Pop impresario a university hit

'I'm a real doctor now, not like Dr Fox!'

Pop impresario Pete Waterman said he was totally "overcome" after being awarded an honorary doctorate in music.

The Pop Idol judge was presented with the award by Lord Owen, Chancellor of University College Chester.

Quoting one of his most famous hits, the new Dr Waterman said: "I guess I am lucky, lucky, lucky."

Waterman, 54, left school at the age of 15 with no qualifications and rose to become one of pop music's most influential figures.

He started working-life as a fireman on the railways.

Life as a choirboy

But his first love was music and he quickly swapped the railways for a career as a DJ in his native Coventry.

He said: "It was in 1956 that my dad took me to Coventry Cathedral and enrolled me in the choir.

"My father knew what he was doing and I found a passion. It was music.

"Church music taught me a lesson, as a great song was always a great song."

Waterman, who launched the careers of Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley, Steps and Sonia, said an early meeting with the Beatles inspired his whole career.

'I'm a real doctor now'

He said: "I saw four men who changed the world, not with a bullet, but with a pop song.

"I thought if they could do that, so could I."

Waterman, who lives in Lymm, in Cheshire, collected his doctorate at a special degree ceremony at University College, Chester.

He said: "I am overcome, I certainly wavered a bit when I was walking up to the rostrum."

He also said he would be mocking his fellow Pop Idol judge Doctor Fox.

He said: "I'll be rubbing it in with him, at least I am a real doctor now."