By Steve Newton
Yesterday I went searching around in my cherished stash of interview cassettes for something really ancient to digitize before the tape itself got so old it turned to dust.
I came across an interview dated April 10, 1985, with an artist named Nik Kershaw. It was recorded on a cheapo, no-name-brand cassette, so I wasn’t even sure if the damn thing would work, or what it would sound like.
Turns out the audio isn’t bad for something that’s 38 years old. That’s probably because the tape had only been played once, when I transcribed the conversation for print back in April of ’85, and then never heard again–until yesterday.
If you’re an old fart like me you may remember Nik Kershaw. He was big in the mid-’80s, especially in his homeland of England, where he spent 62 weeks on the UK Singles Chart through 1984 and 1985.
One of his top hits was “Wouldn’t It Be Good” (not to be confused with the Beach Boys’ “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”), which he performed at Live Aid–the massive charity concert organized by Bob Geldof and Ultravox‘s Midge Ure–three months after our chat:
When the 27-year-old Kershaw called me up from Toronto he was touring behind his second album, The Riddle, which was also very popular across the pond. I remember enjoying the underlying Celtic vibe of that tune back in the day:
Apparently Kershaw is still around and active on the music scene today. Good on him. Maybe he’ll get a kick out of this crusty conversation.
Have a listen:
To hear more than 500 of my other uncut, one-on-one interviews with musicians since 1982 subscribe to my Patreon page.