Top 35 Shakin Stevens Quotes

I used to go to Caerphilly with my brother Les, two years older than me, with my mother to see her sister, Gladys. When they wanted to talk we’d have to leave the room. She‘d say to her husband Stan ‘take them in the front room and play the piano.’

Mickey Gee will be remembered for his guitar playing by the public and true fellow musicians.

I don’t think I look like him at all. There is only one Elvis and there Is only one Shakin’ Stevens and I’m getting sick of people asking me that.

To be honest I was never much of an Elvis fan myself.

I did feel a bit of an outsider in the Eighties. But there was a market for me out there. New Romantics were totally different.

Life is never a bed of roses, but it’s not all doom and gloom either.

I still love being on the road. I’ve been doing it since I left school. It’s in my blood, it’s in my bones.

I was a guy who was born in Cardiff and thought, there must be more to my history than that.

I knew about my grandmother‘s husband who died in the Albion coal disaster. But I didn’t know a brother died in the same disaster because of the health and safety, which was terrible.

I don’t like to do interviews, to be honest. I hate interviews.

I couldn’t go on an ’80s package show or anything like that. I have a lot more to give. If you go down that road completely I think you’ll stay with a certain type of audience. Again I’m not knocking it. People go for the fun of the hits, it’s what they’ve grown up with.

In the Eighties, I was everywhere. It was hard, because you didn’t see much of your children. I missed out on that. People make sacrifices – doctors, long-distance lorry drivers – and that was mine. I wasn’t left money, I had to go out and earn it.

I was a 17-year overnight success really. I think I earned it.

I always used to sing in the house and I went to school at Hywel Dda Primary School in Ely. I think they had a puppet-type show there and word got around I could sing. I sang at that puppet performance and used to sing in school. From there, it was in my blood. I didn’t want to do anything else but sing.

As for Glastonbury, it’s the biggest festival there is in Britain, and I’m very pleased to be asked to do it.

I’m not a spendthrift. It’s hard enough to earn!

I had a positive remark from Johnny Rotten, would you believe? He said I was a fantastic singer. Not a lot of people know stuff like that.

I was in several bands, and we just started off doing the clubs and dancehalls in the valleys – and eventually moved on to the colleges and universities.

All families have lies and secrets, I don’t mind sharing ours.

My grandfather, born in 1865, was a copper miner from the age of 10. The air down the mines was poisoned with arsenic, and working conditions were horrific. They only had candles for light, so they worked in a pitch-black environment.

The early Shakin’ Stevens and the Sunsets gigs were wild.

We’ve had Salvationists in the family for more than 150 years.

Dad was in the First World War in the Royal Field Artillery from 1914 to 1918, as well as uncle Leonard.

I feel like I’m a skittle. If I’m knocked down, I’ll get up and try again.

To write a song is one thing, to get it to No.1 is another and to have a respected artist cover it is incredible. It’s great to know my songs will be around for a long time.

I mean, I didn’t know that my dad was married before he met my mum. He was married for a year and he had a son. Even when I was grown up, that secret was still not let out.

Call me Shaky, not Michael. I’ve been Shaky for so long it would be like calling Muddy Waters McKinley, wouldn’t it?

There’s nothing wrong with being mad.

I don’t wear white shoes any more.

Artists have different stages in their career, from George Michael via Wham! to people like Kylie. A change of perception is what’s needed.

I’m so tired of all that teeny-bop stuff. It was years ago. So twee. I’m not into all that.

I had success in Canada, all through Europe, Poland, Czechoslovakia.

People have got a preconceived idea of what I look like, what I perform and what my shows are all about. I can understand that, because all they can refer to is ‘Top Of The Pops.’ But those who come to my shows know better.

As you get older, you do try to be a bit wiser.

I always thought it would be nice to have a Christmas number one. If nobody remembers you for the rest of the year, they’ll remember you at Christmas.