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The company logo

Pete Waterman Entertainment (PWE) is the production company one-time pop and dance record label owned by pop mogul Pete Waterman. The label, originally PWL, is most famous for being the home of hit record producers Stock Aitken Waterman.

After producing many hits for other record companies, PWL launched its own label in 1987 (PWL Records) with the balearic classic "I Just Can't Wait" by Mandy Smith. The next single was the biggest selling single of the year: I Should be so Lucky by Kylie Minogue.

As a record label, PWL enjoyed success with Australian artists such as Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan and Dutch dance group 2 Unlimited. As a production house they produced hits for English artists such as Rick Astley, Dead or Alive and Bananarama on other record labels.

In the USA, PWL America was established in 1989 and specialized in hip-hop music. In 1992, it was renamed Chemistry Records Ltd., but it shut its doors in 1993. It was distributed in that territory by Mercury/PolyGram Records.

In the early 1990s, Pete Waterman formed a new label called PWL International in partnership with Warner Music. However with other projects taking up Waterman's time, his involvement in the label decreased, and PWL International Ltd. became the Warner label Coalition.

The record label is still in operation today and operates the label EBUL through Jive Records and Zomba.

Notable former PWL artists[link]

• Kylie Minogue (left in 1992)
• Dead or Alive (left in 1988)
• The Reynolds Girls
• Rick Astley (left in 1990)
• Kakko
• Steps
• Brother Beyond
• Divine (actor)
• Donna Summer
• Boy Krazy
• The Twins
• Sinitta
• Mandy Smith
• Jason Donovan (left in 1993)
• Niki Evans
• Sonia (left in 1991)
• Hazell Dean
• Mel & Kim
• Bananarama
• Sybil
• Big Fun (Dropped out in 1991)
• Strange Nature (left in 1995)
• 2 Unlimited
• Desiree Heslop ('Princess')
• London Boys
• Sabrina Salerno
• Lonnie Gordon
• Tina Cousins
• Loveland
• Opus III
• Anticapella
• One True Voice
• Pop!
• The Sheilas
• Same Difference

Chemistry/PWL America artists[link]

• B.O.X.
• Diamond and the Psychotic Neurotics
• Ed O.G. & da Bulldogs
• Sylk Smoov
• T.D.C.
• Lisa Lee Dark

See also[link]

• List of record labels

External links[link]

• Official website
• Stock Aitken Waterman & PWL at cafe80s

Stock Aitken Waterman, sometimes known as SAW, were a UK songwriting and record producing trio consisting of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman. They had great success during the mid to late 1980s and early 1990s. The three are considered to be one of the most successful songwriting and producing partnerships of all time, scoring more than 100 UK top 40 hits, selling 40 million records and earning an estimated £60 million (about $103.78 million).^[1]

SAW started producing Hi-NRG underground club hits, but earned worldwide success with a mix of Hi-NRG-influenced sound, romantic Motown lyrics and Italian melodies. During 1987–1989, their music style was labelled eurobeat or hi-NRG, which had an octave bass going ‘boom-pah, boom-pah, boom-pah’. They also put swing shuffle element to their songs.^[2]

History[link]

The team[link]

In January 1984, shortly after meeting Mike Stock and Matt Aitken, Pete Waterman asked them to work with him and his recently formed production company. One of their first collaborations was the Cyprus entry for the Eurovision Song Contest in May 1984 where Greek singer Andy Paul performed the SAW song "Anna Maria Lena". Their initial style was in creating Hi-NRG dance music with "You Think You're a Man" by Divine (#16 UK Jul 1984) and "Whatever I Do" by Hazell Dean (#4 UK Jul 1984). They achieved their first UK No. 1 single in March 1985 with "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" by Dead or Alive. However, Pete Waterman has said in interviews that the trio were still in dire financial straits at the time.

This success and the trio's unique sound attracted the attention of girl group Bananarama. Group member Siobhan Fahey wanted to record a cover version of Shocking Blue's hit song "Venus". The result was a pop/Hi-NRG reworking which became a worldwide chart hit, reaching No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart on 6 September 1986, and reaching the top 10 in the UK and many other countries. Bananarama went on to make Stock Aitken and Waterman their main producers, and would collaborate with them on some of their biggest hits, including "Love in the First Degree", "I Can't Help It", and "I Heard A Rumour". SAW took early notice of the skills of UK engineer, remixer and producer Phil Harding and made the chief engineer and remixer at the newly formed PWL studios. Harding was another significant force in shaping the sound of a PWL record, and subsequent engineers Pete Hammond and Dave Ford would follow his example. Harding and co-producer/keyboard player Curnow became the club remix and production 'B-Team' of PWL Studios with many remixes and productions for internal PWL SAW Productions (Kylie, Bananarama, Dead Or Alive, Mel & Kim) as well as external record company clients (e.g. Diana Ross, Michael Jackson/Jackson 5, Holly Johnson, Pet Shop Boys, Eighth Wonder, Four Tops, Chic, Depeche Mode, Erasure, Jesus Jones, Voice Of The Beehive, Gary Moore) which included many U.S. dance chart No. 1s (such as ABC 'When Smokey Sings', Imagination 'Instinctual', Blue Mercedes 'I Want To Be Your Property').

The assembly line[link]

Following their early success, their style evolved into a more mainstream synthpop, typically performed by attractive singers. Their usual method for creating the music was to first write the songs, although many of their early acts (such as Hazell Dean, Dead or Alive, and Bananarama) often wrote their own material; next they would record the music with extensive use of synthesizers, drum machines (drums were often credited to "A Linn", a reference to the Linn brand of drum machine) and sequencers; and then finally bring in a singer solely to record the vocal track. The tendency toward interchanging artists and repertoire was well established when Rick Astley's breakout album Whenever You Need Somebody got its name and title track from a minor hit the trio had produced a year earlier for O'Chi Brown. Evidently they thought the song still had some mileage, and it was even issued with an exact replica of O'chi's club mix for the Rick Astley club mix. Their prodigious, production line-like output and similar song structures led to them being referred to as the "hit factory" (not to be confused with the record label of the same name or the New York City recording studio The Hit Factory) and attracted criticism from many quarters, including the Guardian newspaper who unflatteringly dubbed the team, "Schlock, Aimless and Waterdown".^[3] However, Pete Waterman defended their style by comparing it to the output of Motown in the 1960s.

SAW’s early work was recorded and mixed at Marquee Studios in Wardour Street, where Phil Harding and Rob Waldron worked with them on Youthquake, the Dead or Alive album which included their huge hit "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)". Waldron went to work as an assistant engineer to Harding when Waterman opened his new studio in Borough (The Hit Factory). Waldron became the chief recording engineer and Linn 9000 programmer (A Linn) and Harding was the mixer/remixer, working with various artists including Bananarama, Princess, Rick Astley, Hazell Dean, Haywoode, Brilliant and O'chi Brown.

The youth, the press and the underground[link]

SAW's greatest success was in fully exploiting the underground music scene that was booming in Britain in the late 1980s. SAW's goal was to harness the dynamic energy of club culture (and the sound of Hi-NRG music) and marry it to squeaky-clean light entertainment that could sell in large quantities, while keeping their hands firmly in the publishing of all they produced. In this regard, they were extremely similar to Motown, with SAW reportedly making use of the dubious "artist development deal" just as Berry Gordy had two decades earlier. Under such arrangements, all facets of a young artist's career would be controlled and dictated by the record company, and often the artist's publishing rights would be co-opted in the process and the record company would fill the role of manager on the artist's behalf. While SAW seem to have worked equally well with artists under their control and with those more established and independent acts, it would obviously make more business sense for them to focus on the development of new talent under the terms that gave them the most control. As the 1990s rolled in, they seemed solely focused on their young teenage signings (through PWL and the publishing arm of All Boys Music).

PWL was initially championed by the music papers for their fresh sound and seemingly underground aesthetic, but not for long. They incurred the wrath of the British music press when they strong-armed the group M/A/R/R/S into a legal settlement over a sample that M/A/R/R/S had taken from SAW's own recording, "Roadblock", and used in their surprise hit "Pump Up the Volume". Pete Waterman wrote an open letter to the music press calling such things "wholesale theft". The press fired back that Waterman was currently using the bassline of Colonel Abrams's "Trapped" in Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up". Indeed "Roadblock" itself could be described as inspired by the classic Average White Band hit "Pick Up the Pieces". Waterman's production company even lifted the entire basic rhythm arrangement from "Pump Up the Volume" (complete with the chorus) in a remix for a Sybil record (wisely titled the "Red Ink Remix"). As a result, relations between PWL and much of the UK's music underground were for a long time acrimonious. Waterman said it was a matter of principle rather than profit and promised to donate all royalties from the court case to charity.

As the epitome of creating very popular teen-pop music, the trio were often satirised or criticised. Comedy group Morris Minor and the Majors' parodied the Stock, Aitken and Waterman style on This is the Chorus, specifically referencing Kylie Minogue's hit song "I Should Be So Lucky" as well as Mel and Kim's "Respectable". The popular satire puppet show Spitting Image also parodied Kylie Minogue, depicting the Australian singer as being brought to life by a big headed scientist. Stock, Aitken and Waterman also appear as puppet heads with their bodies forming a tape machine with arms who sing along with a SAW-style song inferring how 'lucky' the singer has been.^[4] Comediennes French and Saunders also parodied I Should Be So Lucky in their television show in 1990 where the song features as an opera.

In later years, Kylie Minogue became one of SAW's biggest artists. Her first 13 singles reached the UK top ten and her debut "I Should Be So Lucky" spent five weeks at number one in the UK. The album Kylie was the highest selling album in Britain of 1988, and fifth highest-selling album of the decade. They were also responsible for 1987's highest-selling single, Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up". At the height of their fame, SAW also had a top twenty hit as themselves with the largely instrumental "Roadblock" (from which M/A/R/R/S would lift the offending sample for "Pump Up the Volume").

In 1989, SAW wrote and produced the highest-selling album of the year, Jason Donovan's Ten Good Reasons. Donovan had been Minogue's co-star in Neighbours, and his success for a time equalled hers. In 1988–89, SAW recorded three tracks with Judas Priest.^[5] These tracks were never released, and are said to be in Judas Priest's possession.^[6]

In 1989, SAW also recorded and produced Donna Summer's Another Place and Time album, as well as writing or co-writing all the tracks including the hit "This Time I Know It's For Real". Summer, a legendary American disco and pop singer, hired SAW in order to revive her career, just as an earlier European pop music producer (Giorgio Moroder) had launched it. However, a followup to Another Place and Time was never to be realized, reportedly due to difficult contract negotiations between Summer and SAW.

Another of SAW's most successful hit singles was the 1989 number-one single "Ferry Cross the Mersey" (a charity single featuring The Christians, Holly Johnson, Paul McCartney and Gerry Marsden).

1990–1993[link]

Being the top producers in 1989, with 7 number one singles, SAW started the 1990s with high hopes. February 1990 brought their last UK No. 1 single, Kylie Minogue's cover of "Tears on My Pillow", and a top 10 hit with new recruit Lonnie Gordon. However, by mid-1990 SAW artists were having problems placing singles in the top 10 (with the notable exception of Kylie Minogue), and the week of 13 October 1990 became the first with no SAW-produced singles in the UK top 75 in over two years. In mid-1991 Matt Aitken left the team due to stress, and Stock and Waterman carried on. With their sound no longer in vogue, they only had notable hits with Jason Donovan (who left them in 1991) and Kylie Minogue (who left them in 1992). 1993 saw a slight resurgence with two top 10 hits from Sybil, and top 40 hits from Bananarama, Bill Tarmey, Strange Nature and the WWF Superstars. They also had a top 20 hit that year in the U.S. market with American female group Boy Krazy. In late 1993, Mike Stock finished his partnership with Waterman.

Recent times[link]

In 1994, Stock and Aitken worked together again, forming Love This Records and achieving some success in the UK in the 1990s (notably Robson & Jerome and Nicki French), while Pete Waterman kept successfully running PWL Records.

In 2005 the three producers reunited again and released a CD+DVD album, SAW Gold, with some of their most known singles. Despite their reunion, Matt Aitken was soon to leave again. 2007 saw the release of a new Stock/Waterman produced single, the first in 14 years. It was The Sheilas' single "(I'm So) Happy Happy (You're Mine)" which only reached No. 91 in the UK.

Stock and Waterman collaborated on the UK Eurovision 2010 entry. The song called "That Sounds Good To Me" performed by Josh Dubovie, from Basildon, won the most public votes after performing live on Your Country Needs You! on BBC One. However, it finished in last place in the Eurovision final, receiving only ten points in total.

List of acts that have performed songs written and/or produced by SAW[link]

UK number-one hits[link]

The following SAW produced hits made it to the top of the UK pop chart:

• 1985 "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)", Dead or Alive
• 1987 "Respectable", Mel and Kim
• 1987 "Let It Be", Ferry Aid, a cover of the 1970 Beatles' hit
• 1987 "Never Gonna Give You Up", Rick Astley
• 1987 "I Should Be So Lucky", Kylie Minogue
• 1989 "Especially for You", Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan
• 1989 "Too Many Broken Hearts", Jason Donovan
• 1989 "Hand on Your Heart", Kylie Minogue
• 1989 "Ferry Cross the Mersey", Christians, Holly Johnson, Paul McCartney, Gerry Marsden and SAW, a cover of the Gerry and the Pacemakers' 1964 hit
• 1989 "Sealed with a Kiss", Jason Donovan, a cover of the Brian Hyland single
• 1989 "You'll Never Stop Me Loving You", Sonia
• 1989 "Do They Know It's Christmas", Band Aid II
• 1990 "Tears on My Pillow", Kylie Minogue's cover of the 1958 song by Little Anthony and the Imperials

In addition to these, Bananarama's "Venus" and Rick Astley's "Together Forever" both held the number one position in the U.S. pop charts, although they were less successful in the UK.

Parodies of Stock Aitken and Waterman[link]

• "This is the Chorus" by Morris Minor and the Majors.
• British experimental music duo, Stock, Hausen & Walkman, chose their name as a play on words, referencing SAW, composer Karlheinz Stockhausen and the Sony's Walkman.
• "Kylie is So Lucky" (spoof of 'I Should Be So Lucky' by Kylie Minogue) on Spitting Image.

See also[link]

• Mike Stock
• List of songs written or produced by Stock Aitken Waterman (in chronological order, including US and UK chart positions)
• The Hit Factory: The Best of Stock Aitken Waterman. (1987 UK compilation album released by Stylus Records).
• The Hit Factory Volume 2. (1988 UK/Japan compilation album released by Fanfare Records and PWL.)
• The Hit Factory Volume 3. (1989 compilation album released by Fanfare Records and PWL.)
• A Ton of Hits: The Very Best of Stock Aitken Waterman. (1990 compilation released on Chrysalis Records' Dover Records sub-label.)
• The Hit Factory: Pete Waterman's Greatest Hits. (2000 compilation issued by Universal.)
• Stock Aitken Waterman Gold. (2005 compilation released by PWL in association with Sony BMG).
• Morton, Sherman & Bellucci

References[link]

External links[link]

• Mike Stock Official Site
• PWL Empire- Pete Waterman's Official Site
• PWL From The Factory Floor - Official Site of PWL Producer/Remixer Phil Harding's inside story 600-page book of PWL Studios

Pete Waterman
Born	Peter Alan Waterman (1947-01-15) 15 January 1947 (age 65)[1] Stoke Heath, Coventry, England
Residence	Warrington, Cheshire, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	Record producer, songwriter, radio and club DJ, television presenter, railway enthusiast, entrepreneur
Years active	1986–present
Net worth	£47 million (est.)
Title	Chairman of Pete Waterman Entertainment (since 1984) President of Coventry Bears
Spouse	Elizabeth Reynolds (m. 1970–1974) «start: (1970)–end+1: (1975)»"Marriage: Elizabeth Reynolds to Pete Waterman" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Pete_Waterman) (divorced) Julie Reeves (m. 1980–1984) «start: (1980)–end+1: (1985)»"Marriage: Julie Reeves to Pete Waterman" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Pete_Waterman) (divorced) Denise Gyngell (m. 1991–1999) «start: (1991)–end+1: (2000)»"Marriage: Denise Gyngell to Pete Waterman" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Pete_Waterman) (divorced)
Website
http://www.pwl-empire.com/

Peter Alan Waterman OBE (born 15 January 1947) is an English record producer, occasional songwriter, radio and club DJ, television presenter, president of Coventry Bears rugby league club and a keen railway enthusiast. As a member of the Stock Aitken Waterman songwriting team he wrote and produced many hit singles. He is the owner of significant collections of both historic and commercial railway locomotives and rolling stock, a passion and expensive hobby made possible by the commercial success of the acts he signed.

Early life[link]

Born in Stoke Heath, Coventry, Warwickshire, Waterman had left Whitley Abbey Comprehensive School (now rebuilt and called Whitley Abbey Community School) to work at a railway depot.^[2] After closure of the depot, Waterman chose to follow a career in music, being inspired by The Beatles. To supplement his income as a DJ, Waterman became a gravedigger and then an apprentice at General Electric Company, becoming a trade union official.

Musical career[link]

Building a record collection through rare US imports,^[2] his DJ work began to take him across the UK, entertaining bigger crowds with a blend of rhythm and blues and soul music tunes he had sourced. Given a residency with the Mecca Leisure Group, he developed new initiatives including matinée discos for under 18s at Coventry’s Locarno club, which gave him a valuable insight into what music interested a younger audience.^[2] Waterman noticed that the younger dancers preferred records with high beats per minutes and this influenced his later work. It was at the Locarno that Waterman first met Neville Staple, later to be a vocalist for The Specials - a band that Waterman would manage for a brief period. In early 2009, Waterman wrote the foreword to Neville's biography "Original Rude Boy", which was published by Aurum Press in May 2009.

Waterman took up a job as an A&R man, and worked in the Philadelphia scene, which included introducing the Three Degrees to the UK. He then moved to Jamaica working with Peter Tosh and Lee Perry, and producing Susan Cadogan’s reggae-crossover hit Hurts So Good.^[2]

In 1979, Waterman set up Loose Ends with Peter Collins, the first coming under the name 14-18 with a single inspired by World War I, "Good-Bye-Ee," and hits with artists like Musical Youth and Nik Kershaw. He then set up his own company PWL (Pete Waterman Limited) in 1984, quickly signing producers Matt Aitken and Mike Stock, who produced the song "Whatever I Do" for Hazel Dean. Stock Aitken Waterman became one of the most successful musical production teams of the 1980s.^[2]

To date, Waterman has scored a total of twenty two UK number one singles with his various acts (including Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley, Bananarama, Steps, Mel and Kim, Donna Summer, Sinitta, Cliff Richard, Dutch girl-band the Dolly Dots and Jason Donovan^[3][4]) and he claims upwards of 500 million sales worldwide (inclusive of singles, albums, compilation inclusions, downloads, etc.). Waterman has also appeared in the Steps video "Tragedy".

In the late-1990s, production company Celador hired Waterman to compose a song for their new quiz show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.^[5] The company felt the song unsuitable, and instead approached Keith Strachan.^[6]

Waterman wrote and produced the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest entry for the United Kingdom,^[7] which finished in last place with 10 points.^[8]

Waterman is worth £30 million,^[9] according to the Sunday Times Rich List.

Television[link]

Waterman co-presented The Hit Man and Her with Michaela Strachan. He also presented a show on Radio City.

Waterman has appeared as a judge on both series of Pop Idol in the UK (2001-03), and also Popstars: The Rivals (2002). The latter saw him become manager of the winning boy band One True Voice, who then lost the race to Christmas number 1 to the same show's winning girl group, Louis Walsh's Girls Aloud.

Waterman returned as judge for the second series of Pop Idol, but was constantly critical of the eventual winner, Michelle McManus, and was unashamedly unhappy when her victory was announced. Waterman has since said he will not appear on any similar programmes in future,^[10] and has on several occasions attacked more recent talent shows (specifically those devised by his former Pop Idol colleague, Simon Cowell)^[3]

Whilst he has kept his promise not to appear as a talent show judge, on 12 October 2008, Waterman joined his fellow ex-Pop Idol judges Neil Fox and Nicki Chapman on Peter Kay's spoof talent show Britain's Got The Pop Factor... And Possibly A New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly On Ice, a fully scripted fictional spoof on the talent show genre. The show parodied the emotional manipulation behind Cowell's shows, with Waterman memorably interrupting a funeral to tell an ousted contestant that the loss of his gran (who had died of shock when learning her grandson had been dropped from the show) would provide the sob story he needed to get him on to the show.

In factual television, Waterman's interest in trains saw him present a historic self-retrospective view in Waterman on Railways for Channel Four/the Discovery Channel. Waterman also appeared in an advert by the National Blood Service in the UK, their sixth TV advert which also features Carol Smillie and Will Carling.

Waterman was one of the contestants in the 2009 series of the BBC programme Celebrity MasterChef, but was knocked out in the first round.

Eurovision[link]

Waterman wrote and produced the UK entry for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest.^[11] This song was performed by the final three acts on Eurovision: Your Country Needs You! on 12 March 2010, Josh Dubovie was chosen to represent the UK. The song came under much criticism and William Hill betting odd's gave the song 125-1 chance that the song would win, the longest odds for a UK entry ever. In the end the song, "That's Sounds Good To Me", came last at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest receiving only 10 points in total.

Other commercial interests[link]

Railways[link]

Waterman's main interest outside music is in railways. He has been involved in several railway ventures over the years. In 1988 he revived the name of the London and North Western Railway Company for his rail vehicle maintenance business, based at Crewe, which was the largest privately owned rail maintenance business in the country until it was sold to Arriva in November 2008.^[12] In 1994 in the opening stages of the privatisation of British Rail, he bought the Special Trains Unit which ran tourist charters and the like.^[13] This was sold on after a few years. Waterman also owns a steam locomotive and carriage restoration company called LNWR Heritage, based at Crewe Heritage Centre. He also founded the Waterman Railway Heritage Trust,^[14] which currently owns several steam and diesel locomotives including 5224, 5553, 7027 'Thornbury Castle'; 46035 'Ixion' and 47402 'Gateshead'.

He also has a keen interest in model railways, and is the founder of the model railway business Just Like the Real Thing, which specialises in O scale kits. He works closely with model-maker Malcolm Mitchell on this project. He continues to retain an interest in the company and regularly accompanies its sales stand to model railway exhibitions. Waterman has an extensive private collection of railway models and railway layouts, in O scale and larger gauges.^[15] He is currently building a large model of Leamington Spa railway station, in O scale, set in the 1950s.^[16] He has written several books and many magazine articles on the subject. He has said that his ability to become absorbed in making models helped him cope with grief after the death of his son.^[17]

Sport[link]

In addition to his passion for music and railways, Waterman is also a huge supporter of Walsall F.C..^[18] He is also a rugby league fan and is president of Rugby League Conference side Coventry Bears.

Honours[link]

In 2004 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in music by University College Chester.^[19]

In the New Year Honours List published 31 December 2004 he was given an OBE for his services to music.^[20] In December 2006, he became a patron of the newly formed charity, the City, Lambeth and Southwark Music Education Trust.^[21]

Personal life[link]

Waterman has been married three times:

• Elizabeth Reynolds (m. 1970–74, divorced): one son (Paul, 1971–2005)
• Julie Reeves (m. 1980–84, divorced): one son (Peter, born 1981)
• Denise Gyngell (m. 1991–99, divorced); two children (Toni Tuesday) and (Charlie Ella)

Waterman lives in Warrington.^[22]

Bibliography[link]

• I Wish I Was Me: The Autobiography (London: Virgin Books) 2000 ISBN 978-1-85227-900-4
• A Train is for Life (Shepperton: Ian Allan Publishing) 2008 ISBN 978-0-7110-3329-0
• Just like the Real Thing: Modelling Railways (Shepperton: Ian Allan Publishing) 2009 ISBN 978-0-7110-3455-6
• The Fame Factor (Shepperton: Ian Allan Publishing) 2009 ISBN 978-0-7110-3411-2

References[link]

External links[link]

• Pete Waterman on Smooth Radio
• Pete Waterman Limited
• Waterman's model railway manufacturing company website
• Pete Waterman at the Internet Movie Database
• "Pete Waterman: Lucky, lucky, lucky" at BBC news
• Waterman's sold railway maintenance business
• Pete Waterman interviewed at the Steam Museum in Swindon by BizView.tv
• http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article7136010.ece

Pete Burns
Performing in Liverpool, September 2008
Background information
Birth name	Peter Jozzeppi Burns
Born	(1959-08-05) 5 August 1959 (age 52) Port Sunlight, Wirral, UK
Genres	Pop, dance, new wave, Hi-NRG
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1977–present
Labels	Epic/Sony Japan/Cleopatra
Associated acts	Dead or Alive, The Dirty Disco
Website	DeadorAlive.net

Pete Burns (born 5 August 1959)^[1] is an English singer-songwriter, author and television personality, who founded the band Dead or Alive in 1980, in which he was vocalist and songwriter, and which rose to mainstream success with their 1985 single "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)". He later rose to further celebrity status in the British media following his appearance on Celebrity Big Brother 2006 and his own television show, Pete's PA in 2007.

Early life[link]

Burns was born in Port Sunlight, Bebington, Wirral,^[1] to an English father and German mother. His mother Eva was Jewish and born in Heidelberg, Germany. She had fled to Vienna, Austria to escape the anti-Semitic laws of the Nazis. It was in Vienna that she met Burns' father, then a British soldier, at a soldiers' tea dance.^[2]

When talking about his late mother in an interview for television programme Psychic Therapy, he said "as far as parental skills go in the conventional, normal world, she certainly wasn't a mother, but she's the best human being that I've ever had the privilege of being in the company of, and I know that she had a special plan for me. She called me Star Baby and she knew that there was something special in me. Just an incredible German woman; tiny, five-foot-one, but she could move a fucking wardrobe, she could lift a wardrobe." Burns also told that for the first five years of his life, he and his mother spoke to one another in German. "I grew up until I was five speaking German and a bit of French. There was no English spoken in my house. My father spoke to my mother in French, she spoke to me in German."^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

Dead or Alive[link]

Burns first became famous with the success of Dead or Alive's number one dance hit "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)", along with his strikingly individual, androgynous image. Originally labeled as gay, due to his gender atypical appearance and sexual relations with men, Burns is reportedly bisexual and was married to Lynne Corlett. While building his career, Burns worked at a Liverpool record shop, Probe Records, which became a meeting-place for local musicians. Burns first performed as a member of the short-lived Mystery Girls, and then Nightmares in Wax, a proto-Goth group that formed in Liverpool in 1979. Nightmares in Wax released a 12" single, "Black Leather", and a 7" single, "Birth of a Nation", each containing the same three songs, but never produced an album. In 1980, after replacing several members, Burns changed their name to Dead or Alive. Burns has accused fellow pop star Boy George of appropriating his unique image.^[2]

Expressing an overtly sexual and flamboyant style, Burns shocked audiences in the late 1970s with his androgynous clothing and hair styles, make-up, high heels, long fingernails and trademark black eyepatch. Almost as much as his career with Dead or Alive, Burns is known for his ever-changing appearance, which he freely admits has been greatly modified by cosmetic surgery.^[2]

[edit] Celebrity Big Brother and aftermath

In December 2003, the BBC apologised^[3] to its viewers after Burns swore repeatedly on its pre-9pm watershed Liquid News show when asked about his views on the Michael Jackson trial.

In January 2006, Burns appeared on Channel 4's Celebrity Big Brother 2006, eventually reaching fifth on the show's final episode. The show featured Burns' scathing verbal attacks on other housemates, most notably former page three girl Jodie Marsh and former Baywatch star Traci Bingham.^[4][5] It was also on this show that he declared that one of his coats was made out of gorilla fur – this caused outrage amongst animal rights' activists^[6] because unlicensed gorilla fur is illegal in the United Kingdom. Police subsequently confiscated the coat and tests were performed on it that revealed that it was not in fact gorilla, but was made out of the fur of colobus monkeys. Colobus monkeys are also an endangered species whose fur requires a licence, although experts believed that the fur had in fact been imported in the 1930s or 40s, before it became illegal to import colobus fur in 1975.^[7]

Burns has had extensive polyacrylamide injections into his lips, cheek implants, several rhinoplasties and many tattoos. In early 2006 he revealed in an interview that he had spent most of his life savings on eighteen months of reconstructive surgery after a procedure on his lips went horribly wrong.^[2]

Burns' autobiography, Freak Unique, was released in May 2006. In it he writes about his life and reveals that he was raped at a young age by a man who was never prosecuted. He also writes about chronic depression and several suicide attempts.

After his stint on Celebrity Big Brother he appeared as a guest presenter for the Big Brother spin off show, Big Brother's Big Mouth, on four shows, in August 2007.

Burns was involved in Pete's PA, a UK reality TV series on Living TV in which contestants competed to become his personal assistant (PA). The series takes place over ten weeks as potential PAs were pitted against each other in a series of challenges. Pete's PA began airing on 8 October 2007. Burns was assisted by Donna Coulling (described as a "celebrity personal assistant"), and business psychologist Dr. Rob Yeung. The winner was former criminal psychologist Nicky.

In 2010, Burns appeared in the special Davina's Big Send Off before the end of Ultimate Big Brother, where he performed "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)".

Burns often appears on the panel of Big Brother's Bit On The Side, the sister-show of Big Brother UK presented by Emma Willis on Channel 5 and 5*.

Solo career[link]

After much delay, Burns' solo single "Never Marry an Icon" was released to the iTunes Store on 7 September 2010. The single was produced and co-written by The Dirty Disco. The single was released by fellow Dead or Alive member Steve Coy's label, Bristar Records.^[8]

On 13 September 2010, Steve Coy of Bristar Records posted a statement on the Dead or Alive Official Network, announcing the cancellation of all future digital releases by Pete Burns due to postings of Burns's single "Never Marry an Icon" on YouTube. Days later, he reconsidered his decision.^{[citation needed]}

Burns will appear at Hit Factory Live, an event in Hyde Park, London in July 2012 performing along with other acts associated with Pete Waterman's record labels.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

In 1978 Burns married hairdresser Lynne Corlett, with whom he remained married for 28 years, until 2006.^[9] That year, on 9 February, he announced his engagement to his partner, Michael Simpson, on Channel 4's daytime television show Richard & Judy, where he displayed their matching engagement rings designed by Vivienne Westwood. The following day, Simpson called off the engagement citing that he was finding it difficult to deal with the newfound fame,^{[citation needed]} although their engagement was soon back on and their civil partnership took place on 6 July.^[9] Burns appeared on Celebrity Wife Swap, which aired on 30 September 2007, where he lived with Neil Ruddock for five days. Simpson also took part in the programme.^[9] Burns made a statement saying that gay marriage does not work and that it is better to be married to a woman.^[9]

In November 2006, Burns recounted his and others' experiences with complications of cosmetic surgery in a TV special entitled Pete Burns' Cosmetic Surgery Nightmares for the UK ITV network. Paparazzi followed Burns around following his arrest for assault in 2006^[10] (the charges for which were later dropped) and his attempts to revive his career, in the documentary Pete Burns Unspun on Living TV. In January 2007 Burns announced that he was planning to sue the cosmetic surgeon, Dr Maurizio Viel, who performed his lip surgery, for £1 million.^[11] In September 2009 Burns reached an out-of-court settlement for £450,000.^[12]

In March 2009, Burns was admitted to a London hospital after collapsing, due to kidney failure. He was diagnosed with seven large kidney stones, which were removed with laser surgery.^[13]

Discography[link]

Singles[link]

References[link]