Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, Wet Wet Wet scored a run of global hit singles while rising to become one of Scotland’s most successful pop acts ever.
Between ‘87 and ‘97, the band released five hit albums and scored a trio of No. 1s – With A Little Help From My Friends, Goodnight Girl and Love Is All Around – but over the past 25 years they slowed down, releasing only one more LP with original frontman Marti Pellow before his 2017 departure.
Now, with former Liberty X star Kevin Simm fronting the group, they’ve found their groove once again, releasing ‘The Journey’ in 2021 and, following the arrival of new band members Matt Carter (keyboards) Simon Lea (drums), they’re already working on its follow-up.
Speaking ahead of their UK co-headline ‘Best Of Both Worlds’ tour with Go West, which launches in January, bassist Graeme Clark tells RETROPOP’s January 2024 issue: “I look at Duran Duran and I respect them because they’ve continually made new music over the last 25 years and it’s a testament to where they sit now.
“They’re out, they’re back on the road and playing arenas all over the world, and I think it’s because they’ve remained current.
“If I could point to any problematic nature of where we were in the last 35 years it’s that we didn’t service that new music thing because there wasn’t the energy from the people that were there at the time. Now, I think there is an energy with the younger guys in the band, and for me it’s all about creating music.”
It was Clark who put the new players through their paces during the audition process and, on Carter and Lea’s influence on the direction of the group, he adds: “Simon was an obvious choice for drummer, but it was less so with our keyboard player, who came in without the experience of some of the other people around. But I really liked the idea that he was a young guy, a very accomplished musician, and he’s a jazzer.
“I’m not a jazzer by any stretch of the imagination, but I like being pulled in that direction and that infusion, where we can cross-pollinate things in music. And that goes right back to when Graeme Duffin joined, because he is a jazzer and he’s very steeped in jazz music.”
Right now, their focus is on returning to the road for Wet Wet Wet’s first headline tour in five years, but with the Graemes speaking from Scotland and Kevin from a boat in the Caribbean, they’re already working on new material. When we speak, Simm – with recording equipment in tow – has just been sent a song, written with the band’s newest members, to demo – as the bassist is quick to point out.
Kevin clarifies: “I got a message from Graeme very late – which I meant to get back to him on – about this demo, and I have a lot of respect for Graeme’s passion for writing, so sometimes when I’m away I bring my recording equipment and try to do stuff, but a lot of the time it stays in my case and doesn’t come out because I’m too busy at the bar!
“But I promise you, Graeme, there’s going to be a demo coming your way,” he laughs.
Wet Wet Wet and Go West’s ‘Best Of Both Worlds’ tour launches January 21 in Cardiff. The group’s ‘Live In Denmark’ album arrives January 19.
