Wah! Heat

Wah! Heat Biography

Peter Wylie began his musical career in 1977 as a guitarist for the Crucial Three (with The Teardrop Explodes' Julian Cope and Echo & the Bunnymen's Ian McCulloch), for a couple months (Sept-Nov 1977). From the ashes of other short lived groups, the Post-punk band 'Wah! Heat' eventually formed in February of 1979 with Pete Wylie on vocals and guitars, Rob Jones on drums and Colin Williams on bass, soon to be replaced by Pete ‘Kid’ Younger (ex Those Naughty Lumps). The three-piece act recorded their first single 'Better Scream' in February 1980. After the single the band went through a series of line-up adjustments. Younger left to be replaced by Carl Washington (a.k.a. Washing-Ton, Oddball Washington, who became Wylie's right-hand man), Colm Redmond (ex Psychamesh) joined on guitars, and King (Ken) Bluff (a.k.a. J.J. Tyler, K.J. Tyrer) assisted on occasions on keyboards and in May 1980 the five-piece line-up recorded their first Peel session.The band started gigging in the Liverpool-Manchester area, often supporting arch-rivals Pink Military. During the recording session for their next single, it became clear what was to be the guitar player’s role in the band: to play live, but not on records. On this basis Redmond quit the band and, after a short period with Faction, became a full-time member of the Pink Military by the time Wah! Heat’s second single was released in September 1980, Seven Minutes to Midnight' – credited to Wylie, Washington, Jonie (plus King Bluff). After the release of the second single, and the departure of guitarist Redmond, Pete Wylie decided to reshape the group as a four-piece and Wah! Heat transformed into Wah!. (Taken in part from from Music...isms). See also: Wah!, The Mighty Wah!, and others. More at www.petewylie.com together with discography. There also seems to be more than one Wah!