Dried out after Wet Wet Wet, Marti Pellow has surprised himself with his musical leap into 'Chicago', he tells Tony Clayton-Lea.
What a long, strange journey it has been for Marti Pellow. The past five years, in particular, have been notable for their twists and turns, for in that time he left the Scottish pop-soul group Wet Wet Wet, embraced alcohol and heroin, then flushed out his system and recorded a moderately well-received solo album. He is now one of the key performers in Chicago: The Musical, which is coming to Dublin from Broadway this month. You would have thought that, for someone whose spiritual home is Memphis, Chicago wouldn't be his kind of town.
Yes and no. Pellow - Mark McLachlan to his parents - agrees that not even a year ago would he have thought he'd swap, if only temporarily, a comfy niche in middle-of-the-road pop for the even more mainstream spread of a big-budget musical. The way Pellow tells it, he was "totally ignorant" not only about the show but also about musical theatre in general. Having regarded any musicals he saw as "really hard work and not very accessible" - although he adds that he was drinking at the time, "so maybe I was just waiting to get to the bar during the intermission" - he was wary of even visiting one, let alone starring in any. A chance encounter with a pair of producers from Chicago: The Musical changed his mind.
"I thought I'd accept the challenge, because I believed with the right help I could pull it off," he says. "There might have been a secret yearning for it . . ." he continues weakly, but he leaves the remark hanging at such a height that it drops to the ground with a thud.
The truth is that Pellow knows he's lucky. Wet Wet Wet started as a Clydebank punk band before turning into a clean-cut pop act with a neat line in soul influences - Al Green, Willie Mitchell. Yet the band was rarely taken seriously outside its considerable fan base; looked on as smug, all-too-willing crowd-pleasers, its members generated a gang mentality - born of their long-time friendship, no doubt - with the permanently smiling Pellow as their leader.
The band split in 1999, after the surprising announcement that Pellow was a heroin addict. The revelation shook fans. But slutty drug addiction isn't fussy about whom it has an affair with, says Pellow. "You get so much so young, and you go from the basement to the penthouse very quickly. Sometimes I wouldn't know how to assess certain things, and if some things were pissing me off I'd go to the pub. It didn't mean the problem would go away. I'd just wake up or come to with a hangover.
"I'd always liked to have a smoke" - he mimes rolling a joint - "but I found myself getting into a deeper place and, woe betide, I started a long dance with heroin. Not happy."
He says he had a moment of clarity, a humbling moment that put things into perspective for him. "Too much perspective, actually; it involved a lot of pain, real shit, and I'm here because of it."
Pellow checked in to the Priory, the south London rehabilitation clinic for the wealthy and well known, and eventually reassessed what he wanted. He surrounded himself, he says, with people who were all singing from the same hymn sheet. He still goes to pubs, but it's for purely social reasons. Otherwise, he implies, he'd end up staying in hotel rooms, clasping and unclasping his hands until his knuckles turned white.
He agrees he is extremely lucky, adding that it could easily have been goodbye - and who exactly was that guy who sang Love Is All Around? Never mind the 20 million-plus records Wet Wet Wet sold around the world, nor the 15 weeks they were at number one in the UK with the Troggs hit, which they covered for Four Weddings And A Funeral.
"I never thought I'd become as passionate about another art form, apart from songwriting," he says. "But theatre work is great. I like being part of a team, especially when you have such excellent material.
"You're not going to fall on your arse - well, theoretically you shouldn't - because there's such a strong support network all around you."
Now learning to embrace his talent rather than abuse it - "it's not about being a buzzard, it's about flying with the eagles," he once said, sounding as if he was quoting from a self-help book - Pellow says his work in Chicago is succeeding because he has immersed himself in teamwork and does not see what he's doing as a leading role.
"They look after me and vice versa, and that's the wonder of a great cast," he says. "But getting used to going on stage and then having to go off - what was all that about? God, that was difficult, because I was so used to being on stage for a couple of hours a night. With Chicago you have to push and pull; each night has different energies and you have to focus for every minute, owning the role as best you can. It took me at least 20 shows before I felt I was hitting the mark as well as I could."
Pellow signed up for 15 weeks in the West End of London but stayed for almost six months before moving to the Broadway production. He'll open at the Point on April 23rd, with a preview the night before.
"Like, thanks very much," he says, shaking his head in amazement before, perhaps justifiably, blowing his own trumpet. "That said, it's a testament to how well I'm doing in the role. I mean, they're not going to bring me over to New York and Broadway if I'm shit, are they?
"Balancing humility with ego is what it's all about, but frankly I'm elated that I succeeded, that I enjoy it and that I'm passionate about it. Who knows what will come out of it - and who cares, because ultimately it's been great for me? I'm no longer a slave to the Top 10, and if that doesn't happen any more, then so what? Now I'm embracing what I'm doing, enjoying it while it lasts. This time I have balance."
Chicago: The Musical is at the Point, Dublin, from April 22nd to May 10th
