The Mighty Wah! biography
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Pete Wylie (born Peter James Wylie, Liverpool, England, 22 March 1958) is a British singer/songwriter and guitarist, best known as the leader of the band variously known as Wah!, Wah! Heat, Shambeko! Say Wah!, JF Wah!, The Mighty Wah! and Wah! the Mongrel. He was credited by Melody Maker with coining "rockism", a post-punk term used to describe anything considered too 'old guard'.
Career
Early bands
He began his career in 1977, with lead vocalist Ian McCulloch and bassist Julian Cope, with whom he formed the band Crucial Three, who lasted from May to June the same year. In September, he and Cope formed a short-lived band alongside Pete Burns, The Mystery Girls. In December 1977, he joined The Spitfire Boys, who dissolved the same month. Wylie and two of the band, Pete Griffiths and Peter Clarke, formed the same month, the Nova Mob, alongside Julian Cope. The band lasted until May 1978, and Wylie waited until September to form another band, The Opium Eaters, along with Peter Clarke named as Budgie, Paul Rutherford and Ian Broudie. In December, he formed another band, Crash Course, which dissolved in January 1979.
Wah!
Active from 1979, Wylie and company garnered critical acclaim throughout 1980 for the singles "Better Scream" and "Seven Minutes to Midnight" (both as Wah! Heat), the latter being single of the week in the
NME,
Sounds and
Melody Maker during spring 1980, and the 1981 Warner Bros album
Nah = Poo! - The Art of Bluff (as Wah!). 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.
A follow-up single, "Hope (I Wish You'd Believe me)" was released in 1983, but the single found limited success. Next, 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 '70s' 'Hallmark of Quality' bootlegs, the record appeared as a white label with a blank outer cover and a sheet attached with sleevenotes 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. By 1986, having ditched his backing ensemble, Pete Wylie had a solo hit with "Sinful!", which peaked at number 13 in the UK, ostensibly produced by Ian Ritchie, but with major input from Zeus B. Held. "Sinful!" became the title track of his 1987 solo album, which included the enigmatically titled "FourElevenFortyFour".
In 1990 a single called "Imperfect List" was released under the project name of "Big Hard Excellent Fish". The spoken-word track is a list of 64 least favourite people and things read by Wylie's then girlfriend and collaborator Josie Jones. The list was written by Wylie and the track was recorded by Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins, although Wylie is not credited on the record. The list ranges from 'Adolf Hitler' to 'lost keys'. In 2004, "Imperfect List" was used by Morrissey at shows prior to his appearance on stage. The track appears on Morrissey's video of live performance "Who put the M in Manchester?".
Biography from 
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