Room 512 :: an unofficial wonder stuff fansite

In April 2000, Miles Hunt 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 own Polydor Records) and although he would not give a firm commitment that a release would be forthcoming, it was not totally ruled out and Universal are 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 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 GIG Records who stated that only Miles Hunt was pencilled in to appear at the event and even this was not 100% confirmed at the time.

Shortly after, more rumours began circulating about the group reforming. New Musical Express' 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. To promote their cause, the group unveiled their new official website which had been designed by Martin Bell who would also continue to maintain it 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 promotion was given to the concert aside from announcements on their website and the mailing lists which covered their activities such as TWSOnline and Brum but within two weeks of tickets going onsale, the gig was sold out. As promotion for the tour began, more dates began to be announced though these also quickly sold out.

As excitement and demand grew for the new live dates, it was noted that Paul Clifford was not going to be part of the proceedings. Instead, the remaining members would be looking for a new bass-player and began auditioning for the vacant role in September where they also began rehearsing for the tour and relearning their old songs. At the start of October, the group confirmed the identity of the bassist for the December dates. 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".

To complete the group's original album deal with Polydor, in addition to re-releasing the four studio albums, a new 2CD compilation album was released in November. 'Love Bites and Bruises' featured many of the additional single tracks in addition to unreleased demos and live recordings. The album also featured a new track, 'Trim Your Sails', originally an instrumental track which Miles re-discovered whilst planning tracks for the anthology album. He completed lyrics for it shortly after before he went into the studio in September with Malc to record them. The re-release of the previous studio albums would also see the discs digitally remastered and the inclusion of bonus tracks taken from B-sides of single releases from the era.

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 sold out very quickly. 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. Miles was 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 live album/video release in the early part of 2001 and also that the group were considering some festival appearances next year, depending on the workload of everyone concerned.

On December 9th, the group made their first appearance in over six years at JB's in Dudley. Playing to a capacity crowd, the group stormed through a greatest hits set containing single tracks and album tracks 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 a massive 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 at certain 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 virus 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.