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THE WONDER STUFF
L-R: Erica Nockalls, Mark McCarthy,
Miles Hunt, Tony Arthy, Dan Donnelly |
"THE
WONDER STUFF were one of the most
exciting and vital bands of the
late-80's, early-90's." |
|
Gary
Crowley |
Twenty-nine
years after their original formation, despite a number of line-up changes,
THE WONDER STUFF are still performing with the same vigour and determination
that they've always had.
With a number of
festivals and appearances planned for the Summer of
2015, the
group have already announced that they have been
writing and
recording material for a new album
with touring plans to celebrate the group's 30th
Anniversary pencilled in for 2016.
In October 2014,
The Wonder Stuff's Miles Hunt published the first
volume in a series of self-penned ''journals' - The Wonder
Stuff Diaries. Covering the period 1986 to 1989, this
would be Miles' own personal account of his memories
and experiences in the group. For more
information on Miles' book, or to buy a copy, visit the group's
online shop.
Turn the clock
back around twenty-one years and it was a very
different book which was being written on the group.
Having been a fan of the group for a few years,
despite not getting into them into slightly later in
their career, I found myself collecting all sorts of
titbits of information, snippets and cuttings from
magazines and, through friends and fans, all sorts
of facts and rumours. I'd already read Martin
Roach's biography of the Stourbridge groups, Pop
Will Eat Itself, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and The Wonder
Stuff and, to be honest, was left underwhelmed by it. It didn't
tell me enough of what I wanted to know about this
group who had already had such an effect on me and
seemed to be littered with inaccuracies - it was a
journalist's take on the group's history.
For reasons I'm still unclear on, having never
thought to attempt anything similar before (or
since), I decided I had amassed enough information
on the group to write a more comprehensive biography
on the group.
Eventually, the
weighty tome was finished... and then the
group split up! Undaunted, I gave a copy of
the A4 photocopies sheets to a few friends who were
also fans of the group and also sent copies to Miles
Hunt and Malc Treece. Malc's copy never
arrived - I recall ringing him a couple of days
later to see if he'd had chance to look at it only
to be told that he couldn't really talk as his flat
had been broken into the night before but hadn't
seen it. To this day I hope the two incidents
were unrelated...
Miles rang me up
the following Saturday night. It was gone
midnight, my girlfriend at the time was staying over
at my parents house for, I think, the first time.
The upstairs phone was in my parents bedroom and my
dad answered the phone and shouted through that
there was some bloke on the phone for me. I
spent a good hour or so chatting to Miles about all
sorts of stuff, no doubt my then-girlfriend was pretty p*ssed
off - we didn't last much longer after that but,
again, I'm hoping those two incidents were
unrelated!
Miles confessed
to me that he didn't feel there would be much of a
market for a biography on the group, especially now
they'd split up. However, he thought there could be a place for it on the
Internet which, at this time, was still very much in
its infancy. These were the days of dial-up
modems, only about 14.4kbps or 28.8kbps at best as
well so content was going to be sparse and not earn
me any money but at least it would be there for all
to read and thus prove not to be a wasted effort.
That was the
back-end of 1994 and this website is the latest
incarnation of that very book, bought right
up-to-date with the most comprehensive biographies,
discographies, archives tourdates and other
information. Even now it is genuinely heart-warming to receive
comments and feedback from people about the site and
its content. Due to personal
commitments, I'm not able to spend as long as I'd
like to regularly updating the site but after this
most recent update I'll try to do the best I can for it as we go forward.
This site is
designed to complement Miles' book(s). In the
past I have always supported the group and they, in
turn, have supported and recognised the work done by
this website and its messageboard also. The
site is here to offer additional information, not
just based upon Miles' own recollections but those
of others around them, news, rumours, information
and gossip that have surrounded them. I hope
this relationship continues for a long time to come.
Thanks to all of
their fans for their continued support and thanks
to the individual group members, past and present,
for assistance and information offered.
Robert Stokes
June 2015
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