User:Iainduff99/sandbox

Graeme Clark is a musician, song-writer and record producer. He came to prominence as bass player, founder member and song-writer from the famous pop/soul band Wet Wet Wet - the band he formed with friends and fellow band members Neil Mitchell, Tommy Cunningham and Marti Pellow whilst attending Clydebank High School.

The band signed to Polygram Records in 1985 and their debut single - “Wishing I was Lucky” was an immediate hit along with the album “Popped In Souled Out”.

The Wets released a series of 30 hit singles, including 3 number 1s, and have released 8 albums to date.

Wet Wet Wet had a well-documented break-up in 1999 when Marti Pellow and Tommy Cunningham both left the band for different reasons. These events were the initial drivers for Clark to begin working without his fellow band members.

The Wets have since resolved their differences and continue to tour and work together from time to time.

Graeme Clark's Background

Graeme Clark was born in a suburb of Clydebank on 15th April 1965. Previously a thriving manufacturing hub on the River Clyde, the town had been the target of a German bomb attack (The Clydebank Blitz) in early 1940. Clydebank was largely destroyed during the air-raid but by the 1960s Clydebank was gradually being rebuilt. New housing estates were creating green suburbs to replace the tenements and social housing which had been the hallmark of such a working class town. Within this backdrop working class families used their ambition and initiative to find a future for their children and Graeme's family was no different.

Much has been said of the quote suggesting that the only choices were “music, the dole or crime” underplays the determination and character of the people of Clydebank. The remark also ignores Clydbank's famous manufacturing history with John Brown's ship yard and Singer Sewing machines both being at the heart of Clydebank, employing large proportions of the population. But the 70's a 80's was a period when there was no longer an expectation that young men would walk out the school gates and into the shipyards.

The Thatcher years saw further decline for Clydebank as both John Brown's and Singers closed as the town suffered along with many other key manufacturing areas of the country.

But, it would take more than a war and economic decline to destroy the resolve of people from this area. Clydebank tried to reinvent itself and while others found themselves a trade, started up as entrepreneurs, or headed to university, Graeme saw his future in music.