This article is the English version of the Greek article

https://dilzas.net/2020/10/31/267actiongreek/

translated in English by TINA REFENES

It is 1990.
Stock Aitken Waterman dominate the global POP music industry whose productions have been at the top of the charts since 1987, promoting the new stars of the era, Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Rick Astley, Mel & Kim, Sinitta etc.

 Stock Aitken Waterman at the time when they dominated the global charts (Photo from https://talkaboutpopmusic.com/)

Actually, the truth is that they showed their strength in 1984 with the release of “You think you’re a Man” with Divine, (climbing to No. 16 in the UK Chart), and “Whatever I Do” with Hazell Dean, (climbing to No. 4 in the UK Chart) while in 1985 they had their first No. 1 hit in the UK with “You Spin me Round (Like a Record)” with Dead or Alive.

They took off in 1986 with the cover of “Venus” by Bananarama (No. 1 in the USA and No. 8 in the UK), and from 1987 onwards they flooded the global POP music industry with their successive hits, working with the top names of POP music, (Donna Summer, Samantha Fox, Sabrina, Rick Astley, Cliff Richard and others). 

The front cover of Stock Aitken Waterman’s triple reunion album “GOLD” released in 2005 with 46 of their successful golden era singles and 8 video clips

It is worth noting here the huge success Rick Astley had with “Never Gonna Give You Up” which reached the top of the UK Chart in 1987 and remained at No. 1 for 5 weeks, and later topping the charts in many other countries notably No. 1 in the USA and Australia!

The full story of “Never Gonna give you up” at UK Charts – 5 weeks at No 1!

So in 1990, and while the Stock Aitken Waterman team had created the famous “PWL sound”, named after the studio where they prepared their productions under the supervision of Phil Harding, Pete Hammond and Dave Ford, a news item appears in the Greek music magazines announcing that our beloved music producer Mihalis Tsaousopoulos was recording a single with the PWL sound in England!!  Yes, in the same studio where the recordings of Kylie, Jason, Rick and all the others were produced!!  There was no Internet, no Instagram or social media in those days to keep us updated online.  I remember hearing the news on Natalia Germanou’s TV show one afternoon while watching our favourite “Club Sandwich”, where we were kept up to date on all relevant music news!

As I have written in another article,  there were many times where we learned of new releases by visiting the record stores!  Metropolis in Athens was the “temple” where all record maniacs congregated on a daily basis, and after browsing through all the new releases, we would chat with the sales assistants to find out what the record companies were up to, and what new releases would appear on the market.  Before Goin’ Through was created, Nikos Vourliotis worked at Metropolis and he would always give us all the news on our favourite singers releases.

And so one day we find the shelves of Metropolis on Panepistimiou Avenue filled with a new maxi single by Michalis Tsaousopoulos (known as 267) titled “Action”!

The front and back cover of the Maxi – Single “Action”

On the stylish front cover Michalis appears as a pop star and on the back cover we see that the song comes in two versions with the copyright of PWL! It was true then!! Reading the credits we see that the song was indeed recorded at the HIT FACTORY PWL studio, with Dave Ford as producer!!

We also read that Stock Aitken Waterman gave their permission for the production, with Miltos Karatza (the Director of BMG Greece) acting as mediator, and with Paul Waterman (Pete Waterman’s son) participating in the recording.

The project was conceived and facilitated by Miltos Karatzas, the General Manager of BMG Greece then, who managed to bring together Stock Aitken Waterman and Mihalis Tsaousopoulos in order to undertake this unprecedented collaboration resulting in the release of the single!

Miltos Karatzas (Managing Director @ Walnut Entertainment now) is the man behind the project “Action” as the General Manager of BMG Greece then (photo from Miltos Karatzas twitter profile)

Me together with the Greek pop star Sofia Arvaniti and Mr. Miltos Karatzas 3 years ago !

The song was recorded for philanthropic reasons as the profits from the sales of the disc were made available for the financial and ethical support of the therapeutic community ITHAKI.

The songs from the maxi single have not been uploaded todate in their entirety and today I have uploaded both versions of “Action” (Original Mix and Dance Mix) onto my Channel Kosdil – Dilzas Says and Shares.

With this release Mihalis Tsaousopoulos passed onto the history of PWL sound recordings which characterised an entire era. Unfortunately, the single did not sell very well and from what I can remember, the video clip mentioned on the cover was never released.

The two songs of the single are here:

267 (Mihalis Tsaousopoulos) – “ACTION” (Original Mix):

267 (Mihalis Tsaousopoulos) – “ACTION” (Dance Mix):

*Michael Tsaousopoulos is one of the greatest DJs, radio and music producers in Greece. He is very popular, he has presented many music shows on the radio and television, and for some years now he is the General Manager of the successful radio station Athens Deejay 95.2, and also the presenter on the even more successful morning radio show Breakfast at FM in Greece!

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Happy listening to “ACTION”!