Pete Waterman

A new start after 60: ‘I started to experiment upcycling old clothes – and they sold’

Herbie Mensah was a shopaholic soul boy who modelled for Vivienne Westwood and made a single with Pete Waterman. After 20 years working in social care, he has returned to his first love with a stall at Portobello Market

Paula Cocozza

10, Oct, 2022 @6:00 AM

Steps on how they made 5,6,7,8 – 'We spent years trying not to perform it!'

‘We had giant models made of our heads and got dancers to do it looking like us’

Interviews by Henry Yates

01, Feb, 2021 @3:25 PM

Rick Astley: how we made Never Gonna Give You Up

‘One day I was making the tea for Bananarama. The next I was at No 1’

Interviews by Dave Simpson

23, Mar, 2020 @2:40 PM

'I crawled on my knees to Kylie' – the inside story of Stock, Aitken and Waterman

To mark the publication of a pictorial history of the songwriters Mike Stock talks about the ‘Hit Factory’ years

Mike Stock interviewed by Tim Jonze

28, Mar, 2017 @7:00 AM

Why Abba’s Dancing Queen is the best pop song ever

Since its 1976 release, Abba’s ‘absolute best song’ (according to Frida Lyngstad) has won over everyone from punks to royalty and almost caused a riot in New York. So how has the song’s low-lit Friday night managed to last for ever?

Tim Jonze

08, Sep, 2016 @6:00 AM

Pete Waterman: A Life in Song review - hit songs, with no stars to sing them

A retrospective full of amusing, if lengthy, anecdotes from the Stock, Aitken and Waterman hitmaker, but lacking recognisable singers for the live performances

Caroline Sullivan

31, Jul, 2015 @1:19 PM

Alvin Stardust obituary

Glam rock singer who found life beyond the 1970s as a television presenter and actor

Adam Sweeting

23, Oct, 2014 @5:42 PM

Stakker Humanoid: how the Future Sound of London won hearts and minds

When, 25 years ago, Bruno Brookes and Pete Waterman championed Stakker Humanoid, it became the first acid house record to break into the mainstream. So what drew these titans of pop to make Humanoid a hit?

Stuart Aitken

11, Nov, 2013 @3:23 PM

Cheers and groans as Kylie and Jason put in a shift at reopened Hit Factory

Hit Factory Live Christmas Cracker at 02 Arena, London

Paul Lester

22, Dec, 2012 @12:29 AM

I should be so muddy: Kylie and Jason Hyde Park reunion concert cancelled

Bad weather forces cancellation of Hit Factory Live, a concert that was to celebrate the music of Stock, Aitken and Waterman

Caspar Llewellyn Smith

10, Jul, 2012 @2:35 PM

Various Artists: Pete Waterman Presents The Hit Factory – review

Alexis Petridis: Were Stock, Aitken and Waterman the utter nadir of pop, or unfairly maligned geniuses? A bit of both, perhaps

Alexis Petridis

05, Jul, 2012 @2:29 PM

Steps and Bananarama to play gig in honour of Stock, Aitken and Waterman

One-off July concert in Hyde Park, London, also set to feature SAW acts Rick Astley and Jason Donovan