Nik Kershaw is in Navan on Saturday 12th July, at the Round O Summerfest, where he will be joined by The Furry Gilberts, The Picnics and Becky Moon.

40 years on from Live Aid appearance Nik Kershaw is in Navan to headline Round O Summer Fest

If you saw posters for the Round O Summer Fest in Navan and thought a Nik Kershaw tribute band was performing - look again. It's the real deal. The singing star of the 1980s is headling this year's annual event, with support from The Furry Gilberts, The Picnics, and Becky Moon.

Kershaw exploded onto the UK pop scene in 1984 as a solo artist. A string of global hit singles – including ‘Wouldn’t it Be Good’, ‘The Riddle’ and his biggest hit, ‘I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’ – helped to propel him to 62 weeks on the UK Singles Chart through 1984 and 1985 – beating every other solo artist, together with performing at Live Aid - the 40th anniversary of which is the day after his Navan concert.

Kershaw was to record two more albums with MCA, 'Radio Musicola' and 'The Works' before leaving the spotlight in 1989 to focus on songwriting and production. He wrote Chesney Hawkes’s ‘The One and Only’ and collaborated with Elton John (including writing and producing one of the songs on the 'Duets' album), Sia, Gary Barlow and Bonnie Tyler, whilst continuing to release his own well-reviewed studio albums, featuring his distinctive voice and highly personal lyrics.

The '90s also saw him working with Cliff Richard, Lulu, Ronan Keating, Jason Donovan, Connah Reeves, Colin Blunstone, Petula Clark, The Hollies, Let Loose and Imogen Heap.

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He returned to making his own records in 1998 with his fifth studio album '15 Minutes' on Eagle Records. This was followed by 'To Be Frank' (2001), 'You’ve Got To Laugh' (2006) and the solo acoustic 'No Frills' (2009). 'Oxymoron' was released in October 2020.

In 2022, Kershaw delighted fans by announcing the digital release of the 'Songs From The Shelf' series. He said: “Between 1989 and 1998, I took a step back to focus on writing and production for other artists. The result was a shelf full of songs. Some written on my own, some with others; some for established artists, some for hopeful idiots; some for major label projects, some just for the hell of it. A few made it out into the world. Most did not.”

Having avoided writing about himself in his 80’s heyday ‘because I wasn’t interesting enough!’, Kershaw says of these tracks that “they’re probably all about me really. Some things are cathartic, but it’s never conscious”, whilst also confessing that, as with many of his songs, “often you only find out what they’re about retrospectively, and through talking to people about them”.

Born Nicholas David Kershaw in March 1958 in Bristol, he grew up in Ipswich where he discovered his love for music. His father was an architect and flautist in the town’s orchestra and his mother trained as an opera singer. He describes himself as a late developer, first picking up a guitar when he was 15, as a result of watching a TV documentary on David Bowie.

Other early influences included such diverse artists as T-Rex, Deep Purple, Simon and Garfunkel and Genesis. Several local bands later and after three years working as a civil servant, he grabbed the opportunity to turn professional, serving his apprenticeship playing guitar in jazz fusion and functions bands.

He signed with MCA Records in 1983 and, in the September of the same year, 'I Won't Let The Sun Go Down' was released, reaching No 47 in the UK charts (achieving a rather more respectable No 2 when re-released the following summer). This was followed in January 1984 by 'Wouldn't It Be Good' which languished gracefully at No 4 in the UK charts for five weeks and was to break Kershaw worldwide.

The seminal 'Human Racing' album was released in March and achieved platinum sales in many territories. He managed to squeeze in two European tours, four more hit singles and another platinum album ('The Riddle') before the end of the year. 1985 saw three hit singles, tours of Europe, Canada, Australia, the States and Japan and his appearance at Live Aid.

Kershaw’s appearance at Live Aid in 1985 solidified his place in music history. Live Aid, the global charity concert organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, was held to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia. Kershaw performed at Wembley Stadium, one of the two main locations for the event, alongside some of the biggest names in music.

During his set, Kershaw played several of his well-known songs in front of an audience of millions worldwide. Though still relatively new to the international stage, his energetic performance was well-received.

However, it wasn't as easy as it might have looked. Nik has opened up with Heart 80s' Simon Beale, revealing that he was "out of his depth" compared to his heroes like David Bowie and Queen.

"I was on about 2.30pm, something like that, so I could relax and enjoy the rest of the day. But, yeah, surrounded by my absolute heroes and completely out of my depth," he said in a 2024 interview with Heart radio.

These days, he regularly plays festivals and performs live to a loyal and fervent fanbase, with his 'Musings and Lyrics' tour of ‘an evening of songs, stories and silliness’ proving popular.