Following the group's triumphant return at
London's Forum, the group members promptly
dropped off the radar again although it was confirmed that the group
were looking to appear at a couple of
festivals in the UK during the Summer.
Indeed for the next couple of years it would
be very much a case of the group announcing
a handful of live shows, performing them and
then disappearing again until the next ones.
There were no plans for new material or
releases there was a feel of a nostalgic
view of the whole group.
By March, it was clear that plans for the
release of a live album culled from the
Forum dates were still underway as producer
Mick Glossop had completed initial mixing of
a planned compilation release. Planned to
be a double album of 26 tracks, the mixes
were only eventually taken from the December
14th and 15th performance. It was also
announced that the group were planning on
releasing a new DVD to follow up the Welcome
To The Cheap Seats video which would include
up-to-date live performances, interviews and
other features.
The same month, Miles appeared on the BBC2
television series Never Mind The Buzzcocks -
a music-related celebrity quiz show hosted
by Mark Lemarr. During the recording of the
show, it was rumoured that Miles and Lemarr
did not get on well, frequently trading
insults and banter. As a result, the aired
broadcast showed Miles appearing sullen
throughout, barely speaking two words and
seemingly generally bored and un-interested.
Miles was on comedian Sean Hughes' team,
alongside Eastenders actor Michael Greco.
Other contestants on the show including
singer Claire Richards (Steps), comedian
Junior Simpson and team captain for the
opposite side, comedian and radio-DJ Phill
Jupitus.
An announcement of the release of the live
album from the Forum performances was made
in April. Titled 'Cursed With Insincerity',
the album was to be released on Eagle
Records at the end of May although this was
later moved to early June in order to
coincide with a major article on the group
to be featured in the Sunday Express
newspaper. Sadly, a new features editor
took over at the company the week before the
article was due to run and shelved it - the
article has never been published.
Shortly before the release of the album, the
group issued a statement on their website
saying that a small number of the albums
contained a 'golden ticket'. These tickets,
limited to just a few hundred, would give
the holder access to a special
ticketholders-only concert to be held at
London's Kings College on June 7th. London
radio station XFM would also be airing a
competition to win tickets. Further
live dates were also added for August where
the group would appear at Nottingham's
Longest Day festival in addition to two
dates at the Ocean in London. The
group also took part in an online interview
for the internet service provider,
Compuserve to promote the album release and
tour.
Following their appearances in Nottingham
and London, a series of Christmas dates were
lined up in Wolverhampton and Glasgow, with
a special warm-up gig scheduled for the Rio
in Bradford. It also emerged that a limited
edition CD EP would be sold at the venues
which would contain previously unreleased
material. Although the EP was not intended to
contain 'new' material, it did
contain one of the last tracks to be demoed
by the group in 1994, 'Sing Our Song'.
Other tracks on the EP including live
versions of Sing The Absurd, Unfaithful and
Piece of Sky - all versions of which had
been mixed during the preparation of the
Cursed With Insincerity album but not
included on the release. The remaining
track on the EP was a rare demo version of
Ooh Ooh, Ahh Ahh from 1987. Although demo
tracks had been heard previously by some of
their fans and others within the group's
circle of friends and colleagues, this version is not one that had
previously been available. Initially
limited to just 2000 copies, each copy of
the EP was numbered and signed by the group
members. The EP would later be
re-released but unsigned and un-numbered.
Prior to the December dates, the group
launched a competition on their website for
local bands to support them at each of the
venues. The competition was aimed at groups
without existing recording contracts and was
simply aimed at getting them more exposure.
The eventual winners were: Bradford - Fugoo,
Glasgow - Nabushi Shang Hong, Wolverhampton
(1st night) - Theory of Everything,
Wolverhampton (2nd night) - Moco. The other
support act on the tour was the legendary
Jesus Jones.
2002
As was now becoming customary, following the
December live dates each of the group
members went their separate ways again.
Since the group had reformed in 2000, Martin
Gilks had taken on the role of managing the
group, arranging tours and handling initial
promotion. Miles was once quoted as
saying that he would just get a call from
Martin out of the blue saying that they had
had an offer to play somewhere and asking if
he was available. This left Miles to
concentrate more on his solo career.
Indeed, nothing more was heard from the
group until April when they announced that they would be playing at
London's Fleadh Festival in June supporting
The Pogues and Joe Strummer. To prepare for
the gig, a warm-up date at Dudley's JB's the
previous night was arranged - both
performances were recorded for future
release.
THE
WONDER STUFF, DUDLEY JB'S
Its
easy to be cynical about the
astounding regularity The Wonder
Stuff seem to come out of retirement
– roughly once every six months for
a couple of gigs – and its easy to
be cynical to be about yet another
rehashed greatest hits set, played
in a slightly different order each
time.
On
the other hand, its much much harder
to be cynical about whether they
still deserve to be out there
playing gigs. Its pure nostalgia,
and nothing but, but they and the
audience, are behaving like
hyperactive teenagers. Memories die
hard in the minds of an increasingly
aged audience eager to step into a
time machine and revisit a decade
ago with as much enthusiasm and
energy as they did then. And
somebody really should let
30-somethings know crowdsurfing
doesn't look good when you've got a
beer belly. And big boots really
hurt when they kick you in the face.
Ever
heard a Wonder Stuff record? You’ll
much know what to expect: A
combination of spiky indie
guitar-pop with folkish-jigs. And a
set that revisits a great many of
their greatest hits such as the
country tinged (if slightly
misogynist) singalong “Golden
Green”, the spiky and defiant “Don’t
Let Me Down, Gently”, the knowingly
disposable-pop shite that is “Size
of a Cow”, and the definitive
baggy-folk crossover song of
“Circlesquare”. (If there is such a
thing)
There's also the manic pop thrill of
"Unbearable" (complete with Ramones
tribute) and the closing “Ten
Trenches Deep”, played as if they're
fresh out of the box - belying the
fact that they only play one song
less than a decade old.
Tonight they do everything you
should hope for when you see a live
band; entertain you brilliantly and
leave you feeling thrilled and
fulfilled like few other bands
nowadays. A nostalgic, thrilling
night out…..and totally irrelevant
to anything ‘fresh’ in the scene
today.
In it's own way, this is just as
appropriate a summary as the recent
greatest hits package since a
muscular competence and Miles Hunt's
abrasive chumminess were always part
of the group's uncompromising charm.
'Sleep Alone', 'Size Of A Cow',
'Golden Green', 'Dizzy', 'Welcome To
The Cheap Seats' and the rest are
delivered with typical verve and
aplomb.
This is stadium rock with a
comfortingly homely edge, which is
perhaps why they never mounted a
serious challenge to U2. But it's no
less enjoyable for that. ****
Graham
Reed, The Final Word |
The only
other appearance by the group took place in
October when the group headed off to
Jumeirah in Dubai for a special
one-off performance.
2003
2003 began with the announcement that the
long-awaited release of
the group's new DVD would soon be released in addition to a handful
of live dates - the
group would be returning to Dubai early in
March to play at the Aviation Club in the
Garhoud region as well
as headlining the Longest Day
Festival at Sherwood
Forest, Nottingham in August.
To promote the DVD's release, a special launch concert was held at
London's Canary Wharf in February where the
audience could purchase the pre-release copies of
the DVD release - the only difference between
these versions and the released versions
were that the sleeves had no barcodes on
them.
A few weeks later,
dates were
also announced for a pre-Christmas tour
which would see the group playing a handful
of larger venues in England and Scotland.
The tour would be preceded with a warm-up
date to be held at the Ambassador Hotel in
Dublin with an after-show party at The Hub in
Dublin.
After much
anticipation and delay, the long-awaited new
DVD was finally released to retailers in
mid-May. There were no explanations for the
delay from the time of the DVD launch
concert back in February. When the idea was
first suggested almost two years ago, it was
intended that the release would tie-up
the availability of the group's promo videos
by including the
final three videos from the
'Construction...' album along with rare
archive performances and other exclusive
content. With the features available on DVD
and it's increased capacity over its video
counterpart, much was hoped for... Sadly,
when the release finally came out,
'Construction For The Modern Vidiot' only
contained tracks recorded at a selection of
live appearances during the previous three
years mixed with live chat and interviews.
Although Martin Bell had been primarily
responsible for the making of the DVD project,
it was rumoured that he had not been
given permission to use older material from
it's copyright owners (Universal) but many
people felt this was a great opportunity missed
and not the 'Welcome To The Cheap
Seats'-style follow-up they were hoping for.
Nevertheless, the DVD showed the group in
fine form, performing with renewed vigour
and thumping out all of the classics from
their back catalogue such as 'Mission
Drive', 'Golden Green', 'Ten Trenches Deep'
in addition to their cover
of John Lennon's 'Gimme Some Truth'. The
recordings were taken from the group's
London Forum shows in 2000, Nottingham's
Longest Day Festival in 2001 and the Fleadh
Festival in 2002.
Shortly
after the release of the DVD, three of the
December dates were cancelled 'due to
unforeseen circumstances' - Bournemouth,
Sheffield and Glasgow. Martin Gilks said
that the group hoped they could reschedule
the dates for early in 2004 but this never
happened. Only the London,
Manchester and Birmingham dates went ahead as planned.
In an
interview for the icBirmingham website at
group prepared for their Birmingham
performance,
Martin Gilks spoke of some new work which the group had
recently been involved in. They had been
approached to write music for two new
children's television programmes. The first
one, Underground Ernie (for the Fremantle
Corporation), was initially to be a
26-episode series and, according to Martin,
was "...rather like an update of Thomas The
Tank Engine, but it's on the underground.
There's a character called Jubilee, another
called Bakerloo who looks a bit like
Sherlock Holmes, and Ernie is like the Fat
Controller." Initial pictures showed
that the
series would include a street busker who
bore an uncanny resemblance to Miles.
It was originally hoped that Miles would do
the voice for the busker character but laws
against non-Equity
members (the trade union representing
performers and artists) undertaking such
work prevented him from doing so although
the theme tune and other incidental music
was originally written and performed by
members of the group. The character of
Ernie would be voiced by footballing legend,
Gary Lineker.
The other series, with a
working title of Lord Nose, was still very
much 'work-in-progress' but said to be along
the lines of the Mister Men animation
series. To date, nothing moerw has
bene heard of this project.
During the
interview,
Martin also
spoke about plans for the setlist of the
forthcoming tours and, for the first time,
about new material the group had been
working on. "We're going to delve into our
back catalogue and see what we haven't
played yet. One of my ideas was to put it to
the audience through our website. We have
also got some proper new songs too," he
revealed. "We haven't got around to thinking
about what we're going to do with them yet
because we've all got full time jobs - Miles
is in New York with Clint Mansell from the
Poppies working on some soundtracks, Malc is
a personal trainer and Martin Bell syncs
music to films - but I hope we'll get a
chance to record them in the New Year."
One online ticket retailer also began
advertising tickets for an appearance by the
group at the Ocean (Hackney, London) in
March 2004. The venue would be celebrating
it's 3rd birthday at the time and the group
had been asked to appear as part of a series
of concerts the venue were looking to put
on. This appearance never went ahead
however.
Indeed....
things were about to take a very unexpected
turn...