He's A Wylie One
An interview with Peter WylieFormer "ligger of the year" Pete Wylie sprang out of the same scene as the Clash in the 1970s. However, rather than following his friend Mick Jones down the politically-charged punk rock route, Wylie instead injected his own music with a sense of fun and his trademark good humour. Amazon.co.uk contributor Chris Roberts caught up with Pete Wylie after the release of Songs Of Strength And Heartbreak.
Amazon.co.uk: Can you remember how it all began?Pete Wylie: I was a bit of a swot, very uncool, doing French with Latin and Greek at Liverpool University, even though there's this idea of me, which I'm great at nurturing, that I'm somebody who'd never get near a university. I was a very bright, very fat, very shy kid, before I was in groups. Then the confidence thing grew. I'd loved Bowie and I'd loved the Four Tops but I'd go and see Black Sabbath or Deep Purple too; I had time for them all. There was that teenage thing of the rock boys, the soul boys and the arty-camp boys, and I liked them all while never feeling like I fitted with any of them. Then punk rock gave me a sense of belonging. Still does, if I think about it. So much of what I thought then holds true. I followed the Clash around till they became mates, and Mick Jones gave me a guitar, told me to get famous, and pay him back when I did. Luckily I've always just about avoided that. That's why I kept changing the name of the band from Wah! Heat to Shambeko Say Wah! to the Mighty Wah! and so on, so his detectives could never trace me. Although I did see him filming my gig the other night.
Amazon.co.uk: Is it true that he once witnessed you ask Mike Tyson for a fight?
Wylie: Absolutely, I had loads of witnesses. Big Audio Dynamite were playing New York, they'd taken me out with them as the court jester--that was the year I was voted "ligger of the year", I just love buzzin' with people--and after the last gig I bought them a bottle of tequila to thank them. Except I drank it all. So I was walking around this club and in a booth I saw all these tuxes and evening wear and sequins, and I thought: they're not "rock" fans. I looked again and Tyson's there, right there. I compute things: either I can go over to my mates and say I saw Tyson, or I can go over to Tyson. So I walk up to him, and go: "All right mate, I'm from Liverpool and we're dead 'ard, I'll 'ave yer outside now." He just went, in that lisp, "Take the guy away, he's intoxicated!" I got dragged out by bouncers built like shithouses and thrown on the street. But I made the front page of the New York Times. It was one of the great moments in me life. I thought I might get a call off him when he came to England, but he's probably still scared.
Amazon.co.uk: You put on a brave face, but wasn't your career stalled by near-tragedy at the beginning of the 90s?
Wylie: Just after me last album, right, I was leaning against a fence and it gave way: I fell 20 feet, broke me back. Broke me chestbone too...I was that close to being crippled, to being killed. When me sternum snapped it missed me heart by half a centimetre. Once that's in your heart, you're dead, mate. It does chill me when I stop to think about it. But I was flirting and joking with the nurses in hospital for four days before they told me, "Well, Mr. Wylie, we don't think you're going to die now." I went, "Ha ha ha..." They said, "No seriously..." That's a big one for your head to take on.
When the ambulance and fire engine came to get me, I'd been unconscious, so the fireman had to say: "Sir, can you tell me your name and address?" And I went, "You should know my fuckin' name, pal." Obviously there was a degree of shock. I still had that thing of: don't let anyone know you're freaked out, you're vulnerable. Now, physically, I'm no miracle, but I'm better than I should've been. As long as I leave that extra sausage in the fridge I won't turn into Pete Loaf.
Amazon.co.uk: You bounced back from the accident to record Songs Of Strength And Heartbreak, for Sony. Then they dropped you. Happily, Castle released it. But how gutted were you when that pendulum swung against you again?
Wylie: I announced that I was leaving the music business so I could spend more time with music. I've got a collection of theories, and no facts, as to why they pulled the plugs on an album that cost loads of money and was picking up great word-of-mouth and has a single, "Heart As Big As Liverpool", that 40,000 people sing along to at Anfield. Perhaps I was too rock & roll. There was one incident which was tasteless--but funny as fuck. You used to get medals for shouting at record companies.
Anyway, when I found out, I laughed, cried, got very drunk, went to a lapdancing club, and woke up in the hotel restaurant with me dick in a chocolate cake. Doesn't matter now. The cavalry have arrived. I'll be the Neil Diamond of the new millennium.
Amazon.co.uk: Are you as proud of your past as your present?
Wylie: There isn't one song I've ever done that I'd diss. I always know why I did what I did. I've never faked it, and I've taken stupid risks. I will continue as the king of doing the stupid thing. George Michael does this big thing saying the Wham! records were rubbish, right? Well he should go door-to-door giving everyone their money back then. He should say, "Look, I'm sorry, I've brought you a tenner..."
Me moods generally swing. I have this condition, it's a word I added to the album artwork at the last minute--"Optimisery". Everything's concurrent. I still have adolescent traumas, but I'm happy. I'm still not confident, but I'm good at displaying the appearance of confidence.
Amazon.co.uk: So you haven't grown a protective shell?
Wylie: After the accident, me policy for years now has been: do things. Rather than weigh them up too long or hesitate. Just do it. I wanted an album made by a rock & roll powerhouse trio with emotional, thrilling strings all over it--and I've made one, and it works. And I am proud, and I do get upset, and I am competitive, although these days with meself. I'm Frankie Vaughan directed by David Lynch. I'm good and bad, dark and light, and I'm never sure which bit's in the lead at any time. I've invented a new art form, called Wylie.