Shakin Stevens
Rock 'n' Roll Singer
Shakin' Stevens was born Michael Barratt on 4 March 1948 in Ely, Cardiff, one of thirteen children in a working-class family. He began performing rock and roll in the late 1960s, fronting Shakin' Stevens and the Sunsets before launching a solo career that would make him one of the biggest-selling recording artists Britain has ever produced.
Through the 1980s Stevens racked up an extraordinary run of hits, including "This Ole House", "Green Door", "Oh Julie" and the perennial festive favourite "Merry Christmas Everyone", which returns to the UK charts almost every December. He was, for a time, the biggest-selling singles artist in the UK during that decade, outselling contemporaries including Michael Jackson and Madonna in Britain.
Still performing and recording into recent years, including an acclaimed appearance at Glastonbury, Stevens remains one of Cardiff's best-known musical sons and a defining voice of British rock and roll revivalism.