80’s Supergroup Wet Wet Wet to perform two 30th Anniversary concerts
Wet Wet Wet will celebrate the 30th anniversary of ‘Popped In Souled Out’ with two very special shows Rochester Castle on 12th July and Edinburgh Castle on 15th July where the band will be performing tracks from their classic debut as well as their greatest hits from over the past three decades.
Bursting onto the scene out of Glasgow in 1987, Wet Wet Wet was undeniably a musical phenomenon. The band have gone on to sell over 15 million albums and singles, spent over 500 weeks on the UK charts and sold hundreds of thousands of gig tickets but at the time they leapt out of the radio with a sound that wasn’t even remotely like anything else around.
Unusually for the late 80’s, Wet Wet Wet wrote all their own songs, played all their own instruments and their records weren’t covered with the electronic glossy sheen that defined so much of the charts at the time. Here was a band that loved the work of legendary producer Willie Mitchell as well as classic singer-songwriters such as Van Morrison and James Taylor. To all intents and purposes Wet Wet Wet was, and remain to be, a soul band but one with a distinct Lanarkshire edge, as the band themselves say “We are first and foremost a soul band – not only in influence and direction but more importantly in attitude and ambition”.
Having formed in 1982 after taking their name from a line in a Scritti Politti song, the band’s first single ‘Wishing I Was Lucky’ was released in 1987, which started an incredible unbroken run of 27 Top 40 hits. Their debut album ‘Popped in Souled Out’ spawned three further hit singles ‘Sweet Little Mystery’, ‘Angel Eyes (Home And Away)’ and ‘Temptation’. It hit the No.1 slot in January of ’88 before becoming one of the best selling albums of that year and earning them Best Newcomer at The Brit Awards.
The huge success upon its release is only part of the Popped In Souled Out story. Prior to recording the album, the band went to Memphis to work with the world famous producer Willie Mitchell, best known for his vibrant soul work with Al Green on songs such as ‘Let’s Stay Together’ in the 1970’s. Whilst the music they made together wouldn’t appear until 1988 when it became a top 3 album, the spirit of those initial Memphis Sessions is there for all to hear on Popped In Souled Out.
As part of the new Super Deluxe Edition of ‘Popped In Souled Out’ all of the Willie Mitchell sessions have been brought together for the first time including a previously unreleased version of the band’s debut single ‘Wishing I Was Lucky’. This ten-track disc gives a fascinating insight into the band; their vision and determination that they weren’t going to be produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman, Stephen Hague or any other of the fashionable producers of the day.
As well as a newly remastered version of the original album and the expanded Memphis Sessions, the super deluxe edition of ‘Popped In Souled Out’ features the band’s first #1 ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’ which was recorded for Childline in 1988. There are two further disks containing a comprehensive collection of unreleased studio sessions from 1984 and ’85 as well as remixes, demos and B-sides from the time.
The Super Deluxe Edition is presented in a 12”x12” 72 page book package that features the band telling the story of the album’s making and release in their own words along with unseen photos from their private collection. The final disc in the set is a DVD that features brand new interviews with the band members, the videos for the singles as well as rare TV performances and appearances.
TICKET DETAILS
Rochester Castle : On sale Wednesday 29th March ’17 at 10am
Available online at www.thecastleconcerts.co.uk or by phone 01634 338338
Edinburgh Castle : On sale Friday 31st March ’17 at 9am
Available online at www.ticketmaster.co.uk or by phone 0844 844 0444
