Matt Pop has re-mixed an entire Hazell Dean album last year (“In The Name Of”, due out this spring) but had never actually met the lady herself. Until last night, that is. She was in Holland on a flash visit, performing some of her biggest hits at a massive dance classics party, and just before she was whisked away from her hotel to the venue, Matt and Hazell managed to meet for drinks and a chat. Well – Matt had the drinks and Hazell, ever the professional, stuck to mineral water. Compliments about eachother’s work flew across the table, closely followed by showbiz gossip. Both Matt and Hazell are very proud of the upcoming album and are hoping that fans will come out in droves to support it. Keep checking this page for release updates.

The last of the Hazell Dean tracks (No Frills Love, if you must now) has just left the Matt Pop studio, flying through cyber space to the virtual desk of the record company, where it will join the nine other Matt Pop mixes that together will form Hazell‘s new album In The Name Of.  Plans are to include all the original Dean & Ware mixes as well, making it a no-holds-barred double whammy! Hazell is singing better than ever and has lovingly hand-picked a set of her favourite pop and dance classics. The Matt Pop mixes range from contemporary club, to disco house, to techno funk and with some old-fashioned retro high-energy thrown in for good measure. Album release is set for early spring, with the next single This Is My Life coming out before that.  http://www.hazelldean.net/

So – the holidays are over and for those of you who aren’t sick of hearing it yet: Happy New Year! 2012 has been the busiest, most eventful year in the Matt Pop calendar so far.  Highlights include the succes of Peter Wilson’s Laser Light album and singles, the many mixes for Almighty Records and RuPaul that came out, the opportunity to revive the “lost” Samantha Fox PWL tracks, the Facebook Fan Group growing to 800+ members, and the Matt Pop YouTube channel passing the 2 million views mark. On a personal note: meeting Dj Stonedog, Sammy Paul, Nicki French and Peter Wilson in the flesh for the first time at the Energise Records night in London was amazing, and the fact that a few Matt Pop fans came up to say hi was the cherry on the cake! Then there was the Matt Pop Meet & Greet in Amsterdam, and the Hit Factory Live Christmas Cracker in London – it’s almost too much! Except it isn’t ofcourse, so there will be plenty more Pop coming your way in 2013. Here is a little round-up:

Just released: the Matt Pop mixes of Paralyzed, the explosive track from Blackpool’s finest Rob Eagle. Work on the Matt Pop mixes for Hazell Dean’s upcoming album “In The Name Of” is almost done, and first reactions to the finished songs have been very favourable, so fingers crossed! Then there is Peter Wilson’s next album, with 3 Matt Pop productions already recorded and a few more to come. Other Matt Pop releases that should be coming your way soon include When Boy Meets Boy by Matt Fishel and Unprotectable by David Christopher (it has been a long time coming, but I am assured by the label that it is now really on its way). Finally, for now, there is a very exciting project Matt Pop is working on with Almighty Records. Can’t say much more yet, as I don’t want to jinx it, but if it happens, you won’t have very long to wait. Make sure to check this page regularly for any updates. 

After a false start last summer – when the show at London’s Hyde Park was cancelled at the last minute because of  non-stop rain – last Friday, PWL fans finally got what they had been craving for: a reunion concert of the biggest Stock, Aitken & Waterman stars of the 80’s and 90’s . And a triumph it was, too! From the no-holds barred opening by my fellow Amsterdammers 2 Unlimited (the only act of the evening PWL actually never wrote/produced for), it was a long string of highlights and surprises. Practically every song performed was met with an ecstatic roar from the audience, and the sound of tens of thousands of fans singing along, word for word. If anything, the evening proved  how much those S/A/W – hits have become part of public consciousness. There were 3 artists on stage that I have done remixes for (Sonia, Hazell Dean and Lonnie Gordon) and two more if you count Kylie (my remix of Can’t Beat The feeling remains unreleased) and the artist I did 2 mixes for that may or may not come out in the near future. So it was a great opportunity to see them all perform live, especially with the magical, nostalgic and Christmassy feel of an O2 Arena full of pop-mad fans. My personal highlight of the evening  was when Pat & Mick came on, because A: I never thought they would be there, and B: their version of Use It Up, Wear It Out is one of my all-time favourite PWL records. My only gripe is that I would have liked a little more credit being given to the producers, engineers and remixers at PWL, the people who actually made the records we all came to love. Mike Stock and Matt Aitken were mentioned only once (which was greeted with a spontaneous applause from the audience) but it would have been nice if Dave Ford, Ian Curnow, Pete Hammond, Phil Harding and all the others who were responsible for the sound of the biggest hits and remixes had gotten a mention somewhere. But all in all, it was a pretty unforgettable evening, and with all the artists seeming to genuinely enjoy themselves (with the possible exception of Pete Burns?), who knows: someone somewhere might just be mad enough to try and do this all again…