The Hit Factory: Stock, Aitken and Waterman (Part 2)
Josh Widdicombe's Archive of Pop Culture
Keep It Light Media
4.8 • 956 Ratings
🗓️ 14 January 2026
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Hit Factory: Stock, Aitken and Waterman
Episode 2: From Tea Boy to Chart Topper
In the second episode of this four part series, Josh Widdicombe and comedian and friend Matthew Crosby discuss the amazing story of Stock, Aitken and Waterman's 'Hit Factory' record label...
When we left them, the trio’s lives and careers had just converged, and the taste of that early success meant they agreed to collaborate on a new record label…
Little did they know they were about to go on an insane run of chart topping pop success with the likes of…
Cliff Richard, Mel and Kim, Bananarama, Sinitta and Rick Astley…
They would help to define a decade in pop music, but also label them as “being second to Margaret Thatcher as ‘the worst thing about the 1980s.’”
Episode 3 is available on all podcast platfroms on the 17th January.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the Museum of Pop Culture and the story of Stock Aitken and Waterman's Hit Factory. |
| 0:10.0 | When we left them, the trio's lives and careers had converged and the taste of early success meant they'd agreed to collaborate on a record label. |
| 0:17.0 | No one could know that they were about to go on an insane run of chart-topping |
| 0:21.7 | pop success with the likes of Mel and Kim, Bananarama, Sanita, Cliff Richard and Rick Astley |
| 0:28.4 | that would lead them to define a decade in pop music, but also lead some to label them |
| 0:33.3 | the worst thing about the 1980s, except Margaret Thatcher. |
| 0:46.6 | Hello, welcome back to part two of the Stock Aitken and Waterman story, Matthew Crosby. Hello? Hello. So we kind of left it. Pete Waterman and Stock and Aiken have had their first number one. |
| 0:54.7 | They're on the cusp of greatness. |
| 0:56.1 | They're on the cusp of greatness. |
| 0:57.7 | And this is 1984. |
| 0:59.9 | Obviously, it wasn't predicted by Orwell. |
| 1:06.6 | Would you put the music of Doc Aiken and Waterman into your room one over? |
| 1:09.7 | Absolutely not. |
| 1:11.9 | No, no, I wouldn't either. So it is Thatcher's Britain that they are starting to find success in. |
| 1:19.4 | I think it's important to kind of see it in that wider context. |
| 1:24.6 | 1984 in Britain, how old would you have been? |
| 1:26.8 | Four. |
| 1:27.3 | Four, so you don't remember it. |
| 1:29.0 | No, no. |
| 1:29.9 | Not really. |
| 1:30.9 | Torval and Dean is probably one of the big iconic moments. |
| 1:34.3 | They get maximum points for their Bolero at the Winter Olympics, and they're the big |
... |
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