Famous Like Me > Composer > K > Nik Kershaw
Profile of Nik Kershaw
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Name: |
Nik Kershaw |
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Date of Birth: |
1st March 1958 |
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Place of Birth: |
Bristol, England, UK |
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Profession: |
Composer |
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From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia Nik Kershaw is a UK singer-songwriter, popular during the 1980s.
History
Born Nicholas David Kershaw in Bristol, England on March 1, 1958, (although bought up in Ipswich) Nik played guitar and sang in a number of underground bands before deciding on a career as a songwriter. However, he ended up performing his own songs rather than giving them to others, and signed a deal with MCA Records in 1983, which spawned a debut single, I Won't Let The Sun Go Down On Me, which just missed out on the UK Top 40. At the beginning of 1984, however, he made his breakthrough when Wouldn't It Be Good, featuring a video of Kershaw as a chromakey-suited alien, reached Number 4 in the UK charts. He enjoyed three more Top 20 hits from debut album Human Racing, including the title track and a successful re-issue of his debut single, which ultimately proved his biggest hit as a performer when it got to Number 2 in the UK.
Despite winning awards, attracting admirers for his writing such as Elton John and gaining a huge teenage fanbase, Kershaw was not without his critics. Some complained that he did too much onstage when he had a competent backing band called the Krew to play all the required guitar and keyboard parts of his songs. Others derided his fashion sense (Kershaw made the snood and fingerless gloves into vital sartorial requirements in 1984) and some claimed he was, vocally, trying to sound like Stevie Wonder. Others did not bother with reasoned argument; they just got personal - Malcolm McLaren labelled Kershaw a 'wimp'.
Kershaw, who was married to long time love and backing singer Sheri, then released a single called The Riddle which would send fans, journalists and linguists into overdrive, as each tried to establish what the meaning was behind the strange set of circumstances and clues which Kershaw put in the verses and chorus. It was a huge hit and titled his second album, which also spawned two more UK Top 10 hits, Wide Boy and Don Quixote.
Kershaw's star began to wane at the end of 1985 and he only enjoyed one more UK Top 40 hit. He continued to make and release records, and perform on other people's. His prowess as a songwriter served him well in 1991 when his song The One And Only, appeared on the soundtrack to the movie Buddy's Song and provided a massive UK Number 1 single for Chesney Hawkes, star of the film alongside Roger Daltrey, and son of the Tremeloes' Chip Hawkes.
The recent onset for 1980s nostalgia brought Kershaw back into the public domain to discuss the heights of his career and it was at this point that he revealed that The Riddle meant, in fact, nothing. He just threw a collection of random lines together in haste after persuasion from others in the recording studio, having initially just intended to arrange and record the piece as an instrumental. He added that he could not say anything at the time because he was receiving thousands of essays and theses on the song, establishing what The Riddle meant and stood for, and what the answer was, and he did not want to disappoint people.
Discography
- 1984 Human Racing
- 1984 The Riddle
- 1986 Radio Musicola
- 1989 The Works
- 1991 The Collection
- 1991 Wouldn't It Be Good
- 1993 The Best of Nik Kershaw
- 1999 15 Minutes
- 2001 To Be Frank
- 2005 Then and Now
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