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Marti Pellow: To hell and back + VIDEO
As Sunderland prepares for the arrival of a cheeky devil, we meet the star of the hit musical about to take the city by storm
Marti Pellow comes across as a very nice man – the sort of man who might help an elderly lady cross the road, the sort of bloke who might tap you on the shoulder and hand you the fiver you've just dropped, the kind of man who might help a nervous journalist trot easily through a 15-minute interview without making her feel like a clod.
Which is nicely ironic given that he is about to come to Sunderland playing his most evil part yet.
The Wet Wet Wet frontman is five months into playing the devilish Darryl Van Horne in the musical The Witches of Eastwick, coming to the Sunderland Empire in March.
The 43-year-old said: "I signed to do Witches two and a half years ago – I fell in love with it.
"I think that, as a musical, it's quite a dark piece. That's what excites me about it, being able to access that kind of character.
"When I come off stage I feel I've done a great show, but it's always nice to put my own coat back on. I'm not a bad man – not in the slightest!
Marti won the role of Billy Flynn in Chicago in 2002, and two years later, went on to reprise the role on Broadway.
Before cherry-picking the part of Darryl Van Horne, he also played the Arbiter in Sir Tim Rice's concert revival of the hit musical Chess.
And in 2004, he got back in the studio with Wet Wet Wet, a band started in 1982 with Marti's schoolfriends Tommy Cunningham, Graeme Clark and Neil Mitchell.
The band hit international pay dirt in 1994 with their cover of Love is All Around, but personally, things were not so rosy, as Pellow fell into drink and drugs.
Tanned and still ridiculously good looking, Marti has since climbed from the depths of heroin addiction to resurrect himself as a successful songwriter, singer and actor.
Ten years clean, and heading for his 44th birthday, he has the hard-won happiness of someone who knows exactly where they could have ended up.
The diehard Glaswegian explained: "I got a moment of clarity. When not a day goes by without drinking or drugging, you need to re-evalute your life.
"Feeling and loving, the things we take for granted, are infinitely more important than that other stuff.
"I'm older and wiser now."
Marti says he would hate to be the poster boy for beating addiction, but nevertheless hopes that people might be inspired by his own battle.
He says he found strength to tackle his own demons through friends in the industry who'd done the same, but remains tight-lipped about who that might be.
Fortunately, his career now looks more promising than ever, with a solo album In A Sentimental Mood released last year, Wet Wet Wet projects in the pipeline and a writing partnership with Chris Difford, from Squeeze, that appears to have the winning formula.
Marti said: "I try to mash it up and have an eclectic career. I'm blessed to have an audience that come on board whatever I do.
"Having a career that has longevity; being part of a team; learning every day, having a balance and not alienating my audience – that's what counts."
As the Witches work their way north, Marti says he is itching to get to Wearside.
He said: "I like being among my own. Newcastle, Sunderland, Glasgow – they're very similar surroundings... the people, their attitude, the food, the lifestyle. They work hard and when they spend their money they want to be entertained, yes means yes and no means no – I like that.
"Sometimes you go down south and it's like being in a different country."
He's proud to be following in the footsteps of the legendary Jack Nicholson, who played Van Horne in the 1987 film classic, but stresses that he's got his own take on the naughty Darryl.
Marti said: "Jack's the man – he's great, but it's not an interpretation of him. It's about my imagination and what I can bring to the table. The part is very physical and I've gone in deep with it.
I've been very mischievious with it and it changes on a daily basis."
I ask Marti what he thinks about the National Marti Pellow day held in Tennessee every year on May 9 and he laughs it off.
He said: "I take it with a pound of salt.
"The certificate is hung up in my toilet, next to the one I got for doing the Harry Ramsden challenge."
And when he's not working like there's no tomorrow?
Marti says he is as far away from fame as possible.
He said: "I like to do the most mundane things you can imagine – watch movies, hang out with my family, cook, veg about eating ice cream.
By the end of the interview he's off on a complete tangent about the merits of Ben and Jerry's.
Caramel Chew Chew is his favourite, but he's keen to try the sorbet.
The 15 minutes is up, "Let's end on a good note" he suggests, still smiling about the simpler things in life.
With charm like that, I doubt he's ever hit a duff one.
Read more in today's Echo
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Weather for Sunderland
Thursday 24 May 2012
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