All night drinking sessions with Bjorn Borg, promotional tours with Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, and Concorde trips with Maggie Thatcher. Producer Pete Waterman has done it all during his career as one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the music business. Waterman, 60, was one third of the phenomenally successful hit-making trio Stock, Aitken and Waterman, which made profits of up to £25,000 a minute during its heyday in the late 1980s.

Now, SAW is reforming 10 years after they split and Waterman, who wrote a string of hits, including Kylie's ‘I Should Be So Lucky’, is promising more of the same. He commutes from his home in Warrington to central London on the train twice a week and has travelled the world promoting his acts and dealing with record companies.

How did you know Bjorn Borg?

He used to come into our offices to play table tennis with Mike Stock. It was just two incredibly competitive men trying to kill each other on the table tennis table. Borg was the biggest party animal I ever met. I thought I could party until I met him. He took me out all night in Stockholm once and we got back about 7am. I could hardly move I’d had so much to drink. He took off his clothes, jumped in the lake and started swimming, and then came back for more drink. Three weeks later he won Wimbledon.

Were the stars a pain to work with?

No, because anyone who was a pain didn’t last five minutes with me. We were a small company and the night watchman was as important as Kylie or Jason. The singers were the goal scorers in the team, but we were all part of a team.

Tell us your funniest Jason and Kylie stories

I often travelled ahead of them on tours. If we were promoting a record, I would go first to do a deal with a record company or interviews, because we were as famous as the singers at one point. I had an E-type Jaguar and Jason loved it and, in the summer of 1988, he asked if he could borrow it. So, we were out in it one day and he pulled into a garage in this white, series 3, V12 E-type. Two girls noticed it was Jason and ran straight into the E-type and fell on the bonnet. It was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. Jason is a lot of fun to be with; he’s a man’s man.

No-one could ever pronounce Kylie’s name correctly. She was Keeley in France. I can remember on tour in Japan at the Tokyo Dome and 100,000 people were singing back to her “I should be so rucky, rucky, rucky, rucky…”

Rick Astley’s a lovely lad but just didn’t want the fame. He told me people come up to him in the street and say ‘Didn’t you used to be Rick Astley?”

Were you travelling much of the time?

From 1972 to 2002 I just lived on aircraft. I remember feeling ill and I went to see the doctor, who asked me where I’d been that week. I said Monday was Tokyo, Tuesday was Sydney, Wednesday Tokyo, Thursday back home and Friday Tokyo. He said ‘I don’t think we have to look at why you’re not well, do we?’ I had to stay at home for a month and it was one of the nicest things I ever did.

Which airline do you prefer?

I always go British Airways.. I used to love Concorde and commuted on it to New York every two days for a month. I knew the pilot and once got stuck on the M4, so I phoned him and he held it for me. On one trip there was Margaret Thatcher, Diana Ross and Victor Kiam, the bloke who liked the company so much he bought it. The pilot made an announcement saying this was the only aircraft to land by computer. Then when we were at the airport, the automatic walkway got stuck and I had to clamber down some steps behind Maggie. She was cursing the technology, blaming the French of course.

Was that your favourite flight?

I can remember listening to David Bowie’s China Girl, which I love, when Concorde took off once and it felt like the most amazing four minutes of my life. That was the best. The worst was when I was on a flight to Tokyo and we were about to take off, when the door fell off at the back. They were playing “I Should Be So Lucky”. What are the odds, eh?

Which hotels do you prefer?

I’m quite fussy about hotels. My pet hate is staying in a British hotel on a Saturday night when they’ve got a wedding party, because the soundproofing is so poor and you don’t get any peace. It’s a disgrace. I like somewhere quiet and with cotton sheets and a comfortable room. I don’t really need internet access or a television. The Mandarin in Hong Kong and the Takanawa Prince hotel in Tokyo are marvellous.

Is commuting a pain?

I love the train, it’s absolutely fantastic. I’ve been a commuter since 1972. I can leave home at 7am and be in my studio at 9.02am. Just over two hours door to door and I’ve had a sleep, scrambled egg on toast and done su doku in The Times. What more could you want? Of course, I have had kids coming up to me and giving me tapes or singing at me, but the staff are pretty good at trying to protect me. It’s a myth, you know, that someone randomly sings at a producer and gets a record deal. It’s never happened with me.

Do you ever drive?

I drive once a month, and tie it in with going to a Walsall game on the way back, because I’m a season ticket holder at the Bescot. I’ve got a BMW X5, but I do actually live on a farm, so don’t give me any stick. I’ve also got a 4.2 litre Mercedes which I’m looking to change. I could be politically correct and tell you that it’s the carbon emissions that are driving me mad, but really it’s the price of petrol. I don’t care how much money you’ve got, you can’t ignore the way the petrol gauge moves when you’re only getting 12 miles to the gallon. I need a tanker to follow me down the M6 so I can fill up on route. It’s immoral and I’m ashamed of the amount of petrol I use, even though I’ve racked up some carbon credits with all that train travel.

Do you have any tips for travellers?

Be a light packer. Take a change of clothes, but if you’re going for two to three days, you certainly shouldn’t be checking much, if anything, in. Also, learn to sleep on flights. A mate of mine is permanently in the air flying to different time zones and he just gets on and gets his body in the zone. Alcohol is a killer on flights, so avoid that and keep food to a minimum. I like BA’s light bites that they’ve introduced.

What would you change?

I hate all this frequent flyer card nonsense and lounges. It’s rubbish. If people travel a lot, give them a discount.