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Undoubtedly a musical phenomenon, Wet Wet Wet have remained a relevant institution in British culture from the time they formed in 1982 up until present day. Following their reunion in 2004, the much loved Scottish boys embraced the future and revived their already fruitful career by selling out a UK-wide arena tour and achieving UK top 20 chart success with their second greatest hits album The Greatest Hits, which included the hit single ’All I Want’.
Now, Wet Wet Wet are at it again with a 20th anniversary tour and forthcoming album release? The major arena tour, to commence on Tuesday, 4th December 2007, will stop at most major UK city centres including Glasgow, Birmingham, London, Aberdeen and Cardiff. All shows will include new material from the Wets’ as-yet-untitled forthcoming album, on which they’ve been putting the finishing touches in the studio for the past three months.
With an incredible back catalogue of songs including three U.K. No. 1’s - ’With A Little Help From My Friends’ (1988), ’Goodnight Girl’ (1992) and ’Love Is All Around’ (1994), the guys have been making an impact with their music for 20 years now and what have become the familiar ingredients to the Wet Wet Wet sound - cascading instrumentals, killer hooks and that stunning voice - have made them one of the most successful bands in British pop history.
Graeme, Tommy, Neil and Marti had two things in common growing up in their native Clydebank, a once thriving industrial area of Glasgow. They shared the prospect of a life on the dole ... and a love of great records. "It was either crime, the dole, football or music - and we chose music," says Graeme. They formed Wet Wet Wet in 1982 taking their name from a line in a Scritti Politti song, ’Getting, Having And Holding’. The band cite some of their musical influences as The Clash, The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Webb, Bacharach-David, Elvis Costello, Donna Summer and Chic.
As the familiar story goes, they landed a record deal with Phonogram in 1985 and two years later released their debut single, ’Wishing I Was Lucky’. And in September 1987, they released their first album, Popped In Souled Out, which entered the U.K. chart at No. 2 and was held off the top spot only by Michael Jackson’s Bad. Further singles from the album - ’Sweet Little Mystery’ and ’Angel Eyes’ - pushed it to No.1 15 weeks later and it went on to achieve five times platinum status.
It was the start of a phenomenal run of 25 Top 40 hits including ’Temptation’ (1988), ’Sweet Surrender’ (1989), ’Lip Service’ (1992), ’Julia Says’ (1995), ’Don’t Want To Forgive Me Now’ (1995) and ’If I Never See You Again’ (1997). In that mix were the three U.K. No. 1 singles. First was The Beatles’ cover ’With A Little Help From My Friends’ (1988) - whose proceeds of £600,000 were donated to Childline. Followed by the self-penned, ’Goodnight Girl’ (1992) that was number one simultaneously with the High On The Happy Side album, and ’Love Is All Around’ (1994) - a No. 1 simultaneously with End Of Part One - the first greatest hits album.
The Wets’ albums revealed a group prepared to follow their music instincts... as opposed to chart trends. In 1988, they released The Memphis Sessions recorded with veteran soul producer, Willie Mitchell. It entered the chart at No. 3 and also went platinum. It proved an impressive musical bridge to their second proper studio album, Holding Back The River in 1989. Second album syndrome never appeared as this collection of songs reflected a greater maturity in their group’s writing. Subsequent album releases were equally as ambitious and varied and included High On The Happy Side (1992), Live At The Royal Albert Hall (1993), Picture This (1995) and 10 (1997).
Somehow, in the midst of all this, Wet Wet Wet also achieved a reputation as one of rock’s best live acts. If you require facts and figures to back that up, here they are? On their first major tour in 1988, they played to more than 500,000 people in 40 days throughout the U.K., Europe and Japan. The summer of 1988 saw them take part in the Nelson Mandela 70th birthday concert at Wembley Stadium peforming ’Wishing I Was Lucky’ to a global TV audience of millions. Then Marti duetted with ’60s singing legend Joe Cocker - on ’With A Little Help From My Friends’ - at The Royal Albert Hall. The gig for the Prince’s Trust featured an all star backing band of Elton John, Phil Collins, Mark Knopfler and Brian May. Elton was so impressed that he invited the Wets to open for him later that year on a U.S. tour which included gigs at prestigious venues such as Madison Square Garden in New York and the Hollywood Bowl in California.
In 1989, they headlined a free home town concert at Glasgow Green for 75,000 people. The gig was the biggest free event ever to be held in Britain, overshadowing The Rolling Stones legendary Hyde Park show in 1969. Another free show on the Isle of Arran, was broadcast live on Radio 1 interrupting their daytime schedule to do so, and a sell out gig at Edinburgh Castle - both in 1992 - cemented their reputation. By 1995, Wet Wet Wet were the most popular live act in the U.K. playing to in excess of 715,000 people across 11 countries and in 2005, the band were one of the headline acts at Live 8 in Edinburgh and played the Summer Weekender festival in England.
Their recording and tour success was punctuated by a string of awards - as they were recognised by everyone from the BPI, the Brits and Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy to Smash Hits, Record Mirror and the Daily Star.
With all of their various accomplishments in tow, the band are looking forward - not back. They tour the UK in December tickets are now on sale.
Album to be released on November 5th 2007, it as 12 tracks.
Cheers Karen-Marie
