Wet Wet Wet have been a Sweet Little Mystery for the past few years. But they're back from the wilderness and ready to bring their tour to Dorset next month. Joanna Davis enjoys the charming Glaswegian brogue of the band's bassist Graeme Clark.

THEY are the band who surprised us all.

Graeme Clark, Marti Pellow, Tommy Cunningham and Neil Mitchell could have got the gold.

But they threw in the towel and went for the silver medal.

This particular race we're talking about is the record for most weeks spent at number one.

It could have been Wet Wet Wet with Love Is All Around but, fed up with hearing the song repeatedly on the radio, the band insisted it be deleted after 15 weeks at the top.

This ensured that Bryan Adams with Everything I Do (I Do It For You) spent the best part of four months at the top and earned the record.

But 2016 sees the Scottish soft rock band in a very different place, fully embracing their past, as Graeme Clark tells me.

The foursome will be performing the tracks from their 1995 Picture This album on tour, calling into Bournemouth on March 2.

And this is the album that has - you guessed it - The Troggs' cover Love Is All Around - on it.

I ask a very chirpy Graeme, who is keeping one eye on his compatriot Andy Murray's progress in the Australian Open while chatting to me, how he feels when he hears Love Is All Around on the radio these days.

"For me, it's great to still hear it played. I know that so much has been written about that song but I have no problems talking about it.

"It's a pretty good song, it's pretty well produced and it still sounds great today. I'm proud of it."

At this point I tell Graeme that I had a few encounters with the song's writer, the ever-cheerful late Reg Presley of The Troggs, working as a trainee reporter in Andover, Reg's hometown.

Was he so happy because of all those royalties, I ask?

"Reg was a pretty crazy guy," Graeme said.

"I'm so glad he did come up with that song. He captured a moment there and we were the conduit that channelled it through.

"The way it worked out was like we planned it, but we didn't at all.

"We were asked to do a song for the Four Weddings and a Funeral soundtrack and we got offered I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor, I Can't Smile Without You by Barry Manilow or The Troggs song.

"It was part of the movie and we didn't think it was going to be a big hit.

"We were surprised by the reaction to it.

"It's a great song and we play it every night. We could have done the Birdy Song or something! So at least we did a decent song!"

Wet Wet Wet came to prominence in 1987 and have sold more than 15 million records whilst notching up more than 30 UK chart hits including three number one singles.

Graeme, whose parents wanted him to work in a shipyard, had a love of music at an early age and formed Wet Wet Wet - then known as Vortex Motion - at school in Clydebank.

The then trio met trainee painter and decorator Mark McLachlan who ended up calling himself Marti Pellow and became the band's resident heartthrob.

Graeme said: "I think we've lasted so long because we're a band of brothers. We grew up in the same area playing for the same football team doing all the things that 10-year-olds do."

Reflecting on the band's much-documented break-up in 1997 and dispute about royalty sharing, he says.

"But then things do become more complicated.

"When it comes to business, they say never do business with your family.

"But now there's a good kind of communication between us. We know each other inside out."

The band are looking forward to getting back on the road again and playing some of their biggest hits for fans.

The album Picture This provided smash hits such as Julia Says, Somewhere Somehow, Don't Want To Forgive Me Now and of course Love Is All Around.

"When all of this was happening it was very difficult to gain any perspective on it.

"Now we're going back to it we're shining a light on our work and what we wrote. Looking back at it, I think it's been pretty well written.

"For me it was the best album we made. For the tour we owe it to the people who come to see it to play all our greatest hits.

"We have no problem going out and playing the big songs people know. We may throw in some of our new material and if people don't want to listen to that then it can be a comfort break for them."

And as for that new material, Wets fans can expect to hear it soon.

Graeme tells me: "We had a studio session in July in which we wrote about half of an album.

"Now we need another session to finish it off.

"By the end of the year we should have something. It's invigorating for the brain - I really enjoy the challenge of trying to write something that will appeal to people.

"But we should never be trying to second guess what the audience likes - we should be trying to satisfy ourselves.

"And now what appeals to us is very different from what appealed to us when we were 20 or 19."

*Wet Wet Wet will play at the Windsor Hall, Bournemouth International Centre, on March 2. Contact the box office for tickets.