, signed a managerial contract with Shaky in 1979... two years after he had first donned the mantle of the stage Elvis. Since then they have been a team, dedicated to catapulting Shakin'Stevens to success in every record market in the world. And with the exception of the USA, the arena which he has still to make his mark they have succeeded. The Shaky-Freya partnership has seen him collect awards and enough platinum, gold and silver discs to start a jewellery concern, from all over the world.

But the first couple of singles from the solo Shakin'Stevens didn't exactly set the heather on fire. Neither Treat Her Right; nor Endless Sleep; did terribly well. Things changed for the better though, when he released his distinctive version of the Buck Owens rockabilly number, Hot Dog, which gave Shaky his first taste of chart success. That song climbed to No 24 in the charts and then although the next single, Hey Mae, was a major disappointment by vanishing without trace; Shaky went on to indicate that a new talent had emerged, by taking Marie Mane even higher in the Top 30. It went to No 19, and people sat up and took notice of Shakin' Stevens. But the song which sent the name of Shakin'Stevens smashing into the charts with significant force and which made an indelible mark on the mind of record buyers; was vintage Rock & Roll. It was an updated version of the Rosemary Clooney hit of 1954, This Ole House, which the American star had made a chart topper all those years ago. The Shaky treatment meant that 27 years later the song was every bit as powerful. Yet when his version was releasedin 1981, Shaky was honest enough to admit... I don't remember the song from the first time around.

I was just a kid when it first came out, I may have heard it, but it didn't sink in. In fact, the first time that I can remember hearing Rosemary Clooney sing the song was just before Christmas, when I was at the home of a friend, who collects old records. As soon as he put the disc on I knew, right away, that this was something I should record. I was absolutely amazed when I learned that no fresh version had been released since 1954. Shaky reckoned that his version clicked with a massive record buying public, simply because it had across the board appeal. It was rock and roll which could be enjoyed by almost every age group, The result was a chart topping hit which stayed at No 1 for three weeks... it was the signal that Shakin' Stevens was here to stay. Since then the hits haven't stopped. Green Door and Oh Julie both went to No 1. Oh Julie was the more significant of the pair since it also happened to be a Shakin'Stevens composition. The fact that Barry Manilow went on to record that particular song, and have a hit with it across the Atlantic, was especially satisfying for Shaky. The rollercoaster of success which he's riding has shown no signs of slowing down. Songs such as It´s Raining, Give Me Your Heart Tonight and his Christmastime hit, Blue Christmas have simply been evidence that a record release from Shakin'Stevens is a guaranteed best seller. His albums, too, as you might expect, are always chart certainties !!!