Heart As Big As Liverpool

Around 1980 I started my job as a computer programmer for Littlewoods in Liverpool. My programming mentor Dave Homan told me he had a mate called Pete Wylie an a band called Wah! Heat who had released a single called “Seven Minutes To Midnight” about the Doomsday Clock.

Throughout his career Pete Wylie has maintained the Wah! Label , brand or whatever, but as he progressed then names changed. It was always something I wondered about, but he does fully explain it in this Youtube video of him playing in a Merseyside shopping centre.

He is still playing and performing today , producing some excellent music and a lot of bona fide classics (well they are in my opinion).

The first one that I remember being a definite hit with a big almost Spectoresque sound was “The Story Of The Blues” , with a trademark “to die for” chorus, that makes you want it to never end, and keeps you playing it and playing it until the record is worn out.

I am listening to a career spanning compilation “The Handy Wah! Whole : Songs from the repertwah!: The maverick years 2000” as you can see sometimes the titles are not exactly economical, but it is a superb collection.

One song missing from it is “The Day That Margaret Thatcher Dies” a scathing commentary on Ronald Reagan’s partner in dismantling western economies which I believe has never been officially released. It takes the riff from The Troggs’ “Wild Thing” and adds a trademark chorus to make a great song.

I am just picking favourites and I picked up a 12” vinyl single by Shambeko! Say Wah! Called “Remember” which I somehow missed , and again has such a killer chorus I am just stunned I managed to miss this.

Although the compilation has copious notes from “Me Memwah!” , I have to refer to the song listing at the end for incarnation names which are

• Wah! Heat
• Wah!
• Shambeko! Say Wah!
• J.F.Wah!
• The Mighty Wah!
• Pete Wylie and the Oedipus Wrecks
• Pete Wylie
• Pete Wylie and Wah! The Mongrel

So just a few incarnations there.

Another , I think unreleased song is the beautiful “Make Way There's A New World Coming (In Which Charles Darwin Visits A Descendant In A Dream) “ which makes me get all goose pinply like so many of his songs.

Then another classic is “Come Back” , such a big sound that will stay with you forever.

I do not do Spotify playlists but feel free to find these songs yourself on YouTube , though I am sharing a few here.

Other highlights for me are “Sinful” (maybe my modus operandi) , “Four Eleven Forty Four” and I have probably missed so many.

Then we come to THAT SONG. “Heart As Big As Liverpool” . John Peel’s favourite song about the city and it’s difficult to disagree with him , though read my previous post on The Finest Song About Liverpool to see what I think and the original wonderful video.

“Heart As Big As Liverpool” to me has become synonymous with the city, it is a perfect song in very way. In this post I have included two videos using it , one is as a soundtrack to Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool’s first Premier League win , thirty years after they won the old first division , a truly uplifting emotional five minutes.

Then the one below showing the sights of Liverpool familiar to me as I worked there for several years.

Pete Wylie for me is a musical genius , a maverick good guy and his music lifts my spirits and makes me truly happy , but maybe that’s me , but if you are lucky enough to feel what I feel then you are truly blessed.