We mixed the album in Milton Keynes that summer of 88, experimenting with our own 12” mixes now and I was really happy with the album and its triumvirate of 3 singles: Success, Dancerama and the minimalist Albinoni. Only the new version of Jayne Mansfield, written back in 1984 on the old portastudio, held the glorious Sputnik classic 192 beat. The 12” version, mixed late one night with Gary Langham’s sound was the ultimate Sputnik Rock and Dub masterpiece.
The album, titled ‘Dress for Excess’ - elaborately packaged with Cyberpunk slogans from Bruce Stirling and William Gibson - was finally ready to go. We played a series of low key dates in village halls and tiny pubs to try to find our way back to the adrenaline-pumped enthusiasm and excitement of the early days.
I decided to play up on the ‘sell out’ derisive aspect that the the Stock, Aitkin and Waterman collaboration would almost certainly provoke, by turning it into the campaign itself with the ‘Is it Sputnik or is it Waterman’ slogan everywhere on giant yellow poster’s and T shirts. Multiple single sleeves came out as Sputnik/Aitkin/ Waterman with pictures of Pete with pink hair. We even did an Acid house remix and a heavy metal version just to cover all bases.....
The record sounded like a hit and the timing, coming up to the Christmas rush where all the big straight acts put out singles, was critical. It was nearly two years since the last album came out and everything had to be right.
But I was to make one crucial mistake, which would break down all the carefully crafted image of Sigue Sigue Sputnik that it had taken so many years to put together...
