The Wonder Stuff
Formed in Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, in April 1986, the Wonder Stuff featured Miles Hunt (vocals/guitar), Malcolm Treece (guitar), Rob Jones (b. 1964, d. 30 July 1993, New York, USA; bass, replacing original member Chris Fradgley) and former Mighty Lemon Drops drummer, Martin Gilks. The roots of the band lay in From Eden, a short-lived local group which featured Hunt on drums, Treece on guitar and Clint Mansell and Adam Mole, later of peers Pop Will Eat Itself, occupying the remaining roles. After amassing a sizeable local following the Wonder Stuff released their debut EP, IT'S A WONDERFUL DAY, to favourable small press coverage in 1987. Along with the aforementioned PWEI and other Midlands hopefuls Crazyhead and Gaye Bykers On Acid, they were soon pigeonholed under the banner of ‘grebo rock’ by the national music press. Despite this ill-fitting description, the Wonder Stuff's strengths always laid in melodic pop songs braced against an urgent, power pop backdrop. After an ill-fated dalliance with EMI Records' ICA ROCK WEEK, a second single, Unbearable, proved strong enough to secure a deal with Polydor Records at the end of 1987. Give Give Give Me More More More offered a minor hit the following year, and was succeeded by arguably the band's best early song. Built on soaring harmonies, A Wish Away was the perfect precursor to the Wonder Stuff's vital debut, THE EIGHT LEGGED GROOVE MACHINE, which followed later that year and established them in the UK charts. It's Yer Money I'm After Baby, also from the album, continued to mine Hunt's cynical furrow (further evident on the confrontational b-side, Astley In The Noose — referring to contemporary chart star, Rick Astley) and began a string of UK Top 40 hits. Who Wants To Be The Disco King? and the more relaxed Don't Let Me Down Gently, both from 1989, hinted at the diversity of the group's second album, HUP. Aided by fiddle, banjo and keyboard player Martin Bell (ex-Hackney Five-O), the album contrasted a harder, hi-tech sound with a rootsy, folk feel on tracks such as Golden Green, a double a-side hit when combined with a cover of the Youngbloods' Get Together. The band's well-documented internal wrangles came to a head with the departure of Rob Jones at the end of the decade. He moved to New York to form his own band, The Bridge And Tunnel Crew, with his wife Jessie Ronson, but died of heart failure in 1993. Circlesquare introduced new bass player Paul Clifford. A subsequent low profile was broken in April 1991 with Size Of A Cow. A UK Top 10 hit, this was quickly followed by Caught In My Shadow and NEVER LOVED ELVIS. Once again, this third album revealed the Wonder Stuff's remorseless progression. Gone were the brash, punk-inspired three-minute classics, replaced by a richer musical content, both in Hunt's song writing and musical performances. The extent of their popularity was emphasized in late 1991 when, in conjunction with comedian Vic Reeves, they topped the UK charts with a revival of Tommy Roe's Dizzy. The group made a swift return to the Top 10 in 1992 with the WELCOME TO THE CHEAP SEATS EP, the title-track's post-punk jig (with Kirsty MacColl on backing vocals) typifying the direction of the following year's CONSTRUCTION FOR THE MODERN IDIOT. With songs now imbued with far more optimism due to Hunt's improved romantic prospects, singles such as Full Of Life and Hot Love Now! replaced previous uncertainties with unforced bonhomie. Thus it came as something as a surprise when Hunt announced the band's dissolution to the press in July 1994 long before any grape's could sour — a decision allegedly given impetus by Polydor's insistence that the band should crack the US (a factor in striking down the label's previous great singles' band, the Jam). They bowed out at a final gig in Stratford Upon Avon, Hunt leaving the stage with a pastiche of the Sex Pistols' epigram, Every Feel You've Been Treated?, ringing in fan's ears. Writer James Brown offered another tribute in his sleevenotes to the compulsory posthumous singles' compilation: ‘It was pointed out that if the writer Hunter S. Thompson had been the presiding influence over the Beatles, they they might have looked and sounded like the Wonder Stuff’. Suitably abbreviated, it provided less accurate testimony than ‘greatest hits’, perhaps, but it was certainly more in keeping with the band's legacy. Former members of the band (Treece, Clifford and Gilks) regrouped in 1995 as Weknowwhereyoulive, with the addition of former Eat singer Ange Doolittle on vocals. Hunt also gave up his job as host of MTV's 120 Minutes to put together a new band.