known for country-tinged pop hits such
as It’s A Heartache (1977), began
working with Jim Steinman of Meat Loaf
fame in the 80s, the transition in style
to outright bombast seemed the most
natural thing in the world, and
produced the perennial
karaoke favourites Total
Eclipse Of The Heart
and Holding Out
For A Hero.
From a
different angle,
The Alarm,
fronted by
Mike Peters,
grew from
punk and
new wave, but
brought a rock
anthem sensibility
to such hits as Sixty
Eight Guns (1983),
which brought success in
the US as well as Europe.THE GENERATION TERRORISTS
As the 90s began, one Welsh band
above all proved it was possible to craft
something genuinely new from rock
infl uences. From Blackwood, Caerphilly,Q&A
SHAKIN’
STEVENS
POP^ HERITAGEPOP (^) HERITAG
E
SO MUCH TO
ANSWER FOR
Q
Your latest album, Echoes
Of Our Times deals with your
family history...
“It’s a very personal album. A lot
of people can relate to the album,
I’m absolutely sure of that. It’s had fantastic
reviews, in blues mags, country mags, and
it’s been accepted. It’s good for me because
it’s my move-on album.”
Q
What were the 1980s like?
Was it all a bit mad?
“It was mad, totally mad. I look back
and I think, ‘How did I fi t in?’ But
I guess I did somehow. Having said
that, there were groups like the Stray Cats
and Matchbox. They were heady days. There
were no TV shows, only Saturday morning
kids’ shows and Top Of The Pops, and so I
think the elder audiences could latch onto the
music and reminisce, and they started taking
their children to the shows. I guess that’s how
it evolved.”
Q
In a sense, has it taken a long
time to get over the success?
“[Playing live] I do the hits. But I
don’t do all of them, it would be a
complete hits show and I don’t really
want to do that. This Ole House, for instance,
we do it in a totally different way, we do it in
a bluesy-type way, mid-tempo.”
Q
It’s a gruesome story [about
coming across the body of
a prospector]...
It’s true to life, it’s what happened.
You can hear people actually
listening to the story
whereas when I used
to do it when it
was up-tempo,
they just used
to tap their
feet. It is a
sad story.”
● Echoes
Of Our
Times is
available
via HEC
Early
on the Manics
were derided as faintly
ridiculous, silly poseurs.
Richey Edwards begged to
differ, carving “4REAL”
into his arm
the Manic Street Preachers soaked up
the music of AC/DC, Rush and Hanoi
Rocks. Yet, like Kurt Cobain on the other
side of the Atlantic, the band’s hard
rock infl uences went alongside a love
of punk’s revolutionary spirit –
it’s no coincidence MSP
fi rst came together in
1986, the same
year Channel 4
broadcast a
Ten Years Of
Punk season.
The voracious
reading
of lyricists
Richey
Edwards and
Nicky Wire,
combined
with singer-
guitarist James
Dean Bradfi eld’s
musicianship, to create
a potent brew fuelled by
repeated listening to both Guns N’
Roses’ Appetite For Destruction and
Public Enemy’s It Takes A Nation Of
Millions To Hold Us Back.
It’s diffi cult to remember now, but
early on the Manics were derided as
Cardiff-born Green
Gartside formed the
DIY post-punk band
Scritti Politti in 1977
© Getty Images
QIt’s true to life, it’s what happened.
You can hear people actually
listening to the story
whereas when I used
to do it when it
was up-tempo,
they just used
to tap their
feet. It is a
sad story.”
● Echoes
Of Our
TimesTimesTimes is is
available
via HEC
58
© Getty Images
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