The union's regulations have frequently left him tied in knots - such as the time he wanted Jason Donovan to appear in a video clutching a guitar. The problem was the singer did not play the guitar on the record. "So we had to re-record with Jason playing the instrument, then get him in the Musicians' Union, and then we could get him in the video holding it," says Mr Waterman.A certain drummer remembered picking up a fee for sitting in a studio doing nothing all day. The drums were created through a synthesiser, but the union insisted a drummer must still be on hand "I thought it was crazy. You just feel an idiot doing nothing when you just wanted to be playing," says the drummer.The union has legendary status, too, among producers of pop and chart shows. Malcolm Gerrie, who produced The Tube on Channel 4 from 1982 to 1986, shudders with horror at the mere thought of visits from the man the TV world nicknamed Dr Death.
He would swoop on recording studios to make sure all union rules were being adhered to "It meant everybody lost out," he says. "Why would you go for a big orchestra when you could have The Jam for three times £110 each?"But that was more than a decade ago, and several of the more arcane rules have fallen by the wayside. It's not all brickbats, and even bouquets are occasionally lobbed in the union's direction.Clive Gillinson, managing director of the London Symphony Orchestra, is full of praise, as is his counterpart, David Welton, at the Philharmonia. The LSO, which recorded the sound-tracks for all four Star Wars movies, struck a deal with the union last year that has enabled it to launch its own record label. Musicians receive a share of profits rather than the additional recording fee which would have made the venture uneconomical."The union is much more flexible and aware of how entrepreneurial everybody has to be now It has been supportive," says Mr Gillinson. When, during the late Eighties and early Nineties, orchestras were threatened with closure, the union bailed them out with interest-free loans, a move also applauded by Mr Manger.Bob Wearn says he, too, would like to scrap the additional fees for porterage but only if the orchestras are willing to make up the wages' shortfall.Rank-and-file musicians in London's four leading orchestras earn about £35,000 a year - while those in the provinces earn perhaps half that, with the cost of instruments and their insurance resting firmly on the shoulders of the players."Porterage is a charge towards the cost of transporting large and bulky instruments," says Mr Wearn.
"What's a harpist supposed to do? Put it on their back and carry it to a concert? The fundamental problem is there just isn't enough money to go around."But not everyone is convinced the union has become a modernising force in the music world The writer and broadcaster Norman Lebrecht is in no doubt "It is completely unreconstructed It has never come into the light," he complains "It is a very hard-line union that hasn't seen glasnost.". The Tories are planning to scrap income tax on savings for millions of pensioners as part of William Hague's strategy to win back the "grey vote" among the middle classes. The Tories are planning to scrap income tax on savings for millions of pensioners as part of William Hague's strategy to win back the "grey vote" among the middle classes. Michael Portillo, the shadow chancellor, will steal a march on Gordon Brown's Budget this week by announcing that up to four million pensioners with savings would benefit from the first of the planned £8bn Tory tax cuts.Mr Hague is convinced it will prove a potent weapon for winning back the pensioner vote for the Tories, but it immediately opened the party leadership to fresh accusations by ministers of failing to cost Tory promises properly. A senior Tory source said: "There are four million pensioners on the basic rate of tax or below.