Interviews with all of the guys in
WET WET WET
Cliffs Pavilion, Southend on Sea
15th May 2019
WET WET WET
Cliffs Pavilion, Southend on Sea
15th May 2019
Wet Wet Wet are Graeme Clark, Tommy Cunningham, Neil Mitchell and Kevin Simm. The band are one of the most successful groups in British pop history with an amazing back catalogue of songs including three No.1’s – Help From My Friends, Goodnight Girl and Love Is All Around.
NEIL MITCHELL:
1. Are you looking forward to going out on the road again and what has the reaction been to Kevin joining? NM: Absolutely. Two years ago we found ourselves in a position without a singer and we weren’t sure how it was going to turn out. When we got Kevin on board and played a couple of small shows last year it was really exciting. I'm really looking forward to the tour. We’re going to some places I don't think I'll have been before and it's always nice to play in new places. 2. How do you think the live dates will compare to the first time you toured with Wet Wet Wet? NM: We supported Lionel Richie back in 1987 when our first single came out. That was a great opportunity and Lionel was really lovely. We watched his show and saw how he performed, that was a real ‘wow' moment. God knows what we sounded like, but that was probably our first big gig. We played Birmingham and Wembley. It was a bit of a dip into the limelight being on the same bill as him. |
3. You were very young when you first started playing in a band, how did you get started?
NM: I was still at high school, about 13 or 14 when we started. It was me, Graeme and Tommy looking for a singer again (laughs). Yes we've done this before! We coaxed Marti into singing as we’d all tried it and it wasn’t happening. We took it from there, and it was quite a journey.
4.You released your first record in 1987, two years after you signed a deal. What was that like?
NM: It was quite a slog, but we got there in the end. There was always stuff to do but we felt like we hadn’t made it until we were on ‘Top Of The Pops’.
5. When ‘Love Is All Around’ was used for the film ‘Four Weddings And A Funeral’ you went to the film premiere, what do you remember about that night?
NM: We had our kilts on that night and we went to the premier and the after-party and that was really exciting. Obviously, you see all that Hollywood-type stuff in Leicester Square, and suddenly you're at one yourself. That was when Liz Hurley wore the famous dress. It's quite something that clothing can be so important that we are still talking about it even now. The dress was the one held together with nappy pins, probably golden nappy pins or something like that. I remember we watched the film and after we went to some house in London for the after-party. I don't remember speaking to Hugh Grant and Liz Hurley but they were there, and it was a great occasion great to be part of . It's a funny film.
6. Did that film change your career? It was one of the biggest selling singles of the 90’s.
NM: Yes the song, Love Is All Around (originally a hit for The Troggs in 1968) was so popular it enabled us to tour the world.
7. Will you have similar requests on this tour rider to the 90’s shows?
NM: I guess we're a lot healthier now than we were. We’re a lot more health conscious.
There might be some beer or a bottle of wine, but that's kind of it this time. We're not that way inclined anymore. We’re in our early 50’s now and we all have responsibilities.
8. What was it like when you first met Kevin Simm? How long did it take for you as a band to realise he was the right person to sing with you?
NM: Mark (Marti) left straight after the last gig we played together. We had done the show and we all laughed and we went our separate ways. Then his manager called the band manager and said ‘Mark doesn't wanna do it anymore, he's leaving the band' and that was it.
We haven't spoken to him since. I don't have any grudge, but I did I find it a bit odd that you wouldn’t have the courage to say ‘I wanna do something else' in a mature manner. He could have done that but he got someone else to do it for him.
At the time we were quite hurt and angry, if you had spoken to me about a year and a half ago, I was emotional and wondering what happened, and we had to look at ourselves and say ‘what are we going to do?' If we want to continue, we needed a singer. We auditioned some other people and we thought right this isn't going to be easy; this is a nightmare. What you've got to understand is we had never held auditions before, we didn't really know what to expect. Kevin's name had been floated about by various people and we didn’t know if we wanted to go down the route of somebody who’d been on a TV show, we thought we’d be better finding someone who wasn't known . But we’d all seen Kevin on The Voice and knew how good he was. After the other auditions didn't work out, we thought why not see Kevin? He’s excellent, he can sing and he seems like a nice guy. So we got in touch with him, and he came up to Glasgow and blew us awa and we are where we are now.
9. Did the other people try to imitate Marti?
NM: I look back, and I just go ‘Oh my God’, it was hard. When we found Kevin we were loving it because he is so good at what he does. He was just on it. It was meant to be with Kevin.
10. Did you think you'd have to give up looking for a singer?
NM: Doing those first auditions we did wonder if we were wasting our time. We did the two shows with Kevin last year and realised we had found someone and made the right decision. It was a great feeling, it was like we had won the lottery. We’re back on stage playing our music, and it’s amazing.
11. What do you think of the other bands with new singers upfront, Spandau Ballet etc?
NM: We've been following the Spandau Ballet story because it happened about the same time as it did for us.
You just have to give it a chance, and you can come and see for yourself and see what you think.
Obviously, some people can't get their heads around Marti not being there and some people can.
NM: I was still at high school, about 13 or 14 when we started. It was me, Graeme and Tommy looking for a singer again (laughs). Yes we've done this before! We coaxed Marti into singing as we’d all tried it and it wasn’t happening. We took it from there, and it was quite a journey.
4.You released your first record in 1987, two years after you signed a deal. What was that like?
NM: It was quite a slog, but we got there in the end. There was always stuff to do but we felt like we hadn’t made it until we were on ‘Top Of The Pops’.
5. When ‘Love Is All Around’ was used for the film ‘Four Weddings And A Funeral’ you went to the film premiere, what do you remember about that night?
NM: We had our kilts on that night and we went to the premier and the after-party and that was really exciting. Obviously, you see all that Hollywood-type stuff in Leicester Square, and suddenly you're at one yourself. That was when Liz Hurley wore the famous dress. It's quite something that clothing can be so important that we are still talking about it even now. The dress was the one held together with nappy pins, probably golden nappy pins or something like that. I remember we watched the film and after we went to some house in London for the after-party. I don't remember speaking to Hugh Grant and Liz Hurley but they were there, and it was a great occasion great to be part of . It's a funny film.
6. Did that film change your career? It was one of the biggest selling singles of the 90’s.
NM: Yes the song, Love Is All Around (originally a hit for The Troggs in 1968) was so popular it enabled us to tour the world.
7. Will you have similar requests on this tour rider to the 90’s shows?
NM: I guess we're a lot healthier now than we were. We’re a lot more health conscious.
There might be some beer or a bottle of wine, but that's kind of it this time. We're not that way inclined anymore. We’re in our early 50’s now and we all have responsibilities.
8. What was it like when you first met Kevin Simm? How long did it take for you as a band to realise he was the right person to sing with you?
NM: Mark (Marti) left straight after the last gig we played together. We had done the show and we all laughed and we went our separate ways. Then his manager called the band manager and said ‘Mark doesn't wanna do it anymore, he's leaving the band' and that was it.
We haven't spoken to him since. I don't have any grudge, but I did I find it a bit odd that you wouldn’t have the courage to say ‘I wanna do something else' in a mature manner. He could have done that but he got someone else to do it for him.
At the time we were quite hurt and angry, if you had spoken to me about a year and a half ago, I was emotional and wondering what happened, and we had to look at ourselves and say ‘what are we going to do?' If we want to continue, we needed a singer. We auditioned some other people and we thought right this isn't going to be easy; this is a nightmare. What you've got to understand is we had never held auditions before, we didn't really know what to expect. Kevin's name had been floated about by various people and we didn’t know if we wanted to go down the route of somebody who’d been on a TV show, we thought we’d be better finding someone who wasn't known . But we’d all seen Kevin on The Voice and knew how good he was. After the other auditions didn't work out, we thought why not see Kevin? He’s excellent, he can sing and he seems like a nice guy. So we got in touch with him, and he came up to Glasgow and blew us awa and we are where we are now.
9. Did the other people try to imitate Marti?
NM: I look back, and I just go ‘Oh my God’, it was hard. When we found Kevin we were loving it because he is so good at what he does. He was just on it. It was meant to be with Kevin.
10. Did you think you'd have to give up looking for a singer?
NM: Doing those first auditions we did wonder if we were wasting our time. We did the two shows with Kevin last year and realised we had found someone and made the right decision. It was a great feeling, it was like we had won the lottery. We’re back on stage playing our music, and it’s amazing.
11. What do you think of the other bands with new singers upfront, Spandau Ballet etc?
NM: We've been following the Spandau Ballet story because it happened about the same time as it did for us.
You just have to give it a chance, and you can come and see for yourself and see what you think.
Obviously, some people can't get their heads around Marti not being there and some people can.
TOMMY CUNNINGHAM
1. What are you most looking forward to about the new tour in April? TC: Getting on stage and connecting with people. When you're in the studio you're a small gang and the creative process might connect with you but the basic challenge is, and what your real love is, is just connecting with the actual audience. That's the reason we did it when we were 14 years of age, and that's the reason we do it now in our fifties and in Kevin's case in his thirties. 2. Kevin Simm, former Liberty X pop star and winner of The Voice TV series in 2016, was hired as the new singer after Marti Pellow announced he had left to pursue other work. Does Kevin keep reminding you how much younger he is? TC: He does say he was seven years old when ‘Wishing I was Lucky’ came out. 3 You all seem to get on so well with Kevin. What is it about him that works with the band? TC: He’s humble about his ability and his talent and he's never daunted. He’s been knocked down a hundred times and each time he’s come back saying "Right, what's the next challenge?" |
4 You have stepped away and taken breaks from the band in the past, what happened?
TC: I walked out in ‘97. I knew that something was missing and I could see the writing on the wall. I found myself back in Glasgow with a wife and two kids and I thought to myself ‘what do I want to do?' I thought I would still make music, but I wanted to do my own stuff, and I hated the fact that I’d lost contact with real life. I didn't know how to live in a household and bring kids up properly, I was too pampered for too long so I became a cabbie and bought a pub.
5. How extreme had the pampering become for a pop band then?
TC: Things like turning up in Taiwan where they had just built a new Four Seasons Hotel and they gave us the entire top floor and a butler each. He would say ‘shall I run a bath for you?' I remember going downstairs and just going for a wander to McDonald's and the butler came with me, in white gloves and a black suit. I ordered and he carried it all the way back to the hotel just so I could eat a big Mac and chips. It was really stupid beyond words. I was dressed head to toe in Versace in those days, and that didn’t translate very well.
As a young man I thought maybe we would be a small indie band, and we'd manage to get to number 99 in the charts and that's what I thought our life would be, but success was quite extreme. We were kids who left school and couldn't get jobs; we didn't come from affluent families, so we had no money in our pockets. School was useless. We weren’t taught how to learn. Some essential elements were missing at the very beginning which made it impossible for us to take anything in. Music was our saviour.
6 What music did you listen to growing up?
TC: Growing up it was about going through the parents' record collection which included the likes of Tom Jones and The Rolling Stones. It was playing music like Fats Domino and music from the 50’s and 60s, that was my grounding. Then I got into the mod thing, and I became a Jam fan. I went round the country wearing a parka, I've still got all the records, I’ll go back and listen to ‘All Mod Cons’ every so often. I was listening to David Bowie when I met Graeme. He showed me a lot of indie stuff and played a lot of reggae and Iggy Pop and Magazine and The Clash. We connected through Elvis Costello.
7. How did the other original members come along?
TC: Neil came along with strings, and we started playing Shirley Bassey and thenMarti brought a real soul element. So we had a soul, angst, strings and Shirley Bassey which brought a lot of drama.
If you listen to our first album ‘Popped In Souled Out’ we were saying that we were a band with attitude, trying to bring passion and emotion to the back end of everything we recorded.
8. When you look back at old interviews how do you think you come across?
TC: I think we come across as headless chickens because we were having a taste of success and grabbing it with both hands. We were on a level we’d never even hoped for. We were amazed and jawdroppingly shocked just thinking ‘how did we get here?’ We went with it and enjoyed every moment, but we had a work ethic and a feeling that it could disappear at any time. We worked really hard and didn't stop for ten years.
9. When you stepped out of the band in 1997, what had changed?
TC: We lived in each other's pockets for ten years and had massive success and then life changes. You have other priorities, you have a partner. I got to the point where I couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't be in the band.
10. Are their different pressures for a drummer?
TC: On stage you're basically doing a two and a half hour workout, so the adrenaline is pumping. When you walk off stage you’re trying to work out the best way of coming down without pouring yourself numerous glasses of alcohol. As a drummer, the challenge is trying to bring yourself down after the show, that's the tricky part. Maybe that's why drummers get into the habit of exploding and partying for hours, but you can't do that.
The instrument chooses you, you don't choose the instrument. If you are predisposed to be a drummer then there's something in your psyche which makes you go ‘Oh I want to be the guy that makes all that noise.' I think what kept me sane is the fact that I have a strong grounding of who and where I came from.
11. The other members of the group have moved out of Scotland, everyone except you. How far have you gone from where you grew up?
TC: I've moved less than two miles from where I grew up, but of course, where I live now it’s beautiful tree-lined streets and lawns and gardens.
Twenty years ago I bought the pub where Graeme and I used to drink and I go across and say hello to everyone and sit down with my dad and have a beer. I’m very, very grounded in the area where I grew up. I'll probably go over there three times a week for an hour or so and make sure things are okay. I've got a great team who run it and I'm not known as Tommy from Wet Wet Wet. I'm known as Tommy son of....[sic]. That's because it’s the area where I grew up. My wife Elaine grew up there too so sometimes I'm known as Elaine‘s husband. I guess I need that kind of locked in community feel. Bringing up my kids in the area, in the education system has been good for my family. I get the bonus of getting to go around the world but I like to have that strong anchor.
12. How have you dealt with the changes that come with having a new singer?
TC: I do embrace change but we had a huge challenge last year with Kevin coming into the band. He has made it with his personality and the fact that he fits in and comes from a similar background. The fact that he is a working musician, he doesn't care about stardom in any shape or form he just wants to perform and be in that band environment. It's great to see him experience that and he fills the gap that was very difficult to try to fill.
To me, the biggest loss here is not the fact that we're not working together. Marti doesn't want to be singing with Wet Wet Wet anymore and that’s okay. The biggest loss is the friendship, the thing that I want to make sure survives this. I want to wish him all the best. He is one of the nicest men I've ever had the pleasure of knowing and our experiences together are unique. He makes me laugh, and I love him to bits. I want him to be happy. When he said he wanted to leave through a press release, it took me a very long time to get over the shock and anger, and then I thought ‘go and be happy', and I hope that one day we can still go and break bread and be friends. It must be hard for him to pick up the phone and talk to me and it’s hard for me to pick up the phone too. Time will pass, and there will be a time where I can go ‘Right, how are you?’ I wish him all the best. It’s different with Kevin. It’s all about his voice and his delivery.
13. What's your most surreal moment in Wet Wet Wet?
TC: I got a call from the then producer of ‘Top Of The Pops’ saying a band was doing a charity record and would I come down and play the drums because the drummer couldn't make it. I asked ‘who’s the drummer who can't make it and he said… Charlie Watts.’ There was Brian May on guitar. I found myself playing on ‘Top of the Pops’ with these huge stars thinking ‘what the hell am I doing here, this is amazing.'
Things like Robbie Williams coming in and wanting to hang out with Wet Wet Wet rather than Take That. It was just before he left Take That, and he got steaming drunk with Wet Wet Wet. I’m sure he would thank us now because that helped him. He was trying to find out who he was.
Singers are complicated people, trying to know who they are. The band is not a complicated thing as long as everyone knows who they are.
TC: I walked out in ‘97. I knew that something was missing and I could see the writing on the wall. I found myself back in Glasgow with a wife and two kids and I thought to myself ‘what do I want to do?' I thought I would still make music, but I wanted to do my own stuff, and I hated the fact that I’d lost contact with real life. I didn't know how to live in a household and bring kids up properly, I was too pampered for too long so I became a cabbie and bought a pub.
5. How extreme had the pampering become for a pop band then?
TC: Things like turning up in Taiwan where they had just built a new Four Seasons Hotel and they gave us the entire top floor and a butler each. He would say ‘shall I run a bath for you?' I remember going downstairs and just going for a wander to McDonald's and the butler came with me, in white gloves and a black suit. I ordered and he carried it all the way back to the hotel just so I could eat a big Mac and chips. It was really stupid beyond words. I was dressed head to toe in Versace in those days, and that didn’t translate very well.
As a young man I thought maybe we would be a small indie band, and we'd manage to get to number 99 in the charts and that's what I thought our life would be, but success was quite extreme. We were kids who left school and couldn't get jobs; we didn't come from affluent families, so we had no money in our pockets. School was useless. We weren’t taught how to learn. Some essential elements were missing at the very beginning which made it impossible for us to take anything in. Music was our saviour.
6 What music did you listen to growing up?
TC: Growing up it was about going through the parents' record collection which included the likes of Tom Jones and The Rolling Stones. It was playing music like Fats Domino and music from the 50’s and 60s, that was my grounding. Then I got into the mod thing, and I became a Jam fan. I went round the country wearing a parka, I've still got all the records, I’ll go back and listen to ‘All Mod Cons’ every so often. I was listening to David Bowie when I met Graeme. He showed me a lot of indie stuff and played a lot of reggae and Iggy Pop and Magazine and The Clash. We connected through Elvis Costello.
7. How did the other original members come along?
TC: Neil came along with strings, and we started playing Shirley Bassey and thenMarti brought a real soul element. So we had a soul, angst, strings and Shirley Bassey which brought a lot of drama.
If you listen to our first album ‘Popped In Souled Out’ we were saying that we were a band with attitude, trying to bring passion and emotion to the back end of everything we recorded.
8. When you look back at old interviews how do you think you come across?
TC: I think we come across as headless chickens because we were having a taste of success and grabbing it with both hands. We were on a level we’d never even hoped for. We were amazed and jawdroppingly shocked just thinking ‘how did we get here?’ We went with it and enjoyed every moment, but we had a work ethic and a feeling that it could disappear at any time. We worked really hard and didn't stop for ten years.
9. When you stepped out of the band in 1997, what had changed?
TC: We lived in each other's pockets for ten years and had massive success and then life changes. You have other priorities, you have a partner. I got to the point where I couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't be in the band.
10. Are their different pressures for a drummer?
TC: On stage you're basically doing a two and a half hour workout, so the adrenaline is pumping. When you walk off stage you’re trying to work out the best way of coming down without pouring yourself numerous glasses of alcohol. As a drummer, the challenge is trying to bring yourself down after the show, that's the tricky part. Maybe that's why drummers get into the habit of exploding and partying for hours, but you can't do that.
The instrument chooses you, you don't choose the instrument. If you are predisposed to be a drummer then there's something in your psyche which makes you go ‘Oh I want to be the guy that makes all that noise.' I think what kept me sane is the fact that I have a strong grounding of who and where I came from.
11. The other members of the group have moved out of Scotland, everyone except you. How far have you gone from where you grew up?
TC: I've moved less than two miles from where I grew up, but of course, where I live now it’s beautiful tree-lined streets and lawns and gardens.
Twenty years ago I bought the pub where Graeme and I used to drink and I go across and say hello to everyone and sit down with my dad and have a beer. I’m very, very grounded in the area where I grew up. I'll probably go over there three times a week for an hour or so and make sure things are okay. I've got a great team who run it and I'm not known as Tommy from Wet Wet Wet. I'm known as Tommy son of....[sic]. That's because it’s the area where I grew up. My wife Elaine grew up there too so sometimes I'm known as Elaine‘s husband. I guess I need that kind of locked in community feel. Bringing up my kids in the area, in the education system has been good for my family. I get the bonus of getting to go around the world but I like to have that strong anchor.
12. How have you dealt with the changes that come with having a new singer?
TC: I do embrace change but we had a huge challenge last year with Kevin coming into the band. He has made it with his personality and the fact that he fits in and comes from a similar background. The fact that he is a working musician, he doesn't care about stardom in any shape or form he just wants to perform and be in that band environment. It's great to see him experience that and he fills the gap that was very difficult to try to fill.
To me, the biggest loss here is not the fact that we're not working together. Marti doesn't want to be singing with Wet Wet Wet anymore and that’s okay. The biggest loss is the friendship, the thing that I want to make sure survives this. I want to wish him all the best. He is one of the nicest men I've ever had the pleasure of knowing and our experiences together are unique. He makes me laugh, and I love him to bits. I want him to be happy. When he said he wanted to leave through a press release, it took me a very long time to get over the shock and anger, and then I thought ‘go and be happy', and I hope that one day we can still go and break bread and be friends. It must be hard for him to pick up the phone and talk to me and it’s hard for me to pick up the phone too. Time will pass, and there will be a time where I can go ‘Right, how are you?’ I wish him all the best. It’s different with Kevin. It’s all about his voice and his delivery.
13. What's your most surreal moment in Wet Wet Wet?
TC: I got a call from the then producer of ‘Top Of The Pops’ saying a band was doing a charity record and would I come down and play the drums because the drummer couldn't make it. I asked ‘who’s the drummer who can't make it and he said… Charlie Watts.’ There was Brian May on guitar. I found myself playing on ‘Top of the Pops’ with these huge stars thinking ‘what the hell am I doing here, this is amazing.'
Things like Robbie Williams coming in and wanting to hang out with Wet Wet Wet rather than Take That. It was just before he left Take That, and he got steaming drunk with Wet Wet Wet. I’m sure he would thank us now because that helped him. He was trying to find out who he was.
Singers are complicated people, trying to know who they are. The band is not a complicated thing as long as everyone knows who they are.
KEVIN SIMM
1. How did you get the job with Wet Wet Wet? KS: I was playing football in the garden with my little boy, and I checked the emails, as you do these days, I had an email from the manager of the band asking me if I'd have a chat. I wasn't sure what it was about, I just thought they might want a backing singer, and when I spoke to the manager he said ‘we’re looking for a new lead singer, do you fancy trying out?' 2. What happened next? KS: I met Graeme first, then the rest of the band and we jammed about ten songs. They asked if I wanted the job and I said yes. That's it in a nutshell. We did a couple of gigs before Christmas and they couldn’t have gone better. The audience reacted really well. 3. Did you feel nervous? KS: I put a lot of pressure on myself but it couldn't have gone better. The response was really really good. |
4. Do you think people expect you to be Marti Pellow?
KS: I don't think people can expect you to do that. It's the same with Spandau Ballet's new singer or Adam Lambert and Queen, you have to be you. You can't be expected to be the person who came before you but you're always going to be compared to that person. Some people will never be able to get their heads around there being a new singer and that’s okay. The band wanted a grafter, a singer and someone who would fight to make the songs work. I hope I am that person.
5. Why do you think these songs suit your style of singing?
KS: I’m a soul singer and that's why I love the songs. They have great melodies and they’re soulful and that suits me right down to the ground.
6. When were you first aware of Wet Wet Wet’s catalogue of music? You're more than ten years younger than the other guys in the group; were you too young to know the hits originally?
KS: When I started out I was 17 and doing the pubs and clubs and I was singing ‘Goodnight Girl’ and ‘Love Is All Around’, those songs were in my set. So it's surreal going out now and singing those songs as part of the band.
7. What part of the tour are you most looking forward to?
KS: It is an excellent book of songs. I knew so many of them but getting up on stage and performing them is different.
8. You first toured with the pop band Liberty X. How touring with the Wet Wet Wet be different?
KS: The massive upside is there are no dance routines! (laughs) I was never any good at them, and I never could remember the steps. I would hide and hope the audience watched the others and didn’t notice me. Liberty X was a completely different group. We generally shared parts in songs and with the band I’m singing all the songs. I find that sort of liberating. From a performance point of view it's going to be a lot harder because it's all on my shoulders but I’m really looking forward to the shows.
9. Was it very glamorous in the early days with the success of Liberty X?
KS: We went to some very glamorous parties and we shared space with Madonna and Beyoncé. It was pretty awesome to go to parties with Richard Branson who was our label boss.
10. How have the diehard Wet Wet Wet fans react to your joining the group and singing the songs they love?
KS: There’s been a really positive reaction from the fans who came out to see us at the two shows last year and a good reaction on social media. You'll always get people who can't see the band without Marti, but I could be anybody. You have to take the rough with the smooth but what I’ve experienced so far has been really positive. I’m not naive enough to think everyone is going to love the fact that I have joined the band. Hopefully, it will bring two audiences together?
Some people might think the band should just sit around and do nothing, but they've got 30 years of music, songs they have written and they want to go out and play.
It would be nice to get Marti's seal of approval of course, but I don't expect it!
11. What are the chances of you throwing a Liberty X tune into the live set?
KS: We messed about in rehearsals with one song. We thought it might have been funny but we decided not to do it.
12. You won The Voice in 2016. Can you speak about your experience on the show and after it?
KS: I am the only winner of The Voice who didn’t go back to perform my music. The people who work on the show are brilliant but I haven’t watched it since I was on.
I wanted people to hear my voice and to me that justified going on the show. It was the hardest thing I’d ever done and I never expected to win.
When I did Popstars (2001/2002) it was a lot more real. It was a fly on the wall show and no one had expectations. Now people know how you should act and that you should have a back story. Back then it was very real. It was a load of kids turning up for an audition without even knowing what it was for.
13. Has Ricky Wilson, your coach from The Voice, been in touch recently?
KS. Yes he said he’s pleased that I’m working with Wet Wet Wet. Ricky knew I had this gig before it was public. He text to say good luck, so we’re in touch occasionally.
14. Would you want your two young sons to go into the music business?
KS: I think I should steer them into football, the wages are better! Whatever they want to do I would support them. I wouldn’t put it at the top of the list of things I would want them to do. My eldest in particular loves singing. If it’s what they want to do I’d be honest with them about the challenges. I have been unbelievably lucky, but I still have to work.
KS: I don't think people can expect you to do that. It's the same with Spandau Ballet's new singer or Adam Lambert and Queen, you have to be you. You can't be expected to be the person who came before you but you're always going to be compared to that person. Some people will never be able to get their heads around there being a new singer and that’s okay. The band wanted a grafter, a singer and someone who would fight to make the songs work. I hope I am that person.
5. Why do you think these songs suit your style of singing?
KS: I’m a soul singer and that's why I love the songs. They have great melodies and they’re soulful and that suits me right down to the ground.
6. When were you first aware of Wet Wet Wet’s catalogue of music? You're more than ten years younger than the other guys in the group; were you too young to know the hits originally?
KS: When I started out I was 17 and doing the pubs and clubs and I was singing ‘Goodnight Girl’ and ‘Love Is All Around’, those songs were in my set. So it's surreal going out now and singing those songs as part of the band.
7. What part of the tour are you most looking forward to?
KS: It is an excellent book of songs. I knew so many of them but getting up on stage and performing them is different.
8. You first toured with the pop band Liberty X. How touring with the Wet Wet Wet be different?
KS: The massive upside is there are no dance routines! (laughs) I was never any good at them, and I never could remember the steps. I would hide and hope the audience watched the others and didn’t notice me. Liberty X was a completely different group. We generally shared parts in songs and with the band I’m singing all the songs. I find that sort of liberating. From a performance point of view it's going to be a lot harder because it's all on my shoulders but I’m really looking forward to the shows.
9. Was it very glamorous in the early days with the success of Liberty X?
KS: We went to some very glamorous parties and we shared space with Madonna and Beyoncé. It was pretty awesome to go to parties with Richard Branson who was our label boss.
10. How have the diehard Wet Wet Wet fans react to your joining the group and singing the songs they love?
KS: There’s been a really positive reaction from the fans who came out to see us at the two shows last year and a good reaction on social media. You'll always get people who can't see the band without Marti, but I could be anybody. You have to take the rough with the smooth but what I’ve experienced so far has been really positive. I’m not naive enough to think everyone is going to love the fact that I have joined the band. Hopefully, it will bring two audiences together?
Some people might think the band should just sit around and do nothing, but they've got 30 years of music, songs they have written and they want to go out and play.
It would be nice to get Marti's seal of approval of course, but I don't expect it!
11. What are the chances of you throwing a Liberty X tune into the live set?
KS: We messed about in rehearsals with one song. We thought it might have been funny but we decided not to do it.
12. You won The Voice in 2016. Can you speak about your experience on the show and after it?
KS: I am the only winner of The Voice who didn’t go back to perform my music. The people who work on the show are brilliant but I haven’t watched it since I was on.
I wanted people to hear my voice and to me that justified going on the show. It was the hardest thing I’d ever done and I never expected to win.
When I did Popstars (2001/2002) it was a lot more real. It was a fly on the wall show and no one had expectations. Now people know how you should act and that you should have a back story. Back then it was very real. It was a load of kids turning up for an audition without even knowing what it was for.
13. Has Ricky Wilson, your coach from The Voice, been in touch recently?
KS. Yes he said he’s pleased that I’m working with Wet Wet Wet. Ricky knew I had this gig before it was public. He text to say good luck, so we’re in touch occasionally.
14. Would you want your two young sons to go into the music business?
KS: I think I should steer them into football, the wages are better! Whatever they want to do I would support them. I wouldn’t put it at the top of the list of things I would want them to do. My eldest in particular loves singing. If it’s what they want to do I’d be honest with them about the challenges. I have been unbelievably lucky, but I still have to work.
GRAEME CLARK
1. You start your tour with new front man Kevin Simm next month, how do you feel ahead of the dates? GC: I’m really looking forward to it. It's nice to be dusting down the old songs, strapping the bass on and going out there and playing with my mates, and I've got a new mate. 2. Does having a new person join the group make you nervous? GC: It adds to the excitement; you're flying by the seat of your pants. Let's hope that it's okay! (laughs). We played a couple of gigs already so we know we have common ground to work on with Kevin, it's not entirely new. 3. How did you find Kevin Simm, and how did you know he was your man? GC: We auditioned a few others and it just made me think, ‘My God this is going to be really difficult' so when Kevin came on our radar I just breathed a big sigh of relief. |
4. How did you audition Kevin for the job?
GC: He came down to my house for a meeting. We had to find out if we understood each other. I knew he could sing.
5. What was your first meeting like?
GC: Once I start talking I can't stop so I spoke at Kevin for maybe two hours and after those two hours I said ‘if it was just up to me I’d give you the job right now’. He’s a warm guy. So then it was just whether he fitted with the rest of the guys.
6. Did you check that he knew Wet Wet Wet songs at that first meeting?
GC: Before he left my house we went into the studio and tried a couple of songs. He had the lyrics up on his phone. He sang ‘Goodnight Girl’ and we did a small rendition of ‘Wishing I Was Lucky’, which is not the easiest song to sing. He pulled it out of the bag. I don't even know if he was born when we released it! (jokes)
7. Wet Wet Wet first became big in the 80’s.How would you describe the band's career path?
GC: We’d just turned 20 years old when we signed a record deal. Thinking about it now I'm transported back to signing a publishing deal in the mid 80’s, it was a really exciting time. Among some really dire circumstances, we were in writing ‘Wishing I Was Lucky’ and feeling it. Wet Wet Wet, it's like a big train, you have to pull it back onto the tracks slowly and then it starts gathering its own momentum, and suddenly it's off, and it's running. That's what it's always been like. Bringing Kevin in kind of invigorated us all. Suddenly we’re all back and focused on the job at hand.
8. Are you planning to put any new music into the set on this tour?
GC: New music is a difficult thing these days and it pains me greatly to say this, but people aren’t buying albums anymore. The advent of the playlist almost makes the album redundant. People can just dip in and take anything they want from an artist’s repertoire. The plan is to write some new songs. We've been talking about it but I don't think the world is waiting for a new album. They might be waiting for three or four new tracks, and that might be a way to do it, to have three or four new tracks and intersperse it with some older material. Wet Wet Wet is a debating society. Everybody’s opinion has to count and that at the beauty of being in a band, so we’ll see.
9. Could the teenage you ever imagine you would have a music career spanning four decades?
GC: No one is more surprised than me that I’m here talking about embarking on a new UK tour. It has been amazing. I’m blown away and long may it continue. I do feel blessed that we have had a lot of years doing this and it never ceases to amaze me, when I wake up in the morning and think ‘What am I going to do musically today?' and that hasn’t changed for a long time. I love it.
It’s been amazing to come from where we came from and to sign a deal and to travel the world. Coming from working class backgrounds in Clydebank that was not a trodden career path and we kind of blazed a trail. I'm not saying no one had done it before, but where we grew up once you left school, the shipyard gates would open and you’d go from the school to the shipyard. We moved the goal posts a bit. In the mid-'80s, when I grew up every friend I had was into music. The social scene was hanging out in a record store. Music was the driver, and one of the few drivers in my life and I thought maybe I could eek a living doing it. I thought we might do okay for a couple of years and then I’d need to go to the factory. We just changed the factory, we made a musical factory. We knew we were okay, we didn't know how good we were. I remember reading an interview with Joe Strummer from The Clash saying he wanted to sell 1 million records and I thought that's what I want to do.
10. Can you remember your first appearance on ‘Top Of The Pops’
GC: I watched our first ‘Top Of The Pops’ the other day, it was on BBC 4. We went in at number 19. I remember coming out of the show, and the record company phoned and said ‘How did you get on at Top Of The Pops?’ It was quite sketchy because what I remember is drinking six bottles of champagne that were in the dressing room and that was a bit unprofessional. The other thing was Whitney Houston was on singing ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ and arrived in Limo. After she had sung we all wandered up to say hell and these big six-foot guys with ten-foot shoulders all appeared out of nowhere and said ‘Don't go near her.' I remember watching her singing and thinking ‘Wow! You are in the presence of something great’. It was amazing to see. Watching it the other day did transport me back and I was watching my eyes and thinking ‘hold it together, this is television.'
11. Would you go on stage drunk again?
GC: No, I don't drink anymore. I came out the other side. I realised I'd be better off not drinking. Eventually, I stopped when I was 43 after saying I would in my 20’s.
12. How would you compare yourself at the beginning of your career to now?
GC: I wasn't always this humble I was an arrogant little f*cker. I had that deeply rooted belief that we were getting out of where we came from.
GC: He came down to my house for a meeting. We had to find out if we understood each other. I knew he could sing.
5. What was your first meeting like?
GC: Once I start talking I can't stop so I spoke at Kevin for maybe two hours and after those two hours I said ‘if it was just up to me I’d give you the job right now’. He’s a warm guy. So then it was just whether he fitted with the rest of the guys.
6. Did you check that he knew Wet Wet Wet songs at that first meeting?
GC: Before he left my house we went into the studio and tried a couple of songs. He had the lyrics up on his phone. He sang ‘Goodnight Girl’ and we did a small rendition of ‘Wishing I Was Lucky’, which is not the easiest song to sing. He pulled it out of the bag. I don't even know if he was born when we released it! (jokes)
7. Wet Wet Wet first became big in the 80’s.How would you describe the band's career path?
GC: We’d just turned 20 years old when we signed a record deal. Thinking about it now I'm transported back to signing a publishing deal in the mid 80’s, it was a really exciting time. Among some really dire circumstances, we were in writing ‘Wishing I Was Lucky’ and feeling it. Wet Wet Wet, it's like a big train, you have to pull it back onto the tracks slowly and then it starts gathering its own momentum, and suddenly it's off, and it's running. That's what it's always been like. Bringing Kevin in kind of invigorated us all. Suddenly we’re all back and focused on the job at hand.
8. Are you planning to put any new music into the set on this tour?
GC: New music is a difficult thing these days and it pains me greatly to say this, but people aren’t buying albums anymore. The advent of the playlist almost makes the album redundant. People can just dip in and take anything they want from an artist’s repertoire. The plan is to write some new songs. We've been talking about it but I don't think the world is waiting for a new album. They might be waiting for three or four new tracks, and that might be a way to do it, to have three or four new tracks and intersperse it with some older material. Wet Wet Wet is a debating society. Everybody’s opinion has to count and that at the beauty of being in a band, so we’ll see.
9. Could the teenage you ever imagine you would have a music career spanning four decades?
GC: No one is more surprised than me that I’m here talking about embarking on a new UK tour. It has been amazing. I’m blown away and long may it continue. I do feel blessed that we have had a lot of years doing this and it never ceases to amaze me, when I wake up in the morning and think ‘What am I going to do musically today?' and that hasn’t changed for a long time. I love it.
It’s been amazing to come from where we came from and to sign a deal and to travel the world. Coming from working class backgrounds in Clydebank that was not a trodden career path and we kind of blazed a trail. I'm not saying no one had done it before, but where we grew up once you left school, the shipyard gates would open and you’d go from the school to the shipyard. We moved the goal posts a bit. In the mid-'80s, when I grew up every friend I had was into music. The social scene was hanging out in a record store. Music was the driver, and one of the few drivers in my life and I thought maybe I could eek a living doing it. I thought we might do okay for a couple of years and then I’d need to go to the factory. We just changed the factory, we made a musical factory. We knew we were okay, we didn't know how good we were. I remember reading an interview with Joe Strummer from The Clash saying he wanted to sell 1 million records and I thought that's what I want to do.
10. Can you remember your first appearance on ‘Top Of The Pops’
GC: I watched our first ‘Top Of The Pops’ the other day, it was on BBC 4. We went in at number 19. I remember coming out of the show, and the record company phoned and said ‘How did you get on at Top Of The Pops?’ It was quite sketchy because what I remember is drinking six bottles of champagne that were in the dressing room and that was a bit unprofessional. The other thing was Whitney Houston was on singing ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ and arrived in Limo. After she had sung we all wandered up to say hell and these big six-foot guys with ten-foot shoulders all appeared out of nowhere and said ‘Don't go near her.' I remember watching her singing and thinking ‘Wow! You are in the presence of something great’. It was amazing to see. Watching it the other day did transport me back and I was watching my eyes and thinking ‘hold it together, this is television.'
11. Would you go on stage drunk again?
GC: No, I don't drink anymore. I came out the other side. I realised I'd be better off not drinking. Eventually, I stopped when I was 43 after saying I would in my 20’s.
12. How would you compare yourself at the beginning of your career to now?
GC: I wasn't always this humble I was an arrogant little f*cker. I had that deeply rooted belief that we were getting out of where we came from.
INTERVIEWS BY JULIA KUTTNER
Tickets £29.00
www.southendtheatres.org.uk
Meet and Greet Sound Check Experience - £84.00 Exclusive access to the Wet Wet Wet sound check , opportunity to take a photo with the band , commemorative VIP Sound check laminate and lanyard, exclusive Wet Wet Wet Tote bag, signed tour programme.
Prices shown are inclusive of any applicable booking fees.
www.southendtheatres.org.uk
Meet and Greet Sound Check Experience - £84.00 Exclusive access to the Wet Wet Wet sound check , opportunity to take a photo with the band , commemorative VIP Sound check laminate and lanyard, exclusive Wet Wet Wet Tote bag, signed tour programme.
Prices shown are inclusive of any applicable booking fees.