He grew up in Ely, Cardiff, and as a teenager, in the mid-1960s he formed his first amateur rock and roll band with school friends and became its vocalist and frontman.

Originally named the Olympics, then the Cossacks, the short-lived band finally renamed as the Denims and performed gigs in the local Cardiff and South Wales area.

At the time the YCL was associated with several leading music industry figures, including Pete Townshend.

[5] In the late 1960s, his official occupation was a milkman, and he lived in a flat which formed part of an office block in inner-city Cardiff.

Having previously followed them as a fan and then as an occasional guest vocalist, Barratt joined the existing Penarth-based the Backbeats – originally formed in 1958 – as lead singer.

[7] He was spotted by South Wales impresario Paul "Legs" Barrett, who proposed repackaging the band as a 1950s-influenced rock 'n' roll outfit under a new name.

Fronting the newly named Shakin' Stevens and the Sunsets, an early break for the band presented itself when they were given a support slot for the Rolling Stones in December 1969.

Despite landing a recording contract with Parlophone Records the following year and releasing a Dave Edmunds-produced album, the optimistically and prematurely titled A Legend, the group found success hard to come by, at least in their native Great Britain, though they had several hit singles in other countries and released three albums on the Dutch Pink Elephant label.

[8] The Sunsets continue to perform, and still tour annually in the UK, Europe and Australia, fronted in recent years by Stevens' nephew, Levi Barratt.

[10] The rest of the Sunsets waited in South Wales, doing occasional performances with drummer Robert 'Rockin Louis' Llewellyn taking the frontman duties, but fully expecting Stevens to return to the band and recommence touring after the show's planned short six-month run.

Shaky featured the hits "Green Door" (#1), "You Drive Me Crazy" (#2) and "It's Raining" (#10), and the latter "Oh Julie" (#1), "Shirley" (#6), "I'll Be Satisfied" (#10) and the title track (#11).

It was followed by The Bop Won't Stop (1983, #21), which featured the hits "A Rockin' Good Way" (#5, with Bonnie Tyler), "I Cry Just A Little Bit" (#3), "It's Late" (#11) and "A Love Worth Waiting For" (#2).

In November 1984, Stevens released his first Greatest Hits album, featuring three new singles: "A Letter To You" (#10), "Teardrops" (#5) and "Breaking Up My Heart (#14).

Its original planned release was put back by a year to avoid clashing with the runaway success of Band Aid's charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?

[15] In a Record Collector magazine feature, writer Kris Griffiths wrote: "This was Shaky at the very zenith of his powers and, perhaps, the breaking-point of marketing overload from which there is only decline.

The slogan "refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach" was confirmed in the advert as he stops shakin' after consuming the product.

After the release of 1991's Merry Christmas Everyone album and the single "Radio" (#37) in 1992 (produced by Rod Argent and featuring Roger Taylor from Queen on drums), Stevens took a lengthy break from recording and was stung by a court ruling relating to unpaid royalties from the Legend album, which had been re-released to some commercial success, requiring a substantial payout to former band members of the Sunsets.

In 2005, Stevens returned to the charts in the United Kingdom with his greatest hits album The Collection, which reached the top 5.

In 2010, Stevens was rushed to hospital after collapsing at his home in Windsor, reportedly from exhaustion brought on by the stress of working on a new album.

[citation needed] In 2016, Stevens released his 12th studio album, Echoes of Our Times, and in 2017 proceeded on a tour of the UK.

Including hits like "This Ole House", "You Drive Me Crazy" and "Cry Just A Little Bit" and songs from his Now Listen and Echoes of Our Times albums.

After their divorce, Stevens later began a relationship with his manager Sue Davies, and he credits her with saving his life when he suffered a heart attack in July 2010.