IT’S A FAMILIAR STORY. RECORD COMPANY DISCOVERS DEMO TAPE BY MARKETABLY HANDSOME YOUNG CHAP WITH A PENCHANT FOR A POPULAR TUNE, THROWS A BUCKETFUL OF MONEY AT HIM, RECORDS SELL BY THE TRUCKLOAD, SWEET-TOOTHED SMASH HITS AND TOP OF THE POPS COME A-CALLING… AND LIFE BECOMES A SHERBET BOWL OF FUN FOR THE WET FINGERS CONCERNED.

At least, until fickle fashion wavers like an emperor’s thumb before eventually dropping to the downward, with gazes already wandered to the next marketably handsome young thing to enter the arena. For 1980s idol Nik Kershaw, the whole process of a rise from Bowie-loving supporting player in functions bands to styled soloist competing with Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet for space on teenage bedroom walls seems to be something he is wryly amused by and shoulder-shruggingly accepting of. It’s provided him with a respectable legacy and a livelihood, meaning that he can carry on writing and working.
Kershaw released four albums in the 1980s, including RADIO MUSICOLA (1986) and THE WORKS (1989), before concentrating on writing and production for others once his major label deal had collapsed. His biggest hit was the enduring THE ONE AND ONLY, performed by Chesney Hawkes in the early 1990s. A decade on from his ‘retirement’, Kershaw returned with 15 MINUTES (1999) and has released four albums since, most recently EIGHT.

A technically gifted musician with the ability to craft a toe-tapper, looking back, Kershaw’s solo career seems to have reached something of a fork in the road quite early on, in the year following the huge success of his 1984 debut album.
Scratch the sampling and shiny singles surface of HUMAN RACING (which contained the effervescent I WON’T LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON ME and the radio-friendly melancholy of WOULDN’T IT BE GOOD) and you find an interestingly odd piece of work, where strange rhythms stack up against concise fusion funk and skittery electronica. The album was, of course, tempered by that peculiar 1980s penchant for big production, but it highlighted a musically adept mind. HUMAN RACING was re-released as a deluxe edition within the last few weeks, a second CD adding 12″ mixes, b-sides and previously unreleased nuggets which contrive to confuse the picture even further. Follow-up THE RIDDLE (the twisting lyrics of the title track seemingly providing the record buying public with a series of unfathomable clues to a frustratingly unanswerable puzzle) was released within nine months of Kershaw’s debut and written under record company pressure in just a fortnight. It saw cracks begin to appear – despite its huge success he was, as he puts it, “cream crackered”.

After the soundcheck for a recent show, Kershaw invited The Mouth Magazine backstage to chat about life on a major label in the 1980s, the Live Aid concert in 1985. He also finally reveals the answer to THE RIDDLE. Be warned…