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The official line from Polydor was that "every member of the band is taking a couple of months off - two or three at least". In reality, the start of 1990 found Miles (still) living at the flat in London, Malc in America visiting relatives and Martin in Thailand. Confusion still reigned though. In one interview Miles said, "I don't know if he (Bob) has left or not, but to be honest I don't care at the minute - if he has left I sort of know why and I feel like that myself sometimes - so we're just knocking it on the head for a few months." In another interview he went on to say, "Bob started to go a bit off the wall and it was a bit depressing having someone in the band who was totally unhappy. We all found it like careering into a brick wall and we just wanted to take some time off and slow down for a bit. We want to get hungry for it again."

19th January 1990
To: Robin Gibson. News Editor, Sounds
RE: The Bass Thing/The Wonder Stuff

Contrary to popular belief and/or rumours, I, The Bass Thing, did part company with The Wonder Stuff at Christmas, 1989.

Yours Truly
The Bass Thing

To add to the confusion, but to maintain the profile of 'Hup' in the United States, Polydor America released 'Cartoon Boyfriend' as a promotional CD single towards the end of January which featured 'Get Together' and 'Gimme Some Truth' from the 'Golden Green' single (not issued in America) along with a cover of Pop Will Eat Itself's 'Inside You' - the latter of which appeared in the UK the following month on a Polydor promotional CD, 'In Future', which previewed forthcoming singles. Whether there were any ideas about releasing the cover as a single is doubtful, it is more likely that Polydor just wanted to keep people's interest in the group alive. The track, which often appeared as part of the live set on the 'Hup' tour, was the actual demo version recorded at Rockfield in 1989, cut by the band primarily for fun. It also featured on 'Waffle And Maple Syrup', a promotional LP distributed to American college radio stations and hosted by DJ Gary Crowley, which contained an interview with the group mixed with live, rare and exclusive tracks to maintain the band's profile whilst they laid low.

In February 1990, following a six week break, the remaining band members decided to regroup with the permanent addition of Martin Bell and begin auditioning for a new bass player. As Miles and Malcolm (finally) moved out of the flat in Regent's Park that they'd now occupied for almost a year, news of the re-emergence of the Stuffies hit the music press. A new single, 'Circlesquare', was to be released in April.

Amicably, Bob has left The Wonder Stuff. The band have not split up. Martin Bell (the fiddle player with whom they work with) is now a full-time member and we will continue with a new bass player.

Love Martin, Miles, Martin, Malcolm.

Recorded during the first batch of demos for the third album (thus still featuring Bob), the track had been exclusively previewed to viewers of the Rock Steady music programme (broadcast on some UK independent television channels) towards the end of the previous year when the band played a very low-key show, supporting Neds Atomic Dustbin, in London. The B-side of the single 'Our New Song' also featured Bob and was one of the tracks which had been originally destined for the 'Luna Thug' EP.

However, the choice of extra track for the 12" and CD single wasn't so easy to decide upon and it wasn't until the last minute that the final decision was made. After recording 'Circlesquare', Miles, Malcolm and Pat (Collier) decided to play around (whilst drunk) with the nearest drum machine to see if they could come up with something comparable to anything being done by the then-current Manchester scene of The Stones Roses, Happy Mondays etc. After only an hour and a half, they came up with what is now known as the Paranoia Mix of 'Circlesquare' which they then put onto a demo tape along with nine other new songs. This was then distributed amongst family and close friends asking for their choice of additional track. After immensely favourable reaction to the remix from many of those who heard it, the Paranoia Mix was eventually decided upon and included on the 'Circlesquare' release.

By mid-March, plans for a replacement bass player were well under way. Auditions were held with one hopeful, which proved unsuccessful as he wasn't familiar with the band's back catalogue and then, a couple of weeks prior to 'Circlesquare' being released, the group announced details of Bob's replacement.

Enrolled at the time on a course in Media Studies at Liverpool University, Paul Clifford was already a fan of the group's and had only recently left the Midlands after the group he was previously in split up. It was as a result of this group that he heard about the vacancy for bass player as the lead singer of the group he used to be in, The Libertines, was none other than Russ Hunt (using the name Russ Williams to avoid being pigeon-holed with his more-famous brother). They themselves released their first (and only) 12" EP, 'Smith Is A Liar', in 1989.

Russ phoned Paul up one afternoon and asked him if he would be interested in coming down to Birmingham to rehearse with the group, which he accepted. Impressed by Clifford's rehearsal and not relishing the task of auditioning a further stream of hopefuls, they offered Paul to join the group for a trial period. As a warm up for him and an introduction for the fans, the group played two secret gigs at Walsall's Junction 10. Planned to be quiet, simple affairs, things didn't go quite as planned when a hoard of his friends and family decided to turn up to see him play. As it was, the erratic behaviour of the drum machine gave more cause for concern than Clifford's playing with the new bass player coping exceptionally well given the short time he was given to learn the set-list required.

Around the time of the decision to release 'Circlesquare', Wayne Hussey of The Mission had made an invitation to the band: "Come on holiday with us, we'll have a great laugh. You can be the support band, be as anonymous as you like, play all new songs if you want, get your line-up together and be a band again." With the hunt for a new bass player now over, the group took Hussey up on his offer which led to the idea of a joint Wonder Stuff / Mission three-month tour which would take in first Europe and then America. Since the majority of the audiences they would be playing to were not really aware of Bob anyway - let alone his departure - it would allow the band the chance to road test the new line-up prior to any recording.

Following the two Walsall dates, the new line-up proceeded to Utrecht on March 26th to begin the tour. During the break between the European and American tours, Miles married his girlfriend, Mary-Anne Hobbs - an NME journalist whom he had initially met back in 1989 when she interviewed him for Sounds magazine.

For the American leg of the tour, a promotional 12 track CD in an A4 press pack folder, also featuring two photographs and a biography of both bands, was issued which featured six tracks by both groups.

'Circlesquare' was released on April 30th and managed to reach number 20 in the UK charts. As the track had been written during the group's demos for their third album at the end of 1989, Bob Jones was involved in the writing and recording of it and the video for the track featured live footage recorded during the 'Hup' tour at the Brixton Academy on November 24th 1989. However, the obligatory Top Of The Pops appearance featured Paul Clifford whilst a special video for the Paranoia Mix of the track featured only Miles, Malc and Martin fooling around in a video booth in London's Trocadero Circus. To the uninitiated, it must have been quite confusing as to exactly who was in the group.

CIRCLESQUARE

Hello Miles, congratulations on two counts. One you know about, the second is this is a bloody fine dance record - even if it is slyly taking the piss with its 'Paranoia Mix' - from a bunch of bods who once went round smirking 'Who Wants To The Disco King?' Saw some divvy in Cambridge wearing a T-shirt with that slogan on. Gave him directions to the retard class. Anyway, 'Circlesquare' kicks off with some '50s type BBC orchestration, a needle screeches across vinyl, an earth quake of a bassline erupts and in sarks Miles singing "Is that a smile that hangs beneath your nose?" Full of tripped phasing and ripped guitars, this is a great song about, I think, not fitting. Like trying to stuff a circle into a square, funnily enough.

Jack Barron, New Musical Express

During the European and US tours with The Mission, Miles and Wayne struck up a particularly strong friendship. Some of the results of this friendship showed on The Mission's 1992 album, 'Masque'. One of the tracks on the album, 'Who Will Love Me Tomorrow' is very much in the vein of 'Golden Green' and a scan of the credits for the track reveals that the music was co-arranged by Wayne and Miles. However, one story tells that during the US tour, Wayne played the track to Miles one night when they were both slightly drunk. The following morning Miles started playing it on his guitar when Wayne walked in and asked what it was he was playing, totally forgeting about the night before. Miles told him that it was a track he had played to Miles the previous night but Wayne never remembered and credited the music to Miles.

Miles is also referred to on another track on the album, 'Trail Of Scarlet', which is based on his revelation, on another drunken night, to Hussey that his (Wayne's) wife was secretly having an affair.

It was on this, his first tour that Clifford earned himself a nickname. Upon being told he had secured the position of the Stuffies' new bass player, he went round proudly telling people - often girls and young women - of his new position and impending fame. Uncertain whether he was telling the truth or not, they puckered up to give themselves a claim to fame - getting off with The Wonder Stuff's new bass player. For his efforts he was given the nickname, Snogger.

Towards the end of the tour, Malc was also asked to join The Mission on stage after their guitarist Simon Hinkler suddenly left following a long period of unhappiness in the band. It was pointed out at the time that it was rather ironic that The Wonder Stuff were helping The Mission through the departure of a founder member in the same way that The Mission had helped The Wonder Stuff in a similar situation just a few months previously. However, this situation only lasted for a brief period as the final few dates had to be abandoned altogether due to Miles catching a throat infection.

During happier times on the tour, Miles and Wayne discussed the possibility of staging an outdoor charity event in the Summer and on their return to British shores they began to organise the Day Of Conscience concert, supporting causes such as Greenpeace, Friends Of The Earth, Amnesty International and Childline. To be held on August 25th at Clapham Common on the outskirts of London, the gig was originally planned to feature The Stuffies and The Mission along with The Cure and All About Eve. Robert Plant was also rumoured to be appearing at one time. However, as various organisations (including beer companies seeking sponsorship deals and Sky TV, who wanted exclusive television broadcasting rights to the event) became involved in the proceedings, Miles began to feel that all the original intentions of the gig were "having the piss taken out of them" and was also unhappy about the selection of the support acts. The Wonder Stuff subsequently pulled out of the gig - though Tony Perrin, manager of The Mission, strongly disputed their claims. As it was, the concert was scrapped altogether shortly after, due to opposition from neighbouring Wandsworth County Council leading to Lambeth Council refusing to grant a license for the event.

In June, news reached the Wonder Stuff camp that Bob Jones had married his long-time girlfriend, Jessica Ronson, in New York where he was working in Manhattan's Tower Records to earn extra income between bands. Bob had always had a fascination with the Sex Pistols' Sid Vicious and was a regular campaigner for the film 'Sid And Nancy' to be shown on the tour bus between gigs. Jessica had been one of the Vicious' closest friends after Nancy Spungen's death which had interested Bob from the moment they met back in early 1989.

Following the end of the joint tour, The Wonder Stuff re-entered the studio in London to begin work on their third album. In July, the group released their first long-playing video. Filmed during one afternoon in February at the legendary London flat shortly before their departure, 'Thirteen Appalling Promos' featured Miles, Malc & Martin sitting on a couch introducing the videos for all their singles to date, bar 'It's Not True', and divulging titbits of information about each one. Three additional tracks were also featured; 'Cartoon Boyfriend' for it's promotional release in America, 'Piece Of Sky' and the Paranoia Mix of 'Circlesquare', which hadn't even been filmed at the time the video was being produced.

ELEVEN APPALLING PROMOS

When so many of these compilations are released with no thought whatsoever for theme or continuity - indeed, no thought for anything except making a quick profit - it's refreshing, not to say ironic, that the Stuffies of all people should have stumped up with 'Eleven Appalling Promos', a rich documentary of their promo activity to date. I say ironic because, as the title suggests, The Wonder Stuff are legendary in their loathing of videos and yet, here they are taking the time and effort not only to explain just why they consider they constantly fuck up in front of the camera, but also the circumstances which in turn scuppered each particular video.
Squatting on a sofa in some dingy basement, the camera and mike boom often in focus, Miles and his mates exude the hilariously cynical early Lennonesque attitude that pervades all their best songs as they painfully and wittily catalogue each disaster. Miles is sometimes absent from the vids, he says, because he threw a wobbler that day and walked out. There is much griping about six am starts and sitting around, half-arsed psychedelia and inappropriate make-up. There is much mourning over lost youthful looks, doubtless sacrificed at the altar of rock 'n' roll, and there is a touching farewell to Bob, The Bass Thing, who quit amid maximum confusion last year.
And then there are the videos, almost all far better than the band would have us believe and some very good indeed. The earliest ones, their own efforts, are the most endearing. The exuberant live 'Unbearable' and the daft 'Give Give Give Me More More More' still come across as attractively over-excitable, Miles fast perfecting his mad killing stare and even the latter, less successful 'Who Wants To Be The Disco King?' and its ilk are fascinating in their failure once the circumstances have been explained.
Apart from the band's eight singles, we also get promos for the brilliantly twisted 'Cartoon Boyfriend (American video)', 'Circlesquare (Paranoia Mix)' and 'Piece Of Sky (Abandoned single release)' and, as a satire of the video business, we get the lads messing around with a camera in a pub, just to show how easy it is(n't). So, although there's no doubt it's our money they're after, at least we're not ripped off.

Steve Sutherland, New Musical Express

Although a quiet year for releases, the group played eight British gigs in the Summer, as part of the God Bless The Fuckin' Lot Of Us tour, before returning to the US to stage the gigs that they had been forced to postpone earlier in the year due to Miles' throat infection. Several new tracks were premiered throughout the UK tour and, in between dates, the group spent much of their time in London's Townhouse Studios demoing and recording tracks.

On each of their eight British dates, alongside the T-shirts, posters and other memorabilia, the obligatory tour merchandising stalls were also selling an album of demo material. 'The Boot Legged Groove Machine', a release on neither the Polydor label nor the band's own Far Out label, featured tracks recorded between the time of the formation of the group and the release period of 'The Eight Legged Groove Machine'. The roots of the first side are undeniably planted in the first few months of the group's formation, and the album effectively contains all the previously unreleased songs from their first few demo tapes. There's a certain rawness about Miles' voice, and some of the tracks hint unknowingly at future recordings - 'She's The Rain', after a bit of lyrical tampering, would eventually appear on the 'Wonderful Day' EP as 'Down Here'. By side two, they had got the hang of playing together as a group and some of the tracks could almost be good enough for proper release. Indeed, a few of them were considered for either inclusion on the first album or as B-side tracks for the single releases. There is also the chance to hear an early and very different version of the 'Hup' track, 'Golden Green'. The album was quickly bootlegged by a number of sources, with one version adding a handful of live material, recorded in Holland in 1988, to the end of the second side.

Towards the end of the year, whilst concentrating on recording sessions for the new album, the group were approached by the organisers of the Brits Awards to take part in a series of concerts to be held at London's Wembley Arena during January 1991 which were planned to be broadcast on National UK TV - though they were eventually broadcast on a late-night slot on Sky TV. At the same time, the group also had a request from pupils at the Minsthorpe High School in Pontefract, Yorkshire to play at their school. A number of popular bands had already played there and the pupils thought they'd try approaching the group to see if they would be interested.

Not wishing to take part in both events, the group had to make a decision which to choose - 20,000 people in a stadium supporting The Cure or a couple of hundred people in a school hall with the school's in-house group as support. For Miles the decision was easy as he tried to imagine how he'd have felt if his favourite groups such as The Jam or The Clash had turned up at his school to play for them... Minsthorpe it was. The performance was also filmed and recorded by the group, with two tracks - 'Don't Let Me Down, Gently' and 'Room 410' - were tentatively scheduled for release as B-sides of future singles.

The group were also approached by the Mean Fiddler organisation to headline a New Year's Eve party to be held in a giant marquee in London's Finsbury Park. Although never officially confirmed as playing, a promotional campaign for the gig indicated that The Wonder Stuff would be headlining the event. Annoyed at this and the fact that tickets would be costing in excess of £20, the group issued a statement to many of the local and national music publications refuting claims of their appearance. Referring to his plans for New Year's Eve, Miles said that the only way he would be leaving his house "would be if Slade and Wizzard were to play the local pub and it cost a couple of quid to get in."

Instead, they played a secret support slot to Ned's Atomic Dustbin at London's Astoria venue a couple of weeks before Christmas. Promoted as featuring "very special guests", Miles stormed on stage in darkness at the start, opening with "How the fuck are you? They call us The Wonder Stuff" before launching into a spectacular greatest hits-style set and ending with "We'd like to sincerely apologise for turning up tonight - for those of you who don't like us we're glad we've spoiled your night."

Starting 1991 in better shape than they had been in a year before, the group spent the first few months putting the finishing touches to their third album, to be titled 'Never Loved Elvis', though for many months the working title for the album had been 'Fuck Elvis'. During the American tour with The Mission, Miles had watched a documentary on Presley which had inspired this title. Later, a chance viewing of a Channel 4 documentary called 'Orchestra' found Miles watching director Simon Smith interviewing Dudley Moore and asking him "Were you ever interested in pop music at all?" To which Dudley replied, "No, no - never loved Elvis." The original plan was to have that sample starting the album but the idea was eventually dropped as it couldn't be suitably fitted into the album's opening track.

The Wonder Stuff, Size Of A Cow promo pic The first release from the album came in April 1991 when the group returned to the singles chart with 'The Size Of A Cow', peaking at No. 5 - their highest placing single. The additional tracks, 'Radio Ass Kiss' on the seven inch, joined by 'Give Give Give Me More More More' on the 12" & CD single, were both recorded on the American leg of their 1990 tour with The Mission. Buyers of the 12" and CD singles were treated, rather ironically considering the title of the forthcoming album, to Miles' rendition of the opening lines of Elvis Presley's 'Jailhouse Rock' at the end of the title track. The video for the single earned the group a nomination on BBC TV's Going Live programme for Best Video of the Year. For the single's release in Australia, a limited edition run of yellow vinyl seven inch singles were pressed.

In conjunction with the single's release in the UK, Polydor also issued two promotional cassettes/CD's, 'Three From Three' and 'Five From Three' which between them highlighted a total of six tracks from the new album.

Also with the release of the single the group announced plans for a series of UK live dates to promote their imminent new album. One of which included playing to a 22,000 strong crowd at Bescot Stadium - home of Walsall Football Club. With the problems as previously mentioned about the Day Of Conscience and end-of-year Mean Fiddler gigs, the group had decided to hold their own mini festival as they hadn't been invited to play Reading and concerns over rioting the previous year had lead to the Glastonbury Festival being cancelled.