By Mark Winters
link to the original source
**Click to view FAB mag cover featuring NIK**

Nik Kershaw

Here is the story of probably the 20th Century's greatest Artiste/writers, so you will have to indulge me at the length of the article, because to abridge his life anymore than it has been, would be a criminal offence !

Nik Kershaw

So here goes. If success in music is measured in hits, international fame and walls of platinum discs, then Nik Kershaw's career is one most popstars would be envious of. Both as an artiste (selling in excess of 8 million albums world wide) and a songwriter (penning everything from boy band pop to leftfield loops), Nik Kershaw has racked up an impressive two decades of prodigious hits. But it's his ability to write melodies so memorable, they remain on the tip of tongues nearly twenty years after their release, that most chart stars would give every platinum disc they own to have. Above all else, Nik Kershaw is, and always has been, a gifted songwriter.

Following the No.4 success of single Wouldn't It Be Good in January 1984, the Bristol born, Ipswich raised singer/guitarist- who'd spent three years languishing behind the counter of Ipswich Unemployment Office after leaving school early to become a musician- established himself as a major player in pop with a succession of high gloss, high intellect hit anthems. I Won't Let The Sun Go Down On Me (No.2 June 1984) and The Riddle (No.3 November 1984) joined Wouldn't It Be Good as Top 5 singles; Dancing Girls, Human Racing, Wide Boy, Don Quixote and When A Heart Beats filled Top 20 slots between 1984 and 1986, while Nobody Knows and Radio Musicola brought his tally of chart entries to ten in just two years.

Single success also made international multi-platinum albums of Human Racing and The Riddle, both released in 1984, and 1986's Radio Musicola. With 1989's The Works, Nik Kershaw's album sales topped 8 million; a lucrative end to a decade whose highlights included several triumphant world tours taking in Canada and Australia, a stadium support tour with childhood hero Elton John and a memorable performance at Live Aid.

The start of the 90s led to a period of stock taking for Nik.. The realisation of teenage dreams had brought unexpected pressures that he felt ill-equipped to deal with. "I thought I'd love to be a popstar. I thought there would be a feeling of having made it. But there's not. There's insecurity, and the constant thought of 'God, I've got to stay here'. And being a celebrity is a talent. I never had it." Having established his ability to write hits, the solution to this crisis of confidence seemed obvious. "I was just about to have my second kid and I had this weird idea about how easy it would be to just sit at home and write songs. I thought, 'Yeah, that's what I'll do, I'll just chuck it all in, stay at home, be a dad and write songs."

Mirroring his career as an artiste, Nik's behind-the-scenes endeavours spawned a string of huge and diverse hits. As well as writing tunes for the legendary likes of Lulu, Cliff Richard and Elton John, 90s chart regulars Let Loose, Conner Reeves and Boyzone also profited from his creative talents, as did experimental diva Imogen Heap. But it was at the height of Stock, Aitken and Waterman's powers in 1991 that he pulled off his biggest coup, providing 'one hit wonder' Chesney Hawkes with his one hit, the No.1 blast of bubblegum rock, The One And Only.

After a seven year hiatus from recording, and having grown frustrated with delivering generic pop to order, his attention turned to songs with a more personal perspective. "I had all these ideas in my head that no one on this planet was going to sing. I thought 'The only person who's going to sing these is me'. And songs don't go away with me, they just sit there and eat me up from the inside unless I record them. So I did." More by accident than design, the twelve songs in question, recorded at his home studio near Cambridge, eventually became Nik's fifth album, 1999's 15 Minutes.

"15 minutes was done in a total vacuum. There were a few times when I was recording it and I thought 'What am I doing? Why am I bothering? Who's ever going to hear this?' I didn't have management or a record company, I just did it all off my own bat- and I sat on it for nine months. Then my old manager found out about it, and asked 'What are you gonna do with this?' I replied 'I don't know' and he said 'You're nuts, let's go and get a deal'."

Reinvigorated by the critical acclaim 15 Minutes received, the extensive radio play of its singles Somebody Loves You and What Do You Think Of It So Far? and record company demands for more of the same, work began in 2000 on 15 Minutes' follow-up, To Be Frank. 'I think this album's got more of a sense of humour to it. There's always been a sense of humour, it's just sometimes not that easy to get it across. I've got a real deadpan voice, which has been quite misunderstood over the years- I can end up sounding really pompous and like I'm taking myself much too seriously, but I think on this album there are moments when most people realise that I'm actually just having a laugh."

Like 15 Minutes, but with slicker production ("I knew this one was gonna get released") To Be Frank is, at its most simplistic the sound of a grown-up pop writer writing grown-up pop. From the horn toting Latino shuffle of Wounded to the ghoulish intro hum of Get Up, via the acoustic lament How Sad, the melodies are as contagious as ever, but unlike lyrics from the height of his be-quiffed 80s fame, the meaning behind songs is far less complex.

"I was always afraid of getting found out. With all the attention I was getting I was thinking 'If I actually start writing about myself, people are going to figure out that I'm just a bloke. I've got nothing special to say. I'm not what they perceive me to be'. So I always wrote about third party things. I was writing about things that I had very little knowledge of. I used to look in Encyclopaedia Britannica for things to write about, and that's not right. A lot of things that I do now are because it's natural and it's easy and I've always been really suspicious of that, I always figured that it had to be hard work to be any good, which isn't true."

The album's title is itself a reference to Nik getting to grips with who he is. "There's a song on there called Die Laughing which is basically about my alter ego, Frank. Frank's the part of me that can't be bothered. He's the bloke over me shoulder who goes 'Why do you want to do that? Stay at home and watch the television.. Frank's the part of me that needs to be motivated. He's the miserable git who doesn't want to dance at parties and avoids having a good time like the plague. He's present in most of us, and it's weird, giving him a name hasn't exorcised him, but now I can laugh and shout at him; 'Frank, get off your butt'.

Free from the fear of being found out, and having done more than his share for the charts, Nik Kershaw's only real concern now is pleasing and being himself; a singer-songwriter in the classic sense of the word. "People use singer-songwriter as a criticism sometimes, but that's what I do. I write songs and I sing them, so that'll do me. But that's the great thing about getting older, you worry less and less about what people think of you." This new found easygoing disposition has had a profound effect on Nik's music, giving To Be Frank an unforced potency and sense of vitality. "I'm much happier now. This time round I have a life. I'm not the prisoner in my own home that I was in the 80s. The things I'm doing now will probably be known by a lot less people, but hopefully they'll be equally loved."

Nik's new album , 'To Be Frank' was released on April 23rd, preceded by the single 'Wounded', released April 9th

For further information contact Dave Clarke at Eagle Records dave@eagle-rock.com or tel: 0208 870 5670