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…

Up and coming singer Rob Eagle releases the deluxe edition of his breakthrough album The Clue To Life on January 1st, 2013. Part of this new package are the Matt Pop mixes of Paralyzed. You can have a listen now to the Matt Pop Radio mix on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/#parky2222/paralyzed-matt-pop-radio-edit 

The Matt Pop Club Mix of Tell It To My Heart by feisty Raquela – a cover of the Taylor Dayne classic ofcourse – was added to the Ultimate Club DJ Pack for December on Cd Pool, where it rubs shoulders with the likes of Rita Ori, Enrique Iglesias and Avicii, to name but a few. Cd Pool is Europe’s number one promo service for DJ’s,  so it’s great to see the lovely Raquela getting recognition this way! http://www.cdpool.com/catalogue/disc/remix-december-2012/

Those of you who are familiar with Matt Pop’s work will know that he is not averse to a bit of camp every now and then, and his latest production with Hong Kong’s finest DJ Stonedog is camper than a row of tents. Yes, it’s Big Gay Anthem, a song so gay that even some gay radio stations have complained about it – which ofcourse amused DJ Stonedog and Matt no end. Written by DJ Stonedog,  produced by Matt, and sung by lovely upcoming dance diva Thara, the song consists entirely of titles of gay classics (whatever those are, right?) so the lyrics are a pub quiz waiting to happen (“name at least 5 song titles mentioned in the second verse of Big Gay Anthem!”).  It was supposed to be out on iTunes last week, but there has been a small hiccup with our Apple friends; however,  you can download the Matt Pop radio edit,  club mix and club mix without rap now: https://itunes.apple.com/nl/album/big-gay-anthem-feat.-thara/id578676283  To watch the YouTube preview, go here: http://youtu.be/jc6I25EXhVc