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MINISITES

In The Beginning...
Mar 1986 to Sept 1988
Oct 1988 to Dec 1989
Jan 1990 to Apr 1991
May 1991 to Jan 1992
Feb 1992 to Aug 1993
Sept. 1993 to Feb 1994
Mar 1994 to Nov 1994
Dec 1994 to Dec 1999
Jan 2000 to Dec 2000
Jan 2001 to Dec 2003
Jan 2004 to Dec 2004
Jan 2005 to Dec 2005
Jan 2006 to Apr 2006
May 2006 to Oct 2006
Nov 2006 to
Sept 2008
Oct 2008 to Sept 2009
Oct 2009 to Dec 2010
Jan 2011 to Dec 2011
Jan 2012 to Feb 2015

In Memoriam
Rob Jones
Martin Gilks

As the group entered the new Millennium, interest in the group had picked up as a result of Miles and Malc having toured the UK and America performing a selection of songs they had written and recorded in the past. In April 2000, Miles took part in an internet chat on the MegaStar website where, amongst other questions, he was asked if there were any plans to release an compilation album of the Stuffies' B-side tracks. He replied that, coincidentally, the group had only recently been having discussions with the Universal Music Group (who now owned Polydor Records) and although he would not give a firm commitment that a release would be forthcoming, it was not totally ruled out as Universal were still entitled to one further album as part of the group's original six-album deal when they signed with the Polydor label back in 1986.

In mid-June it was reported on the PushBar website, from 'a reliable source', that The Wonder Stuff would be reforming to appear alongside Neds Atomic Dustbin for a special concert to be held in the grounds of Dudley Castle to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of legendary Midlands club JB's.   These claims were later repeated in the NME but were quickly refuted by Miles' record company at the time, GIG Records, who stated that only Miles had been approached to perform at the event and even this could not 100% confirmed at the time.

Shortly after, more rumours began circulating about the group reforming until the NME's July 12th issue broke the news that fans had been waiting for - the group were to briefly reform for a handful of UK live dates in December 2000. The announcement didn't go quite as planned however as the group were originally intending to make the official announcement on July 14th - which would be exactly six years to the day since their final performance at the Phoenix Festival. The group unveiled their new official website designed by Martin Bell and hoped to keep it maintained with the latest news and information.

THE WONDER STUFF are to reform for a series of London shows this Christmas, their first in six years, nme.com can exclusively reveal.

The band, which is expected to feature the original members of The Wonder Stuff with the obvious exception of late bassist Rob 'Bass Thing' Jones, who was replaced by Paul Clifford in 1990, three years before his death - have revealed details of a show at the London Kentish Town Forum for December 12.

Tickets go on sale on this Friday (July 14), priced £15. It is anticipated that if the show sells well, the band will play at least one more gig in December.

The Wonder Stuff originally split after their appearance at the 1994 Phoenix Festival. Following their demise, various members formed other bands, including Vent 414 and weknowwhereyoulive, but none were as successful as The Wonder Stuff, who scored a string of hits, including 'The Size Of A Cow' and the 1991 number one 'Dizzy' in tandem with comedians Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer. Vocalist Miles Hunt also had a brief career as a presenter on the music channel MTV.

Rumours that the band would reform have been circulating the music industry for a number of months. It was originally claimed that the band's comeback gig would be at the 30th birthday party of the Midlands venue Dudley JB's. However, that rumour proved to be untrue, with Miles Hunt instead playing a solo acoustic show at the event alongside Terrorvision and a reformed Ned's Atomic Dustbin.

 

The first date of the reformation tour was booked for December 12th. No initial promotion was made for the concert aside from announcements on their website and word-of-mouth advertising yet the concert sold out within weeks of tickets going onsale.

As excitement and demand grew for the new live dates, Miles, Malc, and Martin's Gilks and Bell starting auditions for a new member as Paul Clifford would not be reprising his role as bassist within the reformed group. At the beginning of October, it was announced that Stuart Quinell, formerly with Vent 414 support group Understand, had been offered the role and when Miles announced the news on the group's messageboard he said, "tonight is our fourth rehearsal and we're sounding like we never went away".

 

As the groups' popularity increased, the TWS-Online website (the fore-runner to this very site) exclusively reported in August that in addition to further dates were being added to the already-soldout show in December, Polydor would also be releasing re-mastered editions of the original four studio albums in November. The new releases would also contain a selection of the additional tracks which had been previously featured on singles from each era. To tie the group's recording career up, they were also going to release a new compilation album, 'Love Bites and Bruises', featured the remainder of the additional single tracks that were now included on the re-mastered albums in addition to a number of unreleased demos and live recordings. The compilation also featured a new track, 'Trim Your Sails', originally an instrumental track which Miles had discovered whilst planning tracks for the album. Having written new lyrics for the track, he and Malc had gone into the recording studio in September to lay them down alongside the instrumental track.

Wonder Stuff reanimated for one week!

Miles Hunt on the five-nights-only reformation and the upside of solo life Just around the time Brit-pop was taking over our senses The Wonder Stuff decided to split. During the intervening seven years their singer, Miles Hunt, an intelligent lyricist and charismatic frontman, had a 14-month stint presenting MTV Alt-rock prog 120 Minutes but resigned due to being "rubbish because I couldn't interview artists I wasn't personally interested in." Finding ourselves walking up the Camden High Street, not a mile away from Forum where the band is due to reconvene for five sold-out nights in mid-December, he admitted that his TV presenting career ended when he dozed off during an interview with Elastica. Luckily for him, their feisty leader Justine Frischmann didn’t notice but his producer did. Honesty and directness have always been the trademark of this 34-year-old Midlander who is still as switched-on and articulate as in the past. "We were asked many a time to reform," Hunt explains casually, "but one of us, usually me, would find an excuse not to do it. This year we were offered five nights and I laughed but I asked the guys and here we are! I didn’t want to do it with the old bass-player [a replacement for The Bass Thing, viz. Rob Jones, who passed on in 1993] but this is it. No album, no reformation, just a bit of a laugh and fun!"

FREEFORM POP ODYSSEY
In the years that followed the ‘tele-career’ Hunt formed another band, Vent 414, who made one album before falling apart. At the time he was still under contract to Polydor (swallowed by Universal since) who were providing fiscal and physical muscle for his label, For All The Right Reasons (f.a.t.r.r.). As his relationship with the label was dying his label's condition turned terminal. Still, Universal recently issued a compilation of early demos, rare tracks, acoustic radio sessions, live tracks and previously unreleased songs, entitled 'Love Bites and Bruises'. "Listening to this and rehearsing with Wonder Stuff, I’ve been reminded of how to structure things. I have a band but I do things myself. It’s also great to be reminded of the fun we had… We never had any plans but just went along with it. We had a sense of humour and could laugh at ourselves." How else could they cover Slade’s ‘Coz I Luv You’ with a straight face and score their only Number One with another cover, Tommy Roe’s ‘Dizzy’, co-vocalised by comedian Vic Reeves.

UPSIDE OF SOLO... Spring 1999 saw Hunt release a solo album - after having seven songs in a play 'The Artist's Model'and touring America for four months in the preceding year - entitled 'Hairy On The Inside', issued by a small Gig Records label. While he is recording the follow-up 'Flipping on the Pier' a 'Five Song' EP has been released as a foretaster. His solo music is low-fi, an acoustic journey into the world of emotional wonderment. "On the first album I did things very minimally and it got really dark, sonically, towards the end but there are also a couple of jokes. The new one I’m working on is going to be a bit different because I’ve found a bass player and a drummer from London and a guitar player from New York. He’ll be coming over in January to help me finish the album and then my uncle Bill - who used to be in The Wizard, ELO and The Move - will play keyboards. The album should be ready by the spring." In meantime he’ll be doing some solo shows. "I enjoy touring on my own because I tend to talk a lot and my shows end up being 40 per cent talking. I tell what the song is all about and make sure it’s a funny story! I love doing it and I’m really pleased that I enjoy it and can do it. I’ll always do that even if I was working with a band."

For five moments in time The Wonder Stuff will bring back the best and most fun show this Christmas!

The Wonder Stuff reunion dates: 12,13,14,15,16 Dec, Kentish Town Forum, London.

‘Love Bites and Bruises’ by The Wonder Stuff is released 20 November on Universal.

 

As the December dates approached, two warm-up dates at Dudley's JB venue were announced which quickly sold out. Publicity for the forthcoming appearances mainly concentrated on interviews with Miles, including articles with Melody Maker, dotmusic and XFM. Many of the questions revolved around the topic of why the group had decided to reform and what their plans were for the future with Miles always quick to reply that the group had no intentions to release any new material as they did not want to re-enter the commercial music market. He did however hint that the live dates would be recorded for a future live album/video release and also that the group were considering some festival appearances, depending on the workload of everyone concerned.

On December 9th, the group made their first public appearance in over six years at JB's in Dudley. Playing to a capacity crowd, the group stormed through a greatest hits set containing a mixture of tracks from their previous singles and album in addition to including some of the extra tracks which had originally appeared on the singles such as 'Song Without An End' and 'Room 512'. New bass-player Stuart handled the job remarkably well having a heavier, de-tuned approach to playing than Clifford had used. It is rumoured that in one night alone, out of the twenty-three tracks performed, Stuart re-tuned eighteen times resulting a minor tendon strain in his hand.

 

In front of a packed house for five nights, the group went on to prove their critics wrong when they appeared at London's Forum. Vic Reeves appeared onstage to perform 'Dizzy' with them on the first night (Dec 12th) but, as usual, forgot the words leaving Miles and him to run around the stage attacking each other instead. It was confirmed at the gigs that a compilation of tracks from the Forum performances would be released early in the following year with the group picking their favourite moments from all of the Dudley and London shows. However, bootleggers must have been hard at work as a double CD compilation of the entire performance of the final night could be found on stalls at a number of London markets the following day!

Partway through their Forum residency, Miles, Martin and Malcolm were booked to take part in an online webchat for the Megastar website - the online website for the Daily Star newspaper. Unfortunately, Miles had been advised earlier in the day to rest his vocal chords as he had picked up a throat infection and taking part in the interview could have jeopardised the group's appearance at the Forum that night so the interview was postponed until the following week. When the interview did take place, the trio played a couple of acoustic tracks in addition to talking about their reasons for reforming, the re-issue of their back catalogue and also the release of the new rarities album.