Reproduced from BMI MusicWorld, 1987

Four years on, Stock, Aitken and Waterman--hereafter referred to as SAW--are Britain's hottest producers and songwriters, having accumulated upwards of 50 hit credits.

In early 1984, when Pete Waterman came into contact with two like-minded musicians by the names of Mike Stock and Matt Aitken, Matt, aged 31 and Mike, 34, were hawking around a demo tape of a song they had written and recorded called "The Upstroke". Waterman was impressed.

He recalls: "They had very limited experience, and neither of them had written or produced a hit, but something gelled immediately. I wanted to work with them right away, and I could tell it was a partnership that would come off. The chemistry was perfect."

"The Upstroke" finally surfaced in May 1984 on RCA, with Matt and Mike masquerading as Agents Aren't Aeroplanes. It narrowly missed the charts, but, along with SAW's subsequent recordings with two other acts, the aforementioned Divine, and Hazell Dean, it defined the early style of what has since become the most prolific hit machine of its time.

SAW work fast. Very fast.

Waterman claims that "Venus" by Bananarama and Mel & Kim's "Showing Out (Get Fresh At The Weekend)" were each recorded in a day.

"We started work on "Showing Out" at six o'clock one evening, and the acetate was being played on radio before 11 p.m. the next day", he says.

More remarkable still is the story of SAW's production of two songs on the Laura Branigan album "Touch": the hit single "Shattered Glass", which they didn't write, and "Whatever I Do, Wherever I Go", which they did.

"Laura flew in from New York", explains Waterman, "slept for a couple of hours, came down to the studio, recorded the vocals and flew out again. All told, she was in Britain for seven hours."

Success at conjuring hits out of nothing has led Stock, Aitken and Waterman being offered a number of high prestige assignments with famous names, but Waterman insists that they prefer to write for and establish new acts of their own.

"We write 'on the run'", he says. "If nothing materializes after 10 or 15 minutes, we abandon the idea and try something else. We record in the same way. I can imagine some big shots wanting to spend three or four days getting the drum sound fine-tuned while everyone else sits around. We don't and won't work like that."

SAW have their own recording complex containing three studios in South London and operate largely as a self-contained unit.

Stock and Aitken are both proficient keyboard players/guitarists, and Waterman has mastered drum programming.

"We only use outside musicians when we need a sax solo, or something like that", he says, "but when we do, we like to get someone we admire."

Justifiably proud of SAW's success, Waterman thinks their finest work to date is Bananarama's "I Heard A Rumour".

It is, he declares, "the kind of record I'd love to play if I was still a nightclub deejay. It's a great hybrid with Motown-style lyrics, an Italian-style melody and a Eurobeat. It sounds really great on the radio."

So, too, do many other SAW songs, and radio play is something they get plenty of, particularly in Britain, where, last July, they became the first songwriters/producers to simultaneously have five of their creations in the Top 30, each recorded by a different artist.

The hits that made history for them were: "I Heard A Rumour", Mel & Kim's "F.L.M. (Fun, Love, Money)", Sinitta's "Toy Boy", Samantha Fox's "Nothing's Gonna Stop Me Now", and "Roadblock", a highly polished and thoroughly danceable pastiche of James Brown circa 1970, on which they retained credit as performers for themselves.

The success of Stock, Aitken and Waterman is no flash in the pan; they have proved their flair and ability with a wide variety of artists in nearly as many styles, from Hi-NRG to Philly Sound recreations to old fashioned MOR ballads to no-frills pop. Since their first Divine production, over 60 million records have been sold around the world bearing the legend Stock, Aitken and Waterman, and their ability to write and produce classic pop records is apparently both intuitive and insatiable, with new artists like British radio presenter Steve Walsh, Dutch quintet Dolly Dots and LaToya Jackson, sister of Michael and Janet, all currently involved with the trio, and being given very different material, each song tailored to their needs.

Rick Astley, a fresh-faced 21 year-old former truck driver, whose recording of SAW's song "Never Gonna Give You Up" was Britain's best-selling single in 1987, has a typically affectionate attitude towards SAW.

Astley says: "They are magnificent to work with. They create a relaxed atmosphere, and are very friendly. They work exceptionally hard, and are very serious about what they do, but they're always ready for a laugh, and have a knack for taking the tension out of any situation. I'm very fortunate to work with them, and can't imagine working with anyone else."

Alan Jones is a freelance writer based in London.