Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Shakin' Stevens! (Huh?)

We learn this morning, with howls of incredulity ringing out across the nation, that the grandparents' favourite rocker Shakin' Stevens has been added to the list of people performing at Glastonbury. The same Glastonbury that was having trouble selling tickets for the first time in its history after putting a hip hop star at the top of the bill. (The media protests racism against anyone who doesn't support that.)

Well, the Eavis clan and whoever helps them with the bill do like to be ironic and "whacky" at times. They have that in common with the youth who are supposed to be their principle audience. You embrace something fantastically uncool, if I understand how it works, to prove in some sort of reverse way that you know what is cool.

But let me tell you something you won't believe. In his day, before all the commercial success, before the denim jacket and the white shoes and the spray-painted hair, before Bonnie Tyler, Shakin' Stevens actually was pretty cool. In the glory days of the rock 'n' roll revival in the early- to mid-seventies, Stevens had a band called the Sunsets and they were one of the most admired acts on the club circuit. The album I had of theirs back then was really bloody good.

Imagine how surprised everybody was when he sold his taste and credibility for a few appearances on the now-defunct "Top of the Pops". Didn't happen to Freddie "Fingers" Lee or Crazy Cavan & The Rhythm Rockers, both equally stellar acts in the rock 'n' roll world of the time.

Of course, things might have been different if the record companies had had the good sense to offer Freddie or Cavan Grogan (I think his name was), the chance to sell out. Imagine Freddie being introduced by Kid Jensen on "Top of the Pops" and then setting his hat on fire or dropping his false eye into a glass of water the way he did that night I saw him in the Railway Club in Wellingborough two hundred and three lifetimes ago.

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