Interview

Nik Kershaw

How did it all start for Nik Kershaw?

I started getting into music and playing music when I was about 13 or 14 and then it was just a case of being in school bands, after which I was in a functions band for about three years which was great training, playing everything from Irving Berlin to the Birdie Song but we eventually ran out of work so I spent about a year on the dole making demos. I hawked them around all the record companies and just got nowhere. I’ve still got all my rejection slips. As almost a last resort I advertised for management in Melody Maker and I got a call from a fella calling himself Mickey Modern who took me from there to getting a record deal and off I went.

How long until the first single came out?

Not that long, I don’t think. I think it was the beginning of 83 I signed the deal, we were making the album in the summer of that year and I think ‘I Won’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” came out in September.

It wasn’t an immediate hit was it? It came and went until the beginning of 84 when the rollercoaster really started with ‘Wouldn’t It Be Good’

Yes. They reissued it in the Summer of 84. In those days there was a different deal really because record companies invested in artists and they built careers. So when we first released it and it only got to number 47 or whatever that wasn’t deemed to be a failure. It was a step in the right direction.

And you did your first Top of the Pops, how did you deal with that?

That was pretty surreal, ending up on a programme that I had watched religiously every Thursday night since I was about 14 or 15. I don’t remember much about it except for getting stopped by the police for jumping some traffic lights. I was in a little hire car because I didn’t have any money and it was quite interesting trying to explain to the police where I was going. But what everyone says about doing Top of the Pops is that when you watch it on telly you see all these masses of people in the studio but when you get there it’s about the size of my front room and there about ten people milling about. With the cameras nearly chopping their heads off.

So after the reissue of ‘I Won’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me’ got to number two, your second album was released, The Riddle - a multi-platinum album - these must have been amazing times for a young man.

Yes although I wasn’t that young, I was 26. But yes, my feet almost literally didn’t touch the ground for two years. It was incredibly exciting and rewarding - all the good things but it was also terrifying because no-one was really in control of anything. I wasn’t in control of my own image I wasn’t in control of the press it just snowballed, it had a momentum of it own. We released two albums in nine months which was a pretty nuts thing to do. I didn’t

Nik Kershaw has enjoyed huge success as both a performer and song-writer with solo hits with such as Wouldn’t It Be Good and I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me, while penning hits for artists such as Chesney Hawkes, Let Loose and The Hollies. We attempt to solve the riddle...

object to that, I went along with it but it seemed like a crazy thing to do.

Was there a sense that it was never going to end or did you sit down and consider that the timeline might be finite?

You are kind of surrounded by people who make you believe that it’s going to go on forever.

I know all the words to The Riddle and I’ve spent the last 30 years trying to figure out what The Riddle is, can you put me out of my misery?

Yes, as long as you don’t swear at me... Because the second album came so hot on the heels of the first one, I only had two weeks to write it which I did, other than Wide Boy which was an old song. I basically wrote The Riddle in about ten minutes - I usually take ages writing lyrics so I just wanted to get something started and into a position where we could start recording it the following week. So I just wrote a load of rhyming nonsense. When I got into the studio I put the guide vocal down - still all this nonsense - and I had several goes during the course of recording to come back and redo the lyrics but nobody really liked them - we ‘d got so used to the nonsense that anything else sounded wrong.

No, you can’t say that Nik Kershaw. I’ve got it here, look.. “Near a tree by a river” that’s the river there...

That’s actually the sea. I’m on a beach near Weymouth I think.

Right, don’t say anything else...”there’s a hole in the ground” I’m assuming you’re in that hole.. and “the old man of Aran” going “around and around” is the dust on the needle.

Ah, I see.

How many of these did you sell?

I dunno, about 500,000 in this country...

So there are at least 500,000 people who’ve been trying to work this out for 36 years. I’m shattered, The trust is gone.

But is it nonsense though? I might have been channelling something.

I been re-watching Live Aid and you do look a little bit scared...

Not as scared as I felt

I’ve been working on my impressions so I’d like you to close your eyes and listen. Then I’d like to know how this makes you feel: “Here’s a young British artist who’s never had anything but hits. Live Aid, from London, will you welcome Nik Kershaw?!”

Hahaha. I probably didn’t hear that at the time. All I remember is someone behind me pushing me onto the stage. I was just trying not to throw up. It was a fabulous day. I remember flying from Battersea Heliport and landing in a field nearby where people were playing football, bizarrely. Then the limos took everyone to the conference centre, then we walked over to the stadium to meet Charles and Di and we sat in the Royal Box when Status Quo came on. Then I remember thinking ‘I’m going to be on a bit, what’s the protocol about leaving the Royal Box when Charles and Di are here, but fortunately they left quite early so I managed to get away. And then backstage there were three Portakabins that you could use for 20 minutes before going on stage and 20 minutes afterwards. They were the dressing rooms at Live Aid. I remember standing in this quadrangle outside my Portakabin talking to Sting about his first solo album. And I was stood at the side of the stage I hadn’t seen my crew, I didn’t know if my gear was on stage or if any of it was going to work . You’re aware of the fact that underneath the stage are people literally pushing it around because the motors had broken and the whole event was kind of stuck together with gaffer tape. And then I took a deep breath and walked on stage. It was literally like walking off a cliff. And once it was over and done with I could relax. I was sat in the Royal Box watching Queen and everybody who was there knew that that was a special moment.

It’s been eight years since your last album so what’s inspired the new one, Oxymoron?

No one thing, I was just aware of the fact that I better get myself in gear and do some work because I’d been faffing about gigging. I’d go into the studio every day and mess about and not really get much done, but then the germ of two or three tracks came together and I thought okay, I’ve started an album. But it was a long old process. Plenty of songs got written and dumped or broken up for salvage and the 16 tracks on the album are the ones that survived that assault course.

We’ve been playing the single ‘From Cloudy Bay to Malibu’ a lot and while it seems to have a storytelling vibe, I daren’t ask you what it’s about because the trust has gone...

I should say that I’ve never drunk my way around the World in one night, which is what this fella is doing. Most of the songs on the album have something to do with me because that’s the easiest thing to writer about.

Where do you stand with touring in the current environment?

Yes, 2020 has been postponed until 2021 so all the Summer festivals and those gigs have been put back 12 months. Hopefully we’ll get to do them but there’s not a promoter on the planet who’s brave enough to put a tour together.