BGF

TO CELEBRATE THEIR 30TH ANNIVERSARY, THE HITMAKERS HAVE REMASTERED THE FOUR ALBUMS THEY MADE WITH THEIR MOST SUCCESSFUL ARTIST, KYLIE MINOGUE. WE TAKE A LOOK BACK AT HOW THE LABEL DEFINED THE SOUND OF THE MID-1980S

WORDS: MARK LINDORES

BIG GAY FOLLOWING

STOCK AITKEN WATERMAN

KYLIE WAS THE DARLING OF THE LABEL

In the 27 years since Kylie Minogue released I Should Be So Lucky, she has performed the track in a myriad of styles, from torch song to techno rave-up to reciting the lyrics at the Poetry Olympics (in trackie bottoms and trainers with a face scrubbed free of make-up, no less). However, it is the moment she climbed into a bubble bath to recreate the now iconic scene from the song’s video on her Kiss Me Once tour that will go down as the definitive live rendition of the song. Remaining faithful to the original version, the performance was an unabashed love letter to Kylie’s apprenticeship at Stock Aitken Waterman’s Hit Factory, where, under the guidance of the chart-topping triumvirate, she was veered to becoming the pop icon we know and love today.

To mark the 30th anniversary of the Hit Factory, Kylie’s four Stock Aitken Waterman-produced albums have been given the deluxe edition treatment, digitally remastered and packed with remixes, B-sides and videos.

“These really are the definitive versions of the Kylie albums,” says Pete Waterman. “Everything we did with Kylie is on these reissues, there is nothing else left. We don’t have any unreleased demos of any artist because we never did them – that isn’t how we worked. We wrote the song specifically for them, recorded it, then put it out. We didn’t have time to write songs we weren’t going to use.”

As well as the wealth of material contained on the CDs, the reissues feature bonus DVDs featuring scarce TV performances – the ultimate souvenir of the retro-Kylie experience and, says Pete, an integral part of the Stock Aitken Waterman phenomenon.