It’s perhaps unsurprising that so many people focus on the pretty boy image. After all, Marti Pellow was the heart-throb who went to number one when his band, Wet Wet Wet, released their debut album, Popped In Souled Out.

He was the cover star, the pin-up, the guy with handsome, catwalk-model looks whose first five albums secured 12 platinum records, a BRIT Award, and three number one singles, including the iconic, worldwide smash, Love Is All Around.

And yet the man with the flashbulb smile achieved that success for a very different reason – his ability as a singer and songwriter. It’s remarkable to consider that while Wet Wet Wet released six studio records with Pellow, he’s released 12 studio records since launching his solo career. The 13th, Dante’s Prayer, was issued last year, with his autobiography, Pellow Talk, while the 14th, The Lost Chapter, will be released in September, with his second book.

The record-and-book focus on the very thing that made Pellow successful – his talent as a singer and songwriter.

“The Lost Chapter is a snapshot. It reflects on my journey as a singer/songwriter - and draws on some of the artists who’ve influenced me,” he says.

In his latest book, Pellow reflects on the influence of such greats as The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Van Morrison, and Joni Mitchell, as well as Marvin Gaye, Don McLean and Neil Young. All helped to shape the sound he went onto create.

He’s taking the record and the book on tour, playing 41 shows in intimate theatres around the UK including Bolton’s Albert Halls. It will give fans the chance to hear some of Pellow’s new songs, old songs, and reinterpretations of classic songs by his favourite artists.

“Music is important. It’s the thing that lives in the space as life is unfolding,” he said. “And some of the music from the early part of my career, in Wet Wet Wet, has lived on for two generations. People love those songs and that’s why I still play them.

“The Lost Chapter will give people the chance to see the other side of me, as a songwriter, and to find out a different part of my make-up.”

A special evening is in store, during which he’ll be joined by two other musicians, while spending a large part of the evening talking about the music that made the man. It’s an opportunity for him to connect with fans who’ve followed his career since the late 1980s – as well as those who’ve been inspired by his work in the West End and on Broadway. He views his fans as family – a group of people with whom he has a special, long-lasting relationship.

“I’ve always been fascinated by family. I see how a lovely relationship blossoms over the years, which thrills me,” he said. “I wonder why two people grow together and their bonds become stronger. And when I look at my career as a singer/songwriter, I see the same thing. The relationship between me and my fans is just as special, it’s just as beautiful. Just as I see a family staying together over the decades, I see us staying together for 30 or 40 years and more.”

Pellow’s new tour will be the musical equivalent of spending an evening in his living room, thumbing through his record collection.

Marti said: “Record collections were so important when I was growing up. Our parents would have their own collection, as would our grandparents. I remember being told to step away from the radiogram at my grannie’s house as I was about to put my hands on her Dean Martin ‘78s.

“Those days were so important because record collections were the first port of call, whether it was Dean Martin, Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra. Then, when we’d get into our teens and hang out with our mates – we’d go out with a bag filled with records and just listen to and talk about music.”

Pellow’s choices are revealing. They veer from the poetic brilliance of Leonard Cohen to the socially-aware polemic of Gil Scott-Heron, Lynton Kwesi Johnson and Marvin Gaye. He had favourite songs by the great English-Scottish singer/songwriter John Martyn, while he adored the musicians who emerged from Laurel Canyon, at the turn of the 1960s/1970s, such as Jackson Browne, through to the anarchic energy of punks like The Clash, or the mellow, reggae grooves of Bob Marley, Lee “Scratch” Perry and King Tubby, and Yellowman.

“I guess that’s an element of what I do that tends to get overlooked,” he says. “I think when people write my story, they tend to focus on a small part of it – an incredible part, when Wet Wet Wet had ten remarkable years, between 1987 and 1997. And so that’s why I thought it was time to take pen to paper and write The Lost Chapter.”

Marti Pellow is at the Albert Halls, Bolton, on Tuesday, October 24. Details from www.quaytickets.com His new album and book are available together, via www.awaywithmedia.com/buy-books