Mike started in the early 80's in a synth band called Face 2 Face, influenced by Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, Yazoo etc....after the band split up Mike got into writing and production, did a bit of singing for a while (even supported Sonia!), and ended up working in a studio in Liverpool - Nick met Mike there when he was about 13 thru a local DJ - Mike produced demos of Nick's band at the time, and it went from there ....

We know you are PWL/SAW fans so what is your fan history? Favourite tracks?

Both of us idolised them in the late 80's and tried our hardest to emulate them! Looking back, it was an impossible task because of not only them, but also the team around them - they were unstoppable. It was pop at its best - it typified the time and even now the records sound fresh (apart from All Mixed Up!) Mike remembers Rick Astley doing BVs for him at a studio in Newton Le Willows just after he'd joined Pete. Mike being naive wiped Rick's BVs. thinking they were crap. A few weeks later he heard Never Gonna ... and quickly changed his mind. Still you live and learn! Anyway that's one of Mike's favourite SAW tracks - also I'll Still Be Loving You and The Harder I Try.... Nick's favourites are Love's About To Change My Heart, Better The Devil and Just Don't Have The Heart....... although it's pretty hard to choose ; 99% of the tracks are brilliant. (By the way Dean's favourite track is If You Were With Me Now, which he worked on)

Mike Rose

How did you come to work at PWL?

A singer Mike was working with gave a tape to Pete. Pete rang Mike at McDonalds (where he was working at the time) and invited him up to the Manchester studio. Mike then moved to London, spent a week at PWL thanks to the beautiful Helen Dann, and, after mopping the floor a couple of million times, Pete finally offered him a job! Mike can still remember the day Pete turned round and said "You work for me now". Ooh, he was like a dizzy schoolgirl!! Seriously, one of the best days of his life.. After a year, during which time Mike cleaned,tidied, made tea and occasionally got to play and sing on the records (including Slam Jam), Mike Stock was looking for a new keyboard player so Mike suggested Nick, who was still at school at the time. So Nick came down to play for Mike Stock & Pete and got offered a job. (Also a good moment....) At this point the two of us had never been a team, in fact it was Mike Stock who suggested we try it. So we did ....

What PWL projects did you work on?

WWF album ; Sybil ; Erik ; Bananarama (they did a cover of David Bowie's changes which Mike did BV's on and Nick played on) ; the wonderful Slamm! ; FKW ; Suzette Charles; also the last thing Mike Stock did at PWL which was a Jermaine Stewart track. There were lots of acts, but these were the dying days of Stock & Waterman - unfortunately we were there close to the end, which was a sad time if you were a fan, particularly as most of the people there were more into dance music than the pop we loved.

Why did you leave PWL?

When Mike Stock left he offered Mike a job, but not Nick. At this point we decided to go our own way, but Mike kindly gave us a sampler and a computer to get us started. We hung on at PWL for a while, but neither of us were into the stuff that was being done ; also we felt pretty stifled because we saw things in a different way, didn't want to just do club remixes of other people's tracks, but make our own. Even though we know we've a long way to go, that's what we're striving for.

I recently received a copy of the new Dead Or Alive album and you and Mike are thanked on the credits, I was wondering what your involvement was and WHY you didn't end up working with them as that would be perfect (I'm not too keen on Steve Coy's 'production' skills although I love their new material and think it's a real return to form).

We've been mates with Steve for years - he's like a big brother to us and looked after us a lot when we first left PWL - so his quote's more about us being friends then anything else. It was nice of him to include us! Unfortunately we were in the middle of other stuff when they were making the album, but otherwise we'd have loved to have been involved.

How did you hook up with each other?

See above!

Was it hard setting up your own studio and trying to get work from the major record companies?

We were on the dole for a few years after PWL, working on a four track in Mike's bedroom. Eventually we got offered a publishing deal with Sony, and put the advance into setting up a small studio. Our manager at the time got us practically no work and we were just about to go bust when we got a call out of the blue from Tom Watkins, who'd spoken to someone called Nathan McGough at EastWest Records, for whom we'd done our first paying production for, a song called I Love It When It Rains for a band called Diva which never got released. Tom had just lost Harding & Curnow and had a number of acts. He asked us if we wanted to get involved, which was a little bit daunting, especially after the success he'd had with Phil & Ian, who we admire from PWL days (we never thought we'd end up in their old studio at Strongroom, where we are now !) ... Still the chance came along and Tom was incredible. He got us so much work and basically changed our lives. He got us to do the radio mix on East 17's Someone To Love - our first remix, and our first hit - and then East 17's If You Ever - our first production. Inevitably Tom wanted to take us in a direction we didn't want to go, so eventually we parted company, though we still have a great deal of respect for Tom. After that we moved to 19 / Native Management and, to be honest, we're in the best place we could ever be. People like Pete Evans, Sharon Thompson, Simon Fuller and Mike McCormack are simply the best at what they do.

Dean Murphy

I notice that Dean Murphy went from PWL to Love This and now works with you. Do you have any other ex-PWL-ers in the team?!

Nah. To be honest Dean's one of the best blokes we've ever met, he even helped Mike paint his house when Nick was moving in and bought MIke the odd Chinese meal when he was skint! He's also a top engineer. So we'd always had him in mind as an engineer, although he had a few projects he was working on himself. (He had a studio on a boat made out of lolly sticks which sank!! - only kidding... ) Other than that, no ex-PWL-ers, although Mike Picking (ex PWL & Love This) built our studio for us with Dean!

What are your respective roles in the studio?

It's 50 / 50 down the line - doesn't matter who does what, it's always a R&F project. The responsibility comes down to both of us at the end of the day no matter what. We don't really have respective roles - it's not a Mike Rose record or a Nick Foster record, it's a Rose & Foster record, it's about the two of us together rather than us as individuals.

What was the 'Dufflebag boys' thing all about, and was it a tease for PWL fans?

The Dufflebag thing came about because the Lolly project was such a pure pop thing and so different from what we'd been doing (Toploader, Roachford etc) that we decided to use a different name. We've found A&R people are snobbish about pop, and if you make it, you tend to get pigeonholed. The Dufflebag name was an attempt to avoid it. Eventually we decided to be open about it - after all, people knew it was us anyway ! So we did the second Lolly album as Rose & Foster... As for being a tease, we didn't think anybody knew who we were with our real names, let alone a pseudonym! (But it was very flattering when people suggested it was Mike & Matt)

What was Rose & Fosters first hit?

Our first big one was If You Ever with East 17 & Gabrielle, although there were a couple before that, including the first single for a band called Gemini, which we wrote and Ian Levine produced. Less said about that the better....!!

Were you disappointed by the sales of Lolly's 2nd album? (I thought it was great incidentally)

Disappointed but not surprised. We made the 1st album before the act was signed and were left to our own devices, but after that was a success, things changed and many more people got involved. What everybody seemed to miss was that Lolly was aimed at 5 year old kids and upwards - Tweenies fans, not Steps fans. It was nice some older kids ( and grown ups!) got it, but that was never the plan. She should have been doing school tours, not nightclubs - because nobody over 18 was going to rush out and buy a Lolly record! So we're proud of the album but, if it had been up to us, it would have been far closer to the 1st one in style. The music moved on too quickly and we lost the uniqueness of it. And Girls Just Wanna Have Fun was certainly not our choice of single .... Still, we had fun, Anna (Lolly) was always brilliant to work with, and, as the first act we developed, it was a good experience - we learned a lot. At the end of the day it was a fun project that got taken far too seriously, and that eventually killed it.

What is your opinion of what Mike, Matt and Pete have done since they split up?

We've had the pleasure of working with Steve Crosby, who worked with Mike & Matt on Scooch, who is a great bloke. Hopefully we'll work more with him in the future. He seemed to be a good influence on Mike & Matt - but to be honest after meeting Mike a couple of weeks ago it's obvious they're in need of some direction - with all the will in the world, even Mike, who we think is one of the best songwriters of all time, needs someone to be his ears. You only have to look at their success with Pete to know that. And as for Pete, we have total respect for him. He's been one of the most influential people in pop music. Mike & Dean saw him just before Christmas, and he seems happier than he's ever been. But you've got to remember these three made a unique team who had hit after hit, and each of them deserves respect for their part in it.

What projects do you have lined up for the future?

We've just been in LA producing tracks for the new Aaron Carter album for Jive, and hopefully we'll be doing more of that. We've currently got songs on hold for the new Michael Bolton album (also on Jive) and we're back in America later this year to develop and work with new acts. We've also got a TV programme that we've written, but you'll have to wait and see for that one!! We're also working on two new albums at the moment, as well as developing our own acts - too much to talk about right now, but we'll keep you posted....

Is there anyone in today's charts you'd like to work with?

Too many to mention - we love pop, but we're also also into all kinds of other music. We always wanted to make a record for Terrorvision - in fact it nearly happened! - the more variety the better. Toploader was a cool band to work with - especially as it was at the same time as we were developing Lolly & working with Adam Rickitt - so you're meeting different people and working on different styles, which can only be a good thing.....

Have you got any hobbies outside music?

Mike's into Thai boxing & grappling; he's taught by the no-holds-barred UK fighting champion, which takes up a lot of his time as he's hoping to compete next year; he also has a collection of vintage mopeds and motorbikes. Nick's into reading ; he has a collection of over 5000 books; he also plays chess competitively, goes to concerts- his brother's a conductor (who also scores strings on many of our records) - and plays the piano. Chalk and cheese!! But it seems to work....

Where do you see yourself in 10 years time?

The way we're setting things up, and as our relationship develops with 19, the sky's the limit really. We've got a lot of ideas from TV shows to movies. Eventually we'd like a stable of writer/producers around us - but we've only just started ourselves and have a long way to go. We're not the best producers or writers in the world, but we're trying our best and hopefully in time we'll get better. But this is a tough business to be in - there are so many good writer/producers out there - you have to be inventive as music is not just about songs anymore, its about the whole package, more than ever.But nobody said it was going to be easy......

For more information visit http://www.roseandfoster.com

Interview conducted 30 January 2001. Ian and Jeremy wish to thank Mike and Nick for their time. Images courtesy of Lee Ashton / www.pwl-empire.com