Top 30 Shakin Stevens Quotes

I’m so tired of all that teeny-bop stuff. It was years ago. So twee. I’m not into all that.

The early Shakin’ Stevens and the Sunsets gigs were wild.

Mum was absolutely tremendous, a wonderful woman, one in a million.

I was a 17-year overnight success really. I think I earned it.

People have got a preconceived idea of what I look like, what I perform and what my shows are all about. I can understand that, because all they can refer to is ‘Top Of The Pops.’ But those who come to my shows know better.

All families have lies and secrets, I don’t mind sharing ours.

From country rock to Cajun, classic rock to Latin, and blues to Americana, I’ve had the pleasure of re-discovering the ‘jewels’ from my repertoire that are so well-liked.

In Australia and New Zealand I had big, big success.

There’s nothing wrong with being mad.

To write a song is one thing, to get it to No.1 is another and to have a respected artist cover it is incredible. It’s great to know my songs will be around for a long time.

Life is never a bed of roses, but it’s not all doom and gloom either.

I couldn’t go on an ’80s package show or anything like that. I have a lot more to give. If you go down that road completely I think you’ll stay with a certain type of audience. Again I’m not knocking it. People go for the fun of the hits, it’s what they’ve grown up with.

As for Glastonbury, it’s the biggest festival there is in Britain, and I’m very pleased to be asked to do it.

We had three small bedrooms. There were five boys in the back, top and tail, the girls in the front. Me and Leslie, the two youngest, were in with our parents. I was very happy but when they all got married and moved out Leslie and I thought we were kings.

Brave people such as my Uncle Leonard were willing to put themselves at risk to preserve what they valued in life and young men and women today continue to make those sacrifices for our country.

I’ve met an 18-month-old baby whose dad says the child likes banging his toy hammer on the furniture when my songs are playing and I’ve met grandmothers who’ve bought all my discs.

I’m sure I’m not the only artist to flinch remembering some of the tacky merchandise sold at gigs – flags, pillowcases – which I’d only seen for the first time when they were already on sale in the foyer.

My grandfather, born in 1865, was a copper miner from the age of 10. The air down the mines was poisoned with arsenic, and working conditions were horrific. They only had candles for light, so they worked in a pitch-black environment.

I don’t wear white shoes any more.

Mickey Gee will be remembered for his guitar playing by the public and true fellow musicians.

I’ve jumped off pianos, I stopped climbing up curtains when the screws popped once and I fell to the floor like a Looney Tunes cartoon character, and ended up off for six months because of a broken ankle.

I don’t like to do interviews, to be honest. I hate interviews.

We’ve had Salvationists in the family for more than 150 years.

I did feel a bit of an outsider in the Eighties. But there was a market for me out there. New Romantics were totally different.

I knew about my grandmother’s husband who died in the Albion coal disaster. But I didn’t know a brother died in the same disaster because of the health and safety, which was terrible.

To this day, I don’t know how our mum managed to put enough food on the table.

I came out of the punk era in the late Seventies. There were the Stray Cats, Matchbox and myself. I was able to hang on and it makes you think how I fitted in with your Spandau Ballets and Kraftwerk.

Artists have different stages in their career, from George Michael via Wham! to people like Kylie. A change of perception is what’s needed.

To be honest I was never much of an Elvis fan myself.

Look at Kylie. She’s changed and adapted but still kept her fans. That’s what I want to do.