As the year drew to a
close, the
group went to work on
learning (and
re-learning!) tracks
from the HUP album along
with some of those
tracks that has been released as bonus tracks
and B-sides during the
1989/1990 era.
When posters and flyers
for the show had been
initially released, they
had advertised the fact
that a newly re-recorded
version of the HUP album
would be on-sale at the
show. However,
with time against them,
it became clear that the album
wouldn't be ready in
time - indeed it
wasn't until the end of
February 2010 that Miles
and Malc went into the
recording studios with
Pat Collier to finally put the
finishing touches to the
album leaving just a few
weeks to get the album
completed with artwork,
liner notes and sleeve
production not to
mention the actual
pressing of the discs.
A couple of weeks before
the Birmingham show, it
was suggested that the
show could be recorded
for a future DVD
release.
Behind-the-scenes
discussions and
logistical planning meant
that it was literally only a few hours
before the group took to
the stage before
it was confirmed that
the show would be
recorded with some
hasty preparations being
made for camera and
microphone setups.
This would be the first
fully-live record of the
group's performance
capturing almost every
moment of the show from
start to finish - no
in-between commentaries
or pop videos just
straight, out and out,
live performances.
STILL HUP FOR THE WONDER STUFF
At
the head of the triumvirate of bands
that made a temporary NME Mecca of
the town of Stourbridge, on
Birmingham's western fringes, were
the petulant, spit-in-your-eye
quartet The Wonder Stuff. Flanked by
Pop Will Eat Itself and Ned's Atomic
Dustbin, they dealt in fuzzy rushes
of acerbic guitar pop, but in 1989,
after a trot around America and the
addition of the
multi-instrumentalist Martin
"Fiddly" Bell, things were about to
take a bit of a hoe-downish turn.
"Being on a tour bus with us was a
nightmare," explains the band's
frontman and famously spiky
mouthpiece, Miles Hunt. "We wouldn't
let each other play our favourite
music, so we settled on stuff that
we all agreed that we hated. We'd
been on the road in America for a
couple of months and then we got
into this album called Forty
Trucking Greats. Just 40 songs about
trucking. Very yee-ha. We were also
starting to enjoy a bit of country
and bluegrass."
The
resulting album, Hup, was a
sparkling mixture of Wonder Stuff
old and new: "Don't Let Me Down,
Gently", the band's first Top 20
hit, was one of a clutch that still
provided kindle for the sweaty mosh
pit, but others, notably the
glorious "Golden Green", leant the
band a rootsy brio and provided a
benchmark for the rest of their
career.
Twenty-one years later, and The
Wonder Stuff are back to celebrate
Hup's longevity, playing the album
in its entirety over a series of
live dates and pegging on an
hour's-worth of old favourites for
very good measure. A bostin' time,
then, as they say in the Black
Country, and absolutely nowhere
else.
Warren Howard, The Independent |
The HUP anniversary show
could almost have been
described as a
mini-festival.
With the O2 venue
offering multiple
stages, Miles organised
for three groups of
performers to play
during the night before
the group themselves
began their set on the
main stage. Acts
from 'Shared' such as Dirty Ray
and
Tim Parkes took to the
stage alongside The
Alarm's Dave Sharpe and
Carter USM's Jim Bob.
A late addition to the
support line-up was
Birmingham's The Twang,
whose lead-singer had
met with Miles earlier
in the year when they
discussed the
possibility of him
appearing on a future
Shared album.
A short while into the
main performance, Miles
announced that the group
would not be performing
the album in exactly the
same order as it had
been originally
released. He said
that after the album had
come out he felt they'd
got it wrong - a prime
example being the
positioning of the track
'Good Night Though'
coming in as the ninth
track when he felt it
should have been the
final track on the
album.
The show was such a
success that the group
began to look at plans
to tour the album,
hopefully to coincide
with the eventual
release of the
re-recorded HUP album.
The first announcement
of the tour, to take
place in April, came at
the beginning of
February 2010 when Miles
spoke about it during
the inter-song banter at
one of his acoustic
shows.
Further dates were also
announced for the middle
of the year including a
number of festival
appearances.
Following the end of the
second set of HUP dates
which saw the group
playing across the
country to near-sellout
audiences each night, Miles was
asked about his plans
for the group going
forward. He said
that he had had enough
of looking backwards and
wanted to working on new
projects and material.
On the subject of new
Wonder Stuff material,
Miles said that any new
works would need to be
directed by Malc in the
first instance but he
hoped that a new Wonder
Stuff album would emerge
at some stage in 2011.
Miles also said that he
was working on producing
tracks for a number of
the acts who he had
become acquainted with
through both his work on
the 'Shared' project and
also from performances
he'd seen at the
Horseshoe Inn pub near
to where he lives.
At the end of May, it
was announced that the
group had been booked
for the middle of July
to be the first act to
perform at a new series
of concerts to be held
at Coopers Field in
Cardiff, in the grounds
of Cardiff Castle.
Unfortunately, just two
days before the show was
due to take place it had
to be cancelled.
Despite a massive amount
of work having been done
by the group's
management and the event
promoters, Cardiff City
Council decided to
undertake a last-minute
review of the
anticipated sound levels
for the show and decided
that they exceeded
permissible limits for
the venue. Despite
efforts to find an
alternative location for
the show to be held, up
against such tight
time-scales they were
fighting a losing battle
and the official
announcement was made on
the 14th July (only the
day before the show
should have been due to
take place) that it had
cancelled outright.
This left a hole in the
group's touring plans -
they were booked to play
Leamington on the 14th,
Cardiff would have been
on the 15th and then the
Guilfest festival was
arranged for the 16th.
For most groups this
would not be a huge
issue but travel
logistics for the group,
notably those for
getting Andres and some
of the crew over to the
UK for shows, mean that
any shows booked need to
take into account the
cost of travel
arrangements and any
tours that run for less
than three days are
unlikely to make the
dates financially viable
on an ongoing basis.
The final Wonder Stuff
show of 2010 was in
August at Belfast's
Feile Festival. No
further dates were
planned for the group
and, indeed, there were
no plans for the group
to get together at any
stage before the end of
the year to do any
further work together,
despite the rumours that
they hoped to have a new
album out early in 2011.
During some of his acoustic
shows, Miles did finally
talk about the rumours
of Never Loved Elvis
anniversary shows
however and hinted they
would be taking place
before the Summer of
2011 and also that they
would likely bring out a
re-recorded version of
that album also.
The main concern he had
though was that it could
conflict with the
release of a new Wonder
Stuff album, which logic
would dictate would be
supported by a full tour
in its own right to
promote the new album,
and also that a second
'Shared' album was
anticipated as well as a
new live album from one
of the acoustic shows
performed by Erica and
himself in October 2010.
As more acoustic shows
passed, Miles announced
that the shows would be
taking place in October
2011 although no further
information was given.
However, in October a
series of dates around
the UK were announced
where the group would be
supporting The Levellers
at a number of O2-owned
venues around the
country in March 2011. Initially
10 dates were announced,
culminating in a final
show at the Brixton
Academy in London on
what would be the actual
25th anniversary of the
group originally
forming. A further
four dates were later
a few weeks later which would
see the tour starting in
Liverpool on March 4th.
A warm-up
date for the tour was
booked for
the unusual surroundings
of Buxton Opera House in
mid-February.
As
the year drew to a
close, it was announced that Andres Karu had decided to
leave the group.
Since coming on-board
in 2004,
Andres had started to
develop a career in
TV and Film and had
decided earlier in the
year that this was the
path he now wanted to go
down rather than his
current musical
direction. Andre's
decision surprised the
group though they all
wished him well and
began to search for a
new drummer to take his
place.
The task was concluded
in mid-November when
Miles approached Fuzz
Townshend, known to many
Wonder Stuff fans as the
former drummer from Pop
Will Eat Itself.
Fuzz was obviously
already well-known to
Miles and Malc, as well
as many of the touring
crew members, and fans
of the group were very
pleased and excited at
the new appointment.