In early 1986, the ASCAP award winning record producer Steve Rowland was introduced to a bubbly East Londoner with a great voice, an infectious personality, and big dreams of becoming a 'pop star'. After a difficult time personally, Mel was taking control of her life and embarking upon a quest to make those dreams a reality - and Steve played a integral role in both she and her sister Kim's imminent success as a duo. Here, Steve vividly recalls the timeline... from his first meeting with Mel to negotiating a deal for the sisters with Supreme Records... and he shares his memories of two "wonderful girls" who he would have done anything for.
Hi Steve, thank you so much for agreeing to chat with us.
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It's my pleasure.
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To start off, tell us how you first met Mel?
I’ll tell you exactly how I met Mel... I used to run a show on Monday nights, at a club in London called La Valbonne, which was on Kingly Street. La Valbonne was a pretty famous venue back then. It was seen as the ‘in club', and it would be considered like... I don't know... CBGB's or The Palladium, in New York - those kinds of places. It had a stage, so I would have six or seven unknown acts come in and perform for different agents and managers, to see if they were interested in taking them on. Anyway, it was actually a Tuesday night, and there was something else on, but Alan Whitehead and I decided we would meet up there, as he wanted to discuss another act with me. But he had brought Mel along as a date, as she was singing lead in his act The Glamour Girl Roadshow, at the time. Mel was a wonderful, wonderful girl... an absolutely sensational girl.
What led to you recording the initial demos with Mel?
Well, that night, the three of us were sitting at a table, talking about what we were all doing... one of those, kind of, conversations (laughs). And I could tell that Mel would make a great pop star - with her looks and personality - so I said to her, ‘Hey Mel. Have you ever thought of singing?’ Mel told me that that was what she really wanted to do, and so I asked her, ‘Really? Is that your ambition? That's your dream?’ Mel said, ‘Oh yeah. I sing all the time at home. I dunno how good I am, but I think I can sing pretty well.' I remember, I turned to Alan and said, 'Let’s put her in the demo studio and see what she sings like.' Mel was all for it, so Alan bought a couple of those tracks you put into a karaoke machine and then sing along to, and we went to my friend's recording studio, in Southend, and put her voice down.
Did Mel require any vocal preparation or training before you started to record those very first demos?
No, she did not! Mel had a great voice, and a great aptitude for singing, believe me! We didn’t have any record deals at that point, but my friend had actually written a song called Where Is Love, that he thought would be a good dance track that we could take to a record company. So, I put Mel's voice on it and we went down to Supreme Records to play it to Nick East. That is the difference between then and now. Music deals were done a lot differently in those days. There was no downloading, there was no doing anything on the computer, there was no digital studio work or anything. You used to have to find somebody and take them in the studio to make a demo, and then you would present that demo to the record company. That was how it worked.
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What prompted you guys to go down the dance route with Mel's demo?
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Well, it was the disco dance era (laughs), so we were trying to get her into that. All the records that were happening were starting out in the clubs, and then, if they were commercial enough, they would be moved to the BBC and the other radio stations in England, to be played on the radio. And, of course, if they were played on the radio then that was when you really could get a hit record. So, I figured that it was gonna be taken in the dance direction, and that’s why we did this special track [Where Is Love]. It was my decision to do that.
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And why was it Supreme Records that you approached first?
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I was doing business with Supreme Records at that time. And Nick East, who was the Managing Director, was always asking me if I knew of anybody new, or any unsigned dance groups, so the first place that me and Alan went was to Supreme. I remember saying, ‘Nick, I am not gonna give you any hype and I am not gonna give you any kind of sales pitch. I’m just gonna show you Mel's picture and play you this cassette'. Anyway, Nick listened and, halfway through it, he was jumping up and down, saying, 'this is great, this is great'! (Laughs).
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Until very recently, we fans had little experience of Mel’s solo vocal abilities, and you, yourself, described Mel as having "a great voice"...
Oh, Mel was a sensational singer. She really had a great voice... a really great voice! It was so very soulful... and you can’t learn that. That has to be natural - and Mel was a natural! She was as natural as someone like Beyonce. Had Mel lived, she would have been a huge star, believe me! Because, she had the looks, she had the personality, and she certainly had the vocal ability.
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… and yet, Nick chose not to sign Mel to his label, as a solo artist. Why do you think that was?
Well... Nick loved the tape, and Mel's picture - he absolutely loved them - but he really wanted to find a double act. Supreme had Princess under contract at that time, and they had had a hit record with Say I'm Your Number One, but Nick said that she was acting up, and they were having problems with her management, and he wanted to come up with somebody else. Nick really wanted Mel, but it made no sense to sign another solo female act when he already had Princess, so he asked if I could come up with someone else to form a duo with her.
So was that when Kim became involved?
Not quite. As I said, Mel had been singing with the Glamour Girl Roadshow dance troop that Alan Whitehead was playing in the clubs all over the country, and she was doing certain numbers in the show with a little blonde girl [Kathy Boniface]. Alan Whitehead suggested adding her, and he showed Nick her picture, but she was only about 5'2" and Mel was about 5'6", and so the two of them didn’t really look like an act. Nick was adamant that he wanted to sign Mel, but he didn’t think the blonde girl looked right with her. And, to be honest, the blonde girl couldn’t sing as well as Mel anyway... Mel was a natural! That's when Nick asked if there was anybody else. About two days later, I got a hold of Mel and I explained what they had said at the record company, and I asked her if, by any chance, she knew anyone who looked like her and could sing. I kinda made a joke out of it and asked her if there were any more at home like her, and she said, ‘Well yeah, as a matter of fact, I do. My sister! And she is better than me. She is a brilliant singer, and she is gorgeous - she's better looking than me!’ Better?? Well, I almost fell over (laughs). I was absolutely blown over! So, that’s how it all happened (laughs). Looking back, I guess, if I hadn't met Alan that night and he hadn't brought Mel along, then there wouldn't have been any ‘Mel & Kim’. Alan wasn’t really a producer. He was kind of a manager type guy, and he wasn’t going to be taking them into the studio, producing anything so it probably would have been Mel, separately, at some other time, but it certainly wouldn’t have been ‘Mel and Kim.
Photograph presented to Supreme Records of the girls, as a duo.
With Kim now involved, did you have to record a new set of tracks for the girls' demo?
No. All the other demo tracks we did stayed as Mel, solo, but we took both girls down to the studio in Southend, and Mel re-sang my friend's song with Kim. I remember going back to Supreme Records and playing the re-recorded tape of Where Is Love for Nick East. He was overjoyed, and, halfway through, he said he wanted to sign them!' I had already shown Nick Mel's picture, but he hadn't seen Kim, and I remember saying, 'But you haven’t seen the other sister!' Nick didn't care. He was desperate to sign them! So, that’s how they became ‘Mel & Kim’. It was originally just Mel on the demos, but the act became ‘Mel & Kim' after that demo of Where Is Love was re-recorded. When I played Nick that demo, he loved the sound of the way the two girls sang, and they were signed within a few weeks. That's how it went. There was no going around, trying to get a deal elsewhere.
Were there any plans for you to continue producing for the girls music after they were signed to Supreme?
No. After they were signed, Nick asked me if I minded if he turned the project over to Pete Waterman, and I said, no, I didn't. I had a lot of work on at that time, and Pete Waterman had already had a string of dance hits - he was the 'star producer' at that time - so, if anybody was gonna make hit records with those girls, it was gonna be him. I retained a percentage of the first three years of the records' sales, so I was happy. It was great!
Were you surprised with the Chicago-House/dance style that Stock, Aitken & Waterman channeled for the girls, and what did you think of their single releases?
Oh, I thought that the singles that came up were fantastic – absolutely fantastic! When Pete Waterman and his crew took over, that’s the kind of music that they were doing, so I wasn't surprised with the sound at all - I was thrilled! You see, I had already made up my mind that Mel and Kim were both real disco dance queens, and I believed that was where they belonged. I always looked upon Mel as a 'Donna Summer type', you know? She was as good as Donna Summer, and so that is where I always thought it should go. But Mel really wanted to do more RnB, and so she wanted to make sure that she could get a couple of tracks out where she was singing the kind of stuff that she wanted to sing. That said, they had big hits with Pete, with that dance direction... and then Mel got sick, of course.
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So, Mel was keen to record more RnB tracks?
Yes... but you have to understand something. When an act is as successful with a specific type of music as Mel & Kim were successful, even although Mel wanted to sing RnB and soul, they did the right thing to keep the act successful. They were getting great sales and an amazing reaction all over Europe, and all over the UK, so, I think they did the right thing. I mean, I had thirteen top ten records in a row, producing for a group called Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, and they complained bitterly (laughs), but we kept in the same style for all thirteen hits. With the dance/pop stuff, people often assume that it is not credible. With Mel & Kim, all the kids loved it and everybody bought it, but the ones that were really cool - the hip kids - considered it to be non-credible, so there was always that problem. When you do pop stuff, and it's successful, you don’t always get the respect of the ‘real music' people, you know what I’m saying? You have to be 'cool', and you have to be 'hip', and, being ‘pop' and selling loads of records isn't always seen as a credible thing to the people that feel that they are above it.
Music is there to be enjoyed, and it should be inclusive. Yet it does often appear to come with an exclusivity and snobbery attached, which is sad!
Yeah! Well, we had that problem with getting the Mel & Kim records played here in America, because the RnB black stations wouldn’t play them. In England, they were considered 'pop' - they weren’t considered RnB - so they were played in England and elsewhere in Europe, and so on. But, in America, we really came up against it! You see, they weren’t playing dance music on the RnB stations at that time, and they just wouldn’t budge! And the reasons they gave were that the girls were 'mixed race', and they felt that they were 'too white' and 'too pop'. They were not 'black enough' for the RnB stations. That was the reasons that they gave.
​Wow. That's outrageous!
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Yeah! Well, that’s the story we got. Whether it’s true, or whether it isn’t, I don’t know. But, you guys know the record business... or maybe you don’t... but it can be all kinds of things. I mean, that’s the music business, and that’s the way people are. What can you say?
Regardless of those initial challenges in the US, Mel & Kim’s success took off like a rocket across the UK, Europe, Asia and Oceania. Did you keep contact with the girls as their career took off?
No, no. I left it completely to Pete Waterman, out of respect to him. I knew Pete, and I didn't wanna interfere or call up and say anything. I saw them (Mel & Kim) a couple of times, and I said to them that how great they were doing and how happy I was for them, but I didn’t push it. That’s probably my biggest problem, because I do believe that I could have been much more successful in life had I pushed myself in that kind of direction more. But, I always, kind of, stayed in the background, you know? Even when I was singing with Family Dogg, I still didn’t push it. Maybe, that was my mistake - I don’t know. But, that’s why I probably didn’t try to keep in touch. I just let it go.
What followed for Mel & Kim was nothing short of phenomenal! But things quickly took a concerning turn, just as their debut album F.L.M. was released. Were you aware that Mel had already fought cancer, and, if so, were you concerned when the press stories began to circulate about her health, and the nature of the girls' sudden withdrawal from promotions?
Yes, I was concerned. I think, to be very, very honest... Alan Whitehead had told me that Mel had had cancer before, so I was aware of it, but she had looked fine, and everything was great. However, I did think that the back injury was linked to her illness. I mean, she probably had a back injury because she was weak from the cancer. In those days, they didn’t treat cancer as well as they do now, so she still had the cancer in her system, and it was just a certainty that it was gonna return... and tragically, it did. It was terrible what happened when Mel got sick and they published those pictures in The News Of The World. You know, she'd put on all that weight with the drugs, and everything... It was just so sad... it really was awful! She was such a beautiful, talented girl. To the press, they were both beautiful, beautiful girls with a huge number of fans... and they loved the paparazzi taking photographs, because those photographs appeared everywhere. So, I guess, in a way, they encouraged the press. I mean, if they were alternative kind of singers then they wouldn’t have got that kind of press coverage, but it was right in the middle of the dance craze at the time, and that was what everybody wanted. Mel & Kim were the act! They were the most popular girls in the UK and Europe for a short time there. You know that girl today - Carly Rae Jepson? They were, sort of like her, although she’s not anywhere near the singer that they both were. She did that song that was so huge – ‘Call Me Maybe’ - that was the kind of music that Mel & Kim were considered in those days, you know? That pop/dance stuff. They were that popular... but then the cancer came back.
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Many years have now passed, yet Mel & Kim’s popularity remains constant...
Thank goodness, that’s so wonderful!
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...and, much of this can be attributed to your initial work in getting the girls their deal with Supreme. Now, when you hear a Mel & Kim track or remember the sisters, what are your lasting memories?
Hmm…I loved those girls. I didn't know Kim as well as I knew Mel - though Kim was great - but I especially loved Mel. I thought she was wonderful, and anything that I could do to help push her along, I would have done. And, they were both so young when they became successful, you know? They ran around, they went to all the parties, they went to all the clubs, they drove around in a limo….you know, all of that! And I am so glad that, before Mel died, she had the tremendous success that she did... because they were huge – absolutely huge! I couldn’t have been happier. They were wonderful girls and excellent singers – especially Mel!
Steve - thank you so much!
Where Is Love - the song that Steve refers to in this interview as the track which secured Mel & Kim their original record deal - was finally presented to fans by Dancing Nation Records, in February 2018, and it can be purchased via our website Store, across four formats: Digital, 9 Track CD, 3 Track Maxi CD & Delux CD/Book Collectors Edition).
Click here to purchase Where Is Love
