He studied at St. Francis Assisi School and later he went to John Almond Secondary Modern School and for two years Stevens was sent to board at Blackrock College, set in 56 acres overlooking Dublin Bay and run by the Holy Ghost Fathers.
[2] An old wind-up gramophone for company and a collection of 78s, he developed a passion for Fats Domino and Ray Charles.
To supplement his meager income from music, he worked as a bookie's runner, a leather watch strap maker, and a coal miner.
He even rejected an approach from Brian Epstein (manager of The Beatles)[3] Stevens was the lead vocalist of the Beathovens,[4] a Merseybeat group that appeared regularly at The Cavern Club in Liverpool.
[5] According to one source, the Daily Mirror once described Stevens as "a fat John Lennon [who] writes like a broken-down poet and sings like he chews gravel for breakfast.
'[3] In October 1971, he recorded his two compositions Tears (Behind My Eyes and The Band, produced by Maurice Gibb and Billy Lawrie.