The first time I met Marti Pellow it was the mid-1980s.
I was still in my teens and he had just left his. We had both invested in a fair bit of hair gel.
I was one in a long line of interviewers who had been assembled to be charmed by Marti as Wet Wet Wet were preparing to release a single.
We all were. It wasn’t only that smile, but the enthusiasm. Like a double denim Tigger, he was more than delighted to be asked questions and to chat the hind legs off any Eeyore.
Around 35 years on, a lot has changed, but more for Marti admittedly. Much has happened that could diminish that energy – age for one thing.
Now 57, he doesn’t feel the need to flash the gnashers in every photograph.
The passion for what he does is still there, however. He’s a man who feels he’s been given a second bite of a rather tasty cherry and he’s savouring it.
That includes his current Greatest Hits tour, which has taken him to every corner of the UK and arrives at the Caird Hall in Dundee on Friday April 15.
My ‘childlike enthusiasm’
“I’ve never really lost a complete childlike enthusiasm for things that I love doing,” he says from his home in Berkshire, where he lives with Eileen Catterson, his long-term partner.
“This tour is all about entertaining – there’s no education involved. We might do a couple of songs from Stargazer (the album that came out in 2021) but I think we all need to have a good time.”
Lockdown was a strange time for us all and for Marti it was a time to reconnect with the songs that first brought him to our attention.
“I rediscovered a lot of my back catalogue, particularly the Wet Wet Wet songs. I started to do wee sessions from the house, not thinking anything of it, and it really took off. It helped me and other people seemed to enjoy it.
“That really helped me reconnect with the Wet Wet Wet stuff too.”
The blue-eyed soul-pop road
Marti, along with Graeme Clark, Tommy Cunningham and Neil Mitchell, formed the band in Clydebank in the early 1980s.
They ditched their punk roots and took the blue-eyed soul/pop route that made them one of the biggest successes of the 1980s Scottish chart invasion.
He dispensed with Mark McLachlan and became Marti Pellow, taking his mum’s surname. It would seem that his dad wasn’t on board with his son giving up the chance of a trade (he was training as a painter and decorator).
This was despite the young Mark being an entertainer from a young age.
“Some of my best childhood memories are heading down to Blackpool on holiday. My mum would borrow her pal’s car and she would drive us all down to stay with my Auntie Gladys, who lived there.
“My mum and auntie had gone shopping one day so I was cutting about with my dad and brother.
Talent show win for wee Marti Pellow
“We went into the Winter Gardens and there was a talent show on. I was about seven but I said, ‘I’ll have a go at that!.’
“I sang Jimmy Osmond’s Long Haired Lover From Liverpool – and I won. I was up against a Shirley Temple lookalike too – so it was game on!
“I won four tickets to go and see Don Estelle (Lofty from It Ain’t Half Hot Mum). You can see why I was hooked on showbiz from that day,” he laughs.
Marti Pellow has done so much since leaving Wet Wet Wet that it’s surprising to hear that he was with them for so long.
From the first top 10 hit Wishing I Was Lucky in 1987, they had 26 records in the top 40 and five studio albums – three No 1s and two No 2s.
Some dark times
And, of course, that Four Weddings and a Funeral theme Love Is All Around, which the band insisted was pulled after 15 weeks at number one.
By the time Marti left in 1998, he had developed the well-publicised drug and alcohol problems.
During the time when he was battling his own addictions, his brother lost his life due to alcohol abuse, but he can date his own sobriety to February 14 1998.
Having lost his mum in 2003 and his dad a few years ago, his strength lies with Eileen, who he met at the height of the band’s fame – and also in himself of course.
“I do believe I’ll see them all again. I’m spiritual rather than religious, but I do think I’ll be with them again at some point, even though my dad will still be telling me to get a real job,” he laughs.
Following a few years of sobriety Marti rejoined Wet Wet Wet but it was clear that sometimes you can’t go back.
Two worlds colliding
He left for the second time in 2017 when the old world collided with the new, in which he is in demand for musical theatre roles.
“Of course I’ve got loads of brilliant memories from singing with the guys – that’s where it all started.
“When I moved on from that, I was so keen to learn. Every day was a school day, seeing how other people worked, writing with other people and being able to stretch myself a wee bit.”
Marti says that it wasn’t really something he grew up with but being introduced to the songs and stories in musical theatre was a complete revelation to him.
Blending the old and the new
From roles like Billy Flynn in Chicago, Che in Evita, the Narrator in Blood Brothers, and concert versions of War Of The Worlds and Chess, he has successfully blended this new theatrical life with recording and touring.
“It was weird getting a call from someone like Tim Rice (Evita, Chess). It turned out that he had heard my voice when his daughter was playing the band’s stuff in the car.
“He was interested from there. It was all as much of a surprise to me.
“Then it turns out that we’re both huge Matt Monro fans. His diction, how he colours a lyric , just a great practitioner of singing.
“It is something you have to think about more when you’re telling a story as part of a musical.”
‘Nae mince and tatties…’
That new direction makes living closer to London something that makes sense, but he misses his old stomping grounds and any time he’s in Glasgow will revisit places where he spent happy times with his family.
“I always go to The University Café on Byres Road in Glasgow. On a day out from Clydebank we would go there to eat, and if we were really hungry, it would always be the mince and tatties.
“I visited a wee while ago, went in, ordered mince and tatties. Nae mince and tatties…mind blown!
“Then followed a long discussion with the owner about it – his son had taken it off the menu but he said he would speak to him about it. I slept well that night.”
Despite the fact his dad would have liked him to head for a job with more security, other members of the family were happy to support his adventures in their own ways.
“We were flying out of the country for the first time – to Memphis actually. My granny handed me a Tupperware box of egg sandwiches ‘for the flight’ because it would be a long trip.
“She insisted I got the box back to her though – and I did.”
Could have been a chef
Marti admits he is a bit of a foodie and says that if music success hadn’t come along, he would have swapped the paint brush for a pastry brush and become a chef.
“I love food. I love eating it and I love cooking it. I didn’t grow up knowing about the amazing produce from Scotland but we do have some of the best.
“Especially when you’re talking about seafood and really good cheeses and things like that. But we do have the other side of the coin where things get a bit crazy.
“Some of my American friends will say to me ‘So haggis? Is that done for a dare, you go first…’
If I go to restaurants sometimes I’ll ask if I can meet the chef if he’s not too busy because I want to compliment him on what he’s just done.”
“I was vegetarian for 15 years until the day I decided to have a pie. But the chickpea is still my friend. I can go a long time without eating meat but when I do, I want to know where it’s come from and how it’s been treated.
“My mum, my grannies, my aunties – they were all great cooks. Nothing fancy, just great cooks,
“If I go to restaurants sometimes I’ll ask if I can meet the chef if he’s not too busy because I want to compliment him on what he’s just done and maybe ask him about how he did certain things.
“That’s their backstage area and I’m the fan.”
Dealing with fans
When he’s in a restaurant, however, he will still catch people out of the corner of his area, making their way over to the table.
“I was raised by my mum and dad to be a polite boy and I do have spatial awareness. Especially if someone is tucking into a meal it’s just not done.
“I maybe have a good forkful of food heading towards my mouth and someone is hovering for an autograph or it could be a wee selfie. I do ask if I can have this forkful or it could be embarrassing for both of us.”
Spectacles for the small print
Even the glasses he wears most of the time now aren’t enough of a disguise.
“Listen, I’ve got to the point that when I go shopping sometimes, my arms aren’t long enough to read the tiny print on the tins, even with my glasses on!
“My arms also aren’t long enough when people come up and want a selfie. I can’t get the phone far enough away. No camera should get that close!”
‘Just bring your dancing shoes’
If you do spot Marti around town when he’s out on tour, wait until he’s finished his meal and maybe bring a selfie stick. Feel free to request a song during the gig though.
“On the tour, if you shout loud enough and I can remember the song, I might well give it a go. The guys in my band probably know my back catalogue better than I do now.
“Just bring your dancing shoes and smiles to the gig and I’ll do the rest.”
Marti Pellow plays Dundee Caird Hall on Friday April 15.
Further Scottish dates can be found on Marti’s website.
