Stock! Aitken! And Waterman! Gods? Good God!

"Happenin' All Over Again" is indeed a marvel. Along with Technotronic's equally thunderous "Get Up (Before The Night Is Over)", one of the records that turned me onto pop.

did they really save the uk singles market ?

Anita Baker on This Mortal Coil - YES! this type of thing should happen more but doesn't due to the Marketing's power to keep things where they *should* be, and give people what they *want and expect*. But you know this.

Great suggestion re: Anita Baker...

Oh, and unsurprisingly they are classic. Plus they are cash cows. And probably evil whores. That makes them awesome as hell.

The fact that they were so proud (Kate would no doubt say "shameless" or some deeper insult) of being a production line is precisely what I like about them.

I just don't *like* the sound, the songs, or the artists that Waterman produced. That's all.

And my *attitude* (though not necessarily my taste) is far more the 60s liberal thing, which is why "F.L.M." makes me feel the same way that Eve's "Gangsta Bitches" does; thinking it is brilliant *and* hating it. Momus knows that feeling ...

Their best stuff, though - Mel & Kim, prime Bananarama - there's nothing like it. Like a lot the best pop, you don't really grip what made it so different and essential until it's out of the charts.

What?? But this is what drives *all* commercial pop producers & writers. SAW are more high profile because they had a generic sound, but there are hundreds of others who may change styles to suit whatever's popular at the time, but whose *absolute guiding principle* is commercial success.

Well either you're right and he simply wanted to snare as many down- market buyers as he could, or he genuinely thinks *all* his hits are wonderful, according to his own artistic criteria.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17431482

my worst nightmare 25 years ago!

Any of you saddos going?

Steps, Jason Donovan, Sinitta and Sonia are among a host of Stock Aitken Waterman acts that will perform at a special reunion concert this summer.

The gig will bring together nearly all the artists who found fame on the PWL record label to mark its 25th anniversary.

Rick Astley, Bananarama, Pepsi and Shirlie and Brother Beyond will also feature on the line-up.

The concert will take place in London's Hyde Park on 11 July.

Fans can also expect appearances from Dead or Alive, Princess, Hazell Dean, Sybil, Lonnie Gordon and 2 Unlimited, while the concert will be headlined by Steps.

Organisers said the gig would be a "celebration of the hit single" as the performing acts have between them sold 250 million singles.

They also said a "very special duet" which was last performed 23 years ago would form part of the show.

Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue's hit Especially For You was a hit for the pair at the end of the 1980s.

More acts set to join the bill will be announced shortly, while some proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to Cancer Research UK.

Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman are considered one of the most successful songwriting and producing partnerships of all time, scoring more than 100 UK top 40 hits during the 1980s and 1990s.

Waterman said: "I've been saying no for years to a Hit Factory concert but now, 25 years on, the timing feels right."

no sputnik, no credibility

No Mandy Smith or Reynolds Girls either. Nor Kim Appleby, for that matter.

(nb: I purposely never look at the top of old threads I started because I'll just cringe and head-desk at whatever I wrote back in the day!)

Wot no Kakko

but in this case you did, didn't you marcello?

mr carlin.
wonderful to have you back ..
hope you're back on road to your usual self.
and this thread starter was pure class - and you know it.

Honest to God, I didn't look it up - it was eleven years ago! - but given the subsequent prompting I've now done so. Oh dear. Totally wrong about post-SAW Kylie and partially wrong about Ultravox (although I meant "speakably naff" as a compliment!). It's true that "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" hadn't come out yet when I wrote my original post, but even so I ought to have known better.

Thanks, Mark, btw; well and truly back to normal(ity).

I think so many people were wrong about the SAW. At the time, you either were into it as being 'a new Tamla Motown', or you carried on with yr bright new indie.

Now both are considered landfill, SAW because they never had their "What's Going On" revelation and were quite happy to die on the vine, as long as they got to keep their money.

They also said a "very special duet" which was last performed 23 years ago would form part of the show.

IT'S THE 1418 reunion!

(only Marcello knows,./...._)

He came dancing across pete waterman, with his galleons and guns, what a killeeeeerrrrrr

I don't think I was at all wrong about SAW. They would probably have balked at the thought of doing their own What's Going On?.

"Either/or" is not part of my critical vocabulary.

ah, the 'you' in that sentence was more a general "a person was expected to be" as opposed to you, personally.

I do think the grand statement was made that people would lookback on it as a golden age of pop, whereas people more or less see it as 'lol 80's fashion'.

There's a bunch of it that's OK, a bunch that was pretty bad, and most of the music subscribed to Malcolm McLaren's 'blueprint' of max the treble and shrink the bass so it sounds good on the radio.

To my ears, nothing sounds as dated as keyboard based pop music from the last 3 years of the 80s. Stock/Aitken/Waterman's productions sound considerably less dated than most of the rest though, so I guess they had something.

I really rather prefer Stock, Hausen & Walkman, thank you very much.