Pool Of Sound - Wah!

Pete Wylie - part time rock star - full time legend.

First formed in February 1979, 'Wah!' is the name common to bands fronted by the Liverpool musician Peter James Wylie under which he has exercised his obsessions. There have been several variations on the name, 'Wah! Heat', 'Shambeko! Say Wah!', 'Wah! The Mongrel', 'JF Wah!' but it is as simply 'Wah!' that he has probably found most success following the break up of the 'Crucial Three'. Legend has it that Mick Jones of 'The Clash' gave Pete his first guitar after a gig and told him to form a band. Pete recalls, " Mick (Jones) is the other person who significantly changed my life. He saw something in me before I was in bands. He said I was going to be famous, and gave me that guitar." Pete learned to play guitar by listening to Pete Townshend, who was his guitar hero before punk … and still is, he says.

The initial line-up was Pete Wylie on guitar and vocals, Pete Younger on bass guitar and drummer Rob Jones. When Pete Younger left he was replaced by Oddball Washington on bass together with Colin Redmond on guitar and J.J. Tyler on synthesizer.  This  group garnered critical acclaim throughout 1980 for the singles 'Better Scream' and 'Seven Minutes to Midnight', (both as Wah! Heat), the latter was single of the week in the 'NME', 'Sounds' & 'Melody Maker' during spring 1980, not to forget the 1981 Warner Bros album 'Nah = Poo! - The Art of Bluff ' (as Wah!). One of Pete's fated charms is to be in the wrong place at the right time. He played Eric's the night the police raided and shut the venue down. He said, " We knew they were coming, it was horrible, they ripped the place apart. Liverpool's a hard town but that club was one of the cleanest." Remarkably, a live recording of the gig exists with Pete's voice shouting, "the police are coming". The tape passed into the hands of John Peel and sparked his interest. In mid-1982 the band recorded a BBC session for John Peel which included a cover version of 'You'll Never Walk Alone'. Championed by John Peel, broadcast god of new music, when Pete played a live session with his band 'Wah!', Peel introduced them on air as 'the mighty Wah!', and they became superheroes overnight. And the name stuck. 

Their biggest hit single was 'The Story of the Blues', which was released in late 1982, and reached Number 3 in the UK Singles Chart, inspired by Alan Bleasdale's TV series 'Boys From The Blackstuff',
Despite signing a distribution deal with WEA for his own independent Eternal label, Wylie and 'WAH!' basically took a year off before releasing any serious followup material.

A follow-up single, 'Hope (I Wish You'd Believe Me)' was released in 1983, but the single found limited success. Following this Wylie released an officially sanctioned "official bootleg" of new and old songs entitled 'The Maverick Years 1980-81' on his own label. Clad in a cover that alluded to the early 1970s' 'Hallmark of Quality' bootlegs, the record appeared as a white label with a blank outer cover and a sheet attached with sleeve notes by music journalist Adam Sweeting. This release did not shore up Wylie's dwindling fortunes and 'Wah!' were subsequently dropped by WEA. 

In 1984 'The Mighty Wah!' had a Top 20 hit with the song "Come Back" ( as with "The Story of the Blues," the song was chosen by the late BBC Radio 1 Radio DJ John Peel, as his 'single of the year '). The accompanying album, recorded for Beggar's Banquet, was entitled 'A Word to the Wise Guy'. It was critically acclaimed, but sold poorly and the band were again dropped. 
His 1998 single 'Heart As Big As Liverpool' is popular within the city and especially with LFC supporters and is used in the official Hillsborough tribute video, on a 2001 CD of Merseyside artists 'Mersey Boys and Liverpool Girls' and also features on 'Songs of Strength & Heartbreak', a 2000 album credited to 'The Mighty Wah!' The song is also regularly played at Anfield, the home ground of Liverpool FC.

Pete Wylie was also well known for his collaboration, professionally and personally with fellow Merseysider Josie Jones who is famous for singing on the 'Wah!' hit single 'Come Back' and for having sang on Wylie's solo efforts, such as 'Sinful!' and 'Diamond Girl' before doing the spoken word vocals for the 'Big Hard Excellent Fish' release, 'Imperfect List'. News of her death surfaced in 2015 which left Pete heartbroken. For several years he expressed interest in releasing another record, as he had not made any 'this century'. In the autumn of 2017, Pete released his first album of the 2010s, entitled 'Pete Sounds'. It was made with donations via Pledge Music and then released on his own label.
Pete has said, "If all I was remembered for was 'The Story Of The Blues' I’d be the proudest man alive, because I hear the record now and it’s almost like listening to someone else’s record. I'm proud of that song as it also affected people's lives – people come to me now and tell me how that record really inspired them when they were feeling low, and gave them some self-belief."

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2019/08/pool-of-sound-room.html