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A VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF ALL THINGS WAH!:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------WAH! HEAT and its other incarnations WAH! and MIGHTY WAH! were all led by Pete Wylie, who had previously been in a short-lived group called Crucial Three with Julian Cope and Ian McCulloch. Early singles from 1979-1981 such as "Better Scream" and "Seven Minutes To Midnight" won critical praise but failed to climb the UK charts. Their 1981 debut album NAH POO: THE ART OF BLUFF was called "one of the four or five best rock records of the year" by British music magazine N.M.E. Despite the acclaim, WAH! only achieved great chart success once when symphonic epic "The Story of the Blues" reached #3 on Christmas Day 1982. However, they failed to keep the momentum going. Despite signing a distribution deal with WEA for his own independent Eternal label, Wylie and WAH! basically took off a year before releasing any serious followup material. When they did come back with another symphonic rock epic, "Come Back (The Story of the Reds), they reached #20 but this was viewed as a disappointment. The 2nd WAH! album A WORD TO THE WISE was a solid effort, with hints of the funk/rap/rock fusion that would take place a few years in the future, but the subsequent tour was difficult and no hit singles were forthcoming. After the tour, the band was broken up. Pete Wylie went on to record solo, scoring a hit in both 1986 and again in 1991 (with help from The Farm) with the song "Sinful!", reaching #13 on the charts with it the first time, and #28 the 2nd time. He has recently recorded again under the name MIGHTY WAH! - releasing the "Heart As Big As Liverpool" EP on Columbia Records in November 1998. The unfortunate news from UK sources is that it appears he has recently been dropped by his label.
Feb. 1979 - band formed, rehearses for next ten months
Dec. 1979 - first show played (at Liverpool's Everyman Theatre)
- head out on tour to open for Pink Military in Manchester and Leeds-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
original lineup:
Pete Wylie - guitar & vocals, Rob Jones - drums, Pete Younger - bass
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Jan./Feb. 1980 - original lineup breaks up
late Feb. 1980 - new band lineup debuts as opening act for the Psychedelic Furs
at the last-ever show in the legendary Liverpool nightclub Eric's.
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reformed band lineup:
Pete Wylie - guitar & vocals, Rob Jones - drums, Oddball Washington on bass,
Colin Redmond - guitar, J.J. Tyler - synthesizer
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------early 1980 - debut single "Better Scream" is released and is the "single of the
week" in the British music magazine SOUNDS.early 1980 - band records their first BBC session.
- four tracks include "Seven Minutes To Midnight"1981 - debut album NAH POO: THE ART OF BLUFF is released.
mid-1982 - band records a BBC session for John Peel
- tracks include a cover of "You'll Never Walk Alone"Nov. 1982 - "Story of the Blues" is released as a single and reaches #3 by Christmas.
1983 - no new material is released, except for the single "Hope", and the
mysterious MAVERICK YEARS 80-81 OFFICIAL BOOTLEG.July 1984 - "Come Back (The Story of the Reds)" is released, eventually reaching #20.
Aug. 1984 - MIGHTY WAH! record their final session for John Peel.
late 1984 - 2nd album A WORD TO THE WISE is released, and MIGHTY WAH! tour to support it.
early 1985 - weeks after the end of the tour, MIGHTY WAH! break up.
1986 - Wyle gathers a new band called The Oedipus Wrecks and releases his SINFUL! album, with the title track reaching #13. The album sells poorly.
fall 1987 - PEEL SESSIONS EP is released of the Aug. 1984 MIGHTY WAH! session.
Dec. 1990 - Wylie shows up as guest vocalist on The Farm's hit single "All Together Now"
early 1991 - the re-issued and remixed single of "Sinful!" is released and reaches #26.
later 1991 - new WAH! album INFAMY! OR I DIDN'T GET WHERE I AM TODAY is released and fails to sell.
even later 1991 - Wylie has a serious accident. (details unknown?)
1998 - Wylie returns with the HEART AS BIG AS LIVERPOOL EP.