PETE WATERMAN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW IN PARIS.

By Xavier AUFFRET VAN DER KEMP

Monday 6th, my appointment is at 4, I am on the Champs Elysées in time, to reach the hotel where Pete is doing his TV, Press and Radio interviews all day.

I had to wait a while because Pete was finishing an interview for a radio station, and as Pete was in good company with a pretty woman, you will understand that it lasted a little bit longer !

Then it was my turn, starting with the fan joke :

"Do you remember me ?, I met you 3 times at PWL".

Pete : "Yes I remember you !"

Xav : "Really ? You are joking, ain't you ?"

Pete : "No ! I always remember faces."

I was surprised by his answer. Then he directly started to tell me his story about the time he was a DJ in clubs.

He was working hard because he had to play records and watch the people coming from the entrance, guessing the right time to play records in the way to avoid that all the crowd stands at the bar, blocking the new comers to enter into the club...

So he knew exactly when to play the right records to have people on the dance floor. So that's how he learnt to remember faces, in the way to mark the difference between the ones who will come to the dance floor, and the ones who are new to the club, and the others who will stay at the bar...

"It is like the time I was doing the Hitman Roadshow and the Hitman and Her, I had to remember faces, because we were playing live, in front of cameras, so it was important."

Xav : "Why don't you do a new Hitman Roadshow in France, now there is this compilation ?"

Pete replied that it was not the right time to do it, just because of one compilation.

"I do not want to do any other Hitman Roadshow..."

Pete : "When I did it in the UK, I was ahead of my time ! It was unique, nobody did it, it was massive, like the Hitman and Her ! We played live."

"Actually, the Hitman Roadshow did not bring profits, because we did not have sponsors ! Only the last 2 had Coca Cola !"

"I remember I flew to Atlanta to see the Chairman of the Coca Cola company, and when I told him about the Hitman Roadshow, he was really stunned because he could not believe I was doing it, he said I was mad ! Nobody could do it in the States, and he was surprised to see we could bring together so many kids and do such huge events."

"It's like Boy Krazy, I was ahead of my time once again, they were the Spice Girls ahead of our time !"

"When I put the record out in the States, it was the most played song on Radio in America !"

Xav : "Speaking of Boy Krazy and Johnna, do you think you will ever return to the excellent eurodance sound and which was definitely like the real PWL brand image, instead of going into R&B various styles like Kaleef for example ?"

"Because if you look back to your career, you touched many different styles, from the Lambrettas and the Peter Collins time, to the SAW period, and now your R&B actual style..."

Pete : "Yes that's right, I did everything, but there is one thing common to all these styles : Music, and good songs !"

"I want to do more dance stuff than I am doing, but I have not written any song on my own for 5 years !"

"I wrote a new song for Will Mellor, and when people heard it, they could not believe I wrote it, they said it was excellent, they were surprised I could write such good songs !"

"I said well, I did Rick Astley, Kylie and others... Do you remember ?"

Xav : "Don't you think Johnna was badly promoted ? She could have make it all over Europe..."

Pete : "Yes definitely, it was the end of PWL and Warner. Warner really treated her badly, she could have been huge, we got everything to succeed, but Warner did a bad job with promotion and all this."

"And then Johnna left PWL, she had the 'bullocks' to throw everything out and leave the guys ! That girl did what I should have done earlier, she is fabulous !"

Xav : "So you have regrets about the end of PWL ?"

Pete : "Yes, right, I should have end all this earlier. Warner wanted to do albums, and it was going everywhere, we had to stop !"

Xav : "Do you know what Johnna is doing at the moment ?"

Pete : "No idea, this girl is crazy. She disappeared..."

Then I asked him if he still keeps in touch with artists from the SAW days...

Pete replied : "No, with nobody. Except Rick Astley. He was the only one who went to see me to say that he was sorry to have said all he said, cause afterall, he admits that it was a good time, and he is sorry to have been young and all this..."

"He is the most talented person I have ever met, I will work with him again, not for the production, he only wants to do ballads, but maybe for remixing. He does not want to do dance anymore..."

Xav : "What do you think of Hazell Dean new label, have you heard her new songs and productions ?"

Pete : "No, I do not know anything."

Xav : "Will you work again with artists from the SAW period ?"

Pete : "No, past is past."

Xav : "How do you explain that SAW were bigger in some parts of the world like Europe and Asia or Japan, than in others like the States where you just had a few hits ?"

Pete : "Well we had a couple of number 1s there like Rick Astley for example, but I think that it is simply because I did not want them to release something I was not sure it will be massive out there ! I did not give them the deals !"

"They wanted to remix some songs for the US market, which I always refused, they say it will not make it, and it did ! Rick, Bananarama, Boy Krazy and others were huge there !"

Xav : "Do you know Tetsuya Komuro, The Japanese writer and producer ? What do you think of him ?"

Pete : "Dave Ford did many mixes for him in my studios, but I think that what Komuro is doing is ugly ! He just copying things and he takes his job too seriously."

"And he is not taking fun of it, Dave Ford likes to do mixes for Japan because he hears some Ooh La Las in the songs, that's all !"

Xav : "Do you think it is no longer possible to do lots of remixes like the PWL sound did ? Because you are speaking of songs, but Phil Harding, ian Curnow, Dave Ford and Pete Hammond remixed many songs which were a little bit soft, and they turned them into a great PWL sound..."

Pete : "Yes, but it is not possible nowadays, this time is over... it was only a sound... But it was a good time, I remember that Motown always put my remix of 'I Want You Back' by the Jacksons, because they prefer my version to the original !"

Xav : "You also did many remixes for France !"

Pete : "Yes, that's right, I really like French songs, they are great, always ahead of their time !"

Xav : "Do you think it is still possible to do bands like Dead Or Alive or Divine nowadays ?"

Pete : "Yes it is, in a different way."

"In the 80s, we were focussing on THE new sound technology and gay artists."

"Gays helped to built the SAW success, and I am very grateful for that. I used to be a DJ in some gay clubs because I had a friend who had a gay club. And a club is where you can see the reactions of people, and you instantly know if a record is good or not !"

"With Dead Or Alive, we did it, we were even bigger than Frankie Goes To Hollywood. It's like for 12", the sales were not significant, but we did some good new technologic productions which allowed us to sell double 12" quantities !!"

Xav : "SAW almost never appeared with their artists, was it deliberate ?"

Pete : "Yes, we did not want people to see us with artists, we were only the producers, what counts is the artist..."

Xav : "Yeah, even on the SAW record sleeves like Roadblock, there is no photo..."

Pete : "Yes exactly, we did not want to, even for the Hitman Roadshow, we were only in the backstages."

Xav : "Who are W.I.P ? You are part of Work In Progress, aren't you ?"

Pete : "Yes, well actually WIP are my son Paul Waterman and a keyboard guy [Sorry guys, Xav can't remember his name, but you do not know him...]."

"I am on 3 teams at the moment. TTW, - but Karl Twigg and Mark Topham are working in a different way than I do, so I let them doing their own songwritting - WIP, and the Steps production team."

Xav : "You worked on the Steps single ? !!!"

Pete : "Yes, but I didn't want my name to be on it, just to show that I can make a hit without my name on it, and see... We sold more than 200 000 copies in the UK, it is a massive hit everywhere !"

"The next single will be even bigger, it is a cover of..."

Xav : "Last Thing On My Mind, by Bananarama !"

Pete : "Yes right, an album is also planned soon."

Xav : "What do you think of the new UK 3 track rule for cdsingles, and the 20 minutes limit ?"

Pete : "I think it is good because people want good songs, and the best is to do a song, a remix and a bside, that's all..."

Xav : "Yes but what about the remixes and the 12" then ?"

Pete : "Well, the new Steps will be available on 12" as well, even if we just count the cd and cassette for the charts, because in the UK cassettes are still selling a lot !"

Xav : "Ok, but some people are buying singles for the remixes, for example take Motiv8, people are buying a single for the motiv8 remixes... Do you like Motiv8 ? He is really sounding SAW in a way..."

Pete : "Yes, well you are buying the record for Motiv8, not for the song ! Motiv8 is doing songs..."

Xav : "Yes you are right !"

Pete : "So, what about if instead of 5-6 remixes on which you only like 1, we put only 1 good mix ?"

"I remember that one day they brought me 6 remixes of a song, I said well good, but where is the song ???"

"And when you are paying remixers for a record, we take the money from the artist, and remixers are expensive, so the money should go to the artist..."

Xav : "It's surprising to see that you are not only a business man, you really care about the artist and the song !"

"So it will be the end of remixers ?"

Pete : "Well yes, people are tired of mixes, what counts is a good song."

Xav : "Yeah, but what about the people who want remixes and collectible stuff like DJ promos with extra mixes and all this stuff ??"

Pete : "Well you are a very few, like you said it is just for collectors... Steps is a good proof of a good song with only one mix."

Xav : "You like this song don't you ? Is it one of your favorite ?"

Pete : "I enjoyed 'Love In The 1st Degree, what a song !!"

"When I heard the rhythms, I know instantly it was a hit, I said to the guys 'Fab, it will be a hit' !"

"They said what ? Pete there is nothing apart from drums !!!"

"I said, I do not care, keep the drums, it is a hit, I want the drums or I leave everything..."

"That's how we started this song, they came to me to say there were no lyrics at the moment, nothing but drums."

"So we started to think about lyrics. The first lines should be massive for a hit : ...Last night I was dreaming !" (Laughs)

"What a verse ! Then we went on 'I was locked in a prison cell, and so on..."

"This song is not my favorite SAW song, but it is the PERFECT song, everything is perfect, the drums, the lyrics, the video, EVERYTHING !"

"Bananarama were great a that time ! I think everything changes, SAW is past, the time is gone, people want new things, for example I won't play a new Bananarama song to my daughter, they are too old ! It is more fun to dance on a Steps record or on Aqua !"

Xav : "Aqua is very SAW, isn't it ?"

Pete : "Yes ! I was ahead of my time when I did 'I Should Be So Lucky' !"

Xav : "What about the unreleased SAW tracks ?, will you allowed to release some like on the Pride compilation ?"

Pete : "Well, there are only 3 or 4 unreleased songs, that's all, Suzette Charles and the Barrio Boys..."

Xav : "Huh no, 41 unreleased songs without counting some productions like Delage 'I Can't Wait' for example... What about Sinitta 'How Can This Be Real Love' ?"

Pete : "It is not a SAW song !"

Xav : "Reaaaalllly ???? Who did it then ?"

Pete : "I do not know ! They were maybe a few other unreleased songs, the thing is, I do not know where they are !"

Xav : "Do you sometimes take a look to the internet fan webpages ?"

Pete : "No, it is a totally new world for me, i am not used to surf ! but there will be a page soon with all the latest productions and news..."

Xav : "What about your project of the new VIRUS radio station ?"

Pete : "Well it seems I have to give up, we did not get the first license, we applied for the second, but I do not think we will get it... But anyway I will not return to the mic, I am not ready again to do crazy night hours... !"

This was the end of the interview. As you maybe felt, Pete did not really replied to some questions, but he was very kind, and liked to tell stories. We spent more time that we should for the interview, so I guess he liked it, because after all, we were just fans and not a radio or TV...

After this, I asked him if he could write some words for you, the internet fans, and he did it ! My mistake was to ask it to him, because I forgot he was new in the writing world !!! So you guys have a very special treatment from the Hitman in Paris !!

I hope you enjoyed the interview, I tried to put altogether the various subjects, even though the questions did not come exactly in this way, so you can enjoy to read this as I enjoyed to ask him questions about everything...

All the words I wrote here are maybe not his real words, but they are really close to the meaning, and I think you will understand exactly what he replied to so many questions !