7 Days of SAWmas! #5: Do They Know It's Christmas? - Band Aid II

In the run up to Christmas, what better way to get into the festive spirit than to take a look at 7 Yuletide tracks Stock Aitken Waterman came up with between 1987 and 2015? Join Kean Canter Mattowski for 7 blogposts during December as we take a look back at some seasonal gems…

On the fifth day of SAWmas, the DJ played for me…

Do They Know It’s Christmas? – Band Aid II

The 1984 Christmas number one was a ground-breaking record that has not only achieved legendary status, but has also done so much good for a worthwhile cause. Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?, masterminded by Boomtown Rats vocalist Bob Geldof and Ultravox frontman Midge Ure, brought together a star-studded line-up of contemporary music artists to raise much-needed funds for the Ethiopian famine crisis.

The track would be re-issued – to a more muted reception – in subsequent years, so when Geldof was asked in 1989 if the original 1984 version could be re-issued once more, he felt that it was time for a new recording.

According to the timeline published in Number One magazine, Pete Waterman took a call from Bob Geldof on Friday 1 December 1989, asking if SAW would produce a new version? Apparently Waterman accepted with little hesitation, but he had to move quickly.

Aside from the time needed for recording and production, the lead-in time for vinyl, cassette and CD production and distribution at that time meant that recording would have to take place that weekend.

As PWL was a small but independent organisation, Waterman was not only in a position to make a decision to take the project on, but was also able to turn the whole operation around in the tight timescales required. That said, PWL would link up with Polydor Records (part of the PolyGram group, who released the original 1984 version) for the eventual release and distribution of the record.

Gearing the staff and studios up for recording and production of the track was one thing, but it was quite another for Waterman to cancel his wedding to Denise Gyngell, which had been scheduled for that weekend!

Waterman appears to have spent Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd December collating a list of artists to invite to participate; his initial approach was to consult the chart and identify potential contributors. Artists who were available and agreed to participate included Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Bros, Wet Wet Wet, Lisa Stansfield, Chris Rea, Cliff Richard, Sonia and Bananarama (the latter the only artists to return from the original version).

The recording day was set for Sunday 3rd December. Mike Stock and Matt Aitken arrived at PWL Studios at 5am to commence work on the backing track; whilst this arrangement and production work would continue well into Monday 4th December, the initial requirement was to have a backing track for the performers to sing to, and this needed to be ready for midday.

Whilst Chris Rea was the first artist to arrive (at 11.30am), most of the other artists arrived around 2pm to start recording their parts. Whilst Lisa Stansfield & Wet Wet Wet were delayed by fog (but would ultimately arrive), other acts were forced to send apologies – such as Grace Jones (who missed her flight in the US), the London Boys (who were unable to travel from Hamburg) and Soul II Soul (who were actually holding a party for the children who sang on their recent Get A Life single). Phil Collins, Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney were unable to attend the recording session but all three pledged their support, with McCartney offering to pay for the catering.

Whilst the keyboards, guitars and other instrumentation was in the main played and programmed by Stock and Aitken, Chris Rea contributed additional guitars, whilst a drum kit was set up to allow Luke Goss to play drums and percussion; Goss’ contribution would be combined with the standard Linn drum programming, but the inclusion of real snare sounds gave the track an organic feel.

Recording would continue throughout the afternoon and into the evening, when at 8pm the final group chorus would be recorded. Vocal recording was completed by 9pm, with the artists finally vacating the studios by 11pm. Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, Pete Waterman and the studio staff would continue working on the track until 3am Monday morning.

Stock Aitken Waterman recommenced work on the track at 10am on Monday 4th December 1989, with work mainly focused on assembling the vocals and finalising the arrangement. Smash Hits reported that Stock and Aitken tried different variations of the arrangement; at one point, the track opened with a Soul II Soul-style drum pattern, but that was removed, whilst various guitar elements were tried out. The team carried on through the whole of that Monday, and finally handed a completed multi-track to Phil Harding at midnight; Harding would work through the night on the final mix.

This final mix was approved on Tuesday 5th December, with Capital Radio getting the first exclusive play of the track that same day.

The track is well-produced, especially considering the quick turnaround involved – the track took 2 long days from pre-production to final mix – and is arguably more polished than Ure's production of the 1984 version (a clear sign of how much technology and recording techniques had developed in 5 years – and don’t forget that Ure was a highly-talented and experienced producer by that point).

The arrangement is relatively restrained for a SAW track of that era; whilst there is the use of synth pads and chimes, the track has a reliance on rhythm guitar and real drums, rather than synth brass and rattling percussion. The instrumental version is worth a listen, and highlights the playing from Stock and Aitken, plus the contributions Rea and Luke Goss.

Tonally, the arrangement and production is upbeat, in comparison to the dour and serious atmosphere of the original Band Aid version. This move was the cause of most of the criticism of this version, but one could argue that the SAW arrangement reflects the hope in the song’s lyrics. I think is fair to say that the original version delivers the message more effectively, but I would argue that the Band Aid II version is stronger from a sonic perspective.

Another clear difference was the structure of the song. The original 1984 version built up verse by verse to a final grand chorus at the end, but SAW changed this structure so that the chorus recurred throughout the song (as per a standard pop song structure) as well as the final grand chorus. Some would argue this affected the narrative flow of the song and perhaps weakened the impact of the final chorus, but again, it emphasised that this was a different take on the song.

Vocally, the track is well-performed in the main; true, like many multi-artist records like this, some performers are perhaps not as effective as others, but there are many good performances on show here.

The combination of Minogue and Donovan’s vocals on the “Where the only water flowing / Is the bitter sting of tears” line is especially effective, whilst The Pasadenas section is really nicely arranged and performed. Strong performances also from both Lisa Stansfield and Sonia, whilst Chris Rea, Jimmy Somerville and Cliff Richard are also typically solid.

Marti Pellow and Matt Goss both make impressive contributions, even if the latter’s take on the “well tonight thank god it’s them/instead of you” line was quickly dismissed as inferior to Bono’s take on the same line in the 1984 version. In fairness to Matt Goss, he performs the line well but, given the power of Bono’s delivery and the emotive force of that lyric, any vocalist would have found it almost impossible to follow Bono’s performance.

As with the original, the record closes with a grand group performance of the “Feed the World” chorus, with the arrangement dropping out at one point to leave the vocals accompanied by drums only.

The track was released on Monday 11 December 1989, in 7”, CD single and cassette format. All formats carried two mixes – a 7” vocal version and a 7” instrumental; no extended or remixed versions were issued.

As expected, the single went straight to number one the following week, thus becoming Christmas number one. This left Jason Donovan’s When You Come Back To Me at number 2, but given that SAW produced Do They Know It’s Christmas? and that Donovan sang on it, one could argue that both SAW and Donovan actually did reach number one that Christmas – though perhaps not in the manner original envisaged.

Band Aid II would hold the number one position for 3 weeks, and would sell over 600,000 copies, but despite this success, there has been much dismissive criticism of this version.

It goes without saying that, irrespective of whether you like the record or not, the original Band Aid version of Do They Know It’s Christmas? is the definitive version. This is widely accepted, and there won’t be many arguments to the contrary.

However, that does not justify the attempts made over the years to eradicate the Band Aid II version from history. It is little played, was unavailable for many years and rarely mentioned, to the point that those of us around at the time must sometimes wonder if it actually happened at all!

(In fairness, the CD single for the Band Aid 30 version did carry the Band Aid II version (along with all other versions) so at least the Band Aid organisation appears to have softened its view).

There is a whole separate article to be written on the treatment Band Aid II has received over the years (and I’ll write that at some point) but briefly, the main criticisms appear to be that:

a) the calibre of artists was poor compared to the original version, and
b) the SAW production was too upbeat for such a serious subject matter

These are effectively subjective arguments, but my responses would be:

a) SAW picked artists who were popular at that time, just as Geldof did in 1984 – the key difference is that the original record was THE first big collaboration of huge musical artists; sure, there had been supergroups before, but nothing on this scale, and in many ways, this in itself made the original Band Aid record a significant cultural event. In addition, it appears that Geldof had a lead-in time of at least 10 days to recruit artists; Waterman had a day and a half.

b) The Band Aid II version may be a radically different take on the original, but surely, that instantly makes it more interesting than a carbon copy of the original (which SAW could have easily done, and in fact, that was the thing Geldof didn’t want).

My position on Band Aid II is: yes, you can’t beat the original version, but that doesn’t make the Band Aid II version (or for that matter, the Band Aid 20 and Band Aid 30 versions) worthless. If anything, it was the right record for that time. Band Aid II simply had the disadvantage of following the original version, a problem that the Band Aid 20 and 30 versions did not have to deal with.

For my money, SAW and the participating artists made a really good record, and this version is actually my favourite. A contrarian view perhaps, but then this entire site, dedicated to putting a positive spin on Mike, Matt & Pete's work, is a contrarian exercise in itself!

So, that was 1989 and Stock Aitken Waterman had finally achieved a Christmas number one. Whilst 1990 would be a year of mixed fortunes for the hitmaking trio, they would team up with an established soul singer to make a further attempt at Christmas number one…

Based upon and expanded from the entry in 80s UK Christmas Singles (available on Kindle here)

Ten SAW B-Sides I'd Have Made The A-Side! [Part 1]

As a Stock Aitken Waterman fan in the 1980s and early 1990s, one would become resigned to the fact that the B-side of many single releases would be an instrumental version of the A-side. As my love of all things SAW has deepened over the years, I’m now delighted to have so many instrumental versions that allow me to listen closely and pick out the different elements which make up the song.

As a teenager desperate for original SAW material, I was a bit frustrated by this reliance upon the instrumentals – but I guess this made the appearance of a brand new original SAW track on the B-side a VERY EXCITING EVENT!

Sure, some tracks would impress more than others, but every so often you’d get a SAW B-side which was just as good as the A-side, and in some cases, even better than the A-side.

So here is my – admittedly personal – list of the 10 SAW B-sides which I would have made the A-side!

The criteria for the list is:

• Written (and/or co-written) by SAW
• Standalone tracks not belonging to an original artist album
• A full song with lyrics

The latter point means that tracks such as I Wanna Be Your Everything by Delage, Just Call Me Up by Jason Donovan, and Do You Dare? by Kylie Minogue are excluded. As are the instrumental pieces SAW created for the Pat & Mick B-sides (although a separate article on these will follow).

Likewise, instrumental and dub mixes of the A-side are also excluded.

Hopefully, you will find some of your favourites in this list, but I’m equally as certain that you may be aggrieved that I have missed some obvious choices out. Yes, I’ve left out certain Kylie and Jason tracks which I love, but I don’t want this to be a list full of their tracks.

So here goes, in reverse order!

10) I Wanna Shout About It – Delage
[B-side to Running Back For More]

This infectious slab of dance pop from early 1990s SAW girl band Delage appears to have had an interesting genesis. As lovely as the A-side Running Back For More is, this meaty, utterly contemporary banger is probably the more commercial cut of the two tracks, and it is a mystery why this was consigned to B-side status. That said, the recent re-issue of Running Back For More carries additional mixes of I Wanna Shout About It, including 7” and 12” mixes, which suggests that it was considered as an A-side. So we have two key versions: a full vocal single version, and the version that made the B-side of Running Back For More, which omits the verses. The full vocal version is just glorious, with a strong lead vocal and some great backing harmonies, but the official B-side version heads more in the direction of the limited vocal style of contemporaneous dance tracks. A big dirty synth riff and some frantic house piano kicks off proceedings, whilst the solid beat and shifting synth pads give this track a real edge which takes it away from the standard SAW sound of the time towards the tough dance sounds dominating the charts at the time.  A great marriage of pop sensibilities and house influences, this was a real missed opportunity for both the band and producers. One of the emerging themes from this top 10 list of B-sides is how S(A)W were able to demonstrate they were still more than capable of remaining current and up-to-date in the early 1990s, but maybe there was a lack of confidence somewhere in terms of being more adventurous in choices of single material.





9) Say The Word – I’ll Be There - Kylie Minogue
[B-Side to Word Is Out]

Whilst Word Is Out still appears to be a polarising song for S(A)W and Kylie fans, its B-side Say The Word – I’ll Be There garners a much warmer reception. Composed by Stock, Waterman and Minogue, this smooth, mature mid-tempo ballad is worlds away from the beat-led and brass-boasting affair on the A-side. Underpinned by rich, rolling piano and made all the sweeter by the glorious backing vocals, Say The Word sees Kylie in pining mode as she makes her case to the object of her affections. It’s a further development of the Kylie sound; however, where the listener can hear the S(A)W DNA deep within Word Is Out, one could be forgiven for thinking that Say The Word had been produced by a different production team. It’s lush, with a real organic feel to its arrangement and production, with little in the way of electronic sounding synths and percussion to betray the trademark sound of its producers. Certainly Mike Stock, in his recent interview with Nick Moon, cited this track as one of his favourite B-sides. Whilst it perhaps wouldn’t have been the best choice for the first single of Kylie’s fourth album campaign, it would have made for a good third or fourth single and perhaps indicated a new direction for S&W and Kylie had they continued to work together. I would add though that it is almost a crime that the track didn’t make the Let’s Get To It album.





8) Story of My Life - Jason Donovan
[B-side of Rhythm of the Rain]

B-sides often allowed SAW to try something a little different, and during their imperial pure pop phase of 1988-1990, such experimentation was very welcome. So it was that the B-side of Jason’s Rhythm of the Rain gave us Baggy Jason (baggy, of course, being the early 1990s term to describe what would later be called indie). Story of My Life is a standard Jason tale of bad luck in love (“And by the way, if you’re looking for sunshine, I ain’t the luckiest one / If you come with me, there’d be cloud in the desert / or a total eclipse of the sun”), but the arrangement and production presents a real change to the SAW sonic palette of the time. Kicking off with wailing guitars, Jason’s tale of woe is backed by a solid electric guitar riff, honky-tonk piano and a thumping beat, whilst the inclusion of brass and organ enlivens proceedings further. As Tom Parker points out in his excellent sleeve notes for the Between the Lines Deluxe reissue, this track finally gives Jason the Happy Mondays-style track he’d coveted for some time, and surely he must have been pleased with the outcome. That’s why I think it’s a crying shame this languished on a B-side; it’s a million times more adventurous than the pleasant cover version that made the A-side. This track would have really benefited Donovan’s profile – it’s poppy enough to keep the SAW and Jason fanbase, but also different enough to pull in a wider audience – and would have been a good direction for both parties to head for.





7) Another Lover – Bananarama
[B-side of Last Thing On My Mind]

Please Yourself, Bananarama’s 1993 album with Stock & Waterman, received mixed reactions upon its original release, and actually remains a polarising collection amongst S(A)W and Bananarama fans to this day. I can’t help but wonder if that reception would have been improved at all by the inclusion of this track, which was on the flipside of Last Thing On My Mind but omitted from the album. It’s a decision which beggars belief, as this is a superior slab of 70’s disco-styled pop. The use of real strings (no doubt recorded in the same sessions as those for Give It All Up For Love and Is She Good To You?) creates an authenticity of the sound, whilst the addition of brass, funky rhythm guitar and rattling drums just adds to the joyous feel – even if lyrically it’s a tale of Keren and Sara telling a straying lover to pack their bags and go. Happily, the track eventually made it to the album on subsequent reissues, thus righting the original wrong, but for my money, this should have been an A-side back in 1992/1993.




6) Better Than Ever - Sonia
[B-side to Listen To Your Heart]

This sparky uptempo track had a former life, planned as it was to be a fourth Stock Aitken Waterman-branded single in 1989, featuring sometime PWL singer Lisa Fabien as guest vocalist. That version was never released at that time (although was finally issued as part of the PWL iTunes releases many years later), but you can’t keep a good SAW tune down, so it was eventually recorded by Sonia – but insanely was consigned to B-side status. It only takes one listen to know this is a hit record not given the chance to be one. Driven by a solid beat and a mean bass, the track is a perfect concoction of synth fx, brass riffs and guitar licks, providing a thrilling backdrop to Sonia’s tale of her sickeningly perfect relationship. As much as I love the A-side – a moody, house-influenced affair and much underrated – I do think Better Than Ever was a missed opportunity for another hit for Sonia.


Next time: we count down from 5 to 1…

You've Got A Friend: looking back at the 1990 Big Fun & Sonia charity single for Childline

October 2016 sees the 30th anniversary of Childline, a UK support service which helps vulnerable children and young people. For much of its history, Childline has been a telephone based service but this September, Childline (with the help of Barclays Bank) is launching an iPhone and Android app called For Me, which will allow children and young people to seek help via their phones and tablets.

To coincide with the launch of the For Me app, Childline asked Mike Stock to write and produce a record to help promote the app and support the charities involved.

This record -- which I'll come to later -- is released on Friday 9 September 2016, but as SAW fans know, this is not the first record Mike Stock has made in support of Childline.

The Childline service had been set up in 1986 by BBC TV presenter Esther Rantzen and BBC producers Sarah Caplin and Ritchie Cogan on the back of Childwatch, a programme they had produced about child abuse. Childline offered -- and still offers -- a 24/7 telephone counselling service for children and young people up to the age of 19, offering support for a wide range of issues.

Childline would eventually be incorporated into the NSPCC in 2006, but the service had been funded for its first three years by benefactor Ian Skipper. By 1990, funding was a real issue for Childline; the service was getting more calls than it was able to handle, meaning that there were children and young people unable to access the help they needed. Its founder, TV presenter Esther Rantzen, was appealing for funding on TV and in the press, and was also looking at other funding opportunities.

Back in early 1990, SAW were still riding high after dominating the charts the previous (and most commercially successful) year. Whilst there were signs that the market would start to move away from them later in the year, they and their acts were still enjoying great success. Two such acts were male trio Big Fun -- who had enjoyed three big hit singles so far -- and solo singer Sonia, who had followed up her debut number one single, You'll Never Stop Me Loving You, with three further hits.

Both acts were on the bill at a Childline Big Day Out charity event at the Alton Towers theme park in early 1990, and as Big Fun member Phil Creswick states in his notes for the 2010 reissue of the Big Fun A Pocketful of Dreams album, Rantzen asked Big Fun and Sonia if they would record a charity single to raise funds for the charity. Both acts liked this idea, and Big Fun's manager Bill Grainger put the idea to Pete Waterman.

By this time, SAW already had produced a number of charity records, including Let It Be (in aid of the 1987 Zeebrugge Ferry disaster), Ferry 'Cross The Mersey (in aid of the 1989 Hillsborough football tragedy) and most recently, a new version of Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas. Therefore, it was almost a given that SAW would agree to support Childline in this way.

A SAW produced version of the 1971 Carole King classic, You've Got A Friend, was recorded, but, for some unknown reason, it was decided that this cover version would not be released. Instead, a new composition with the same name was written by SAW. It is assumed that, given the speed surrounding most of the SAW charity singles, the artwork for the single had been produced before the decision was made not to proceed with the cover version, which would have forced the new composition to carry the same name.

The Carole King cover version remained unreleased until 2010, when it was issued as an extra track on the re-issued Big Fun album (although a short snippet had been available a few years before on the PWL website). Listening to it now, it is a solid version in what many would consider typical SAW style for the time; driven by some pleasingly chunky house piano, backed by swirling synth pads and a funky bassline, it's a fizzy and endearing version of the song. There's no question that this version would have been a hit, so it is difficult to work out why it was ditched in favour of a new composition.

That said, I do think the better track was issued as the single. While the Carole King cover was very much in the vein of early 1990 SAW, the mid-tempo SAW composition is refreshingly different -- and actually, in a different class.

The first thing that grabs you, after some jazz piano and the tight drumming kicks in, is the gorgeous saxophone riff, courtesy of occasional SAW collaborator Gary Barnacle. Barnacle was a very prominent session musician at the time, and this is certainly reflected by his credit on the cover (although it is fair to assume that, given the track's charitable status, this was offered in return for an unpaid contribution). The use of "real" instruments -- whether it be brass, strings or guitar -- was always a welcome addition to SAW records, and actually occurred more often than people think, even if you have to sometimes listen very closely due to their placing in the mix. Here though, Barnacle's sax is right out front, and really embellishes what was an already classy production.

The SAW composed You've Got A Friend is Mike, Matt and Pete in their jazzy soul mood. Underpinning the sax riff is a solid rhythm track -- more laidback than usual but energetic all the same -- whilst the aforementioned jazz piano combines with some neat rhythm guitar, warm synth pads, steady bass and sustained strings. Adding to proceedings are the lovely backing vocals from Mae McKenna, Linda Taylor and Mike Stock, which as usual bring real warmth to the track.

Vocally, it is Sonia who takes the lead, handling the second and third verses solo with typical finesse, with Big Fun's lead vocalist Mark Gillespie handling the first verse. The chorus, as one would expect, is sung by all four performers, and here, the combination of voices works well. That said, I think I'd have preferred it to have been a solo track for Sonia rather than a joint effort with Big Fun. It's almost churlish to suggest this -- given the goodwill shown by the participants for a deserving cause -- but for me, the Big Fun vocals detract a little from the overall effect of this track -- Gillespie's falsetto is very unique, but there is something about its tone which I sometimes find it difficult to warm to.

Lyrically, the track posits as a message to the listener from a friend and/or a lover, offering their support in bad times -- but of course, the lyrics can also relate to the help offered by Childline to those children and young people who are feeling vulnerable and in need of help. This is a "multiple meaning" lyrical trick which SAW used a number of times to great success, and indeed, one which Stock and his co-writer Johan Kalel have used on the Chloe Rose Childline-supporting track.

The whole affair adds up to a more mature sound for SAW compared to much of their output at the time -- and one wonders if this had any impact on its ultimate chart position. Certainly, a peak of #14 is completely respectable (and probably in line with both acts' chart performance in 1990), but given that the charity records helmed by SAW in previous years were much more successful, there must have been some slight disappointment at this chart position.

For me, the problem was this: the SAW composed You've Got A Friend is a classy, mature track that would have appealed to an older audience who would not be seen dead buying a record performed by Big Fun and Sonia (or indeed, produced by SAW). And I suppose the flipside of this is that the teenage audience who predominantly bought records by Big Fun, Sonia and SAW may have considered You've Got A Friend as too mature for them.

That said, I still consider this a fine record, immaculately arranged, mixed and produced. Somewhat underrated in the SAW canon, it's yet another stylistic departure for SAW and one wonders if it would be better remembered had it been performed by a SAW performer such as Sybil or Lonnie Gordon. I would direct you to seek out the extended instrumental, which really showcases the terrific playing by Stock, Aitken and indeed Barnacle -- it's a lovely, smooth listen.

Released in June 1990, the track came in four mixes: the 7" mix, the extended mix, the 7" instrumental and the extended instrumental -- all mixed by Pete Hammond. The 7" mix can be found (as can the previously unreleased Carole King cover) on the 2010 Cherry Red Special Edition of the Big Fun album A Pocketful of Dreams, whilst the other three mixes are currently out of print -- though one hopes for a digital release at some point.

It is worth noting that You've Got A Friend was the penultimate PWL single for its performers: Big Fun would release a SAW produced cover of the Eddie Holman track Hey There Lonely Girl in July 1990, but it's #62 chart position would see it as their final release on Jive Records. Sonia's SAW-produced cover of the Skeeter Davis track End Of The World performed better with a #18 peak in August 1990, but alleged business disagreements would see Sonia leave PWL & Chrysalis Records for a fairly successful run of singles with Simon Cowell's IQ Records.

Whatever your view of the track, You've Got A Friend raised much needed funds for the Childline support service and was therefore a worthy effort by all concerned. And 26 years on, Mike Stock is helping Childline once more, having written and produced a new charity single to support this much-needed service. The track -- For Me -- is the debut single for new pop singer Chloe Rose, and is an upbeat, contemporary pop song which carries the Childline message across in a very clever way. I've covered the track in more detail here. All proceeds go to support Childline, the NSPCC and the Wayne Rooney Foundation, so I would urge you to buy the track as not only is it for a great cause, it's also a terrific melodic pop song --  and we don't get enough of those these days.

You can buy For Me by clicking on the image below:

References:

Phil Creswick & Tom Parker - sleevenotes to A Pocketful of Dreams 2010 re-issue (Cherry Red)
Childline - Wikipedia page

The Harder (Sound) I Try: SAW and their three experimental 1990 singles

"[Big Fun] explain how Pete Waterman sat them down and told them that Stock Aitken & Waterman were looking for "a harder sound because they knew what they were doing wouldn't carry them into the late '90s". Lonnie Gordon's single was an experiment to try it out and, because that worked, they say "Handful of Promises" is the second."

Chris Heath, "Don't Big Fun Look Hard?", Smash Hits, March 1990

It is fair to say that Stock Aitken Waterman had a huge influence on pop music in the second half of the 1980s, and indeed came to dominate the scene in the last three years of the decade. But as the trio enjoyed their most successful year in 1989, the signs of change were in the air. Dance music was on the ascendant, whilst guitar indie bands like The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays were making in-roads to the charts.

One of the key factors of SAWs success was their ability to tap into the musical trends of the day and fuse them with their own pop sensibilities. This approach had borne great dividends, but the downside was that as SAW came to dominate the music scene, they had no-one but themselves to seek inspiration from. PWL mixmaster and producer Phil Harding comments in his excellent PWL From The Factory Floor book that he felt that SAW's amazing success in pop music resulted in a move away from their trendier dance records, and as a result, they lost a lot of crucial support from the DJ community which had supported them in the early days.

Therefore, the influx of new sounds into the pop charts and concerns about the sustainability of a sound which had already enjoyed at least three years of huge success presumably led to SAW thinking about what changes they could make to keep current without losing their unique selling point of strong pop melodies.

Various accounts have it that SAW came up with three tracks to showcase and test out a new harder sound for the 1990s. The first two -- as referenced in the Chris Heath quotation above -- were Happenin' All Over Again by Lonnie Gordon and Handful of Promises by Big Fun. The third is believed to have been Counting Every Minute by Sonia.

The question is: Did these three records really determine a new sound for SAW?

The opening salvo in this bold experiment was Lonnie Gordon's Happenin' All Over Again, which was truly an ideal blend between the melodic SAW pop of the previous year and the harder dance sounds breaking through into the 1990 music charts. Perhaps taking some inspiration from Black Box's 1989 smash Ride On Time, Happenin' All Over Again eschews the Italo piano of that track for a solid backing of acid synths and string synth pads, punctuated by a punchy percussion track. Gordon's powerful voice dominates proceedings, but special credit must be given to the intricate backing vocal arrangement -- immaculately performed by Mae McKenna and Miriam Stockley (plus Mike Stock). It sounds like a new SAW sound for 1990, and a nod back to the soul/dance material they created between 1985 & 1987. Some commentators suggest this track was written for Donna Summer -- and it's not too difficult to imagine Summer perform it -- but Gordon puts her own stamp on it and makes it her own. This venture into a harder sound was deemed a success -- it got a positive critical reaction and reached #4 on the UK Singles Chart -- and it suggested an exciting new year ahead for both Gordon and SAW. Therefore, it's sad to note that the prolonged decision-making that delayed the follow-up resulted in Gordon being unable to build on the impact she'd made with this single.

Kicking off with a dirty great air-raid siren, Big Fun's Handful of Promises certainly offers a denser sound than their two previous SAW-produced singles. "Harder" isn't exactly the right term here, given the act and some of the lyrics, but there is a move away again from the SAW sound of 1988 and 1989. No synth-brass, Staccato Heaven or dramatic drum fills here -- instead we get a crisp, hard beat, punctuated with the "whoa - yeah" sample, as well as a solid synth lead and a driving ringing riff. Some familiar staples remain, such as the synth string pads and female backing vocals, but there's also some acid house synths in there too. Melodically, it's a typically strong song, building nicely from the pacey verse, to a terrific bridge, through to the catchy chorus. There's definitely a punchier sound to this track, but unfortunately it is the act performing the track who prevent it from being "harder". Big Fun were perhaps an odd proposition as a boy band aimed at teenage girls (though they certainly succeeded in that target audience), but crucially, lead singer Mark had such an unusual voice that, in my opinion at least, detracted from the overall success of the recordings. One wonders how much better this track would have sounded with a lower-pitched vocal, though I do wonder if the opening lines of the chorus -- "Just a handful of promises / You gave me / A pocketful of dreams / That just won't do" -- could be better suited to a female performer. Handful of Promises reached #21 on the UK Singles Chart, but, despite my issues with the vocals, I think it's a good track and one which may have done better under a different act.

Sonia's Counting Every Minute completed the apparent trio of "harder" records, and indeed aims to make a statement of intent from the start. Opening with a chunky house beat, Italo house piano and acid synths, it again sounds like SAW are moving away from the trebly sound of the previous year, but the prominent use of chimes results in the record sounding more like what came before and less like a pointer towards the new "harder sound", even with the "whoa-yeah" sample. Don't get me wrong, it's a good track, with hints of Abba in the melody, and performed well by Sonia, but it's perhaps not as bold as the previous two records discussed here. There's some nice playing on the track from Mike and Matt, and interestingly the backing vocals are less prominent here than on other SAW tracks. The middle eight is great fun, with its stuttering sample and sweeping string swirl, and it has a great descending bass line at the end of the bridge, which sounds a bit like a schoolkid twanging a plastic ruler on their desk! Peaking at #16, this is Sonia at her pomp, as her subsequent two SAW singles would see a downshift in tempo.

Overall, it's fair to say that these three tracks did demonstrate an effort to develop the SAW sound for a new decade, and certainly all three were hits. That said, it's notable that all three acts would part ways with SAW as 1990 went on.

However, I'm still not sure that these three tracks fully realised the "harder" sound which Pete Waterman was aiming for, though I do think that Happenin' All Over Again came the closest. If anything, I would wager that there were other tracks in 1990 which were perhaps more successful attempts at a harder sound, such as Romi & Jazz's One Love One World (which I'll cover in more detail another time) and, most notably, Kylie Minogue's Better The Devil You Know.

Honourable mentions should also go to the two 1990 records which SAW produced under two different pseudonyms -- Grand Plaz's Wow Wow Na Na (with production credited to DJ Crazyhouse) and L.A. Mood's Ole Ole Ole (written and produced by Kean Canter Mattowski -- clearly an anagram of Stock Aitken Waterman) --  which also carried a tougher dance sound, though perhaps the Grand Plaz track was more successful in not sounding like a SAW production.

I'd wager, though, that rather than adopting a harder sound, SAW looked towards the dance and soul genres for the rest of 1990 (and into 1991). Whilst SAW still came out with pop-friendly tracks (such as Yell!'s One Thing Leads To Another and Jason Donovan's Another Night), Phil Harding has stated that following the critical and commercial success of Better The Devil You Know, Pete Waterman pursued a more club-orientated sound. Certainly, the singles from Delage, Grand Plaz, LA Mood and the third Lonnie Gordon single followed this model, though a soul & RnB sound was also catered for by the second Lonnie Gordon single and Sybil's Make It Easy On Me, as well as by the Cool Notes and Paul Varney tracks in 1991.

Unfortunately, the second half of 1990 resulted in SAW enjoying less chart success than the first half. A good number of strong tracks failed to make the Top 40, and in one or two cases, the Top 75. In some cases, such as Yell! and Lonnie Gordon, record company issues had an impact, but perhaps there was a general shift away from the SAW sound in favour of the new and exciting sounds coming through. Given that young people drive singles sales and that their tastes are remarkably fickle, it was inevitable that the market would move on -- and in many ways, it is remarkable that SAW maintained their stratospheric success for as long as they did.

One experiment I would have liked to have seen was SAW marrying their unique pop melodies with the indie-dance sound pioneered by The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays, bringing in a bit more guitar and breakbeats. That would have surely been a "harder sound" and an interesting diversification. All that said, I'm happy with what we got from SAW in 1990, but equally I am curious as to what the results of further experimentation in a harder sound would have been...