​I've got a deep-rooted memory of being at my home in in Birmingham in the late-80's when I first heard The Wonder Stuff on the radio.  For some reason, I remember that it was in the morning so would likely have been the Simon Bates' show on Radio 1 but what the song was I couldn't recall at the time although after later reading Miles' first volume of The Wonder Stuff Diaries, it tied in that this would have been the first radio airing of 'Give Give Give Me More More More' in 1988.

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Between 1989 and 1990, I was a frequent visitor to the Kingswinford area and those I was with knew "these people".  Bassist Rob Jones had lived in the town so the group were a hot topic of conversation and in frequenting nearby pubs and the town of Stourbridge in general, I'd gained some awareness of this band - along with fellow Grebo compadres Pop Will Eat Itself and Ned's Atomic Dustbin.  Why those memories stuck with me I'm not so sure and how they would have an effect on me in later life I couldn't have foreseen.

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In all honesty, it was actually my Dad who originally got me into the Stuffies.  He'd heard this song on the radio on his way into work and asked me if I knew what it was - it turned out that it was 'Welcome To The Cheap Seats'.  I went off to one of the many record stores in Birmingham at the time and bought the single.  Could have been HQ, the Virgin Megastore, Oasis, HMV, Highway 61....  one thing about Birmingham City Centre in the early 90's was that there was an abundance of bloody good record shops catering for all tastes and I'd worked out that I could get to 2-3 of them in my lunch hour.

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After hearing 'Welcome To The Cheap Seats' there was something about this new group I'd discovered that made me want more (more, more...?).  Something in me wanted to find out more about this group - who they were, the recordings they'd made and, for some reason, everything else about them.

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I found myself collecting all sorts of titbits of information, snippets and cuttings from magazines and, through friends and fans, all manner of trivia and stories.  I read Martin Roach's biography of the Stourbridge groups - Pop Will Eat Itself, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and The Wonder Stuff - but, 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 had such an effect on me and from what I already knew, it seemed to be littered with inaccuracies - it was a journalist's take on the group's history.  I found kindred spirits living nearby with a shared interest - Paul Taylor, Mark Reed and Graham Reed....  and also, to be fair, Bryan Taylor who used to run HQ Records who was a ruddy goldmine of information.

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For reasons I'm still uncertain of, having never attempted anything similar before (or since), I wrote a book on them but just as it was nearing completion, the group split up!

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​Undaunted, I printed off a few copies and gave them to a few friends who were also fans of the group.  I also sent copies to Miles Hunt and Malcolm Treece.  Malc's copy never arrived - I recall ringing him a week or so later to see if he'd had chance to look at it only for him to tell me that he couldn't talk as his flat had been broken into overnight, the police were there at that moment but he hadn't seen it.  To this day I still hope the two incidents were unrelated...  a light-fingered postie who had discovered he was delivering mail to a bona-fide popstar and happened to mention it to a "friend"...?  Who knows...

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A few days later, Miles rang me and we spent an hour or so chatting about the groupm what he was currently up to and eventually got onto the subject of the book itself.  He was honest and said he didn't think there would be much interest in a biography of the group, especially now they'd split up.  However, he did say that maybe 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 so content needed to be sparse and it wasn't going to earn me any money but at least my near two-years worth of work wouldn't be wasted.  Miles said he had other things he was going to be working on and that maybe they could be incorporated into the website at a later date.

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By the end of 1994, The Wonder Stuff Online (twsonline) launched on the Internet (thanks Freeserve!) and I've been working on it (sometimes very occasionally) ever since.​

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The version of the website you're viewing now is just the latest incarnation of that very book, bought right up-to-date with the most comprehensive biographies, discographies, archives tourdates and other information.  ​In 2016, Miles released his own accounts of The Wonder Stuff's history - The Wonder Stuff Diaries.  I'd like to hope that those, in conjunction with the information on these pages, would give any Wonder Stuff fan a complete insight into the band.

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The Wonder Stuff have been part of the soundtrack to my life for over 30 years.  I have always supported the group and they, in turn, have supported and recognised my work 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.

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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.

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Robert Stokes
May 2026

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