Nik Kershaw – The Assembly Rooms, Tamworth – Thursday 2nd October

Nik Kershaw’s career has been a bit of a roller coaster. Peaking early with his 1984 platinum debut album, Human Racing, he was catapulted to fame by the ubiquitous single Wouldn’t It Be Good, only to all but disappear again once MCA lost interest. The initial image makeover, resulting in big hair, chunky knits and snoods, made Kershaw a Smash Hits pinup, perhaps at the cost of losing the subtlety and skill of his songwriting and musicianship amongst the noise of teenage screams.

15 Minutes of Fame

In 1984, Kershaw was the UK’s biggest selling solo artist with the album peaking at number 5. By 1999, 15 Minutes reached number 194. Kershaw’s singles suffered a similar fate. From the number 2 height of 1984’s I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me to 2001’s Wounded at number 100.

Kershaw’s songwriting is clearly not the issue. Collaborations with Elton John, Kim Wilde, Tony Banks, Steve Hackett, Bonnie Tyler, Sia, Gary Barlow, The Hollies, Jason Donovan, Cliff Richard, Let Loose, Lulu, Ke$ha and Barbara Dickson demonstrate that. What is the reason for the music industry’s inconsistent support of Kershaw’s blend of pop, jazz and fancy syncopation? To echo the title of a track from Radio Musicola, ‘Nobody Knows’.

Musings and Lyrics

Undeterred by the listless tastes of record labels and nine studio albums and countless tours later, Kershaw is on the road again. This time, the tour promises ‘Musings and lyrics’ to accompany the release of a book of the same name. The tour will feature a few acoustic songs, some chat and an audience Q&A, all set in a cosy lounge-style staging.

By the Book

To be fair, the tour is not that different to what Kershaw has done previously when he took to the road with only a guitar, loop pedal and Powerpoint slideshow for company. The difference with this outing is that there’s a book to go along with the songs.

The evening was an eclectic mix of acoustic versions of Nik’s songs and some of the stories behind them. He comes across as a shy, self-effacing artist, quite the opposite of the Wide Boy that he sang about in 1985. The interesting story behind that song was that Kershaw was actually performing it back in the 1970s with his band Fusion. It likely sounded very different then and that reveals one of the hallmarks of this show – Kershaw’s ability to tease out the essential thread of a song and weave it into a completely different fabric. Dancing Girls similarly shifts from an intense, electronic 4 beat rhythm into a slow, pensive waltz. It’s a reflection of his intimate understanding of the craft of his own songwriting, as if nothing is left to chance and every component can be transposed and morphed at will.

Tantalising glimpses

The tour is of course a huge treat for all of the die-hard fans who apparently still have the Smash Hits souvenir posters on their bedroom walls. The huge hair and chunky knits have long gone but what remains is a far more interesting exploration of the essential craft of Kershaw’s songwriting.

This tour, primarily promoting the book, takes Kershaw around a series of rather small venues, pretty much guaranteeing sell out shows. The cosy staging and necessary intimacy of the space created a mesmerising atmosphere at Tamworth’s Assembly Rooms. Kershaw’s supremely skillful guitar-work and mastery of the loop pedal led to the layering of intricate melodies with percussive harmonies. Overall, the evening was long on lyrics and shorter on musings. There was the usual small talk between songs which was characteristically self effacing, offering only tantalising glimpses of the real person behind the songs.

The stories of rejection letters, the journey through bands such as Fusion and the Laughing Carpets and the pivotal role of figures such as Mickey Modern were certainly entertaining. With sixteen-and-a-half songs, make no mistake, this was a full on Kershaw gig with a set list as broad and deep as any previous tour. Many of the songs had received a welcome rearrangement, adapting them to the format of the tour with a genuine sense of craftsmanship.

More questions than answers

The second half featured a frustratingly brief Q&A section where audience members could submit questions during the interval for Kershaw to choose at random. More answers would have resulted in fewer songs, of course. The overall impression is that Kershaw is happier behind a guitar than sharing his life secrets. Luckily, behind a guitar is where he excels.

Up close

For Nik Kershaw fans, this tour is a fabulous opportunity to get up close to an artist who is a woefully underrated pillar of the British music industry. Nitpickers would wish that the musings went a little deeper yet the cornucopia of lyrics more than made up for it. A great evening’s entertainment.

Catch the tour

The tour continues across the UK until the end of November 2025.

https://www.awaywithmedia.com/buy-books/entertainment/nik-kershaw

Nik Kershaw online: Website / Facebook / X

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