1980s Kershaw was unemployed for a year after leaving Fusion, but during this time he found manager Mickey Modern after placing an advertisement in the magazine
Melody Maker. Modern secured a
recording contract for Kershaw at
MCA. It became a major hit in Scandinavia, Switzerland and the Netherlands. At the beginning of 1984, Kershaw released his breakthrough song "
Wouldn't It Be Good", In July 1985, Kershaw was among the performers at
Live Aid, held at
Wembley Stadium. He described the experience as "absolutely terrifying". In 1993,
the Hollies had a minor hit with another of Kershaw's songs, "The Woman I Love". During the mid-1990s he also wrote and produced material for the
boy band Let Loose, with two of the tracks ("Seventeen" and "Everybody Say Everybody Do") achieving reasonable success. Following this year, Kershaw appeared on Elton John's 1993
Duets studio album, for which he wrote and produced the song "Old Friend", and played all the instruments on the track. 1999 saw the release of his fifth studio album,
15 Minutes. The album spawned two singles, "
Somebody Loves You" and "What Do You Think of It So Far?", the latter a song described as "an elegant and soaring ode to the transience of time, infused with both self-doubt and an acceptance of life that can only come with maturity".
2000–present The follow-up studio album,
To Be Frank, was released in 2001. Over the years, Kershaw has collaborated on albums with artists such as Elton John,
Bonnie Tyler,
Sia and
Gary Barlow. In 2005, Kershaw released
Then and Now, a collection of earlier material with four new tracks. In 2006, he completed another solo studio album, ''
You've Got to Laugh'', available only through his website or digitally through
iTunes. This album contained twelve tracks and was released on Kershaw's own label, Shorthouse Records. On 13 May 2010, Kershaw appeared on stage and hosted "Our Friends Acoustic" in aid of
Mencap. He performed "The Riddle", "Wouldn't It Be Good", "Dancing Girls" and "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me". Other 1980s performers joined him and performed their own songs, including
Howard Jones,
Andy Bell of
Erasure and
Carol Decker of
T'Pau at
The O2 in London. Kershaw wrote songs and performed for the soundtrack of the 2010 film,
Round Ireland with a Fridge by
Tony Hawks. He wrote and sang the theme song, "If It Gets Much Better Than This". He also appeared as an extra in the penultimate scene, presenting a copy of the book to Hawks for signing in the book shop. Following the release of his eighth studio album in 2012 (
Ei8ht, his first release to reach the UK Albums Chart since 1986), Kershaw undertook a small tour of the UK, with some European dates. As part of each show he played the entirety of his debut studio album, which had been re-mastered and re-released in March 2012. In 2012, Kershaw was featured as the lead vocalist on a new recording of "The Lamia", originally recorded by
Genesis for their studio album
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974), with
Steve Hackett for the latter's
Genesis Revisited II studio album. He is also featured as a guest performer on the same song on Hackett's
Genesis Revisited: Live at Hammersmith CD and DVD, released November 2013. Kershaw performed a solo acoustic set at
Fairport's Cropredy Convention in August 2013. He was on tour in the UK and Ireland in Autumn 2014. He continues to perform at 1980s revival events and festivals each year. In the latter part of 2015 he performed a 31-date tour of the UK, on a double bill with
Go West, supported by Carol Decker of T'Pau. On 11 November 2016, Kershaw performed in
Reykjavík, Iceland, together with the pop rock band
Todmobile. He joined them after a short set of eight songs and played guitar on three Todmobile songs. In June 2020, Kershaw released an
extended play (EP) of six new songs,
These Little Things.
Oxymoron is Kershaw's most recent full studio album, which was released in October 2020. It features 16 songs, which were recorded at
Abbey Road Studios. In 2024, Kershaw went on a co-headlining tour with
Go West in Australia and New Zealand. In late 2024, Kershaw embarked on a 40th Anniversary Tour, titled 'The 1984 Tour'. Kershaw performed both iconic platinum albums
Human Racing &
The Riddle in their entirety. == Personal life ==