As frontman of Scottish pop group Wet Wet Wet, Marti Pellow has been a household name for the past thirty plus years. His enthusiasm for the stage - whether as a musician or in a theatrical capacity - shows no sign of abating.
Marti returns to the Midlands to show his dark side in Aladdin at Birmingham Hippodrome.
Lauren Foster recently met up with him to talk about making his panto debut, being on the road with Wet Wet Wet, and, er... curry.
Aladdin at the Birmingham Hippodrome is your panto debut. What attracted you to the prospect of spending a season in pantomime?
I’ve worked with director Michael Harrison before, on The Witches Of Eastwick, and he asked whether I fancied giving it a go. I had reservations because, growing up as a child, I went to see panto with people like Stanley Baxter. He was quite a famous comedian in Scotland and did these big, brilliant extravaganzas of pantomimes, so the bar was set really high for me. I said to Michael, ‘Right, so talk me through it’. He sent me drafts of the script and I said, ‘Oh no, I’m not interested in that!’ It’s very much a team effort here, from Julian and Matt and myself, but it was awfully important that I got to score my own music and write my own songs. So from that point of view, the things I had reservations about quickly dissipated. I’m consistently told that Birmingham Hippodrome’s panto is the best in the land. I’ve just spent a week here, walking about on the set, with people saying they’re looking forward to seeing me in panto, that they go every year to see it and that the production values are amazing. The sets are phenomenal, and that also goes for the line guy, the choreographer, the sound people - loads of people who’re really top of their game and who are really good people. So from that point of view it’s really a collaboration, and that started to get me excited. Then I saw the enthusiasm in people’s faces, and registered how passionately they spoke about it and what they wanted to achieve. So from there it was tick, tick, tick, tick - yeah, alright, I’m in. And to be able to play the dark character and be booed and hissed is something I’m really looking forward to.
The panto is a uniquely British phenomenon. What makes it so popular in this country?
I think it’s a rite of passage. I think the British embrace it because we see it for what it is and understand it for what it is. We get it. Everything’s amped up, everything’s larger than life, there’s nothing subtle about it. It’s very family-orientated but it also spans generations. Your mums and dads will want to come back to watch it because it’ll remind them of the show they watched when they were younger, so it’s not just for the children. When it’s done right, it’s smart and it’s a great art form. There’s so much heritage in it - it’s been going for so many years because people in the UK just adore it.
You’re no stranger to the Hippodrome or to Birmingham. What are your favourite aspects of the venue and the city?
The Hippodrome is probably one of the best spaces in the land to bring a show and to work. And the city of Birmingham is very, very happening. It’s very supportive of the arts and always has been. There’s a great theatre culture here, a great live environment. I must’ve played every Birmingham venue there is, from the NIA to the small clubs to all the arenas they’ve got to offer.
As a matter of fact, I’m back here after panto doing my day job, which is singing and songwriting. My first big break came at the NEC when I supported Lionel Richie - I think it was in 1985 or something. We were on the Hello tour with him, and that was the first time we’d ever played big venues. We’ve always sold more tickets here than anywhere else in the country. The Midlands has always been a strong area for Wet Wet Wet and myself. We’ve done well...
What do you imagine Julian Clary will bring to your own personal Christmas experience?
Now there’s a man who’ll put a smile on your face! What a gentle soul. He’s a very, very smart performer and his children’s books are great fun too. I’m really looking forward to spending time with him. He comes across as a very nice man, and I’ll look forward to having some chats with him.
You’ll be working hard over Christmas. Do you have any festive traditions you’re determined to fit in, despite the heavy workload?
The good thing about it is that most of my family are dovetailing into me. I get Christmas Day off, which is nice, so I’ll be doing all the things that everybody else does. I think it’s important that you have that time. There are a few days that I get off, but I love the great work ethic that revolves around the panto scene. I’ve spent Christmas in Birmingham before, when I did Chicago here for seven weeks, so I’m no stranger.
And what’s on the top of your Christmas list this year?
I’m told I’m very hard to buy for. I don’t think so, but my family say that. Hey, I’m pretty much the same as most men in the country - underwear and socks and I’m happy. I’m an easy buy.
Your acting career has incorporated roles in shows including The Witches Of Eastwick, Blood Brothers and Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde. Do you have any other acting ambitions?
There are so many great musicals out there. I’ve been really lucky to have the key ones like Evita and Chicago, which was my first ever musical. I did that on Broadway as well. I don’t care whether I’m on Broadway or in Birmingham - I’m just happy to be part of a team. That’s the good thing about musical theatre - it’s not driven by just one person. You might have your face on the poster but it’s a collaborative effort, and that’s what’s really exciting about it. You get to work with different people who bring different things and a different energy to the table.
You’ve previously played a few villainous roles. What appeals to you about evil characters?
I just think the baddies are the best. I love them. Lee Mead is playing Aladdin and that’s great - but I love to be booed and hissed. And I always think the baddies have the best lines - and having hung out with the devil a few times, his jokes are pretty good.
Would you consider playing ‘nicer’ characters in future shows?
Well, these are the ones that I enjoy, but aye, you never say never. If it’s musical theatre and I like the score, because that’s obviously my first port of call, then everything else will reverberate from that.
All these years after making it big with Wet Wet Wet, what do you most fondly recall about the band’s glory days?
It never ceases to amaze me with Wet Wet Wet. I first started with them when I was fourteen, so that’s thirty-six years ago, and I’m still doing it. We go on tour and play the O2 and all these arenas and we’re playing to twenty thousand people. We did a gig in the summer and we played to fifty thousand. I don’t understand why. I mean, occasionally we make records - occasionally - but people still hold that music as close to their hearts as we do, so we like to come out and sing songs now and again. I think we’ve toured three times in the last fifteen years or something. Why rush any of these things? Everybody’s got different wants and needs from their career, and then there are families and children to consider. When we come out on tour, it’s because we want to. Go and do things that you want to do or that you’re passionate about. I’m not averse to playing Madison Square Garden one night, then playing Birmingham Hippodrome the next night, or maybe Ronnie Scott’s in London in front of one hundred-and-fifty people. It’s all about being able to have an eclectic career - one where you can do different things and have a fanbase that allows you to do that. You’re not just one thing to your fanbase or people who enjoy you as an act; you can explore and do different things. It’s like with panto. I’ll give it a shot. I might like it, I might not like it, but I just approach it with my usual work ethic. I show enthusiasm, do the best I can and avoid being constrained by a preconceived idea of what I think it is.
Is it true that you used to have curries from your favourite Glasgow takeaway flown out to you wherever you were performing in Europe?
I remember that guy, aye. I asked him whether he did home delivery and he said, ‘Yeah, yeah’. So I said, ‘Okay, here’s the deal’. I gave him my order, had a hot box and we had a plane fly them over. When they arrived, we were all like, ‘Yeah, curry!’ Just stupid things like that. Why not, eh? In your younger days you’ve got more money than sense. This isn’t a dress rehearsal, and stuff like that was just fun. If you squandered the money away, so what? It comes and goes. It’s just money at the end of the day.
You’re touring with Wet Wet Wet early next year. How does life on the road nowadays differ to how it was in the 1980s?
Well, there’s touring and there’s touring. What I mean by that is that it starts off in a transit van, then it’s private jets, then it’s nice hotels and it’s no bed and breakfasts and no sleeping on your friend’s floor. I’m kind of set in my ways in terms of what I like, what I’ll do and what I won’t do, but it’s still as daft as ever.
Music should never be constrained. What makes you first fall in love with rock & roll or music in general is that it’s got an energy. When I was seventeen and growing up, I was going to watch The Clash or going to see John Cooper Clarke. I’d go and see a lot of punk bands, but the music that I make doesn’t sound anything like that. I’m fifty now, but when I play music that I wrote in my teens, I tap into the energy that was there. You don’t say, ‘Oh let’s slow that song down a bit’ or ‘let’s do a Casanova version’. It is what it is. I always think anything in the arts is about enthusiasm and having a child-like quality. You don’t know what’s going to happen when you’re writing or you’re creating music. There’s a sense of wonder and you never lose that. Nothing really changes. Music’s funny - it’s a state of mind.
In terms of your professional career, is there anything you’d do differently if you had your time again?
Aye, there would be loads of things I’d love to change. Hindsight is a powerful thing. There’s loads of things I’ve done that I wish I hadn’t done, and there’s loads of things that I wish I’d done. But that’s the shit that happens, that’s what colours you and makes you the person you are. You learn from it and you say, ‘I’ll never do that again’, and that’s what life is. Just because you’re on the front page of a magazine or on TV doesn’t mean you’re void of shit. Stuff will always happen if you’re engaging in life. Some of it’s good and some of it’s not so good. It would be great to be able to change some things that have happened and maybe make life a wee bit easier, but it just makes you the person you are, so bring it on.
Based on your own experiences, what advice would you give to anybody hoping to make a career in showbusiness?
Just keep believing. Dreams come to you when you’re sitting in your bedroom when you’re twelve, thirteen, fourteen or whatever. You’re like, ‘I want be in a band’ or ‘I wanna be on Top Of The Pops’ or ‘I want to make records’. But soon enough, real life comes knocking on the door. People don’t really deal with dreams, they deal in the reality and think, ‘I must get a job’. And you say, ‘I want to be a singer’, and people get scared of that - they want to take away those dreams. People like to f*ck with that. I think it’s about having belief and surrounding yourself with people who have a similar ethic, people who love the arts and who have a similar mind. You’ll spark off them and things will happen in that circle. And that circle can then explode and go all over the world. You should never, ever stop believing in that, because people will want to take that away from you. People will tell you, ‘No, this is what we do’, and you conform. But when you’re in your youth, and your dreams are as big as you want them to be, that’s what you’re creating. And that can be enough to last you through your entire life. Once you find people of a similar mind and you’ve got youth and arrogance on your side, that’s a heavy mixture.
And finally, are there any up-and-coming artists who you’d like to champion?
I can go on YouTube and spend days trawling through people, as that’s where the new music is coming from. I think the record industry is, if I can be so bold as to say this, in flux at the moment. They don’t really know what’s happening, they really don’t - whereas if you go on the internet, you can see new artists and it just blows your mind. They’ll post a video of themselves in their bedroom like, ‘This is what I do, bosh’ and you go, ‘Oh my god’.
I was at the tail end of the record industry, where people were inventive, people would sing and act and you’d get a five-album deal. You could put out an album and it might not work, but you might make it on the second one or the third one. But now you’re lucky if you can get a singles deal or ace one song in one crack. And now they’re going on about demographs. When has rock & roll and youth culture been about demographs? What the hell is all that about? Music comes from the heart, it’s a passion, it’s something that excites you, and record companies really don’t get that. There’s so much safety in it, it stinks. Where’s the new Clash? Where’s the new Bowie? Where are all the people who make youth culture flip and trip out? Go on the internet and you’ll find it. It just freaks me out when I go on there. How is that person not getting a chance? How is this person here not getting a chance? All you hear is diluted versions of the same stuff. It’s boring, but it shouldn’t be. It should be a journey of discovery of all these people who’re exciting and who’re starting off on their career. There are some great independent record labels who’re really nurturing some young talent, really bringing it to the forefront. But they don’t get into the masses - it’s a bit diluted. So I’m sorry, I can’t say go and check out this or go and check out that - just go on the net and it’s unbelievable what you’ll find.
As frontman of Scottish pop group Wet Wet Wet, Marti Pellow has been a household name for the past thirty plus years. His enthusiasm for the stage - whether as a musician or in a theatrical capacity - shows no sign of abating.
Marti returns to the Midlands to show his dark side in Aladdin at Birmingham Hippodrome.
Lauren Foster recently met up with him to talk about making his panto debut, being on the road with Wet Wet Wet, and, er... curry.
Aladdin at the Birmingham Hippodrome is your panto debut. What attracted you to the prospect of spending a season in pantomime?
I’ve worked with director Michael Harrison before, on The Witches Of Eastwick, and he asked whether I fancied giving it a go. I had reservations because, growing up as a child, I went to see panto with people like Stanley Baxter. He was quite a famous comedian in Scotland and did these big, brilliant extravaganzas of pantomimes, so the bar was set really high for me. I said to Michael, ‘Right, so talk me through it’. He sent me drafts of the script and I said, ‘Oh no, I’m not interested in that!’ It’s very much a team effort here, from Julian and Matt and myself, but it was awfully important that I got to score my own music and write my own songs. So from that point of view, the things I had reservations about quickly dissipated. I’m consistently told that Birmingham Hippodrome’s panto is the best in the land. I’ve just spent a week here, walking about on the set, with people saying they’re looking forward to seeing me in panto, that they go every year to see it and that the production values are amazing. The sets are phenomenal, and that also goes for the line guy, the choreographer, the sound people - loads of people who’re really top of their game and who are really good people. So from that point of view it’s really a collaboration, and that started to get me excited. Then I saw the enthusiasm in people’s faces, and registered how passionately they spoke about it and what they wanted to achieve. So from there it was tick, tick, tick, tick - yeah, alright, I’m in. And to be able to play the dark character and be booed and hissed is something I’m really looking forward to.
The panto is a uniquely British phenomenon. What makes it so popular in this country?
I think it’s a rite of passage. I think the British embrace it because we see it for what it is and understand it for what it is. We get it. Everything’s amped up, everything’s larger than life, there’s nothing subtle about it. It’s very family-orientated but it also spans generations. Your mums and dads will want to come back to watch it because it’ll remind them of the show they watched when they were younger, so it’s not just for the children. When it’s done right, it’s smart and it’s a great art form. There’s so much heritage in it - it’s been going for so many years because people in the UK just adore it.
You’re no stranger to the Hippodrome or to Birmingham. What are your favourite aspects of the venue and the city?
The Hippodrome is probably one of the best spaces in the land to bring a show and to work. And the city of Birmingham is very, very happening. It’s very supportive of the arts and always has been. There’s a great theatre culture here, a great live environment. I must’ve played every Birmingham venue there is, from the NIA to the small clubs to all the arenas they’ve got to offer.
As a matter of fact, I’m back here after panto doing my day job, which is singing and songwriting. My first big break came at the NEC when I supported Lionel Richie - I think it was in 1985 or something. We were on the Hello tour with him, and that was the first time we’d ever played big venues. We’ve always sold more tickets here than anywhere else in the country. The Midlands has always been a strong area for Wet Wet Wet and myself. We’ve done well...
What do you imagine Julian Clary will bring to your own personal Christmas experience?
Now there’s a man who’ll put a smile on your face! What a gentle soul. He’s a very, very smart performer and his children’s books are great fun too. I’m really looking forward to spending time with him. He comes across as a very nice man, and I’ll look forward to having some chats with him.
You’ll be working hard over Christmas. Do you have any festive traditions you’re determined to fit in, despite the heavy workload?
The good thing about it is that most of my family are dovetailing into me. I get Christmas Day off, which is nice, so I’ll be doing all the things that everybody else does. I think it’s important that you have that time. There are a few days that I get off, but I love the great work ethic that revolves around the panto scene. I’ve spent Christmas in Birmingham before, when I did Chicago here for seven weeks, so I’m no stranger.
And what’s on the top of your Christmas list this year?
I’m told I’m very hard to buy for. I don’t think so, but my family say that. Hey, I’m pretty much the same as most men in the country - underwear and socks and I’m happy. I’m an easy buy.
Your acting career has incorporated roles in shows including The Witches Of Eastwick, Blood Brothers and Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde. Do you have any other acting ambitions?
There are so many great musicals out there. I’ve been really lucky to have the key ones like Evita and Chicago, which was my first ever musical. I did that on Broadway as well. I don’t care whether I’m on Broadway or in Birmingham - I’m just happy to be part of a team. That’s the good thing about musical theatre - it’s not driven by just one person. You might have your face on the poster but it’s a collaborative effort, and that’s what’s really exciting about it. You get to work with different people who bring different things and a different energy to the table.
You’ve previously played a few villainous roles. What appeals to you about evil characters?
I just think the baddies are the best. I love them. Lee Mead is playing Aladdin and that’s great - but I love to be booed and hissed. And I always think the baddies have the best lines - and having hung out with the devil a few times, his jokes are pretty good.
Would you consider playing ‘nicer’ characters in future shows?
Well, these are the ones that I enjoy, but aye, you never say never. If it’s musical theatre and I like the score, because that’s obviously my first port of call, then everything else will reverberate from that.
All these years after making it big with Wet Wet Wet, what do you most fondly recall about the band’s glory days?
It never ceases to amaze me with Wet Wet Wet. I first started with them when I was fourteen, so that’s thirty-six years ago, and I’m still doing it. We go on tour and play the O2 and all these arenas and we’re playing to twenty thousand people. We did a gig in the summer and we played to fifty thousand. I don’t understand why. I mean, occasionally we make records - occasionally - but people still hold that music as close to their hearts as we do, so we like to come out and sing songs now and again. I think we’ve toured three times in the last fifteen years or something. Why rush any of these things? Everybody’s got different wants and needs from their career, and then there are families and children to consider. When we come out on tour, it’s because we want to. Go and do things that you want to do or that you’re passionate about. I’m not averse to playing Madison Square Garden one night, then playing Birmingham Hippodrome the next night, or maybe Ronnie Scott’s in London in front of one hundred-and-fifty people. It’s all about being able to have an eclectic career - one where you can do different things and have a fanbase that allows you to do that. You’re not just one thing to your fanbase or people who enjoy you as an act; you can explore and do different things. It’s like with panto. I’ll give it a shot. I might like it, I might not like it, but I just approach it with my usual work ethic. I show enthusiasm, do the best I can and avoid being constrained by a preconceived idea of what I think it is.
Is it true that you used to have curries from your favourite Glasgow takeaway flown out to you wherever you were performing in Europe?
I remember that guy, aye. I asked him whether he did home delivery and he said, ‘Yeah, yeah’. So I said, ‘Okay, here’s the deal’. I gave him my order, had a hot box and we had a plane fly them over. When they arrived, we were all like, ‘Yeah, curry!’ Just stupid things like that. Why not, eh? In your younger days you’ve got more money than sense. This isn’t a dress rehearsal, and stuff like that was just fun. If you squandered the money away, so what? It comes and goes. It’s just money at the end of the day.
You’re touring with Wet Wet Wet early next year. How does life on the road nowadays differ to how it was in the 1980s?
Well, there’s touring and there’s touring. What I mean by that is that it starts off in a transit van, then it’s private jets, then it’s nice hotels and it’s no bed and breakfasts and no sleeping on your friend’s floor. I’m kind of set in my ways in terms of what I like, what I’ll do and what I won’t do, but it’s still as daft as ever.
Music should never be constrained. What makes you first fall in love with rock & roll or music in general is that it’s got an energy. When I was seventeen and growing up, I was going to watch The Clash or going to see John Cooper Clarke. I’d go and see a lot of punk bands, but the music that I make doesn’t sound anything like that. I’m fifty now, but when I play music that I wrote in my teens, I tap into the energy that was there. You don’t say, ‘Oh let’s slow that song down a bit’ or ‘let’s do a Casanova version’. It is what it is. I always think anything in the arts is about enthusiasm and having a child-like quality. You don’t know what’s going to happen when you’re writing or you’re creating music. There’s a sense of wonder and you never lose that. Nothing really changes. Music’s funny - it’s a state of mind.
In terms of your professional career, is there anything you’d do differently if you had your time again?
Aye, there would be loads of things I’d love to change. Hindsight is a powerful thing. There’s loads of things I’ve done that I wish I hadn’t done, and there’s loads of things that I wish I’d done. But that’s the shit that happens, that’s what colours you and makes you the person you are. You learn from it and you say, ‘I’ll never do that again’, and that’s what life is. Just because you’re on the front page of a magazine or on TV doesn’t mean you’re void of shit. Stuff will always happen if you’re engaging in life. Some of it’s good and some of it’s not so good. It would be great to be able to change some things that have happened and maybe make life a wee bit easier, but it just makes you the person you are, so bring it on.
Based on your own experiences, what advice would you give to anybody hoping to make a career in showbusiness?
Just keep believing. Dreams come to you when you’re sitting in your bedroom when you’re twelve, thirteen, fourteen or whatever. You’re like, ‘I want be in a band’ or ‘I wanna be on Top Of The Pops’ or ‘I want to make records’. But soon enough, real life comes knocking on the door. People don’t really deal with dreams, they deal in the reality and think, ‘I must get a job’. And you say, ‘I want to be a singer’, and people get scared of that - they want to take away those dreams. People like to f*ck with that. I think it’s about having belief and surrounding yourself with people who have a similar ethic, people who love the arts and who have a similar mind. You’ll spark off them and things will happen in that circle. And that circle can then explode and go all over the world. You should never, ever stop believing in that, because people will want to take that away from you. People will tell you, ‘No, this is what we do’, and you conform. But when you’re in your youth, and your dreams are as big as you want them to be, that’s what you’re creating. And that can be enough to last you through your entire life. Once you find people of a similar mind and you’ve got youth and arrogance on your side, that’s a heavy mixture.
And finally, are there any up-and-coming artists who you’d like to champion?
I can go on YouTube and spend days trawling through people, as that’s where the new music is coming from. I think the record industry is, if I can be so bold as to say this, in flux at the moment. They don’t really know what’s happening, they really don’t - whereas if you go on the internet, you can see new artists and it just blows your mind. They’ll post a video of themselves in their bedroom like, ‘This is what I do, bosh’ and you go, ‘Oh my god’.
I was at the tail end of the record industry, where people were inventive, people would sing and act and you’d get a five-album deal. You could put out an album and it might not work, but you might make it on the second one or the third one. But now you’re lucky if you can get a singles deal or ace one song in one crack. And now they’re going on about demographs. When has rock & roll and youth culture been about demographs? What the hell is all that about? Music comes from the heart, it’s a passion, it’s something that excites you, and record companies really don’t get that. There’s so much safety in it, it stinks. Where’s the new Clash? Where’s the new Bowie? Where are all the people who make youth culture flip and trip out? Go on the internet and you’ll find it. It just freaks me out when I go on there. How is that person not getting a chance? How is this person here not getting a chance? All you hear is diluted versions of the same stuff. It’s boring, but it shouldn’t be. It should be a journey of discovery of all these people who’re exciting and who’re starting off on their career. There are some great independent record labels who’re really nurturing some young talent, really bringing it to the forefront. But they don’t get into the masses - it’s a bit diluted. So I’m sorry, I can’t say go and check out this or go and check out that - just go on the net and it’s unbelievable what you’ll find.
Aladdin is showing at Birmingham Hippodrome until Sunday 31 January.
Wet Wet Wet are playing at Genting Arena, Birmingham on Friday 26 February.