Wah! -

Wah! was the revolving band-moniker of English singer/musician Pete Wylie, who emerged on the late Seventies Liverpool post-punk scene. He dubbed the first lineup Wah! Heat for two 1980 singles on Inevitable Music, then shortened the name to Wah! for the 1981 Eternal album Nah=Poo – The Art of Bluff.

In 1983, Wah! scored UK/Irish hits with “The Story of the Blues” and “Hope (I Wish You’d Believe Me),” both recorded by a quintet augmented by The Sapphires. They expanded to a big band dubbed ‘The Mighty Wah!’ for the 1984 Beggars Banquet release A Word to the Wise Guy, which spawned the hit “Come Back.” Wylie launched a subsequent solo career.

Members: Pete Wylie (guitar, vocals), Rob Jones (drums), Pete Younger (bass, 1979), Washington (bass), Colin Redmond (guitar), J.J. Tyler (synthesizer)

Background

Peter James Wylie was born on March 22, 1958, in Liverpool. On May 5, 1977, he celebrated the 18th birthday of his friend, Ian McCulloch, at local hotspot Eric’s Club, where they caught a punk multi-bill with The Jam, The Slits, Subway Sect, The Prefects, and headliners The Clash. They befriended a fellow attendee, Welsh transplant Julian Cope, and decided to form a band.

(According to legend, Wylie shared his ambitions post-show with Clash guitarist Mick Jones, who handed his instrument to the hopeful with the words “pay me back when you’re famous.”)

Buoyed by notions of their predestined fame, Wylie dubbed the new band Arthur Hostile & the Crucial Three, through McCulloch vetoed the prefix. The Crucial Three rehearsed for a month and conceived three songs, including the Cope/McCulloch composition “Read It in Books” (a subsequent Teardrop/Bunnymen song). The band collapsed amid ego conflicts between the two writers.

That autumn, Wylie joined The Mystery Girls, a punk band with Cope and singer Pete Burns, an outlandish and acerbic clerk at Probe Records, an indie music store on Mathew St. They played one shambolic set supporting Sham 69 at Eric’s, then collapsed. (Burns emerged in goth-rockers Nightmares In Wax, which became Dead Or Alive.)

In December 1977, Wylie joined The Spitfire Boys, whose recent single “British Refugee” (b/w “Mein Kampf”) appeared on RKO. They disbanded within weeks of his arrival. Wylie retained the Spitfire rhythm section and summoned Cope for a new band, The Nova Mob, which also collapsed after one show. (Cope’s next band, Uh!, grew into A Shallow Madness, the springboard for Teardrop Explodes.)

In August 1978, Wylie joined Crash Course, the opening act for the final show by Liverpool punk instigators Big In Japan (8/26: Eric’s). Wylie and BIJ guitarist Ian Broudie had a recent unrealized project, The English Opium Eaters, with ex-Spitfire keyboardist Paul Rutherford and mutual drummer Budgie.

On December 22, 1978, Crash Course played an Eric’s double-bill with McCulloch’s new band, Echo & the Bunnymen. Crash Course recorded their set for an intended live EP that went unreleased (and later lost) after their January 1979 breakup. Days earlier, they cut four demos, including two songs (“Someone Different,” “Heart Surgery”) covered by The Glass Torpedoes, a Liverpudlian singles act.

Wylie retained Crash Course drummer Rob Jones for Wah! Heat, a trio with bassist Pete Younger, whose prior band, Those Naughty Lumps, cut the February 1979 single “Iggy Pop’s Jacket” on the Teardrop’s Zoo label. Wah! grew to four with keyboardist Mick Jones (no relation to Rob, nor the Clash guitarist). They linked with Inevitable Music, a nascent Liverpool indie label.

“Better Scream”

In January 1980, Wah! Heat released their debut single: “Better Scream” (Side A), a Wylie original backed with “Joe” (Side HEY), a co-write with Younger and Rob Jones.

A. “Better Scream” (3:22)
HEY. “Joe” (4:56)

“Better Scream” was the inaugural release on Inevitable (INEV 001), which issued nineteen singles through June 1986. The single appeared in a gatefold sleeve by Modern Eon keyboardist Bob Wakelin, whose illustration depicts Wah! as blue-shirted phantoms in a window-lit, monochrome setting. Wakelin also illustrated sleeves for Eon’s debut (Pieces) and 1980 titles by Dead Or Alive, Pink Military, and ex-BIJ singer (and future Frankie Goes to Hollywood frontman) Holly Johnson.

The inner-sleeve contains a b&w illustration of a toddler on a grid, duplicated at different points with strife-related questions and realizations of increased depth: “This war could give dying for what you believe in a bad name… Are the freedom fighters I feel sorry for when they’re killed for the cause the murderers I hate when they slaughter innocents?”

On March 19, 1980, BBC Radio One DJ John Peel aired “Better Scream” and an advance copy of the third Teardrop Explodes single, “Treason,” as tributes to Eric’s Club, which police shut down that months over rumored drug offenses. Wah! played Eric’s final night on a double-bill with the Psychedelic Furs. Rob Jones marked the occasion with a poem, “The Last Night of Erics (A small opera in the making).”

“Joe” appeared as “Hey Disco Joe” on Hicks from the Sticks, a 1980 new wave compilation on Rockburgh (UK), Ariola (Germany), and Antilles (US) with cuts by Airkraft (“Move In Rhythm”), Clock DVA (“You’re Without Sound”), I’m So Hollow (“I Don’t Know”), Medium Medium (“Them Or Me”), Modern Eon (“Choreography”), Section 25 (“After-Image”), and They Must Be Russians (“Where Have I Seen You”).

“Seven Minutes to Midnight” | Peel Sessions

On May 19, Wah! cut the first Peel session for the DJ’s 6/10 broadcast, which aired rough takes of an upcoming single (“Seven Minutes to Midnight,” “Don’t Step On the Cracks”) and two songs for their eventual album (“Somesay,” “Other Boys”). On May 31, Wah! opened for Pink Military at the Manchester Polytechnic with a third-billed act, U2.

Wylie replaced Younger with bassist Carl Washington in a reconfigured Wah! with Rob Jones (Jonie) and keyboardist King Bluff. He knew Washington from the Liverpool record-store circuit.

In November 1980, Wah! Heat released their second single: “Seven Minutes to Midnight… to Be Continued” (Right Side) backed with “Don’t Step on the Cracks” (Left Side), both Wylie originals.

Right. “Seven Minutes to Midnight… to Be Continued” (3:35) refers to the Doomsday Clock, a symbol by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, introduced in 1947 as a measure of mankind’s proximity to global catastrophe. In light of the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the clock moved two minutes, hence “seven minutes to midnight.”
Left. “Don’t Step on the Cracks” (3:08)

“Seven Minutes to Midnight” appeared as Inevitable’s fourth 7″ release, pressed with concentric red/white labels in a sleeve with primary-colored tear stripes. Subsequent Wah! releases appeared without the ‘Heat’ suffix.

On May 30, 1981, Wah! cut their second Peel session for the DJ’s 4/16 broadcast, which aired rough takes of two upcoming album cuts (“Sleeppp,” “Why D’You Imitate the Cutout?”) and two soon-to-be single sides (“The Checkmate Syndrome,” “Forget The Down”).

Nah=Poo – The Art of Bluff

Wah! released their debut album, Nah=Poo – The Art of Bluff, in June 1981 on Eternal Records.

Nah features seven Wylie originals, including the Peel-previewed “Sleeppp,” “Other Boys,” “The Wind Up,” “Why D’You Imitate the Cutout?” and the Rob Jones co-write “Somesay.”

Side B contains a re-recorded “Seven Minutes to Midnight” and two self-referential songs: “The Seven Thousand Names of Wah!” (a blazing instrumental) and “The Death of Wah!” (a moody melodrama that appropriates Harry Nilsson).

“Somesay” became their fourth single after “Forget the Down!” – a non-album single released simultaneously with The Art of Bluff.

A1. “The Wind-Up” (4:45)
A2. “Otherboys” (3:54)
A3. “Why D’You Imitate the Cutout?” (3:10)
A4. “Mission Impossible” (2:40)
A5. “Somesay” (5:16)

B1. “The Seven Thousand Names of Wah!” (4:45)
B2. “Sleeppp” (4:10)
B3. “Seven Minutes to Midnight” (4:34)
B4. “The Death of Wah!” (5:45)

Wah! accompanied the album with the non-album single release “Forget the Down!” / “The Checkmate Syndrome,” both Wylie solo compositions.

A. “Forget the Down!” (4:07)
B. “The Checkmate Syndrome” (3:07)

“Forget the Down!” appeared in a pink-dominant sleeve with red/yellow Eternal labels (horizontally split). Nah=Poo – The Art of Bluff appeared in a basic sleeve with shouting bold letters and gray/back labels. In standard Wah! practice, neither single nor album give production details.

Original copies contain an insert with fanciful prose by one Gaelic Dubwise, backed with a photo of Washington and a bearded Wylie, pictured in a swashbuckling mask by Dutch rock photojournalist Anton Corbijn, whose photography also graces 1981 sleeves for Bill Nelson, Comsat Angels, Fad Gadget, Joe Jackson, Models, and Peter Hammill.

On October 9, Wah! lifted “Somesay” as a single, backed with the prior a-side “Forget the Down (This Time),” both remixed by Ian Broudie, who balanced his on/off musical activities (Original Mirrors) with production credits (Echo, TV21).

The Art of Bluff was the inaugural release on Eternal, which subsequently signed the Liverpool talents Black and It’s Immaterial. The label gained international distribution through WEA, which issued Nah in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

WEA extracted “Somesay” and “Seven Minutes to Midnight” for Moloko, a European mini-sampler with two cuts each by Echo & the Bunnymen (“Villiers Terrace,” “Over the Wall”) and The Sound (“New Dark Age,” “Heartland”) and one by The Associates (“Tell Me Easter’s On Friday”).

Shambeko! Say Wah!

Wylie changed the moniker to Shambeko! Say Wah! for “Remember,” released on April 16, 1982, as a standalone single, backed with “Crack Is a Crack,” both thrice self-credited to ‘Wylie/Wylie/Wylie.’

A. “Remember”
B. “Crack Is a Crack (Theme From Square One)”

Wylie recorded “Remember” at Genetic Studios, a Reading mansion facility owned by sound veteran Martin Rushent (Altered Images, Buzzcocks, Gentle Giant, Human League) and used extensively by the production team of Clive Langer (once of Liverpool legends Deaf School) and Alan Winstanley. The pair produced “Remember” between sides by Blue Ronda ala Turk and Dexys Midnight Runners.

“Crack Is a Crack” features trumpeter Alan ‘Pops’ Peters and production by ‘Numbers.’ This was the first Wah! release with production credits. Wylie chose the ‘Shambeko! Say’ prefix to mark a new beginning but soon realized that fans couldn’t pronounce the name.

On May 5, Wah! cut their third Peel session for the DJ’s 5/18 broadcast, which aired one future album cut (“Papa Crack”) and three exclusives: “Satie’s Faction,” “8-8.30 or 10 Til 12,” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone” (straight and ‘silly’ versions).

“The Story of the Blues”

On November 26, 1982, Wah! released their sixth single: “The Story of the Blues,” a lavish soul ballad divided into two parts. The song features backing vocals by sisters Ruby and Sylvia Mason-James of Sylvia & the Sapphires, a soul-pop trio on Stiff Records (credited here as ‘Some Girls’). Eternal pressed the single in standard 7″ and extended 12″ formats.

A. “The Story of the Blues Part One” (3:55)
B. “The Story of the Blues Part Two (Talkin’ Blues)” (3:58)

The 12″ combines both parts on Side A (8:16), backed with a ‘liveish’ version (5:07). Onetime Heatwave soundman Mike Hedges produced “Story of the Blues” amid 1982 titles by The Associates, The Beat, The Cure, Diamond Head, Music for Pleasure, and Siouxsie & The Banshees.

In the “Story of the Blues” video, Wylie walks the night to a London watering hole where Washington tends bar. As Wylie sings on the open floor, small groups of people mingle about, including Josie Jones, Wah!’s platinum-haired backing vocalist on subsequent recordings.

Wah! mimed “The Story of the Blues” for the January 6, 1983, broadcast of the BBC music program Top of the Pops, which also featured in-studios numbers by Joe Jackson (“Steppin’ Out”), The Stranglers (“European Female”), and Ultravox (“Hymn”). Wah!’s segment took place under blue/teal/lavender lighting on a large soundstage, where Wylie donned a white scard and black trench coat, flanked by Washington (brown shirt) and Ruby and Sylvia (white dresses).^>

“The Story of the Blues” reached No. 5 in Ireland and No. 3 on the UK Singles Chart for the week of January 15,^> nestled under Men at Work (“Down Under”) and Phil Collins‘ cover of the Supremes Motown classic “You Can’t Hurry Love.” On John Peel’s year-end Festive Fifty, voters picked “The Story of the Blues” as the seventh-best song of 1982.

In an interview with Neil Tennant for the January 20, 1983, issue of Smash Hits, Wylie revealed that the name Wah! (a primal scream) came about on a hot day when he biked to Eric’s Club in leather and uttered “Wah! Heat.”

“Hope (I Wish You’d Believe Me)”

In March 1983, Wah! released their seventh single: “Hope (I Wish You’d Believe Me),” a Mike Hedges co-production with backing vocals by the three Sapphires (Ruby, Sylvia, and Vicky Mason-James).

The single appeared as a standard 7″ (3:57) with “Sleep” (a new arrangement of the Nah track “Sleeppp”) and as an extended 12″ EP with three additional tracks: covers of Johnny Thunders (“You Can’t Put Your Arms Round a Memory”), the Three Degrees (“The Year of Decision”), and the Wylie original “L’Espwah!”

A1. “You Can’t Put Your Arms Round a Memory” (1:14)
A2. “Hope (I Wish You’d Believe Me)” (extended, 6:28)
B1. “The Year of Decision” (2:21) Gamble/Huff
B2. “Sleep” (4:23)
B3. “L’Espwah!” (5:16)

For the “Hope” EP, Wylie retained Washington in a reconfigured Wah! with pianist Jay Noughton, and two ex-members of Pink Military and the Mothmen: keyboardist Charlie Griffiths and drummer Chris Joyce, who played concurrently in Suns of Arqa.

Josie Jones appears on the yellow-framed sleeve, which came with a four-fold poster insert of Wylie (with figurine-sized duplicates of himself) by FGTH photographer John Stoddard.

“Hope (I Wish You’d Believe Me),” reached No. 18 in Ireland. On February 14, Wah! performed “Hope” and “Sleep” (subtitled “Lullaby for Josie”) for the April 13 Peel broadcast, which also aired performances of “Year of Decision” and the exclusive “Silver and Gold.”

A Word to the Wise Guy

The Mighty Wah! released their second album, A Word to the Wise Guy, in July 1984 on Beggars Banquet.

Wise Guy features eight originals by Pete Wylie, who collaborated with ‘poet warrior’ and toaster Muhammad Eugene ‘Redman’ Lange on “Yuh Learn,” dispersed in four parts. The proper song appears on a bonus 12″ that came with early UK copies; credited to ‘The Mighty Two’ (Wylie and Redman) and backed with another co-write, “Learning the Ways of the World.”

The album spawned two singles: “Come Back” and “Weekends (How Come We Always End Up Here?).” Wylie retained Washington, Griffiths, Joyce, Noughton, and the Sapphires for this release, which also features two percussionists, a three-piece brass section, and the ‘Outlaw Josie Jones.’

A1. “Yuh Learn I”
A2. “Weekends”
A3. “Everwanna”
A4. “The Lost Generation”
A5. “Yuh Learn II”
A6. “I Know There Was Something…”

B1. “Yuh Learn III”
B2. “In the Bleak / Body ‘N’ Soul / Midwinter”
B3. “Papa Crack (God’s Lonely Man)”
B4. “What’s Happening Here”
B5. “Yuh Learn IV”
B6. “Come Back (The Story of the Reds)”

C. The Mighty Two – “Yuh Learn” (5:55)
D. The Mighty Wah! & Redman– “Learning the Ways of the World”

Wylie preceded the album with “Come Back,” released as a June single with “The Devil In Miss Jones,” a non-album single.

B. “The Devil In Miss Jones”

For the 1984 Festive Fifty, Peel listeners voted “Come Back” the year’s fifth-best song.

Various Knobs Twiddled In Long Forgotten Days – Mike Hedges
Various Knobs Twiddled – Flood, Nick Rogers, Pete Coleman
Brass – John Beacham, Noel Norris, Nick Payne
Percussion Brenda From Naffi, Jeff Allen

Artwork – Mick Lowe, Stylo Rouge

In September, Wylie lifted “Weekends (How Come We Always End Up Here?)” as the tenth Wah! single with “Shambeko.”

B. “Shambeko The Original Orchestral Arrangement”

On August 22, 1984, Wah! cut their fifth Peel session for the DJ’s 9/17 broadcast, which aired versions of “Weekends,” “Yuh Learn,” and the exclusive “Basement Blues,” plus a fresh take on the 1980 song “Better Scream.” In 1987, Strange Fruit issued this set as part of the label’s Peel Sessions series.

Discography:

“Better Scream” / “Joe” (1980 • Wah! Heat)
“Seven Minutes to Midnight… To be Continued” / “Don’t Step on the Cracks” (1980 • Wah! Heat)
Nah=Poo – The Art of Bluff (1981)
“Forget the Down!” / “The Checkmate Syndrome” (1981)
“The Story of the Blues” (1982)
“Remember” / “Crack Is a Crack (Theme From Square One)” (1982 • Shambeko Say Wah!)
“Hope (I Wish You’d Believe Me)” / “Sleep” (1983)
A Word to the Wise Guy (1984 • The Mighty Wah!)