That’s the overriding question that nags at the listener throughout Re-Set, a seriously good album that is just a whisker away from brilliant. He finds his instrumental hooks in the blank canvas wisdom of late-stage Bryan Adams but moulds them well. That doesn't mean we won't cover your old favourites - rather we hope to give you some new favourites as well. There are songs about the plight of his ancestors, the uncle he never knew, and his own mother, who had a very difficult life, but nevertheless raised 13 children almost singlehandedly, while also holding down a job. And the fact that the cover shows him standing, windswept and scarf-wrapped in a disused slate quarry like he’s a lost post-Paul McGann Doctor Who regeneration does nothing to dispel this new-beginning notion.

Shakin’ Stevens: Re-Set. Album Review. | Liverpool Sound and Shakin’ Stevens: Re-Set. Album Review. | Liverpool Sound and

Re-Set’ will be another exciting chapter in that story, and Stevens can’t wait to share it with loyal fans and new admirers alike. The last time I toured we had people from Brazil who hired a car and went from city to city to watch me.

Firstly, the lyrical concerns are rather more weighty than the classic Stevens songbook themes of boy meets girl/ boy tries to gatecrash next door’s party/ boy conducts disappointing structural survey. But best not to waste too much time trying to get our putative zoomer up to speed, as Re-Set, Shaky’s third album this millennium, is as different from most of his career as the name suggests. Born Michael Barratt, the youngest of 13 siblings, Shaky bootlegged his stage name from an old schoolfriend’s nickname and, after leaving school, worked as a milkman and an upholsterer whilst trying to break through with his rock ’n’ roll band Shakin’ Stevens and the Sunsets. It may start as need, but quickly intensifies and translates into greed with no thought about the effect on others” says Shaky. A decade later, another unlikely fan emerged in the orange-haired form of anarchic Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten.

Shakin’ Stevens – Re-Set | Album Reviews | musicOMH Shakin’ Stevens – Re-Set | Album Reviews | musicOMH

His solo career then exploded in 1981 with This Ole House, swiftly followed by his other chart-toppers Green Door, Oh Julie and his number one album Shaky. Despite a support slot with The Rolling Stones in 1969 and a 1970 record contract with Parlophone Records, mainstream British recognition eluded him until Elvis Presley’s death in 1977, when pop impresario Jack Good – who managed Cliff Richard, Tommy Steele and Marty Wilde – spotted Shaky at a Sunsets gig and invited him to audition for one of the title roles in the hastily devised West End musical Elvis!musical at The Astoria, I used to walk across the back of all the seats during the show, and when I was touring with the Sunsets, we all used to go crazy. Following its world premiere on BBC Radio 2, Shakin’ Stevens releases his new single, the rootsy rocker, ‘All You Need Is Greed’.