Wet Wet Wet. Yes that band fronted by the permagrinned Marti Pellow who tortured us all in the summer of 1994. Remember Love Is All Around. How could you forget? It was at the top for 16 weeks and drove everyone insane including the band. I am sure that song helped in the downfall of the Wets. I maybe a bit of an indie chick with a penchant for classic singer songwriters now but in the 1990s I used to adore the Wets. I used to be every single record, tape every single program and buy all he magazines and papers they were featured in. Boy I was obsessed. I know they were always totally uncool and uncrediable but there were worse bands to be into. Think of the poor people who cringe at liking Big Fun, Bad Boys Inc or other prancing little bogs. At least the Wets did have talent. They had talent by the bucket load they just did not quite know how to use it. Their Greatest Hits is testament to that.

Who Are Wet Wet Wet
Wet Wet Wet are:
Marti Pellow (proper name MarK McLachlan) – singer
Graeme Clark- bass, acoustic guitars and double bass
Tommy Cunningham (or tom or Tam) – Drums
Neil Mitchell- keyboards and piano.
There is also a guitarist Graeme Dufin who is an associate ember!

The band was formed in Clydebank near Glasgow in the late 70s whilst the lads were still at school. They had their first hit Wishing I Was Lucky in 1987 and had ten years of hits until Yesterday in 1997. The personal problems and in band fighting broke the band up.

End of Part One Their greatest hits (there never was a part 2) was released in 1993 and includes all he singles taken of the albums Popped In Sold Out, Holding Back the River and High On the Happy Side. It also included as the charity singles With A Little Help From my friends and Blue For You and two new tracks for the album Cold Cold Heart and Shed A Tear

What is the music like?

The music is a real mix. There are a few types of Wets songs. The first is the upbeat pop of Wishing I was Lucky, Lip Service and Sweet Little Mystery. I often like these as they have energy. The second type is their more well known ballads. These can be good especially live but tracks like Good Night Girl are overrated. The problem with this album is that only singles are featured whilst album tracks were omitted. The other problem is the songs are n all Hits. Put the light on did not even get into the top 40. A shame as it is a good song.

The Tracks

Wishing I was Lucky
An upbeat poppy song, which was their debut release. This song was not about your usually teenybop subjects of boy meets girl. Instead it was a personal song about the band’s experience of being unemployed.
“When my best friend wrote and told me That there may be a job in the city And you never told me

Sweet Little Mystery
. This is an out and out catchy pop song. Ideal for playing at an eighties night.

Angel Eyes
This was the first of the Wets well known ballads. It is slow with some pretty string arrangements

Temptation

This is my favourite Wets’ song live. It just has an irresistible quality about it. I think it is about love and passionate is not a soppy ballad.

With A Little Help From My Friends

This was the wets first number one and was a charity single with the proceeds going to Childline. It is a Beatles cover and it is quite faithful to the original. In a way I prefer the live version which resembles Joe Cocker’s version more

Sweet Surrender
Another song about love The Wets were always good at writing love songs with cryptic lyrics think. It is a mid tempo song neither slow nor fast

Broke Away

This is a very simple acoustic song and is slightly different from what had come before. I think this song is about freedom, or perhaps moving away from your hometown and adopting a new lifestyle. “Took away all of their chains, they broke away”

Hold Back the River

This song has a slightly grittier, blusier feel to it than some of the others with a great horn sex. The songs theme is alcoholism and the inspiration was an old ballroom dancer who had become an alcoholic. It is ironic that the song was about alcoholism, as later in the Wets career Marti himself became alcoholic

Stay with me heartache
This is similar to Sweet surrender but has a slight reggae fell to it. The chorus "Stay with me Heartache you know I can’t stand the night sounds like broken love but verses are totally different. They go on about penthouse suites and stuff. Perhaps it alludes to the change in the wets lives from unemployed to pop stars.

This Time
I believe this was a track of the Memphis Sessions. It is a heartbreaker of a soul song and I really think it shows Marti’s vocals to a tee. It is about a couple getting back together and the promises one makes “ This Time I won’t listen to what my friends say” This time I will change my attitude”. This is a really personal song for me as it reminds me of getting back together with Duskman after breaking up because I was listening to other peoples opinions and not my own heart. Oh the split was only for an hour!

Make it Tonight

This barely scraped the top 40 and is one of my least favourite songs on the album. It is another love son with strange lyrics. I think it is pretty unmemorable.

Put the Light On

This song did not make the top 40. A real shame as I really like this. It has a real country feeling to it with strummed acoustic guitars. I always feel that David Sneddon guy copied this song.
The song itself is about a couple splitting up and the story is told quite nicely by the lyrics

Good Night Girl

I always feel cheated with the Was their best songs are not their biggest hits.
This was their second number one. I actually do not particularly like this. It is one of the wets schmaltzy gooey songs. All aaaahs and talk of wishing wells! The Good night Girl is disputed. It was first claimed it was about Marti’s girlfriend whilst later it was revered the good Night Girl was someone Graeme was having an affair with and used to meet in hotels.
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Guess what? This is another mid tempo love song with strange lyrics. I interpret it, as the effort needed in a relationship.
That’s why I say It takes more than love to get it on You know it takes more than strength to carry on It takes more than words to get it wrong It takes more than love to get it on
The final verse is just plain weird. An English literature student would have a whale of a time with it.
Ships are sailing and you know your aim is true the figureheads have broken in your mind you paint yourself a picture and it turns to black and white And settle with the people one more time

Lip Service.

I liked Lip Service. It is up-tempo and actually has a pretty funky bass line. I have no idea what this one is about? Perhaps some metaphor to Fellatio?? The lyrics are as weird as usual. I never understood who Big Sister Midnight was and whom they wanted let in.

Blue for You

When the wets are not singing about love, and writing bloody strange lyrics they sing about water and rivers. Perhaps it is a Scottish thing (see Travis's Why does it Rain on me, and Deacon Blue's Raintown”

The first line of Blue for you goes I was Born by the river. The river I take is the river Clyde. The song is from Holding Back the River and covers a similar theme to Broke Away.

Cold Cold heart

Another one I did not like that much. A love son perhaps. No way as good as the Norah Jones song of the same name

Shed a Tear
Another woeful song of heartache and misery.

Who Would like the Album?
Those who liked some of the Wets songs and those who like MOR artists such as Robbie Williams and Ronana Keating.

This album is one of pure nostalgia for me. Looking back on it objectively the Wets when they were great were fantastic. They were brilliant live. Marti has a fantastic voice and is a showman. He really has a presence about him. However I feel a lot of the songs they produced was Sammy, a bit contrived and a bit boring. I do like this album but I would be more likely to make my own compilation of some of the later tracks such as Julia says, Don’t Want To Forgive me Now and some of the album tracks that were not on here such as Brand New Sunrise (probably my all time favorite Wet Wet Wet track

This album can be bought on Amazon for £13.49 but it might be cheaper to bid for it on Ebay or a similar auction site.