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Latest Newspapaer/Mags Articles + Tour Flyer!+My little niece Mia's Newspaper article.
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Girls used to scream for us, now they say: My maw loves you. . .
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Older, wiser and ready to hit the road, Wet Wet Wet can't wait to play for their fans again
Marti Pellow still knows how to command a stage
Tommy Cunningham, Neil Mitchell, Marti Pellow and Graeme Clark as fresh-faced pop beginners
FOR THE RECORD
Formed: At Clydebank High School in 1982. Took their name from a Scritti Politti song.
First record deal: Signed with PolyGram in 1985.
First single: Wishing I Was Lucky released in 1987.
First album: Popped In Souled Out released in 1987.
First No1: With A Little Help From My Friends in 1988.
First UK tour: In 1988 they played to 500,000 people.
Free gig: In 1989, they played a free gig on Glasgow Green for 75,000 people, the biggest free event ever held in Britain.
Hit squad: In 1994, their version of Love Is All Around topped the charts for 15 weeks.
Back in business: The band reunited in 2004.
New album: Timeless is released on November 12.
by Brian Beacom
RADIO Clyde's car park is filled with hundreds of teenage girls waiting for a glimpse of their pop heroes.
Some stare through the glass doors of the radio station in the hope of glimpsing one of their idols while others chat about how much they love the boys in the band . . .
Meanwhile, upstairs, Wet Wet Wet's Marti Pellow and Graeme Clark are relaxing after recording a session.
But the Wets duo could have been forgiven had they been looking a little downbeat.
advertisementBecause the crowds below are not Wets fans.
They are there to worship at the altar of Westlife, two of whom are in the building.
"We thought the girls were there for us," says 42-year-old Marti, laughing.
"But no, the truth is we came in the back door and recorded some songs, all very low key. Which is changed days, man.
"I actually met the Westlife boys recently when I was on Radio 2's Ken Bruce Show. I was singing Matt Monro songs, and they were doing their stuff.
"It was chalk and cheese. But good luck to them. It's their turn."
Bass player and songwriter Graeme is equally sanguine about the fact the Wets audiences have grown up.
"The comments we get from the schoolgirls now are Ma maw loved you,'" he says, grinning.
"And I try to say, Don't you mean your big sister?' But this is the reality of being around for 20 years."
There was a time however when the Wets wouldn't have been so accepting of a low-key entrance.
The career which began 20 years ago saw the Clydebank boys rise into the stratosphere of success with hits such as Wishing I Was Lucky and Goodnight Girl. They were pop stars and they knew it. And they behaved like they knew it.
"It was hard to see what was happening when we where in there," says Graeme, also 42.
"It was hard to gain objectivity. We were four guys who, when we went to Memphis to record our first album, had to go and get passports.
"We were that naive. Then we began to get really blase about going off to Memphis in say four weeks time. And I'm sure I took myself a bit too seriously. Now, if I were to get the chance to got to Memphis I'd be so excited again."
Marti concurs. "The business can stunt your growth. You don't really know what's going on in the real world. And how can you? Our lives were steered, cajoled, pushed, chaperoned.
"Someone takes your passport and checks you in. Someone organises your life. And at some point you hear yourself saying Gonnae let me see the year planner?' because you're aware your life is all arranged that far ahead."
He adds, with a wry grin: "You look at the diary and it says 2.30pm on the 12th. Stop for toilet break.' It was almost that regimented."
It's almost a cliche that pop success brings about arguments. The group are together constantly, being told they are wonderful. And the heads swell to a point they clash.
Then the highs of performance have to be replicated. Drink and drugs are the answer.
And Marti and Graeme chose the path of least resistance.
The heightened egos saw them forget they were once pals, that they'd once played in Marti's mum's kitchen. They were jockeying for position.
And so they divorced, acrimoniously, going their separate ways for five years. And they all felt the scars.
"I know I was raw for a few years," says Graeme.
"I couldn't pick up my guitar for about a year. I felt flat. And the only way I can describe it is I was on a merry-go-round and suddenly I had to get off. And I was entirely disorientated. And I sat and cried a lot.
"It all sounds very melodramatic but I struggled to make sense of it all. And I moaned and complained. But I was lucky enough to have a wife and son to help me and settle into my life again.
"Then I started to think; I've got a few bob in the bank. And a good few gold records.' Then I began to consider that life with the band wasn't so bad after all. And after a while I began to realise that what we'd had was truly amazing.
"Eventually. I picked up the guitar, strummed a couple of chords and thought, This is great. I like playing music. I can be happy playing music."
The catalyst for the band's reformation in 1994 was Marti's mum Margaret's funeral. They all realised that friendship and support were paramount. From that point on it made sense they performed together.
Now, they have a new album, Timeless, and a new single, Too Many People, is out today. Their tours are as popular as ever. And they have been declared Scotland's Most Popular Band by Radio Clyde.
"I used to sneak into the station to use the swimming pool," says Marti. "I love this radio station. It supported us right from the start. And it's still supporting us."
There's a genuine belief the Wets have benefited greatly from, as Marti describes it, our wee sabbatical'.
"We all went off and worked with other people. And then discovering what we had all learned apart was was exciting, plus you add to that our old familiarity. Getting back together has been phenomenal for me. I love being in the Wets, to have a power of the collective, with the others throwing ideas at me."
Graeme agrees: "It's a comfort zone, more than it was before. But there's less pressure on us now.
"There was always pressure on us to come up with 12 new songs for an album, then go out on the road to sell the album, then tour again.
"And to add to that we were working class guys who feared that it would all end tomorrow.
"But now were happy again. We're Banky boys together who are just trying to write good quality pop songs. And for people to still have goodwill for this band decades down the line is massive for us."
Marti sums up the new Wets.
"We can detach ourselves take a wee step back and enjoy life now. We realise what we have."
He adds, with a wicked grin: "And the great thing is, I'm with four guys who have lived exactly the same life experience as me. We've done it all together.
"And so I can help Graeme to fill in the blanks - and vice versa."
Wet Wet Wet play the SECC on December 9.
Publication date 05/11/07
Wet Wet Wet: Biggest Hit Was Our Biggest Problem
Oct 20 2007 By John Dingwall
Exclusive A Video Exclusive Wet Wet Wet Admit Their Biggest Chart Hit Turned The Band Against Each Other
Click to hear our Exclusive interview and track
WET WET WET have confessed that the success of their biggest hit, Love Is All Around, was the reason behind their downfall.
The song, which featured in the film Four Weddings And A Funeral, spent a staggering 15 weeks at No.1 before Scotland's biggest-selling pop act withdrew it from shops.
It had turned the working class lads from Clydebank into jetsetters who enjoyed a cocaine and champagne-fuelled lifestyle that led eventually to their split in 1997.
Drummer Tommy Cunningham said: "The success Love Is All Around gave us is to blame.
"Until then we were a working band but Love Is All Around took us into a world of premieres and private jets.
"We said the champagne and cocaine lifestyle wouldn't be allowed in our room back then, but it worked its way in there. It corrupted us."
But the Wets are back with a new album, Timeless, single Too Many People and tour dates that take in both Glasgow and Edinburgh.
And Tommy insists they have learned from their mistakes.
"I certainly don't want to be the person I was in 1997," he said. "I have this vision of myself, dressed from head to toe in Versace, wondering where my limo was and why my bedroom wasn't big enough.
"Just after I quit the band I was in London and back to using the underground and taxis and trying to get used to all that.
"I was frozen and soaked through because I was wearing pop star clothes instead of clothing for normal life.
"I realised that 1987 to 1997 had been a journey of corruption.
"We had gone from being pure wee boys who believed we were being true to ourselves to enjoying all the trappings of fame."
He explained: "Now the cocaine and champagne doesn't get allowed in our room. We all know where we went wrong and what we did wrong and it won't happen again.
"Back then I thought it was all about flying first class and being flash. I believed in the sheen and my own hype and the trappings that went with it."
Tommy and bassist Graeme Clark believe their kids helped pull them back from the brink before it was too late.
Graeme, fined in 2001 for assaulting his wife Beverley as he struggled with life out of the public eye, said: "Having a child saved my life - I'm talking about drink and drugs and all that entails.
"Before the birth of my son everything had been about the band, my career and my self obsession. I had never felt a love like I felt for my own son.
"As soon as Ally came along, the penny dropped. I realised what was important, that it wasn't just about music and playing in a band.
"Thank God for that.
"Playing in a band, it was drugs and late nights. I'm still with Beverley and it is fair to say any marriage has its ups and downs but we are still together and working on that.
"I got my feet back on the ground, but it was difficult at first. Wet Wet Wet had been my life and I struggled when I came out of that."
He believes stars such as Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty must also quit their drug habits.
"Taking drugs is always wrong," Graeme said. "I just see people in pain and I don't like that.
"I feel sorry for them because they are great artists who have made great records and that is overshadowing them now.
"They are becoming cartoon characters, caricatures of themselves.
"Let's face it, nobody knows Pete for his music. We know him for going out with a model and his drug problem."
Tommy added: "It was really difficult when my kids were born too.
"I had promised myself and my wife I would settle down when my first child was born.
"Then my second child was born and I'd tell her we'd only be away on tour for six weeks or that it was only another couple of tours.
"Luckily, I have a spectacularly strong wife who brought up the family on her own and stuck by a husband who would be on the phone telling her how brilliant Hong Kong was while she was stuck at home with two screaming kids.
"The best lesson I ever learned was the day I left the band and had to come back down to earth.
"I always felt I was a part of Glasgow but I'd gone too far away. Now I make a conscious decision to drop my kids off at school and pick them up.
"I realise how great Glasgow is and make a conscious effort to bring my kids up here."
The Clydebank group formed in 1982 and enjoyed a phenomenal run of 25 Top 40 singles and four No.1 albums before splitting in 1997.
Recalling the first time The Wets appeared on Top Of The Pops, back in 1987, Tommy said: "I remember being on Top Of The Pops dressed like tramps - and everyone else looked fantastic - because we didn't have any money for a couple of years.
"It took time for the royalties to come in. We turned up at Prince's Trust gigs by transit van with holes in our shoes and ripped jeans. We were like headless chickens."
He quit over money, but Tommy insists the Wets are back for good, having gone back to getting an equal share of the profits.
And in Timeless, they have produced one of the best albums of their career.
"It will not be the same as it was in the old days," he admitted. "It won't be a non stop journey. We'll have a level-headed approach to it all and we don't want to emulate Love Is All Around again. We just want to be a successful band on our own terms and not to that degree.
"We were four directors which meant majority ruled. It was like a boardroom coup.
"I'm back on 25 per cent of all royalties, including songwriting.
"Everyone knows the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. If we took one out, it wouldn't be Wet Wet Wet. Now if someone doesn't like a decision it gets reversed. It's no longer a democracy.
"All the individuals have to be on board or it doesn't happen."
MEANWHILE, the band's frontman, Marti Pellow, who famously battled heroin addiction in the late Nineties, is set to star in a new comedy drama series.
The Abbey, written by Morwenna Banks is based loosely on the celebrity rehab centre The Priory.
Marti said: "She's just finished writing the series and I play her husband in it, a jaded rock star. I'm in it with Russell Brand and a couple of people from the League Of Gentlemen.
"It's well-documented where I have been. I'm coming from a position where I could see what she was trying to achieve and I found it hilarious.
"What I liked about the pilot was there were moments that were quite poignant, even within a hilarious scene. She will leave you with a sensitivity."
The Wets - Marti, Graeme, Tommy and keyboard player Neil Mitchell - will unveil some of their new songs when they perform an intimate charity concert on Monday.
The gig at Edinburgh's Hard Rock Cafe, for the Caron Keating Foundation, is to support people with cancer. Tommy said: "I'm sure most families in Scotland have been touched by cancer in some way.
"We did quite a few TV programmes when Caron was presenting. She was a bubbly personality so we didn't hesitate in doing this gig."
'In a journey of corruption we'd gone from being pure wee boys to enjoying all the trappings of fame'
My baby niece Mia won the baby competition 10 to 18months section with our Local Milton Keynes Citizen on October 14th 2007. Mia pictured with my sister Rachael & and brother in law Steve. Mia is the one in the middle!
Love
Karen-Marie
Sunderland Echo October 31st
My hot night with Wet Wet Wet
Frontman Marti Pellow
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View GalleryBy Katy Wheeler
Love was all around as a handful of lucky fans got up close and personal with Wet Wet Wet.
The chart-topping band took to the stage at the Quayside Exchange in Sunderland as part of a series of intimate gigs in preparation for their eighth album.
Frontman Marti Pellow said: "It was really amazing playing the lovely Sunderland tonight. The North East has always been a great region for us to play and the Quayside Exchange was no exception.
"We just want to thank Century FM for bringing us up close and personal with our fans in this lovely wee city."
The Glaswegian four-piece opened the show with their biggest hit Love is All Around.
Back in 1994 there was no escaping this track as it gripped hold of the number one spot for a massive 15 weeks, but the band managed to make it sound fresh.
This was mostly due to cheeky chappie Marti, whose infectious grin had the audience, made up of competition winners, hooked.
Goodnight Girl was another highlight and had everyone, even the men, singing along.
Not everyone could remember the words to Wishing I Was Lucky, the band's first single in 1986, but it didn't stop the 100-strong crowd from giving Marti's dance moves a go.
The band also performed songs from the new album Timeless, which is released on November 11.
The gig, hosted by Century FM's breakfast-show hosts Ben Weston and Scott Makin, was kept under wraps until recently.
But now the secret is out: Wet Wet Wet are back and better than ever.
* The boys return to the region on December 11 to perform at the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle.
SWEET LITTLE MYSTERY? Not anymore. Put your question to Marti
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WANT to know what Scots rugby star Kenny Logan really thinks about Strictly Come Dancing? Or what his old teammates say about his exploits on the dancefloor?
Well now is your chance to find out.
The Evening News is launching a new regular feature giving you the chance to put your questions to well-known personalities.
Among those following Kenny into the hot seat will be Wet Wet Wet frontman Marti Pellow, TV star Gail Porter and socialist rabble-rouser Tommy Sheridan.
So, do you want to know more about the incredible highs and lows of Marti's music career and battle with heroin addiction? Or how Gail felt when her bare bum was superimposed on the side of the Houses of Parliament? Or does Tommy Sheridan ever read the News of the World these days?
Asking a question couldn't be simpler, just email your question – along with your name and where you live – to one of the following email addresses:
Wet Wet Wet are
back back back
Back playing the fairground of pop again — Wet Wet Wet are enjoying themselves.
By Kevin Bridges
Their many fans will be thrilled that Wet Wet Wet, one of Scotland’s most successful bands, are back with a brand new studio album.
Their first in a decade, Timeless, will be released next week, with the single Too Many People on sale tomorrow.
The band have also joined the ever-increasing number of acts choosing to release music on their own label, which they’ve humorously called Dry Records!
Drummer Tommy Cunningham says after their successful 2004 reunion tour making new music together was the inevitable next step.
“We had two choices — be one of those bands who get together every three or four years and do the nostalgia trip or we could do some new music. We didn’t just want to go out and tour the old songs, we wanted to do something new to get the juices flowing again,” he said.
“We took things slowly — doing a few sessions here and there never sure whether or not we’d implode, but it was a joy and we came up with little gems along the way.
Confidence
“There’s a confidence about us now but it’s not cockiness or swagger.”
The sound of the album is simple and unfussy, allowing the trademark ballads to speak for themselves.
“We’re not attempting to emulate any of the great modern bands. We’ve travelled that road. We are Wet Wet Wet, this is a new chapter for us.”
The band are also looking forward to playing the new material live and their winter tour takes in big gigs at Glasgow’s SECC on December 9 and the Aberdeen AECC on the 10th.
“We’re doing new arrangements of some of the old songs. For example, we’re doing Wishing I Was Lucky with a sort of Latin groove. It’s a bit of fun and makes it interesting for us.
“However, we’ll definitely be doing the hits people love. You’d be disappointed if you paid good money to see someone and they didn’t do their hits — we’re happy to indulge our fans.”
Delighted
Tommy is delighted the band are releasing the record on their own label. “A lot of people have started to go down that route. In a way it was almost forced on us — we took three or four key tracks to a major label and they just said ‘we don’t hear a single’.
“The companies are a little scared of us and don’t know how to promote us, but we’ve always wanted total control over our own destiny anyway.”
Marti Pellow is also thrilled with the artistic control having their own label has given them.
“It’s a great luxury to have that freedom and we’ve embraced that, even down to the sleeve design.
“We always had a certain amount of artistic freedom because we’d had hit records. When you’ve sold millions you get to do what you like, but in other ways we’ve made changes.
“For example, we’ve made sure our itinerary is less crazy. In the early days when we were doing promotional tours they’d make you visit four countries in a day!”
Marti admits he’s not sure how having their own label may work out in the future. The band may even sign up other acts.
New music
“Who knows what might happen. We’re all fans of new music and maybe the whole thing will mushroom into something bigger. We’ll have to see how we do with our own record first, but I hope I never feel like a company executive.
“I think it’s important to have that love and passion for music. Some of the best record company bosses, like David Geffen, have always had a bug-eyed enthusiasm for music.”
The lads are thrilled that on their new album the artwork was done by none other than Klaus Voorman, famous for his classic cover of The Beatles’ Revolver.
“It’s one of our favourite albums and we were thinking we should go for similar imagery for this.
Then someone said, ‘Hold on why don’t we try and track down Klaus himself?’
“We managed to get him on the phone and he said he was a fan and asked if he could hear some of the new music,” Marti explained.
“He got back to us and said the music had really inspired him and could he come on board for the project. We weren’t about to say no!
“He even came up with the album title as he said he thought the new music was timeless. We didn’t have to sit for him, though — we sent him photos by computer and he did the rest.
“I like the idea that people will look at the sleeve and see it as art and talk about it. I always used to like looking at the big gatefold sleeves Roger Dean did for Yes, but CDs more or less killed off the whole cover art thing.”
It’s great to have Wet Wet Wet back and sounding so excited about this new chapter in their 20-year career.
For more about the band, go to their official website at wetwetwet.co.uk
