Editing Shakin' Stevens (section)

==Early life==
Michael Barratt, who would later adopt the stage name "Shakin' Stevens", was the youngest of 11 children born in [[Cardiff]] to Jack and May Barratt.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/patric-morgan/shakin-stevens_b_11681584.html|title=Shakin Stevens: Echoes of Our Times|work=HuffingtonPost.co.uk|date=2 September 2016 |access-date=19 February 2017}}</ref> His father was a [[First World War]] veteran who by 1948 was working in the [[Construction|building]] trade, having previously worked as a [[Coal mining|coal miner]]. The oldest of his siblings was born in the mid-1920s, and by the time of his birth some of Michael Barratt's oldest siblings had already married and started families of their own. Jack Barratt died in 1972 at the age of 75. May Barratt died in 1984 at the age of 83.

He grew up in [[Ely, Cardiff|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. In the late 1960s, Stevens was associated with the [[Young Communist League (Britain)|Young Communist League]] (YCL), the youth wing of the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]] through playing at YCL events. At the time the YCL was associated with several leading music industry figures, including [[Pete Townshend]]. However, Stevens has stated that this was because the individual in charge of booking the band's gigs was also a member of the organisation.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/sep/14/shakin-stevens-im-like-a-skittle-if-i-get-knocked-down-i-get-back-up-again|title=Shakin' Stevens: 'I'm like a Skittle. If I get knocked down I get back up again'|first=Dave|last=Simpson|date=14 September 2016|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|location=London}}</ref>

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. The office block was demolished several years later.<ref name="shaky">{{cite book|last=Heatley|first=Michael|title=Shaky – The Biography of Shakin' Stevens|publisher=Michael O'Mara Books Ltd|year=2005|isbn=1-84317-177-5|page=240}}</ref>