THE SUN, 16 SEPTEMBER 1998

I made £80m ... it would have been twice that if I'd known how to read

SAYS RECORD BOSS PETE WATERMAN

by SUE EVISON

It was the fact that, despite making millions with chart stars Rick, Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, he couldn't even write his own name.

Pete, now 49, says: "I'll never forget that cheque. My accountant asked me to write it out.

"He thought I was taken aback by the amount-but it was him who was taken aback when I told him I couldn't write!

"In the end I just filled in the figures-I've never had a problem with numbers-and he wrote it out.

"I wasn't ashamed that I couldn't read or write, nor was I proud. I didn't tell people if I didn't have to - and I got away with it for years.

"I put my signature on the cheque-a treble clef symbol which I had copied from a set of Beatles lyrics while a teenager and used as my signature ever since.

"It kind of looks like a P and a W scrawled together a bit fancy, so nobody was ever any the wiser."

Pete left school at 14 with no qualifications-but still went on to make an £80million fortune with his legendary record company PWL.

With co-producers Mike Stock and Matt Aitken he helped produce more than 100 chart smashes at his Hit Factory studio in London during the Eighties.

He says: "I didn't start school until I was nearly eight - after the war, places were hard to come by - and there were 61 children in my class.

"The teacher was happiest when I didn't turn up. I was the class clown and it meant she had one less problem to deal with.

"I went train-spotting or kicked a football around in the park instead. I never learned anything and nobody ever encouraged me to.

"But I had a great singing voice and for the Christmas play I volunteered for singing roles so I would never have to learn a script. I got away with it every time.

"I was in the choir and could pick up a song after just one hearing.

"I left school at 14 and took a job as a British Rail boilerman. I probably read about 100 words - like cat, dog, pay - really basic stuff.

That's when I learned the treble clef as a signature-we got paid in cash and I had to sign for it.

"Nobody guessed I couldn't read. If there was anything to sign-union documents or stuff-I'd always stand at the back of the queue to see where and if the others signed.

"The tellers at my bank, the Allied Irish were probably the only People who did know. When I went to draw cheque, I'd pass it under the counter, they'd fill it in and I'd scrawl my signature on it.

"They never talked down to me-and I still bank at the same place.

"By the timd I set up PWL in 1984 with Mike and Matt I had taught mvself to read a few more basic words. I could probably read a Party invite because I would have seen the words 'party' and 'invitation' so often I had begun to recognise them."

Pete couldn't read a business letter or a contract but he didn't have to-he had lawyers, managers and accountants doing that for him.

He says: "The lyrics I 'wrote' for songs looked like hieroglyphics. Only I could understand what they said because only I recognised the 'writing'!

"Once when Mel and Kim were recording in the studio I'd left some of my lyrics on the recording desk.

"They held up the piece of paper and said, 'Oh look, Pete, how sweet, some little kid has sent in some lyrics. All the words are spelt wrong-loads of them aren't even proper words.'

"I said,'No, they're mine actually. I can't read or write.'

"They nearly dropped through the floor with embarrassment. But we soon got over it.

"Although I wasn't ashamed of my lack of education, some people did try to humiliate me because of it. Columbia took me to court over some contract. Their lawyers discovered I couldn't read or write and asked me to read out a piece of-evidence to try to humiliate me.

"I just told the judge,'Sorry, your honour, I can't read or write.'

"He was great, he told me I had nothing to apologise for-then forced the lawyer to read it to me.

"I lost the case but in his summing up the judge told me, 'You have nothing to be ashamed of. You have conducted yourself with dignity and in high esteem.'"

Pete, who has been married three times and has four children, eventually taught himself to read when given an ultimatum by a girlfriend ten years ago.

He says, "I wanted to take her on holiday but she said,'I'm not going if you're going to talk all the time. I want a bit of peace and quiet.'

"So I took a book-the first I ever read-and it was Das Boot, a military history of the German U-boat.

"It was probably the worst thing I could have picked but at least I was interested in the subject! It took me nearly a month, reading all day, every day, to get through it. By the end, I had managed to decipher about half of the words.

"But I was very proud of myself - and it gave me the confidence to believe that I could read if I tried hard enough.

Determined Pete learned to read using phonics, the way children are taught. He explains: "Say the word was 'submarine'-I knew how to read s-u-b.

"Then I realised marine must be similar to the word 'margarine,' a word I knew from buying and eating it so often!

"I did it that way with all the long words and managed to gather enough information to understand the book."

Pete also taught himself to write, copying down song lyrics from sheet music. He says: "I still can't do loined-up writing-the words I copied were all in capitals and that's the only way I can write.

"But I still can't spell. Mike Stock says the only way to understand anything I've written is to approach it as if you're reading something written like a foreigner would speak English!

"But it has never been problem for me in business-I always dictate anything important to my secretary and she can spell!"

Pete regrets leaving it so late in life to learn to read. He says: "I've gone on to read Shakespeare, Jane Austen, all the classics.

"The wisdom in them! It was all there for the taking and I had to learn it the hard way.

"I kick myself now and think, 'If only I had read these when I was 18 I could have made £200million by now.'"

The producer is still amazed at how much enjoyment he finds in reading. He says: "I still find it a strain but it's almost like magic.

"It's also been important foy me socially. It's easy to show yourself up when you haven't read any books.

"I know Aristotle wasn't a French brewer, for example!"

As Pete knows, illiteracy is a widespread problem. He says: "A report out just last week showed that one in five young adults cannot fill in forms or understand newspapers.

"My advice to them is to be totally honest with themselves. Until they admit they have a problem, they never be able to solve it.

"The next stage is to seek help. I didn't do that and taught myself but it would have been easter to go to an adult literacy class. Find out about them at your local further education college or education authority."

Pete was determined that children-Paul, 26, Peter, 16, Toni, seven and Charlie, five-should receive a decent education.

He says: "The boys went to secondary modern schools but the girls are at private school, simply because it's the nearest to our home.

"All my kids learned to read early. Paul now works for me and Peter's about to go to college to study music.

"Charlie is just starting to read, she's really keen, and Toni can already read Macbeth.

"It took me ten days to read Macbeth. It took Toni a couple of days-and she understood the story.

"That was one of my proudest moments, a real buzz for me.

"It made everything I've ever done worthwhile-l'd have given away everything just to have that moment. I was the proudest man on earth."