I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m a hoarder but I don’t easy part with my possessions easily and somewhere tucked away amongst my teenage diaries and gymnastics certificates I have a very worn and much-played cassette of Wet, Wet, Wet’s Picture This album.

My young heart would soar as I listened to the dreamy lead singer Marti Pellow croon Julia Says, Don’t Want to Forgive Me Now and, of course, Love is All Around, reliving the moment Hugh Grant and Andie McDowell snogged in the rain in Four Weddings and a Funeral.

So it was with a great sense of excitement and nerves that I sat down to reminisce with drummer Tommy Cunningham and keyboardist Neil Mitchell about how they went from teenage pals to world-famous pop stars and how they are preparing to mark the 20th anniversary of the album with 17-date The Big Picture Tour.

To my relief the life-long friends charm me straight away, promising to help me keep straight who is who (it is a phone interview) and “keep the Glasgow accents to a minimum”.

“We are also just back from recording new stuff in the studio," explains Tommy, “so we are a bit crossed-eyed. We have one eye in the past and one eye in the future.

“We do look back and feel immensely proud of everything we have achieved and that people still come along and we still have a career. We can’t stop making music we have to be current and doing our craft.

“We started with a recording session in Glasgow and then we went to the South of France and it was very nice apart from the 95 degree heat. We have still quite a way to go though, we are about half way, but it is very exciting.”

Neil says they hope to release a new album in the middle of next year but will be playing some of the songs to fans on the tour, which comes to The 02 on March 6.

Tommy says the four of them, who have sold more 15 million albums and notched up 30 UK chart hits, are really looking forward to being back at the London venue.

“Two years ago was the first time we had played The 02 and wow what an experience, what a venue. We had always played Docklands and Wembley Arena, which are just big sheds so to walk out at the The 02, which is a custom-built venue was amazing and it was a great gig. London is kind of known as being more reserved when it comes to the audience but the place exploded when we walked on.

“We have already started thinking about how we are going to present the songs. These days you can’t just go with the drums and keyboards raised up a bit and expect people to pay their very hard earned money. You have to give people proper entertainment. The 02 is a big venue and you have to fill the arena with your presence. The songs do the talking but there is a visual element we’re building.”

He started playing drums aged ten and remembers having to leave his first ever gig, David Bowie, halfway through as he had to be up for school the next morning.

The quartet, which also includes singer Marti Pellow (real name Mark McLachlan) and bassist Graeme Clark, formed at Clydebank High School, Scotland, in 1982, under the name Vortex Motion. Neil, who lives in Northamptonshire these days with his wife and four-year-old, remembers: “I actually started on drums, for a week, because I thought it was easy. But then Tommy came along and blew me away because I was terrible. I couldn’t play guitar either and was a terrible singer so it had to be keyboards as there wasn’t anything else left.

“We all went to school together and started playing anywhere we could, sometimes in my father’s workshop. “Marti was the last one to join, he had just turned 16. We had remembered him singing in the playground.”

Tommy adds: “He was a right poser back then, that’s why he stood out. I remember thinking: ‘who’s that guy in the corner singing Michael Jackson and trying to do the moonwalk, with pantaloons on and eye make-up’. He was a flamboyant character. I think you gravitate towards your instrument and your personality chooses where you are going to be in a band.

“Our first audience was a gas cooker as we used to rehearse in Graeme’s house and had a drum set up in one room but it was so loud the only way Marti could hear himself was if he was in another room and the only room left was the kitchen.

“So he would be in there singing and at the same time making us a nice cup of tea and maybe a wee plate of soup. As soon as he opened his mouth it was like ‘oh yep’. I have never heard him hit a bad note.”

Their first gig was in a community centre in 1981 and they haven’t stopped since.

Tommy, who still lives in the Clydebank area says: “Back them it was a real industrial town with steelworks, shipworks, Singer sewing machine factory, tyre factory and a car manufacturer all within a three-mile radius. Tens of thousands of people went to work there in these heavy industries and the year we left school it was all decimated and there was no jobs and we only had music.

“Since then it has rebuilt itself but it has taken 20 years to get over it.”

It is well documented that they named themselves after a line in the 1982 Scritti Politti song Gettin’ Havin’ & Holdin' but I want to know if they regret it?

“Every single day, “ states Tommy. “Every time there is a weather report or someone recognises you.

“But every name sounds ridiculous until a record comes out. There was very famous band called Orange Juice back in the 70s who’s singer was the lovely Edwyn Collins. When we first started out we had taxi drivers telling us it was a ridiculous name and that we would never make it but look at us now. “

But at the end of it all Tommy says the name isn’t what matters: “We always said, no offence to you, that what you say in the media doesn’t matter. The music is the important bit, the bit that lasts, not the fame or the haircuts.”

Life did change drastically for the four lads from Scotland though when Picture This went to number 1 in the UK charts and, fuelled by its use in Four Weddings single Love is All Around topped the charts for 15 weeks.

Tommy, who is now married with two children, remembers: “We went from ripped jeans with holes in our shoes to being dressed head to toe in Versace. You can’t go out in the bloody rain in it though can you?

“We became posers a bit back then. Fame is its own bubble and the reason bands only have a shelf life is usually because they lose sight of where their beginnings were. We always said we would never do that but even we, with our eyes wide open, still ended up in the wrong place believing the party was more important than the substance of the album.

“Fame is definitely a corrupting influence on anyone.”

Just as things begin to get a bit deep, the PR folks dial in to drag the duo off to their next interview. As we say our goodbyes Tommy chirps: “Thanks Laura, we love you.”

“I love you too,” I giggle totally losing my cool. But I hope you’ll forgive me. Teenage crushes are powerful things after all.

The O2 Arena, Peninsula Square, SE10 0DX, Sunday, March 6. Details: 0844 856 0202, theo2.co.uk, WetWetWet.co.uk