Marti Pellow's life now from Wet Wet Wet feud to beating heroin addiction

24 February 2024 , 07:01

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Marti Pellow turned his life around after he became addicted to heroin

It was almost all over for Marti Pellow as he battled with addiction.

The singer was the heartthrob of the '90s band Wet Wet Wet, but it soon came crashing down as he struggled with alcohol and drug dependency. The band's biggest hit, Love Is All Around, in 1994 remained at the top of the UK charts for 14 weeks and was so successful that it went on to be used in hit films.

The Troggs cover made it into the soundtrack of Four Weddings and a Funeral, and it became a huge part of popular Christmas film Love Actually, as Bill Nighy re-mastered the track. The Scottish band were catapulted to stardom, but it wasn't without its struggles along the way.

Wet Wet Wet are undoubtedly one of the most iconic music acts of the 1980s (Michael Putland/Getty Images)

Marti, who appears on James Martin's Saturday Kitchen, officially quit the band, made up of four school pals, in 2017 after rejoining following a successful stint as a solo artist. During the height of his fame as a frontman, Marti, whose real name is Mark McLachlan, increasingly turned to alcohol.

He had his first drink at age 11, and in an interview with the Guardian, admitted he enjoyed the way it made him feel "light". And when drummer Tommy Cunningham quit the band in 1997, Marti, now 58-years-old, started taking Class A drugs.

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Cunningham left over a royalties dispute, and from thereon, their success began to unravel, with Marti then quitting in 1999, effectively disbanding the group. The Record revealed that it was another dispute over cash that prompted him to leave.

"There was too much politics in the band. It became too complicated. It's easy when you are 17 but when you are 30 it is different. The band has run its course," Cunningham said.

Marti's departure came at a time his bandmates feared for his life. Speaking about the potency of heroin, he told The Herald in 2000: ''About that time (1997) I started losing my sanity messing about with heroin. When I first started using it was, where have you been all my life? Within a week it was everything to me - that's how powerful the drug was.''

Tommy Cunningham and Marti Pellow

But two years later, the star collapsed from an overdose. With the support of his long-term partner, former model Eileen Catterson, and rehab, Marti eventually got clean. Speaking in 2021, where he declared he had been sober for 23 years, he told the Guardian: "You can say 23 years sober, but really the person who has the longest clean time is whoever gets up earliest in the morning.

"If you get up at 7am and I get up at 7.30, you've got the longest clean time, because it is about the day. Do I think I'll ever beat it? No, I will always acknowledge it. Every day is a school day with addiction."

After quitting drugs and alcohol, Wet Wet Wet reformed five years later in 2004, however it wasn't quite the same. On reflection, Marti said: "There's uncharted ground at the beginning, a sense of wonder. I think we were always looking for that, but it never came back."

In 2017, the star announced that it was finally time to call it a day for good, and he was leaving once again to focus on his solo work. He was replaced by Liberty X singer Kevin Simm.

"I have had a great time and loved my career with Wet Wet Wet and to me they will always be the best band in the world. When I started in Wet Wet Wet I gave it 100% of my heart and soul and that's what it demands and that is also what the fans demand - and if I can't do that because my focus is elsewhere, then this is not fair on the fans or the rest of the guys in the band," he said.

When it comes to his home life, Marti has been hit with tough blows over the years as he had to say goodbye to his loved-ones. His brother, who also struggled with alcohol addiction, died in 2000, leaving Marti "shattered".

In 2014, the performer lost his dad to cancer, which came after his mother also passed away in 2003. In recent times, Marti has made several appearances on stage in musicals, including playing Che in Evita and the narrator in Blood Brothers. While he released a new studio album, Stargazer, in 2021.

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"I found I loved the discipline of eight shows a week," he told the Mail, speaking of his new career. "Picking up a wage packet at the end of the week, going home and knowing I've done a good job. I love that feeling. I’m a grafter and I always will be." He now lives with Catterson, whom he has been with for more than 20 years, in a cottage in Windsor.

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