This is from NME: PETE WATERMAN has dismissed ‘POPSTARS’ group HEAR’SAY as “karaoke” and said he turned down the chance to appear on the show. The guru who masterminded Steps’ rise to stardom and launched Kylie Minogue and Rick Astley’s careers, said: “Of course I was asked to work with them. But it was just not my thing… They are not the kind of thing I would have signed… The band does not work properly for me… I like bands with a bit of attitude. You might think that Steps do not have that, but they have all got their own opinions.” He added: “I watched the show, just as everybody else did. As a group they are singing karaoke tunes. That’s what they all did on the show.” Waterman also said the group, whose album ‘Popstars’ is this week the fastest-selling album since The Beatles’ compilation ‘1’, and who are set for a third week at the top of the UK singles chart this week, lack staying power: “Hear’say’s success at the moment is phenomenal. But where will they be by the winter? Where are they going to be then? I can tell you that their next single will be a Number One, and so will the one after that. But after that? They have radically shortened their lifespan as artists because they are so over-exposed. They are a group without any intrigue, because we already know everything about them.”