With a new album, a new tour and a new career, Marti Pellow is getting ready to come out to play. Kevin Bridges meets the Glasgow boy who follows his dreams.

It should have come as no surprise when Marti Pellow named his first solo album Smile — his grin is as familiar as his voice to his legions of fans. 

Since exploding onto the music scene with Wet Wet Wet in the ’80s, Marti has entertained millions and now he’s back on the road again, doing what he does best — performing live. And this month his Between The Covers tour will reach Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. 

There’ll be poignancy to this tour, as it’s the first he’s made since the death of his beloved mum Margaret last October. It was his mum who inspired him to break the family mould of going into shipbuilding. And it was Margaret’s record collection that gave him the love of soul music which has influenced his career. Though Marti was born Mark McLachlan 37 years ago in Clydebank, his mother’s maiden name of Pellow became his professional name. 

Marti’s grief is still too raw to discuss his mum, and emotions are bound to be on show as he takes to the stage to promote his latest CD, Between The Covers. The decision to record this album of cover songs was very much a spur of the moment thing.

“It came about because I just couldn’t really be bothered to record my own songs. I didn’t sit down and make a list of songs I’d like to do. When you like music as much as I do that would have ended up like War and Peace. I just picked songs which had some meaning to me. I went into the studio with some great musicians and did the whole album in a couple of weeks,” he reveals.

Marti’s not one to spend hours tweaking new tracks in the studio and has his feet firmly on the ground when it comes to music. “It’s pop music I’m making, after all,” he says. “I like to do other things, like spend time with the family.”

But he hasn’t given up on song writing.

“I still get the same buzz out of it as I always did. I can still get bug-eyed at the thought of going into a room with nothing and coming out having created something — it’s so exciting. Then you get a chance to play your songs in front of an audience and get their feedback, too. It’s amazing.” 

Some of Marti’s fans have been with him through thick and thin and he appreciates their devotion.

“I think they’ve grown with me. I have such a loyal fan base and I’m indebted to them for that. I can look into the crowd and see people who were there at the beginning with Wet Wet Wet. I’ve watched them grow from sixteen to thirty, which is quite bizarre. But we all share the same reference point — the music.”

While Marti has new songs to perform he knows many people like to hear old favourites and no one should go home disappointed.

“The way I see it is they’ve paid good money to see me, so the concert will be a mixture of what they want to hear and what I enjoy singing. I have hundreds of songs to draw on and some nights we change things and I do different songs. I think it’s important to do that,” he says.

The song Love Is All Around, which was number one for an incredible 15 weeks in 1994, will always be associated with Marti and for a while he got heartily sick of it. The band got fed up having to appear on Top of the Pops week after week.

“We’d go and do the show and think great, we can go home now and give somebody else a chance. We kept thinking surely it’s not going to be there another week. It was like eating chocolate three times a day — you have to get a balance back into things after a while,” he admits. “Most people would give their right arm for a song like that. But there’s a thin line between it being an albatross round my neck or a blessing. After fifteen weeks at number one it did feel a bit like an albatross but now seems a good time to bring it back.”

And Marti is well aware of the benefits the song brought the band.

“It took us into a whole different marketplace,” he remembers. “There are people who only buy one record a year and that year they bought ours. It’s part of the British psyche now.”

The fame and fortune that Love Is All Around also brought took its toll and Marti faced up to drug problems in the ’90s — but he refuses to be bitter about the pressure he was under.

“I’m not going to play the whingeing pop star. Fame is the name of the game. It was the vocation I chose and that was the deal. Now maybe I’m older and wiser and more at peace with it. It’s strange when you go to the shops and people look at you like you shouldn’t be there! Being on television changes everyone’s perception of you. It’s what you dream about but the reality can be very different. You just have to put your head down and run as fast as you can.” 

This has meant him shunning the celebrity circuit of parties and premičres.

“I probably should do more of those kinds of things and wish I could feel at peace with it. I mean, you go and watch a movie, get fed and maybe meet some nice people, so it’s hardly a chore. If someone says to me, ‘Marti, do you want to go to the premičre of the new Bond movie?’ I’m more likely to say, ‘no it’s all right, I’ll wait and see it on DVD’. I just don’t feel comfortable at those things but I’m going to try more in the future,” he smiles.

“It’s a bit scary when you get kids who say they just want to be famous,” Marti comments. “They’re a bit naive but then again I can relate to that. To my mind, real stars were people like Spencer Tracy or Clark Gable but you get a lot of transient celebrities these days. When people start talking about A-list and B-list celebrities I just think that’s way too complicated!”

Marti’s own public profile has remained high not only through singing but recent theatre work which saw him appearing in the hit musical Chicago. It’s a career change which may stand him in good stead in the future as he’s determined to continue in show business.

“I think as long as I have that fire in my belly, people will see it in my face. I’d been offered musicals before and hadn’t wanted to do them, but I fell in love with Chicago when I saw it. Also it gave me the chance to stand on stage in a tuxedo surrounded by scantily clad girls and get paid for it,” he laughs.

He certainly set a few hearts fluttering but admits he finds his reputation as a sex symbol amusing.

“I don’t look in the mirror and say, ‘nice one, Marti’. I look a bit raggedy these days and ninety per cent of the time I put clothes on because they’re clean! I guess my mother and father have a lot to do with the way I look — this is the face I’ve been given and some people find it aesthetically pleasing,” he grins.

Despite his many fans, Marti is a one-woman man and has been happy with former beauty queen Eileen Catterson since they met in 1990.

“I’m very lucky in that I don’t have to go out looking for someone. People talk about the pressures on show business couples but it’s the same for everyone. You have good days and bad days but you have to work at it like everything else.” And, happily for Eileen, Marti admits he’s a romantic at heart.

“As a songwriter I think you have to be. You have to be a dreamer if you’re trying to write love songs.”

And Marti obviously believes in following his own dreams as he thinks about his future. He’ll soon be heading back to Broadway with Chicago and is considering tackling further acting roles in the future.

“Whatever I do after Chicago will have to be pretty special. You have to have wishes and dreams and pursue them, and you need challenges,” he says. And though those ambitions have brought rewards — Marti has homes around the world — he hasn’t forgotten his roots.

“I love going back to Scotland — the people always look after me. They also tell it like it is. If they don’t like an album you’ve done, they’ll tell you. They’re very loyal and I cherish my home town,” he says.

The feelings seem to be mutual and this month Marti’s Scottish fans will be able to show him that love really is still all around him.

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