Nik Kershaw - revisiting an old favourite

[Dexter Inferno]

I remember getting The Riddle on cassette when that came out. He was everywhere at that time.
Only recently have I discovered how brilliant his stuff was, but I had no way of knowing back then.

He had a way with chords and turnarounds that was lifted from what Tony Banks was doing in the 70's with Genesis, only with 80's synths - and he was a monster on the guitar as welll. But all of it was done in an 80's pop format. There are videos about on how insane the chord sequence on The Riddle song is. Then there are songs iike "Wouldn't It Be Good". The whole melody starts off at a minor 7th, and never really hits the root note at any time. And then that chorus.....
And then...Don Quixote has probably one of the coolest bass riffs ever. And most of his stuff is impossible to play by ear without rehearsing it. Seriously.

In the 90s he goes on to write songs for pretty much everyone but "The One And Only" is a classic. Classic Kershaw, only sung by Chesney Hawkes (yeah, who?)

And then....a few years ago he did The Lamia with Steve Hackett (both live and in the studio) for the Genesis Revisited 2 project.







And a couple of years ago he did this....which is a fantastic "fuck you" to the armchair "politicians"....and the modulation is just spectacular...

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And lastly him doing the vocals for The Lamia from The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway - with Steve's Hackett and Rothery:

 

[jbj]

I've crossed paths with Chesney Hawkes twice.

The first I got kicked out of a student nightclub for stage invading when he performed The One And Only. Absolute banger of a tune btw.

Second time was the same club and a mate and I had a right good drinking sesh with him and his brother after the set. Shots may have. Eem consumed off of female cleavages that evening.

 

[Dexter Inferno]

I've crossed paths with Chesney Hawkes twice.

The first I got kicked out of a student nightclub for stage invading when he performed The One And Only. Absolute banger of a tune btw.

Second time was the same club and a mate and I had a right good drinking sesh with him and his brother after the set. Shots may have. Eem consumed off of female cleavages that evening.

Just happened across a video the other day of Chesney and Nik playing together, and it dawned on my that Chesney is actually really talented. When that song went big in the 90s pretty much everyone thought he was just another pretty boy. And for quite a long time I had no idea Nik actually wrote that song (nevermind playing on it).

Btw, there's a great video on YT about The Riddle. The chord stuff Nik does on that one is absolutely bizarre, and shouldn't work, yet it somehow works. It's basically prog rock but in 80's pop form. And a lot of people tend to forget what an amazing guitar player he is.