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Having needed to make a choice between crime, the dole, football, or music, in 1982 four Clydebank High School attendees met and formed Wet Wet Wet. Drummer Tommy Cunningham and bassist Graeme Clark initially met on the school’s bus and soon became friends, shortly afterwards keyboardist Neil Mitchell joined the group, promising to supply keyboards with the money from his paper rounds. In the midst of his training to be a painter and decorator, lead vocalist Mark McLachlan was invited to join the group, followed a year later by Wet Wet Wet’s honourary fifth member Graeme Duffin.
Following two years of practice sessions and honing their songwriting skills, Wet Wet Wet made their debut performance at Glasgow’s Nightmares club. Around this time singer Mark McLachlan altered his stage name to Marti Pellow and the group inked a record deal with Polygram in 1985. With Polygram man Nick Angel as manager, the group issued their debut single “Wishing I Was Lucky” in 1986, which reached No. 7 on the UK Singles Chart. The full-length “Popped In Souled Out” followed in September 1987, spawning the subsequent hits “Sweet Little Mystery”, “Angel Eyes (Home and Away), and “Temptation”. Narrowing missing out on the UK No. 1 Album spot held by Michael Jackson’s “Bad”, the record introduced Wet Wet Wet’s style of pop, rock and jazz to a national audience.
1988 brought with it the band’s first No. 1 hit with a cover of the famous Beatles single “With a Little Help from My Friends”. Subsequently Wet Wet Wet issued the album “The Memphis Sessions”, a collection of songs recorded during their time in the U.S. The band’s official sophomore album “Holding Back the River” arrived in 1989 marked by greater use of string and classical arrangements. Like its predecessor the record peaked at No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart, aided by the hit singles “Sweet Surender”, “Broke Away”, “Hold Back the River”, and “Stay With Me Heartache (Can’t Stand the Night)”.
“High on the Happy Side” appeared in 1992 led by the group’s only self-penned No. 1 single “Goodnight Girl”. The day after the release, under the pseudonym Maggie Pie & The Impostors, the group released the special-edition album “Cloak & Dagger” featuring covers of songs by Elvis Costello, Carole King, Todd Rudgen, and Mose Allison. The greatest hits compilation “End of Part One” was released towards the tail-end of 1993, after which their cover of The Troggs’ single “Love Is All Around” made its way onto the “Four Weddings and a Funeral” soundtrack, greatly exposing the band. The single subsequently maintained its No. 1 Singles position for 15 weeks, paving the way for Wet Wet Wet’s fifth studio album “Picture This” in 1995. Held as one of Britain’s finest soft rock bands, the group released the album “10” in 1997 celebrating their decade atop the charts, followed by “Timeless” in 2007.
From the first piano chords and notes drifting from onstage to the last uproarious cheer from the audience, my experience seeing Wet Wet Wet live was truly phenomenal. Marti Pellow stood front of stage in black, matching his bandmates, pouring his soul into the microphone amidst a haze of fog and orange lights. The audience sang along with him, and he loved it.
During "Temptation," after swishing the microphone back and forth to the hits from the brass, he prompted the audience to sing along with him, and they joined back in, whistling and cheering in the process. One of the best parts of seeing a performance like Wet Wet Wet live is that the audience's energy adds so much to it.
As impressive as Pellow's long, sustained final note in "Temptation" was, it was amplified even more by the fact that the audience cheered and whistled along with him the whole duration of the note. Not only did the audience love Wet Wet Wet, they loved soft rock, and were there to support their love for music.
The large screen behind the band displayed varioius elemental ambient visualizations similar to the old visualizations in music players like Windows Media Player, which helped heighten the performance in a subtle way as well. It was a nice use of technology that didn't upstage Wet Wet Wet, while still adding to the show. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Wet Wet Wet live and would reccomend them to any lover of soft rock.
The Christians always brought the soul in their own unique way. The Liverpool act, originally named after the founding trio of brothers (not their religious views), had a run of chart success in the late 80s finding a large audience for their gritty and deceptive style of music. 30 years later they’re still finding new audiences for their sound and still delivering heartfelt music with all the intensity and conviction that carried them through their 80s heyday.
Their appearance isn’t what you’d typically associate with a soul group. In fact, they were once described as ‘The Temptations in ripped jeans’ but we all know that looks can be deceiving and once the vocals start there can be no doubts about the kind of group The Christians are. Frontman and founding member Garry Christian delivers his songs with a passion that has only deepened with the years gone by and as the band lay down a smooth bed for his vocals to soar over, he dominates any venue they play with his sombre tones. The feelings conveyed within their music makes it impossible for any crowd not to emotionally connect with The Christians and that’s what ultimately makes their brand of soul completely unique.
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