The Hitman Bites Back

Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Rick Astley, Bananarama, Mel & Kim, Pepsi & Shirley, Five Star, Sonia, Sinitta... For many of us who lived through it, these acts represent the true horrors of 1980's UK pop chart-dom.

But for Pete Waterman, it was as he is only too keen to tell you his finest hour. A key part of the Stock, Aitken, Waterman production and writing team which dominated the UK pop charts for the best part of a decade, he has produced an impressive 200 hits in his time. Like all good showbiz stories it ended in tears or, in his case, in the courts. After seven years of legal wrangling the SAW partnership was finally dissolved in November 1999. Waterman has now laid it all bare, or at least given his side of the story, in his new autobiography I Wish I Was Me.
"It was an easy decision to write the book," he says "They were about to pull down the old studio, the PWL hit factory, because the lease had run out and the Stock, Aitken, Waterman court case had finally been resolved. I knew that life would never be the same again. It was the end of an era and I thought this is the time to do it ."
Though he continues to be a successful producer, it's clear from reading the book that he regards the 1980's as his golden era.
"People saw us as a threat to rock and roll," he sniffs. "We were never a fucking threat to rock and roll. It was a threat to itself. Pop Will Eat Itself bollox. Everyone jumped on the bandwagon and journalists lapped it up. All these rock stars turning their noses up at what we were doing. And what do they do? They go off and make videos and put singles out exactly what we were doing."
Apart from the above mentioned acts, he is also keen to point out that he's worked with more "credible" artists like Paul McCartney (on the Hillsborough Disaster charity record 'Ferry Cross The Mersey'), The Specials, Cliff Richard and even (gulp!) Judas Priest.
Waterman started in the business in the late sixties as a Club DJ working in the Mecca ballrooms of the North of England, including the legendary Wigan Casino, home of Northern Soul. A pop, rather than a rock fan he developed a love of American dance music: Stax, Motown, and The Sound of Philadelphia which dominated the early seventies.
"I worked with Pink Floyd when they were touring the universities and I'd play 'Backstabbers' by the O'Jays and the students would boo at me, he recalls. "And they called Motown 'Toytown'. 'Why are you playing toytown music?' they'd shout.
I hate snobbery in music. If you're really interested in music, then listen to it, don't look at it. I've seen too many people diss music because of the label, or the perception. I can listen to something and I hope I'll listen to it before I condemn it. I won't put it down because it's an eleven-year-old kid or whatever."
His move into the other side of the industry came when he was asked to promote Pete Shelley's sugary hit 'Gee Baby' and the equally saccharine-drenched follow up 'Love Me Love My Dog'.
"My best mate had taken a job in a record company called Magnet and he was working on these awful records. I'm suddenly helping him out. Compared with some of the other stuff they had Pete Shelley was seriously arty. I wasn't snobbish about it, though, and I thought those records worked for what they were."
His first success in his own right came three months later when he licensed Susan Cadogan's 'Hurts So Good' from Jamaican studio legend Lee Scratch Perry. "It was a serious roots reggae record, not a pop record," he says. "People couldn't believe I'd got that on the radio. I suddenly found myself in the Beatles studio where we re-mixed the original tape which was two-track mono, with John Lennon sitting around making positive comments about it. It cost me $80 and a bag of ganga, that record."
In the years before the SAW dynasty took hold, Waterman worked on records as diverse as Musical Youth's 'Pass The Dutchie', and The Belle Stars 'Sign Of The Times' as well as promoting the Grease soundtrack. In 1984 he teamed up with songwriters Mike Stock and Matt Aitken and their first success followed almost immediately. 'Say I'm Your Number One' by session singer Princess hit number 7 in the charts in 1985 and the rest is pop history, all detailed in the book. Along the way, Waterman has also indulged his passion for railways and presented the ludicrously successful TV nightclub show The Hit Man & Her which partnered him with Michaela Strachan. At 53, Waterman is still working successfully today producing hits for Steps, Westlife and, more recently, Samantha Mumba.
"I m totally content with my lot," he says. "I wake up every morning and think to myself 'fantastic, I've gotten away with this for a little bit longer'. Unfortunately, some of the artists I've worked with wake up in the morning and somebody tells them how wonderful they are and how delightful it is that they've bothered to get up this morning. That's the difference between me and them."

I Wish I Was Me is published by Virgin Books