Pete Waterman

I've not a clue.

Was it Simon Cowell that ran out Pete Waterman's number on live television and it started ringing on stage at one of the pop idol finals?

Oh, really?

He said, yeah, just ring Pete.

And he spends a lot of time making miniature trees.

There you go.

Pete Waterman.

Now, when you watched Pop Idol back in the day, did you think that in the future I'd be telling you that about Pete Waterman? Did you know Pete Waterman used to own...

Venus was their first track together and it gave Bananarama their biggest hit to date.

A series of further singles and two very successful albums followed but there were constant personality clashes between Stock Aitken Waterman frontman Pete Waterman and the girls and especially with Fahey.

She hated the new hyper-commercial direction of Bananarama And her personal life was also in turmoil as a result of a stormy marriage to Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart.

She felt, she said, increasingly isolated within the group because of the long-established bond between her bandmates, Karen Woodward and Sarah Dallin, who had been friends since childhood.

And you've got it all.

Bit of Pete Waterman influence in there as well.

We're going to say hi to Mike Foreman who sent me an email through to the studio and said, hi Tommy, really love your show.

He's got them back.

I did the cover.

I'm going to sound like Pete, not Pete Waterman.

What was his name off a minder? Oh, Dennis Waterman.

I wrote the book.

We've got Simon Cowell, who we all know these days to be very prolific in the judging role.

Pete Waterman, Nikki Chapman.

Now, Nikki was a judge on series one of Popstar.

So she just finished a gig.

Sarah was a shining star on Pop Idol.

Like she really, she shone through all the rounds.

And Pete Waterman said something very interesting in her first audition, didn't he? He said that, I'm looking for someone that my 10-year-old daughters would get excited for and want to rush out and buy their records.

You are that person.

You know.

We got signed to PWL Um, and from that, and the guy at PWL, not, uh, Pete Waterman, but his right, his right arm, David Howes, took Steve under his wing and managed him.

And whilst that was happening, we created our own record label in the back of the shop, and that label was called Rockstone Music.

Rockstone Music is still very, still a part of music.

headline show this month and one that we may go back to in the next few time machines it's pop idol i think it's quite self-explanatory but lou's going to explain it

judges simon cowell pete waterman nikki chapman and dr foxx out to find the biggest sensation in music.

The hosts of this are Anton Deck, who spent the majority of the first episode explaining exactly what a pop idol is and also using the term X Factor quite a lot, which would come out.

Simon uses that quite a lot, I noticed.

But yeah, it's all what you would imagine, except the thing that I took away from it.

Simon Cowell, not overly critical or prevalent in the first couple of episodes.

It's actually Pete Waterman who's the aggressor, the one that will say it straight.

Neil Fox, I always found, was more of a caricature than a person.

Right.

And then it's going to come out in the UK via Pete Waterman, Stock Aiken and Waterman.

He says, I don't like the rap.

Takes the rap off, right? And they have to appear on top of the pops, right? Because it's gone in the charts.

are you actually going to do? Because you didn't do anything on the record other than look great, which is, you know, you might have rapped, you might have looked great.

It's absolutely fantastic, but it's really funny.

Anyway, I've got a great Pete Waterman quote about the rap.

Would you like this? So he says, Ray did send me a clog once with, now you'll let me rap on the next record.

Yeah.

Pete Waterman would be perfect for this.

Absolutely.

Our old friend Pete putting a positive spin-

Our old friend Pete Waterman

... on illiteracy

... friend of the pod.

I suppose the big turning point was when I went to Trinity at Chunnel Club, 'cause Tony Price was resident.

Pete Waterman used to play down there.

Steve Thomas was down there once a month.

And that was like, I just used to go down there as a punter really, 'cause it was a 500, 600 cap, low ceilings.