Watch: Wet Wet Wet guitarist Graeme Duffin’s new band is a real family affair
WET WET WET guitarist Graeme Duffin has swapped life with one of Scotland’s biggest bands for touring with his daughter, wife and grandkids.
by Russell Blackstock
Wet Wet Wet band members l-r Graeme Duffin, Marti Pellow, Neil Mitchell, Graeme Clark and Tommy Cunningham
Wets’ frontman Marti Pellow shocked fans in July when he announced he had quit the chart-topping supergroup after more than three decades.
Graeme has been the “fifth member” of Wet Wet Wet since they formed in the 1980s. He played on all 27 of their major hits including Love Is All Around which was No. 1 for 15 weeks in 1994.
He is now set to hit the road in Europe with his daughter Esther and her husband Tim O’Connor’s group Ashton Lane – and it will be a real family affair.
His wife Pamela is the tour manager and the couple will share babysitting duties when they travel the autobahns in Austria and Germany in November.
“Because we are touring in Austria, some people are calling us the new von Trapp family,” Graeme told The Sunday Post. “Our two young grandkids are both under five and are coming with us, but I’m hoping Pamela will do most of the babysitting.
“As well as taking all the usual musical instruments and amplifiers we are also packing travel cots, high chairs and car seats.
“It will be very different from life on the road with the Wets.”
Singer Esther is looking forward to the tour. Hubby Tim plays guitar and does backing vocals.
Ashton Lane’s Kitchen Sessions videos have attracted more than four million views on YouTube and their most recent album Nashville Heart received rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic..
Graeme, 61, said he was still in the dark as to whether the departure of Pellow means the end for Wet Wet Wet, as he hadn’t spoken to anyone from the group recently.
“I only found out about Marti leaving when I read it in a newspaper,” he said.
