2005 began with a hastily-arranged appearance at South Bromsgrove High School with all proceeds going to the Hikkaduwu Village Fund, a charity recently set up to assist villagers affected by the Tsunami disaster which occurred at the end of 2004.

With the concert being held in the school's main hall, capacity was limited to around 500 people so tickets quickly sold out, especially as the event was in aid of charity. Based in New Jersey, Andres wasn't able to get over to perform with the group at such short notice so Luke Johnson took over the drumming role for the show although as had originally performed on the 'Escape From Rubbish Island' album and had no doubt grown up listening and playing the Stuffies tracks as a result of his father Les being the group's UK manager, most of the tracks were already familiar to him.

 

After numerous release date changes, the 'Bile Chant'/'Escape From Rubbish Island' single was eventually released on February 21st. There were some initial concerns that the single would be ineligible for the UK singles charts due to it's five track listing but as the additional remixes on the track were based on the primary two tracks, this was deemed to be acceptable. The only other issue was the total running length and this resulted in one of the remixes having to be edited by around a minute to come in under the 20 minute ruling.

Media reaction to the single was disappointed, although Channel 4's Teletext service ran a nine-page interview with Miles during it's week of release.

To coincide with the release of the single, a press release was issued containing details of the new single alongside information on the group's forthcoming UK mini-tour in addition to expanding on previously released information on the group's new deal with Universal Music which would see the group's new album being made available for digital download for the first time. Mobile phone ringtones were also produced for for every track on the album along with an exclusive promo video for the 'Escape From Rubbish Island' track.

 

The same week, it was also announced that the line-up would be complimented with the addition of a new violin player for the UK mini tour.  Erica Nockalls, a student of the Birmingham Conservatoire under violin virtuoso Ken Aiso (graduated in 2006) and founder member of Birmingham group Fireswitch, had been busking in Stratford-On-Avon when the album's producer, Matt Terry, had walked past and heard her performance.  He suggested to her that she pop along to his nearby studio where the rest of the group were recording and she undertook an audition then and there with Miles having no hesitation in asking her to join the group.

It was also announced that during these recording sessions, the group had already written a number of new tracks for their next album (tentatively scheduled for release in late 2005) and that some of these would be included in the setlist of the the forthcoming tour.

 

Dates and venues were also confirmed for the group's US tour to follow the release of 'Escape From Rubbish Island' on March 22nd through the Reincarnate Music label. With dates spanning almost two months and stop-offs including Detroit, Washington and Seattle, the tour would see the group returning to some of the venues last played during their final 1994 US tour and be the group's biggest tour run since 1994. The group also announced that they would be appeared at a couple of UK festivals in the Summer months. The first to be confirmed was the Beautiful Days Festival held at the grounds of Escot Park in Honiton, Devon. It was also announced that Miles would be playing a solo acoustic warm-up show in New York City a few days prior to the start of the Wonder Stuff tour.

 

In May 2005, some rare Wonder Stuff items were uncovered. When the group had originally formed in 1986 they spent some time at the Workshop Studios in Redditch, Worcestershire where they recorded early versions of tracks which later appeared on the Eight Legged Groove Machine album and accompanying single releases. New owners had bought the studios earlier in 2005 and decided to clear almost all of the storage areas that were littered around the building. One such location, a battered storage locker, contained over 150 master tapes recorded by groups such as the Stuffies, Ocean Colour Scene, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Fuzzbox and many more Midlands-based groups. Due to the age of the tapes the owners saw no use in keeping them, especially as many were unboxed or the tapes inside the box did not relate to the stated contents on the box, and planned to dispose of them in an onsite skip although they were eventually auctioned on the popular internet auction site, eBay.

Of the entire collection, two Wonder Stuff master tapes emerged. Recorded in January/February 1988, one tape contained three tracks ('A Song Without An End', 'Meaner Than Mean' and 'Sell The Free World') whilst the other contained 'Unbearable', 'A Wish Away', and 'Give Give Give Me More More More'). Labels for the tapes indicated that they had also originally contained other tracks ('Goodbye Fatman', 'Jealousy' and 'Happy:Sad') but it is assumed that these had been spliced off and used by the record company for their respective releases. The versions of 'Give Give Give...' and 'A Wish Away' are different to those which were eventually released.

 

Following the end of the group's tour of the USA, all members returned to their respective homes for a brief break as recordings for the next studio album were due to begin at the beginning of July at Matt Terry's Vada Studios in Stratford Upon Avon, Warwickshire.

As the recording sessions began, Miles and Malcolm performed an acoustic concert at Cox's Yard in the town. The intention of the gig was to play a mix of Wonder Stuff tracks and Miles' own solo works in addition to testing out some of the new tracks which they had recently recorded.

The album, 'Suspended By Stars', was finished by late Summer and the final track listing had been decided upon but the group decided to delay it's release until Spring 2006 in order to coincide with the group's 20th Anniversary celebrations for which a host of activities and releases were also planned.

Keen to keep working, Miles embarked on a solo tour primarily covering Scotland and the North of England with just a small number of dates in Central and Southern England. Support at the London date was provided by long-term friend and legendary Stuffies support act Ange Dolittle in his new group simply titled 'Dolittle' which consisted of Ange plus two other musicians from Oxford, Mr G and Rich. Shortly before the tour, the BBC announced that they had bought the rights to the Underground Ernie series and were planning to air it on the CBeebies channel from around May/June 2006. Major merchandising rights had been agreed which would see Underground Ernie products appearing in a wide range of retailers shortly after the launch of the series.

During his solo tour, Miles mixed new and old Wonder Stuff tracks with his own solo and Vent 414 material. At some venues, he also performed the theme tune to Underground Ernie.