Wet Wet Wet reveal how they are enjoying themselves on stage ahead of SSE Hydro gig

The Clydebank lads return this weekend for a huge show at the SSE Hydro, just over 20 years after they hit the peak of their fame through Love Is All Around dominating the charts and the resulting Picture This album.

It’s also over a decade since they first reunited, after a bitter falling out in the late 90s.

“It’s easy to have fun now, because there’s no pressure on us to be a certain way,” explains drummer Tommy Cunningham.

“There was always a need in the heyday where you had to be careful how you approached the media, what the image was etc and then you get into a dangerous ground where you disappoint people if you aren’t what they think you are.

“That’s what the music business is, it’s selling a fantasy, and what we find nowadays is that we don’t have to do that, we can just be ourselves. I can be the clown that I want to be, Marti can be the swooner, Graeme can be the rocker.”

Things might have changed, but the Wets are still enjoying a huge amount of success. Saturday’s Hydro show is part of a jaunt around the country that’s still packing in arenas, with The Bigger Picture backdrop letting the group experiment more with visuals.

They’ve also found another difference – there’s plenty of men in the crowds too, owning up to being Wets fans. It's fair to say that wasn't always the case.

“You look out now at the gigs, and there’s guys there,” chuckles Tommy.

“When we do our crowd participation bits you’ll hear deep voices coming back to you going ‘I feel it in my fingers’. We used to be a guilty secret for a lot of guys but we’re beyond that credibility thing now. Maybe that only happens when you’re in the pop bubble and are a young band contending for the Top 10.”

Those Top 10 days were a time when the Wets couldn’t move for being mobbed. Their soulful soft rock delivered hit after hit, from Sweet Little Mystery to Good Night Girl.

Despite their fame Tommy always remained true to his Glasgow roots, and he still can’t imagine staying anywhere else.

“There’s nothing better than driving along Duke Street and seeing part of the city that’s still roughly the same as it was the turn of the century,” he says.

“There’s all these modern flats that are still better to live in, and that glass and steel living, which is necessary because things must push forward, but I still love the parts of the city that are old Glasgow, just getting a pint of beer after a Friday at work. If someone asks me to go somewhere fancy in the city I’d still prefer going to the Horseshoe Bar.

“I look around Glasgow and feel proud of what the city has done, but there’s also a faded grandeur that I like.”

That admiration extends to the Hydro, where the band have played before. That show wasn’t long after the venue had opened, and Tommy admits he was blown away at the building.

“It’s a world class venue and you know you’ve got something special when a band like U2 is willing to play there,” he adds.

“We were super impressed the first time we played there – just the shape of it is brilliant, even from the outside where it looks like a crashed spaceship and then inside you’ve got perfect sound.”

The Hydro appearance will naturally bring all the old hits tumbling out. There’s a new one in the set too, though, called Love Worz. It’s one the band worked on last year, as they build up to releasing a new album in the future.

However Tommy has always been someone who would much rather be playing live than tinkering with ideas.

“Marti had been to this studio before, and the weather was amazing, the food was amazing and we were surrounded by beautiful countryside,” he explains.

“The studio was unbelievable, yet every time a song was finished I found myself going ‘get me out of this prison!’ They’d go off to work with the guitars and it drives me insane – I’m all about now. I’m not about the art of piecing music together, it’s about what you feel right there, right then, and then you capture that.”

Wet Wet Wet, SSE Hydro, Saturday, £48, 7pm