The Herald 3rd July

 
LOOK HOW HE'S FACED THE MUSIC
Following in the footsteps of Denise Van Outen, Marti Pellow is enjoying every minute of his run in Chicago. He tells REBECCA MCQUILLAN about his career, the quiet life, and all that jazz
IF you had told Marti Pellow a year ago that he would be starring in a West End musical this summer, you would have had trouble making him believe you. The former international teen idol and frontman of Wet Wet Wet had always considered himself to be more of a Stevie Wonder than an Andrew Lloyd Webber sort of a guy.
"I guess I was very ignorant about that genre. I felt it wasn't really my bag," he admits.
How things have changed since then. Pellow has nearly completed his first month at the Adelphi theatre in London playing charismatic lawyer Billy Flynn in the hit musical Chicago and gives every impression of loving every minute of it.
Nothing should surprise Pellow's observers too much any more. The past five years have seen the Wets' once radiant star wane at last, Pellow admit to heroin and alcohol addiction followed by a spell in rehab, and, last year, his phoenix-like re-launch on to Planet Pop as Marti Pellow, solo artist. His debut album, Smile, made it into the top 10 and a series of tour dates confirmed that his tweenage fans had remained loyal well into their childbearing years.
Sitting in his dressing room at the Adelphi before a rehearsal, he stresses that in the West End there's no room for being half-prepared. "I've certainly worked hard at this and done my homework. It's a real challenge."
There is never a performance when he's not nervous. Chicago is a popular show. But the nerves keep him on his toes and that, he says, is the whole point of doing it.
"I'm challenging myself to diversify as an entertainer by taking this on. I was ready to put together another album which is familiar territory for me. I'm enjoying myself and that's what's paramount.
"At this stage in my career, my wants and needs are very different from what they were 10 years ago. I think that if you're not into it 100%, there's no point in doing it. This isn't for financial gain."
Faced with this motivated, focused person, it is hard to believe that less than four years ago, his life was ruled by drugs and booze.
Pellow became addicted to alcohol and heroin, which he smoked, while still in Wet Wet Wet. It is still not clear why. For months, he tried to shake it off and managed to stay clean during the band's British tour in 1997. In 1998, having gone back on it, he checked into rehab in Arizona, but bought more drugs when he came out. The fans still didn't know. But in February 1999, he collapsed in the Conrad Hotel in Chelsea, west London, having taken a potent cocktail of vodka, liqueur, methadone, and the anti-anxiety drug librium. His fiancee, Eileen Catterson, a model and former Miss Scotland, confirmed his addiction to the press and told him to choose between her and his drug.
At that point, it seemed doubtful that Pellow would twinkle at a camera ever again.
But he checked into The Priory, rehab clinic to the stars, and since then, has been a drug-free, alcohol-free zone.
Last summer, he released Smile, recorded at Royal Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, with his friend Chris Difford of Squeeze fame writing the lyrics for the hit ballad Close To You, and he has just completed his next, as yet unnamed album, produced by Chris Porter (who produced George Michael's Older and Faith albums).
Today, he is a clean living, tee-total vegetarian, and says he misses absolutely nothing about his hedonistic days. "At this point in my life, I get my hopes and needs from my home," he says.
Pellow, real name Mark McLachlan, has a house near London and another in Scotland. He was brought up in Clydebank, where his parents, Margaret and Ian, still live, and went to Clydebank High School. There, back in 1982, he and his schoolfriends - Graeme Clark, Tommy Cunningham, and Neil Mitchell - started dreaming of pop stardom.
It finally came in 1987 when their first album, Popped In Souled Out topped the charts, driven by their first three singles, Wishing I Was Lucky, Sweet Little Mystery, and Angel Eyes. In the next 10 years, Wet Wet Wet had three number ones and aggregate record sales of 15 million. The Four Weddings and a Funeral theme, Love is All Around, was glued to the number one spot for 16 weeks.
Far from wanting to distance himself from his musical past, Pellow relishes it. You will still hear him the old Wets favourites at his solo shows because he likes singing them as much as his audience wants to hear them. "They are the documentation of my career," he says. "No-one sings them like I do, not even the guys on Stars in Their Eyes. We had an illustrious career as far as I'm concerned."
But with an acting credit under his belt, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Pellow could follow the lead of other musicians, such as Sting and Mick Jagger, by appearing on film. "I've been asked on several occasions," he says. But instead of talking up the possibility, he responds, refreshingly, by stressing the importance of knowing your limitations as a performer. "There's no point in your enthusiasms far outweighing your talent," he says. "This is a completely new field to me, but luckily I've had access to really great people to help me."
Throughout his career, he says, he has been lucky to meet people who suggest new departures. That was how it happened with Chicago. Pellow's involvement, following that of other celebs, Denise Van Outen and Claire Sweeney, came about when two producers from the show watched Pellow performing in the Royal Albert Hall for The Who's Teenage Cancer Trust. They approached him afterwards about playing Billy Flynn, but Pellow, not having seen the show, deferred his response. After going to see it the following week, however, he quickly made up his mind. "I was thoroughly inspired and enjoyed it enormously," he says. Marti Pellow, stage star, was born.
Since June 10, he has done eight performances a week, plus rehearsals, going on initially for 15 weeks with the possibility of an extension. As well as "pages and pages" of dialogue (his previous acting experience amounted to a cameo on Emmerdale) he also dances. "I sort of strut about and try not to bash into anyone," he says. He has also had to perfect his Mid-Western accent. "If I sang the way I spoke, I would be in The Proclaimers, no disrespect to The Proclaimers," he quips.
Chicago aside, the Scottish accent that animates his speaking voice is strong and unmistakable, undiluted after more than a decade of travelling the world when his tartan suits made him a walking advert for Scotland. He still comes north at least twice a month, sometimes more. "I think Scotland's very much in the heart, isn't it? If you'd asked where's home . . ." His voice trails off for a second. "That's hard. I'm very passionate about my country," he says.
Having support in Scotland matters to him and he has been delighted with the reception he has had since the release of his new album. "Scottish people in general are very passionate about their music, very passionate full-stop, and they don't take kindly to people coming on stage half arsed," he says.
Not that that happens to him these days. These days, he lives a low-key existence, focusing on work and relaxing at home like other 36-year-old men. "I'm quite a simple person," he says. Golf, the gym, tennis on TV to replace the hole left by the World Cup, sports generally ("I'm a bloke") - it is the stuff of blessed normality. He doesn't even count meat among his vices as of two years ago.
With his liking for sport, music, and drama, he is shaping up as quite the renaissance man. Is he any good in the kitchen?
"Indeed, I am," he says. "I find cooking quite therapeutic. If I make one dish, though, people are amazed there's 30 pans used. I just love cooking."
As yet, though, this domestic bliss does not extend to marriage, although periodically there are rumours that Pellow and Catterson, his fiancee of six years whom he met in 1990, could be about to wed.
But you get the feeling with Pellow that he is not up for rushing through life. He has had his second chance and is making the most of it. Asked what has been his proudest achievement to date, he breathes out slowly, thinking. "Just continuing to be making music, diversifying, and having challenges in my life," he replies at length. "I've just finished another album and I'll put that out when I'm ready."
As for how long we will see Marti Pellow strutting his stuff on stages theatrical and musical, there is no mystery there.
"I'll be doing it till I stop enjoying it," he says. "If you don't enjoy it, you know what? Don't do it. It ain't rocket science."