"He made a record, it made him famous yes it made him a star"

I was watching The Office last night, the one with the quiz. It doesn't get any less hilarious after repeated viewing, does it?
During that particular episode there is a reference to one of my all time heroes. A fella who I hold in extremely high regard.
I once did a post detailing my ongoing devotion to Depeche Mode & since then I knew I would eventually do a similar post for this special man...


Yes, It's Nik Kershaw.

although he may look more familiar like this...









Twas around the time of my 14th birthday, Nik had appeared on Top of the Pops with his single "Wouldn't it be good". At that time my family had somehow become one of the first to have a video recorder in our home. I had taped TOTP the previous night & distinctly remember watching Nik's performance again on that Friday morning. I was extremely taken with the song (more on that later), but I also, inexplicably, really liked the clothes he was wearing & how "cool" he looked playing the solo on the lone keyboard in front of him. This would end up having a great influence on my summer of '84 look. Most non-school days I could be found sporting day-glo socks & fingerless gloves combined with baggy trousers with umpteen pockets (combats, basically, except white) & regulation Frankie Say T-shirt. Pretty picture, eh?

The very next day, Saturday, I went into town & bought "Wouldn't it be good". I played it & it's B-side "Monkey business" to death. I still love both of those songs to this day. "Wouldn't it be good" as proved to be very enduring, of course it sounds very 80's but it still gets regular airplay on the radio. No doubt because it is simply a great song that most people can easily relate to.
Very soon afterwards there was the album:
"Human Racing" still remains to this day a real big favourite album of mine.
At the time though, I all but wore it out!
"Gone to pieces", "Faces" & "Shame on you" were all strong enough to be singles but never were. The follow up single to "Wouldn't it be good" was "Dancing Girls", which was OK.
Then Nik's debut single was re-released. "I won't let the sun go down on me" became Nik's biggest hit when it got to No.2 in the summer of 84 (twas only held off the top spot by FGTH's mammoth 9 week stint at the top with "Two tribes", fact fans). For me though (& for the man himself, actually), it's one of my least favourites & I find it a bit annoying when people base their opinions of Nik on this song.
The title track came later as the 4th single & then something completely unheard of in this day & age happened. In November of 1984 Nik released his second album "The Riddle", just 9 months after "Human Racing".
Ace!
The album was preceded by the title track as a single. I remember the first time I heard it was through the static on Radio Luxembourg & prior to the vocal kicking in, I thought it was Abba!
"The Riddle" sparked all sorts of conjecture as to what the meaning of the lyrics were. What was the answer to the Riddle? Nik himself received thousands of essays & analyses trying to get to the bottom of the mystery. Many, many years later, Nik confessed that the lyrics were "wholly meaningless". Excellent! (I personally never tried figuring it out, I couldn't be arsed!)
The single got to No.3 & ensured that Nik Kershaw was officially the most successful solo artist of 1984.
The album was a more finely tuned update of "Human racing", my favourite song off it, both then & now, is "You might".
I used to hear it as a warning to myself not to fail in my quest to be a "pop star", now I feel it word for word. Let me give you an extract;


"off to face the world again, past the bedroom mirror
ignorance is bliss, they say couldn't be much clearer
imaging what might have been, thinking it could still be
all the lost years in between, still a sucker for a dream...

play the fool and act the clown, impress your friends and neighbours
not so good when you come down with nothing for your labours
you could've been a movie star, you could've been a hero
you could have won a bridge too far, the best you get is no cigar"

Hmmm.

Anyway, during 1985 Nik signed up for his moment of history by performing at Live Aid, where he played "Wide boy", "Don Quixote", "The riddle" & "Wouldn't it be good".
At the end of 1985 he released "When a heart beats" as a single, it only just scraped into the top 30. Sadly Nik would never trouble the top 40 again as a performer.

1986 saw the release of the album "Radio Musicola" which hardly anybody bought. (I did, obviously). In March (I think) of 1987 I went to Bradford St.Georges hall (on my own) to finally see Nik performing live. I had a thoroughly great time & was delighted when he played "So quiet" a B-side that I have always adored. It's actually one of 2 songs I want played at my funeral.
One of the other qualities I've always admired about Mr. K is his affable nature & keen sense of humour. That night he made many a joke about how sparse the crowd were & how he was hurtling "down the dumper".

In 1989 even less people bought "The Works".
Both albums were fine collections of songs that deserved better.
And with that Nik decided to hang up his mic & concentrate on writing for other people, which had always been his intention in the first place.

In 1991, he achieved a No.1 single as a writer & producer, when Chesney Hawkes took "The one & only" to the top spot. Say what you like about Chesney, but it's a damn fine song, it really is.

And that was that. Nik Kershaw; Gone but not forgotten.

Until 1999 when out of nowhere he released the album "15 minutes".
I was delighted! I was also really pleased that it was really good. One track, "Billy", was actually instrumental in me finally leaving my ex-wife! Cheers Nik!





In 2001 he released "To be Frank" which was an even better album than "15 minutes".
Both albums were obviously quite sylistically different from his earlier output but one thing has always remained constant for me; the songs.

All through his career it's been the songs that have always been of a high quality. People have many reasons for not liking Nik Kershaw: the teeny image, the nasal vocals, the introduction of the Snood into the world's consciousness. The songs though stand on their own.

Last year a "new" compilation; "Then & now" came out, which may be a good starting point for anyone wanting to explore Nik's work. I was a little disappointed with the 4 new songs though.
If anyone did want to explore a bit, I would be very happy to fashion a great Best of compilation.

Anyway, hat's off to Nik Kershaw!
My hero!