Nicky Stevens (born Helen Maria Thomas in

Carmarthen Carmarthen (, ; , 'Merlin's fort' or possibly 'Sea-town fort') is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community (Wales), community in Wales, lying on the River Towy north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. At the 2021 United Kingdom cen ...

, Wales, 3 December 1949) is a singer, famous as a member of pop group Brotherhood of Man.

Early career

Nicky Stevens began singing at an early age. At the age of four she was singing in a chapel in Carmarthen, and following lessons eventually joined the

Hywel Hywel (), sometimes anglicised as Howel or Howell, is a Welsh masculine given name. It may refer to: Monarchs * Hywel the Great, late fifth- and early sixth-century noble in Brittany, saint and king of Brittany in the Arthurian legend. *Hywel ap R ...

Girls Choir. She also studied classical music as a singer and pianist.This is Dorset, 28 October 2011
/ref> At the age of 16 she held a residency in Swansea's Townsman nightclub. During this period she also took on a job as a telephone operator. This lasted for nine months and is the only job she has ever had outside the entertainment business. She later toured the Continent as a singer, performing in night clubs. Following this she went on to tour South Africa as well as clubs around the UK. She also appeared on stage as a support act for the likes of

Neil Sedaka Neil Sedaka (; born March 13, 1939) is an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Since his music career began in 1957, he has sold millions of records worldwide and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and other artists, collabo ...

Norman Wisdom Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom, (4 February 1915 – 4 October 2010), was an English actor, comedian, musician, and singer, best known for his series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966, in which he portrayed the endearingly inept charact ...

and

Little and Large ''Little and Large'' were a British comedy double act comprising straight man Syd Little (born Cyril John Mead; 19 December 1942) and comic Eddie Large (born Edward Hugh McGinnis; 25 June 1941 – 2 April 2020). Comedy duo They formed their pa ...

in the early 1970s. Stevens worked mainly performing popular songs and found it a struggle at first to adapt her vocals from her classical roots.

Brotherhood of Man

In 1972, while working as a session singer and trying to secure a record deal as a solo artist, Stevens came to the attention of

Tony Hiller Anthony Toby Hiller (30 July 1927 – 26 August 2018) was an English songwriter and record producer. He was best known for writing and/or producing hits for Brotherhood of Man, including " United We Stand" (1970) and " Save Your Kisses for Me" ( ...

, who was looking to recruit new members for his group Brotherhood of Man. Hiller was manager and songwriter for the group, but they had recently disbanded and keen to keep the name alive, which was still in demand for television work, he recruited Stevens alongside

Martin Lee Martin Lee Chu-ming (; born 8 June 1938) is a Hong Kong politician and barrister. He is the founding chairman of the United Democrats of Hong Kong and its successor, the Democratic Party (Hong Kong), Democratic Party, Hong Kong's flagship Pr ...

and Lee Sheriden. In 1973, signed to Deram Records, they released their first single, "Happy Ever After". Later in the year another female singer was added to the group,

Sandra Stevens Sandra Stevens (born 23 November 1944) is an English singer and a member of the pop group Brotherhood of Man. Early career Sandra Stevens first entered into a singing career in the 1960s when she joined the club band, The Track (who then change ...

(no relation) and as a four-piece, Brotherhood of Man went on to enjoy great success around the world. Scoring their first hit in 1974 and first No.1 the year after, the group entered and won the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest with the song " Save Your Kisses for Me". For the next three years, the group regularly hit the chart and scored two more No.1 singles in the UK, " Angelo" and " Figaro". In addition to singing, Stevens is a pianist, and performed the piano accompaniment to an otherwise a cappella recording of " Send in the Clowns" in 1978, which was featured on the band's '' Twenty Greatest'' album. In 1984, while the group was on a two-year break, Stevens joined The Vernons Girls and performed with them at live shows. She also did much recording work at this time on jingles and demos for songwriters. In 1988, Stevens recorded some songs with Dutch singer Albert West. In the early 1990s she also recorded some songs with British rock band Aslan as the lead singer. Stevens continued to perform with Brotherhood of Man in its most famous line-up, taking in UK tours and television appearances throughout Europe. until 20 October 2020 when they retired from touring. In November 2013, Stevens was the subject of a documentary ''Time of Your Life'' on ITV Wales talking about her career and early life growing up in a musical environment in Carmarthen. During the

Coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Stevens performed in a

nursing home A nursing home is a facility for the residential care of older people, senior citizens, or disabled people. Nursing homes may also be referred to as care homes, skilled nursing facilities (SNF), or long-term care facilities. Often, these terms ...

in Ferndown, where she offered

music therapy Music therapy, an allied health profession, "is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music t ...

, ran arts & crafts sessions and spent one-to-one time with individual residents. Upon her departure, residents and staff gathered to perform their own version of "Save Your Kisses for Me", with amended lyrics to thank her for her time there.

Personal life

Nicky Stevens was the second child of Ossie and Blodwen Thomas. Her father had been a musician and was killed in a road accident in 1974. In June 1976 Stevens, who lived in Watford at the time married the group's guitarist, Alan Johnson at the Watford Registry Office. They divorced at the end of the 1980s. In May 1993, she got married again to an American man, fourteen years her junior called Brett. Within a year however, they had separated and then divorced. In the 1990s, Stevens lived in Sturminster Marshall, but as of 2011 lives in Corfe Mullen, both in

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

. Since moving to Dorset, Stevens has begun appearing in Christmas pantomimes including

Cinderella "Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a Folklore, folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. The protagonist is a you ...

at Weymouth Pavilion in 2013 and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves at the Tivoli, Wimborne in 2014.

References

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stevens, Nicky 1951 births Living people Welsh pop singers British women pop singers 20th-century Welsh women singers 20th-century British women singers People from Carmarthen Brotherhood of Man members 21st-century Welsh women singers 21st-century British women singers