Heres another little snippet from my up-coming book - This chapter explains the mystery as to why there is a Mandy Smith version of Kylies, Got to be certain, that was always denied until recently! You can pre-order my book and Double CD at the PledgeMusic link below. Distribution is international. pledgemusic/projects/petemixmasterhammond Pete Waterman’s prediction before Christmas proved to be accurate, and in January 1988 PWL was on a roll! I eventually finished the two Mandy Smith tracks that I was producing in mid January – after being further interrupted by having to remix an alternative version of, Kylie’s, “I should be so lucky,” in an out High Energy style. Then, on 11th, 14th, and 17th of January respectively I was given two of SAW’s Mandy productions and one of Daize Washnourne’s to mix for the album. They were: “Boys and Girls” “He’s my boy.” “Got to be certain.” By this time in my PWL adventure, I’d learned the routine pretty well. I’d discovered that starting at 11pm at night was often quite unnecessary. Starting at that time would mean that I’d be ready for Waterman to have a listen to the basic mix by three or four in the morning, and then I’d have to sit around, bored and tired, until he woke up at about 8.30am. So the little middle-of-the-night excursions to Gatwick etc. were stopped. Instead I started coming in later; about 3.30 to 4am. - I found it worked out much better with my sleep patterns, which were all over the place; I was getting palpitations and all sorts! Mike Stock and Matt Aitken knew I was starting later; therefore any special information regarding a mix was passed on to the assistants, or left in the form of notes on the SSL computer. At the time I was doing the three SAW / Mandy mixes Waterman was away somewhere or other - he was away a lot at the time. Then I heard through the grapevine that Mike and Matt thought my mix of Mandy’s, “Got to be certain,” was a load of crap, and they were of the opinion that I’d come in very late on that night and just thrown the thing together…they complained to Waterman. Actually, the contrary was true, I’d agonized over the bloody mix! As mentioned earlier in this book, you can’t magic something poor to be good (no disrespect Mandy). Mandy’s vocals were just not very good, and her timing was also poor, which made the track sound dull and feel uncomfortable. Anyhow, for the time being I did nothing more to the mix and awaited Waterman’s return… After his return – and all the usually rushing around and shouting – he caught me just as I was finishing up one morning and took me to one side. “Ammo...” He said. “Lets av a listen to this Mandy track that Mike and Matt are moaning about.” So I had an assistant dig out the master DAT and we went into the control room and put it in the machine… “I don’t know what they’re moaning about,” I said while we were waiting for the tape to locate, “I spent a bloody long time on this one!” We both sat down at the SSL mixer and the mix started playing…after the first minute he jumped up and shouted (he was fond of shouting), “Stop the bloody tape! Mike! Matt! Take Mandy off of this! Let’s get Kylie on it ASAP…its a blooming smash!” My mix was recalled on the SSL and Kylie’s voice replaced Mandy’s. Apart from that the mix remained completely unchanged…
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 08:02:48 +0000