Culture
Pete Waterman tells us why you need to book your tickets to I Should Be So Lucky at the Liverpool Empire
1 year ago
The music of Stock Aitken Waterman provided the soundtrack for a generation, with hits from Kylie, Rick Astley, Jason Donovan, Bananarama and more.
Now the era defining music is making its way to the stage, in the world premiere of the official Stock Aitken Waterman musical, I Should Be So Lucky coming to the Liverpool Empire from April 15th to April 20th.
We caught up with the Hit Factoryâs Pete Waterman, to discuss making a move into musical theatre, the enduring appeal of the SAW catalogue and why now is the right time to bring the songs to the stage.Â
There must have been many people wanting to make a musical using the Stock Aitken Waterman songs over the years, why is now the right time?Â
Iâd previously worked with a couple of people on it, but I think weâd never seen a story that was of any interest to us. Nobody came up with a story that we thought was emotional enough â they are very emotional songs and I think people didnât get that.
Working with the cast in the theatre recently took Mike (Stock) and I back to when we wrote the songs. When you hear someone do a song slightly differently, the lyrics get to you. I guess nobody before had understood why the lyrics were so poignant. Yes, they were hits, but they were more than hits to the people that bought them, they were statements, particularly for young people. Weâve always guarded that, we never wanted to spoil that memory. I think that the people we talked to in the past didnât see the depth of the songs, they just saw that they were hits and that didnât work for us.
Has it been a huge jump from the music industry into musical theatre?
This is a very different genre for us â musical theatre â itâs hard work, itâs one of the hardest things Iâve done in my life. My admiration for the cast is unbelievable. The hours they work and the detail they put in. The last thing you want is the writers of the music to sit in the audience frowning, but theyâve got to understand that these are our children, songs that are very special to us. Weâre writers, but weâre now also the custodians of peopleâs memories, so we are touchy about how those songs are treated.
What do you think is your most successful song to date?
Thereâs no question, itâs âNever Gonna Give You Upâ. It has taken on a life of its own. Itâs easy to say that now that it has become almost legendary â I think last year we did 400 million hits, and its 35-years on. Itâs a song that got wrote on the way to work with Rick, and we didnât take it that seriously at the time.
Youâve got to pinch yourself sometimes. Itâs when you see Kylie closing the Olympics or Rick doing Glastonbury and then doing this musical, you sit there thinking, âI didnât think Iâd be doing this 40 years agoâ. I thought weâd do great just getting a couple of years out of it.
The production features endless hits from the Stock Aitken Waterman catalogue, such as Never Gonna Give You Up, Especially For You, and the titular I Should Be So Lucky. Do you have a favourite used within the show?
In this show thereâs a couple of songs that really hit me hard about why we wrote them, because theyâre done in a different way to how we did them, and itâs just beautiful. I think thatâs what has struck me about this whole thing. George Dyer, the productionâs musical director, what heâs done is absolutely great, you sit back and think, âI never saw the song like thatâ. Soniaâs song, âNever Stop Me Loving Youâ, I have never seen the way they do it in this musical. You just go, âWow, why didnât I think of thatâ. The musical had me in tears. Two songs, every time they play them get to me, because the lyrics are so important to us â you instantly remember what you were going through or why you wrote that lyric. All the SAW songs are Matt, Mike and myself, spread across a canvas.
Iconic hitmaker Kylie Minogue scored her first UK number one with âI Should Be So Luckyâ, and sheâs also got a starring role in the musical of the same name. Whose idea was it to get Kylie involved, and what is it like to work with her again after all these years?
It was the producerâs idea to get Kylie involved, and I wonât spoil it for anybody, but it works â I was as sceptical as the next man, but it does work quite brilliantly within the show. Iâve been so busy doing TV and other things that I couldnât get to London to see her in rehearsals, but Iâm doing a show with her soon, so weâll get to catch up then. With all your artists you never fall out with them. Because Iâm that much older than all the guys I was always like their dad really â they always treated me like their dad. If there was a problem they came to me, they didnât go to the record company, I had to deal with all of it!
What do you hope audiences will take away from the production?Â
I hope audiences have fun with this show. This musical couldnât have been timed better. Weâre currently in a world thatâs all over the place, I mean, we just need a bit of uplift as weâve got enough grief.Â