By Andrew Mosley

WHEN?: Saturday 29 March 2025, tour runs through 8 May 2025 Tickets

It’s a roar of defiance, a statement of intent and, as it introduced the fantastic Songs of Strength and Heartbreak album 25 years ago, so it does proceedings at a packed Brudenell Social Club tonight.

• Read on for reasons including how discovering Pete’s music changed what Mozza listened to forever

“My name’s Wylie. This is The Mighty Wah!” hollers Pete as he launches into a rip-roaring race through Never Loved As A Child, a song that said “I’m back and better than ever” when it opened the aforementioned SOSAH a quarter of a century ago.

Wylie has had a 45 year love/hate relationship with the industry and it with him and, after a fall almost killed him, it was almost a decade before he returned with what I believe was the best album of 2000 (My Album of the Month when I wrote for tdb magazine in Exeter – what better accolade?!).

Inevitably all did not go smoothly as Sony, having spent a million on the recordings, decided not to release them. Eventually Castle Music put out the album and it’s been remastered and re-issued with the original demos from the £1 million album included for free – so buy it!

We’re here to hear it live, but there’s much more to Wyle and Wah! than that one album.

So we get the anthemic Comeback, a 1984 hit single written as Liverpool was being strangled by the Thatcher government, the singalonga solo pop hit Sinful! and, of course, The Story of The Blues, which the band just about manage to fit in as the gig runs over curfew (for legal reasons, I may be wrong here and it probably finished just in time!).

There’s stories to tell and the enigmatic Wylie has plenty (some of which I could recount here, others not!), there are opinions to voice and he has plenty of those too, and great songs to play and… yes, you know the score by now.

He’s here tonight with an entirely new band made up of Elliott on guitar, Harry on bass, Ross on keyboards and trumpet and Ben on drums – there’s an ironing board on stage too – and he makes plenty of friendly jokes regarding the age gap (clue, he’s a bit older than them) and their alleged lack of knowledge and experience.

It works well though as there’s boundless energy and a buzz about the band, which makes the songs shine as they should.

Classics such as the beautiful Hey! Mona Lisa and Sing All The Saddest Songs, the harsh Loverboy and possible career highlight Heart As Big As Liverpool are performed with heart and soul, passion, and a confidence laced with self-deprecation.

There’s an incredibly moving version of Gilbert O’Sullivan’s melancholic Alone Again (Naturally) – a song of strength and heartbreak if ever there was one – too.

Pete has time for a chat and a laugh with everyone afterwards and as I exit into the cold Leeds air I think of how discovering Pete’s music changed what I listened to forever. He doesn’t release many records – “I’ve spent 45 years not getting on with it so I’m not gonna start now” – but that doesn’t matter. It’s the quality that counts.

It’s a great night. It always is. How could it not be?

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Andrew Mosley and Pete Wylie Tickets
• Mozza’s 1st novel The Choreography Of Ghosts is published next month and you can read more about him on his website and buy it here.
• Have you seen a gig by Pete Wylie before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
• Enjoyed this preview? Follow monstagigz on Twitter @NeilDurham, email neildurham3@gmail.com and check us out on Instagram and Facebook