Marti Pellow

Marti Pellow was born in 1965 as Mark McLachlan. He formed Wet Wet Wet (initially called Vortex Motion) aged 17 with friends Tommy Cunningham, Graeme Clark and Neil Mitchell and subsequently adopted the stage name Marti Pellow.

Wet Wet Wet enjoyed great success in the 1980s and 1990s. They received their first number one hit with a cover of With a little help from my friend by The Beatles.in 1988, and Pellow appeared on the Band Aid II single in 1989.

The band’s biggest hit came in 1994 with Love is All Around. The song was a huge international hit and spent 15 weeks at the top of the British charts. The song could have equalled the record held by Bryan Adam’s I do it for you, but Pellow insisted on the song’s deletion the week before the record was matched, having become bored with the song dominating the charts. The song remained in the Top 40 for the rest of that year and was used in the soundtrack to Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Pellow left Wet Wet Wet in 1999 to go into rehab for drug addiction. However, the band reformed in 2004, releasing an eighth album and went on a sell-out UK tour.

In 2001 Pellow embarked on a solo career, releasing six albums and going on a UK tour, as well as appearing in London’s West End as Billy Flynn in the musical Chicago. He has continued his career as a West End singer in Sir Tim Rice’s concert revival of Chess and in the leading role of The Witches of Eastwick.