“Do you wanna do the upstroke?”

 

With that potentially provocative lyric, Stock Aitken Waterman made their first mark on the pop landscape—not with a bang, but with a wink.

 

In the spring of 1984, the British music scene was awash with synth-pop, New Romantic glamour, and the lingering echoes of post-punk experimentation. Amid this sonic swirl, a curious single emerged from the underground: THE UPSTROKE by Agents Aren’t Aeroplanes. It was the debut release from a newly formed production trio—Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Pete Waterman—whose names would soon become synonymous with chart domination. But at this embryonic stage, they were still finding their voice, testing boundaries, and, quite literally, striking a chord.

 

By January 1984 Mike Stock and Matt Aitken had agreed to finish playing live shows and concentrate on writing and producing their own records.

 

“We had been working in the studio for about a year and a half making our own records under various guises, not seeking major releases just going onto local independent labels and producing for other people. Of course, as well as all this we were supporting ourselves by doing live gigs. We would have stayed doing that forever because it was very comfortable, but we wanted more. We decided that we were going to have to make the studio pay for itself, so we took the brave step of trying to get a deal on one track that we had done with two girls from Essex.” - Matt Aitken

 

Their plan to launch a ‘female version of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’ had led to the creation of the Hi NRG track THE UPSTROKE. The title of the song apparently came from a comment Matt had made about his shaving technique…doing the up stroke! There was also the suggestion that the upstroke was a dance move favoured by London’s so called “Sloane Rangers”, a young, affluent, and upper-middle-class social group in London during the 1980s, but it’s with a nudge nudge wink wink that hints of something naughtier – indeed the title of the extended mix was called The Naughty mix.

 

Written with keyboard player Pete Ware, the track was recorded in early January with sisters Julie and Diana Seabrook fronting the project under the name Agent’s Aren’t Aeroplanes. 

 

Agents Aren’t Aeroplanes wasn’t a real band in the traditional sense. It was a studio project, a vehicle for Stock Aitken Waterman to test their production chops and see how far they could push a concept. The name itself is absurdist, almost dadaist—an anti-band name for an anti-hit single. But beneath the surface, THE UPSTROKE reveals the DNA of what would become the SAW sound: tight arrangements, infectious hooks, and a fearless embrace of pop’s theatricality.

 

“The group were entirely manufactured by us out of thin air, although they did subsequently exist because we needed someone to front the record. The first page of The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John Le Carre has a quote at the bottom ‘What time will the agent from Russia get into London, we need to pick him up and talk to him. Well agents aren't aeroplanes you know.’ I was just reading it and thought that’ll do. At that time, I think there was a penchant for silly names like Frankie Goes To Hollywood which caught the ear but really had no meaning or relevance” – Mike Stock

 

The track itself is a curious blend of Hi-NRG and tongue-in-cheek camp. It feels like a lost cousin of Divine or Patrick Cowley—more club than radio, more underground than mainstream.

 

After a demo recording was completed Mike and Matt set out to find a label who would support their project and release the track. After several unsuccessful meetings in London, Mike and Matt met with Pete Waterman at his offices in Camden. Mike Stock had already had a brief encounter with Pete Waterman, when his song ONE NINE FOR A LADY BREAKER, was produced by Pete Collins who was managed by Pete Waterman.

 

“I’d already had some dealings with Pete a couple of years before when my brother and I had written a song – One nine For A Lady Breaker – for a citizen band radio club. I had recorded the song in 1982 under the pseudonym Chris Britton, and it was produced by Peter Collins, the record producer for Musical Youth and Nik Kershaw. The song got a few local radio plays and found its way to Pete Waterman, a go-ahead guy who managed Peter Collins. It was because of this tenuous link that I decided to approach Pete in 1984”. – Mike Stock

 

“I Got a call from a guy called Mike Stock asking if he could come and see me. By this point, I had left MCA and decided to strike out on my own. I had expected to be inundated with work but because the records I had been involved with had Loose Ends Productions on them and not Pete Waterman, no one contacted me, so I agreed to the meeting. Mike came up with Matt and they played me this song called The Upstroke. There was something about the track, it was different. I liked it but felt it had to be more radical”. - Pete Waterman

 

“Pete played it to the second chorus and then he stopped it. He reached down under his desk and pulled out a record and put it on the turntable, it was the New York mix of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Relax and he said can you make yours sound like this to which we confidently replied yes”. – Matt Aitken

 

During this meeting on January 15th, 1984, Mike and Matt explained their idea to Pete who was instantly in-tune with their concept.

 

" OK, so you're the band, you make the record and the girls front it. I understand what you're getting at. I like it. Let's go in the studio and do it!" – Pete Waterman

 

So, on February 14th Mike, Matt and Pete went to the old Marquee Studio in Wardour Street and recorded the track that became the very first Stock Aitken Waterman record. Barry Evangeli, a Greek Cypriot, was sharing a flat with Pete Waterman at the time. He ran a label called Proto Records with his partner Nick East, and they agreed to put the record out.

 

“For the first time in my life I was let loose in a real recording studio. We discovered all sorts of effects and noises and things, and we went to town and lost the plot really and it became something entirely different to our original demo. We were honing our skills at that point and working in a good quality London studio was a great thrill but a bit daunting. I’d never seen a sampler until then. Boy, was that a revelation!” – Mike Stock

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Though The Upstroke didn’t storm the charts—it peaked at number 93 in the UK—it made waves in the places that mattered most to Stock Aitken Waterman’s early ambitions: the underground club scene and the gay discos of London where it faired significantly better. It debuted at #22 on the Hi NRG chart on 31/03/84 and stayed on that chart for over 3 months, peaking at #9.

The gay community was a powerful tastemaker in the 1980s, especially in dance music. Clubs like Heaven and Trade were incubators for new sounds, and THE UPSTROKE found a receptive audience there. Its camp sensibility made it a perfect fit for the Hi-NRG aesthetic that dominated these spaces.

 

Despite its club popularity, The Upstroke didn’t receive mainstream radio support—except from one surprising source: John Peel.

 

Known for championing alternative and underground music, Peel was the first DJ to play a Stock Aitken Waterman record on national radio. His endorsement lent the track a kind of subcultural credibility that contrasted sharply with SAW’s later reputation for bubblegum pop.

 

"I was the first person to play one of their records on the radio. So, whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, it’s up to you to decide. I played it because it was weird, catchy, and unapologetically cheeky. It didn’t sound like anything else.” – John Peel

 

While THE UPSTROKE wasn’t a commercial triumph, it was a creative one. It proved that Stock Aitken Waterman could produce a professional, club-ready track with a distinct identity. It also demonstrated their ability to craft a concept-driven act—Agents Aren’t Aeroplanes was essentially a studio invention

 

After the release of THE UPSTROKE the decision was made to continue working as a team.

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“When we first went to Pete we were just after some advice on the publishing side. It wasn't with a view of working with him. But at that time, he had just split up with his partner, so he was effectively looking for someone else to manage but didn't want to be known as manager he wanted to be co-producer. We had various conversations, and it was clearly obvious that we had a lot of common ground and that was how we started working with him.” – Matt Aitken

 

“Mike and Matt were, as far as I was concerned, the most talented people I had ever met and as a combination they worked well. They were unlike anyone I’d ever worked with. Mike’s knowledge of music, and his grasp of the theory behind it all, was awe-inspiring. He was obviously the leader of the two.” – Pete Waterman

 

“I had warmed to Pete immediately, and I liked his salesmanship. Matt and I realised that his strength lay in his vast wealth of contacts in the industry and if he would be 100% behind us, we’d split everything three ways. We felt If we shared everything equally, production credits, writing credits we would therefore be a stronger unit.

 

We shook hands on it outside the pub and from that moment on we were Stock Aitken Waterman” – Mike Stock