Marti Pellow

As front man of pop balladeers Wet Wet Wet, Marti Pellow scored four Number 1 albums and topped the UK singles chart for a record 15 weeks with their cover of The Troggs hit Love Is All Around. Born to working class stock in Clydebank, Scotland, Pellow was expected to become a builder like his father but, upon discovering Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye, turned his hand to music and developed into a smooth-voiced, hard-crooning, heart-throb. The band split in 1999 with Pellow suffering drug problems but, while recovering in The Priory clinic, London, he met Squeeze's Chris Difford, who helped him write debut solo album Smile (2001). It reached Number 7 in the UK and included the Top 10 single Close To You. Sticking to his love of soulful, confessional love songs and silky, upbeat pop, Pellow's later records Moonlight Over Memphis (2006), Sentimental Me (2008) and Devil And The Monkey (2010) failed to make the same impact and he turned instead to acting, appearing in the musical theatre shows Chess, The Witches Of Eastwick and Blood Brothers.