The year began with much
excitement surrounding the
group's plans for 2006. With a
new album and tour, in addition
to new releases to coincide with
the group's 20th Anniversary,
fans were understandably looking
forward to an interesting time
for the group.
Promotional
and pre-release reviews for the
new album suggested that the
album would cater for all fans
of The Wonder Stuff's musical
styles, from the raw sound of
The Eight Legged Groove Machine,
to the folk/country-tinges of
Hup and Never Loved Elvis yet
still combined with some of the
maturity of Construction For
The Modern Idiot. A number of
tracks had already been
previewed in acoustic format by
Miles during his solo
appearances during 2005 and
digital radio listeners got
their first chance to hear more
when new single 'Blah Blah La Di
Dah' was aired on BBC 6Music at
the start of the year.
As
the release of the new single
approached, it was announced
that the track would be
available as a download-only
track although promotional
copies of the track were
available as a physical CD
medium.
On
the day of the album's release,
Miles, Malc and Erica were also
booked to appear at the HMV
record store in Birmingham City
Centre where they would perform
a number of new and old tracks
before signing copies of their
latest products.
Prior to the new releases, Miles
exchanged his microphone for the
producers chair when he agreed
to help produce some of the new
material recorded by Dolittle
for release later in the year.
Dolittle would also support The
Wonder Stuff on their
forthcoming tour in March.
A
warm-up date for the tour, to be
held at Cox's Yard in
Stratford-Upon-Avon, was
arranged for the end of February
with the ever-popular Dharma
Drive in support.
On
the weekend before to the
release of the first single from
the album, Miles and Mark
appeared on Gary Crowley's show
on BBC Radio London as part of
an hour-long show concentrating
on the new material.
The middle of February saw the
release of the long-awaited new
album with Miles, Malc and Erica
playing a total of six tracks
acoustically at the HMV album
launch -'It's Yer Money I'm
After, Baby', 'Last Second Of
The Minute', 'Blah Blah La-Di-Dah',
'Sun Goes Down On Manor Road',
'Circlesquare' and 'Mission
Drive'. The performance was
reportedly recorded by HMV for
future release on the stores'
website but this has never yet
appeared.
Commercially, the album was a
big success for the group
charting highly in the
independent charts and being
promoted by many of the
high-street stores such as
Virgin and HMV. Indeed, demand
outstripped availability in it's
first week of release and the
record company had to hastily
arrange for more copies to be
distributed. Whereas
'...Rubbish Island' had largely
(by his own admission) been a
Miles Hunt solo album before the
rest of the group had added
their own parts, 'Suspended By
Stars' was a full group effort
with everyone contributing their
own ideas. The result was a
more complete sounding album
which was promoted as being
"their most definitive album to
date."
Following on from the album's
release came the UK tour which
received rave reviews. Many
people felt that the renewed
vigour of the band made the
concerts some of the best
performances in the group's
career. A mixture of tracks
were played, although usually
only one from 'Escape From
Rubbish Island' for which reason
Miles explained that they just
didn't have enough time to play
all of the tracks they would
have liked to.
Celebrations
of the group's 20th anniversary
toured sour at the end
of March. On April 3rd,
only a few days after what would
have been twenty years since the
group first set foot on stage as
The Wonder Stuff at JB's in
Dudley, the music world was
shocked by the announcement of
the death of Martin Gilks. The
news was originally made public
by DJ Iain Baker on the XFM
London radio station and quickly
spread around the globe, showing
how large a following Martin
had.
Martin had been involved in a
road accident whilst travelling
on his motorcycle in London and
subsequently died from his
injuries. The anniversary
celebrations turned to sorrow
during the following days and
weeks as friends, family and
fans learned of the news.
Through their business website,
Furtive Mass Transit Systems,
Martin's brother Tank set up an
a online book of condolences.
Messages of tribute and
condolences were also left on
the Room 512 messageboard.
As our own tiny tribute to
Martin, fans and friends of
Martin joined together one week
later to simultaneously play one
track that most people felt to
be the true epitomy of his
memory - 'Good Night Though'.
The event was supported by a
number of people from all
corners of the world in addition
to a number of radio stations -
notably the Tom Robinson Show on
BBC 6Music.