the unofficial wonder stuff website
books
THE EIGHT LEGGED ATOMIC DUSTBIN WILL EAT ITSELF
MARTIN ROACH
Omnibus Press, Independent Music Press (reissue)
1990, re-printed 1992
Re-issued March 2006
Focussing on the Stourbridge-scene of the Pop Will Eat Itself, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and The Wonder Stuff, the biography was originally penned from articles and direct conversations with members of the groups.
The 2006 re-release saw the inclusion of additional content and exclusive interviews.
THE WONDER STUFF DIARIES : '86 - '89
MILES HUNT
Independent Records
February 2016
Miles Hunt’s first book is an insight into The Wonder Stuff’s fast moving and chaotic early years. The narrative is drawn from Hunt's own personal diaries, meticulously kept as the band began it's rise to fame. The book also features many previously unseen images of Miles' early life as well as array of Wonder Stuff ephemera.
In Hunt’s own words ‘The book does not take the form of a standard rock biography, it is instead a look into my personal diaries, which I began to keep from 1986, the year of The Wonder Stuff’s formation. It will provide the reader with an inside view of the band, previously unseen and unheard. I have been as honest as my memory will allow, in adding extra anecdotal text to the original diary entries. No names have been changed to protect the innocent, because from where I was standing we were all as guilty as the next man. As I have read these diaries for the first time since they were written, beginning over twenty-five years ago, I have been amused and saddened in equal measure."
THE WONDER STUFF DIARIES : '90 - '91
MILES HUNT
Independent Records
November 2017
Volume 2 of Miles Hunt's personal insight into The Wonder Stuff picks up immediately after the departure of Rob 'The Bass Thing' Jones at the end of Volume 1 ('The Wonder Stuff Diaries 86 - 89').
Drawing from the journals that accompanied him wherever he went and his own memories, Miles recalls how subsequent months were spent pondering how the band might recover from such a blow, the highs and lows of increased fame with the release of their third album 'Never Loved Elvis' and a number one single ('Dizzy)'.
Hunt says of his trio of books "If my first book of diaries represented the ascent of The Wonder Stuff, then this book preresents the levelling out, the getting used to how things are going to be from here on in... whilst the book you hold inyour hands doesn't always make for the cheeriest of memoirs there are still a few good laughs and capers along the way."
THE WONDER STUFF DIARIES : '92 - '94
MILES HUNT
Independent Records
November 2017
Volume 3 of Miles' Wonder Stuff Diaries finds us in troubled times for the group. Tensions are high and the end is nigh - on more than one occasion!
With this book, the content is largely based on Miles' own original diary entries making for a shorter read than the previous two volumes. Spending more time on the road, and less time around other members of the group, resulted in MIles writing more detailed accounts in his journals and it is these which make up the bulk of this final volume.
In his own words, "...this book very much details The Wonder Stuff's descent. It's not an entirely depressing yarn, I managed a few good days here and there, it's such a shame that we all know what happens at the end."