Mike Stock: Celebs Rumors

Kylie Minogue has announced that she will be appearing in an upcoming musical based on songs produced by The Hit Factory.As The Hit Factory, Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman dominated the ’80s pop scene by writing a slew of Number Ones singles – penning and producing 25 hits for the ex-Australian soap star-turned-singer, including her first chart-topper ‘I Should Be So Lucky’.I Should Be So Lucky: The Scott Aitken Waterman Musical is written and directed by Debbie Isitt, who has woven all 25 songs they wrote for Minogue to tell the story of a young couple called Ella and Nathan who are set to be wed when things suddenly go awry. Minogue will “digitally appear throughout the show as a specially created character unique to the musical.”The World Premiere of the official Stock Aitken Waterman musical will be at the Bristol Hippodrome – Tue 9 Apr – Sat 13 Apr 2024.

Rick Astley has sued Yung Gravy over the track ‘Betty (Get Money)’, which borrows heavily from the former’s hit and Rickrolling meme classic ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’. Though it’s not a copyright case, with Astley claiming that his publicity rights were infringed when Young Gravy’s team employed a soundalike to recreate the ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ vocals within ‘Betty (Get Money)’.Part of the recent trend of new pop songs overtly and heavily interpolating old pop songs, Yung Gravy’s people got all the required permissions from the writers and publishers of ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ to incorporate the 1987 song into the 2022 release.Indeed, as a result of licensing the interpolation, the writers of ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ – the British 80s pop-making team that were Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman – get all the songwriting credits for ‘Betty (Get Money)’ on the database of US collecting society MLC.However, according to Billboard, Astley’s lawsuit explains that Yung Gravy wasn’t able to get permission to actually sample the original recording of ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’.

It's a tune that transcends time. An earworm that earned an Aussie soap star five weeks atop the singles chart. A song that cemented Stock Aitken Waterman among pop's most prolific producers.