The end-of-year tour started shakily. Although venues were well attended, audiences seemed more subdued when compared to previous tours. A major problem for the group, and a theme which still continues to dog them, was that a large portion of the audiences wanted the older material whilst the group were there not only to perform tracks from their earlier incarnation but also to promote the work of the new line-up.  However, a few dates into the tour and things picked up with excellent reviews and two encores at many venues.

Things changed dramatically at their Glasgow date however - a stormy Miles sulked his way through the performance, calling their time in Scotland "loathsome" and playing much of the performance with his back to the audience. Partway through the set he stormed offstage leaving the rest of the band onstage bewildered. The atmosphere in the camp turned sour and, being the first time the current line-up would have witnessed a full-blown Miles Hunt tantrum, the other members were unsurprisingly shocked. The group received high levels of abuse and complaints from the audience both on the Room 512 messageboard and also in calls to the XFM Scotland radio station the following Monday.

Members of the group, and other members of the touring party around them, were uncertain whether the tour was going to continue, with some wanting to cancel the remaining dates and return to their individual homes. One group member was even said to be at the point of getting ready to leave for the nearest train station...  The group's performance the next day in Newcastle looked in jeopardy with everyone uncertain about whether the group would continue or not. In the end, the show did go ahead and, unexpectedly, it turned out to be one of their best performances of the tour.  No explanation has ever been given, nor likely ever will be, but their popularity was seriously damaged and looked like it would take a while to recover. Many fans, friends and even members of the group and their road crew were left thinking that this could be the end for the group, at least in it's current line-up, with major doubts over any plans for 2007. 

The group's later hometown performance in Birmingham however was viewed by many as one of their best to date though sadly even an appearance by Vic Reeves for 'Dizzy' couldn't bring the same level of enjoyment for the London audience and many (both the audience and within the group itself) felt the tour ended below expectations.

 

2007
As 2007 began, Miles announced that the emphasis for 2007 would be on his own solo work - Malc's partner gave birth to their first child at the end of January and it was decided that the group would be put on hold for the rest of the year with plans to regroup in 2008 to begin work on the next album, their follow-up to 'Suspended By Stars'...

 

2008
In February, Q Magazine reported that they would be reviewing a new Wonder Stuff compilation album called 'Hits and Re-Issues' in it's March issue which everyone took to finally be the release of the long-awaiting rarities album. This, though, came as a total surprise even to members of the group and their management who were not aware of any upcoming release and nothing was ever featured in the March issue so it was just thought that the magazine had been using outdated release schedules.  There had been talk of a rarities album, and at one stage it was reported that Hunt was trawling through his own personal archives for unreleased mixes and previously unheard material but nothing had ever come to fruition.  However, in June, a BBC-supported live and rarities album was released.

The BBC Sessions (also known as Live at the BBC) was a compilation of session and live tracks which the group had recorded for BBC radio stations starting with their first session on the Janice Long Show in 1987 leading up to tracks recorded at the Leicester's Granby Halls and the Phoenix Festival.  Miles was vocal about his disgust at the album's release saying that he could not see why some of the tracks were on there yet other (better) ones had been omitted. Indeed, over half of the first disc contains (badly) recorded tracks from the 1992 Reading Festival which Miles had already previously gone on record at the time as saying it was a poor performance and apologising to all of their fans who had been there.

Thankfully, better things were on the horizon as IRL decided to push ahead with their own release - a 2CD live album recorded at various venues in 2006 containing tracks selected by the group themselves. Simply titled 'The Wonder Stuff Live', the album's release was split across a number of months depending on the chosen sales medium. Pre-sale copies were initially sold at venues where Miles and Erica performed in October, November and December although the album was not released through record stores until February 2008. Subscribers to digital downloads services were able to download a copy of the album from January though.

The album itself was a complete showcase for the group's live abilities. Originally it had been intended that the album would contain highlights from just two live performances recorded during 2006 at London and Bristol, but problems with the recording quality of Andres' drum levels at the Bristol performance led to a change of plans so instead the album cherry-picked a selection of performances from a number of the group's 2006 appearances including Ben and Jerry's Sundae on the Common, Blackburn's Arts in the Park, the Guilfest Festival and many more.

As a result of the group having an involvement in the album's tracklisting, this made the album their best live release to date as it mixed old and new material performed by the current line-up and includes much of the in-between song banter also.

 

As the New Year started, plans were being made for a number of live appearances in the run-up to the Summer months. Miles and Erica were planning to join The Mission's Wayne Hussey for an acoustic tour of America but before that, the group started planning celebrations to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the release of their debut album 'The Eight Legged Groove Machine'. It was also rumoured that the group would be performing at the Blissfields Festival in Winchester in July although the festival was eventually cancelled due to low level of ticket sales.  As a body of work, The Wonder Stuff seemed to have dropped onto the back burner with Miles and Erica continuing to further their own works and the other members continuing to with their own solo works.