A LIFE LESS ORDINARY

For a while in the 80s, Nick Beggs’s world was one of police escorts, fans camping outside his house, teen magazine covers, TV appearances and endless celebrity parties and events. He owed much of that to just one song he co-wrote with his pop band Kajagoogoo, Too Shy, which catapulted them to instant stardom.

All that seems a long way from the comparatively nerdy but more ‘respected’ progressive rock sphere he occupies these days.

He’s 57 but looks younger, with long, bleach-blond hair, and has the easy, likeable manner of someone who’s done a lot of press over the years but doesn’t have a PR featuring Beggs and Kim Wilde. He shows me a signed photo of Olivia Newton John, which he acquired when he was 22 after an introduction by his old church-group friend Cliff Richard.