Nick Beggs was 21 when his band Kajagoogoo had a No 1 hit with Too Shy.
It was 1983 and sold three million records. Amazingly, Nick went from dustman to pop pin-up. Here’s how…

Nick Beggs 41

My tutors at art school called me a wally for wanting to become a professional musician but, at 17, I dropped out and got a job as a dustman to get some ready cash.
I then worked with my friends Stuart, Steve and Jez on our first band Art Nouveau.
There was no money in it, so we also played covers in working men’s clubs, in between the strippers, and bingo, to make the whole thing work.

It was the early eighties and we used to go on stage wearing brightly dyed flying suits. Unsurprisingly, we’d been turned down by almost every record company, so we decided that we needed a new frontman.

At the 11th hour, after placing an ad in Melody Maker, we found Chris Hamill, who became Limahl. The moment we met, I could tell he was the one. Within two years, we’d got a record deal and new crazy hairdos. We wanted them to be experimental- to reflect our artistic backgrounds.

We were either loved or hated. One of my favourite moments was meeting Ozzy Osbourne and saying, “You’re one of my biggest influences.” He turned round and said, “Fuck off. I’m not taking responsibility for that shit!”

I’ll always remember being attacked by 2,000 screaming girls after a radio show. It took us an hour to get out with a police escort and the girls actually pushed the sides of our minivan in. I had a bodyguard, but it made me thin: “ How long before someone decides to shoot the blond idiot?”

Very quickly the PR side of the job wore me down. During a six month promotional trip, I realised I hadn’t picked up my instrument once, and I though: “I don’t know why I’m doing this.” Then we had our problems with Limahl. He wanted to discuss song writing royalties and cutting the others out. I felt it was a damaging move-one we’ve never really settled. So the four of us asked him to leave.

As for the band, the boys persuaded me to be lead singer and we carried on until 1986. That was the most difficult year of my life. It was terrible not knowing what to do next.

Luckily it has all worked out fro me. I spent a while as an A&R manager in Japan and studied music back at college which was great. And I’ve never stopped touring. My most amazing moment was in 1999 when I joined John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin onstage. He was one of my greatest heroes as I was growing up.

Getting married to Ann this year has also made me happier than I ever remember being.

Looking back, I can see that I’ve retained the best bit of Kajagoogoo – that’s Steve and Stuart. We all live on the same road in Leighton Buzzard and they’re still my best mates. We’ve just done our first one-off reunion gig for VH-1.

We still get recognised. The question I get asked most of all is how many beads did you have in your hair? The answer is, I never counted. Or - the funniest – didn’t you used to be Nick Beggs?