Shakin' Stevens

Michael Barratt known professionally as Shakin Stevens is a Welsh singer and songwriter He was the UKs biggestselling singles artist of the 1980s His recording and performing career began in the late 1960s although it was not until 1980 that his commercial success began His most successful songs were nostalgia hits evoking the sound of 1950s rock and roll and pop In the UK alone Stevens has charted 33 Top 40 hit singles including four charttopping hits This Ole House Green Door Oh Julie and Merry Christmas Everyone Aside from Merry Christmas Everyone remaining popular during the Christmas season his last Top 40 single was Trouble in 2005 Michael Barratt who would later adopt the stage name Shakin Stevens was the youngest of 11 children born to Jack and May Barratt His father was a First World War veteran who by 1948 was working in the building trade having previously worked as a coal miner The oldest of his siblings was born in the mid1920s and by the time of his birth some of Michael Barratts oldest siblings had already married and started families of their own Jack Barratt died in 1972 at the age of 75 May Barratt died in 1984 at the age of 83 He grew up in Ely Cardiff and as a teenager in the mid1960s he formed his first amateur rock and roll band with school friends and became its vocalist and frontman Originally named the Olympics then the Cossacks the shortlived band finally renamed as the Denims and performed gigs in the local Cardiff and South Wales area In the late 1960s Stevens was associated with the Young Communist League YCL the youth wing of the Communist Party of Great Britain through playing at YCL events At the time the YCL was associated with several leading music industry figures including Pete Townshend However Stevens has stated that this was because the individual in charge of booking the bands gigs was also a member of the organisation In the late 1960s his official occupation was a milkman and he lived in a flat which formed part of an office block in innercity Cardiff The office block was demolished several years later While working as an upholsterer and milkman Barratt performed at weekends in clubs and pubs Having previously followed them as a fan and then as an occasional guest vocalist Barratt joined the existing Penarthbased the Backbeats originally formed in 1958 as lead singer He was spotted by South Wales impresario Paul Legs Barrett who proposed repackaging the band as a 1950sinfluenced rock n roll outfit under a new name Michael Barratt agreed to choose a stage name and so borrowing from old school friend Steven Vanderwalker he chose Shakin Stevens