Backstage at Forest Fest, Miles Hunt is exactly as you'd expect: warm, witty and refreshingly unfiltered. As The Wonder Stuff celebrate four decades together, the frontman reflects on the band's remarkable longevity, the members they've lost along the way and the unique bond shared by the line-up that carries their legacy forward. From the heady success of 'Never Loved Elvis' and an unlikely Number One with Vic Reeves to reunion triumphs, hometown murals and plans for the band's next album, Hunt looks back with honesty, humour and little interest in sugar-coating the past. Two legged groove machine; Eamon O'Neill.
Photo: Steve O'Connor
Miles, how are you doing?
Good, yeah. It's noisy. I live in the middle of nowhere in England, where the only noise pollution is the occasional blurt of a sheep, so I'm not used to hearing five different pieces of music going on.
It's a little overwhelming, isn't it?
It really is. I can think of other words to describe it too.
It's been ten years since you played in Ireland.
Probably. Yeah, I think that's about right. I think we did Belfast and Dublin in 2016, probably, when the band was merely 30 years of age.
And it's now 40; can you believe that the band is still going all this time later?
It's curious, yeah. We lost some along the way, but it's a strong line-up now. Our original drummer and original bass player both passed away, but the current drummer and bass player were in a band called Eat from London, and they used to do a lot of touring with us in sort of '89 and '90. and so Pete Howard, our current drummer, was best mates with Martin Jobs, our original drummer. Tim [Sewell], current bass player got on great with The Bass Thing [Rob Jones], so I think that's quite a unique situation to have two really good friends of the guys that passed away carrying the mantle, as it were.
I guess it feels almost like it's validated by the other guys.
When I asked Pete Howard, I said, "Would you be interested in joining?" This would be back 2018. Would you be interested in joining the band? And he said the loveliest thing, he said; "it would be an honour to play Martin's beats". That was really sweet.
I spoke to Brian Tatler from Diamond Head recently, and we were discussing the Diamond Head mural that has just gone up on Stourbridge, and it was him that told me there's one for the Wonder Stuff, and Pop will Eat Itself as well.
And The Neds [Ned's Atomic Dustbin] who were here the night before last.
Fuzz Townsend from Pop Will Eat Itself was in the Wonder Stuff for a while, wasn't he?
Yeah, Fuzz, god he's done so much you can't list what he's done, and now he's a TV presenter on Car SOS.
What was it like to have a mural in your honour in your hometown?
Yeah, it's curious, really. I mean, actually the placement of it's really odd because probably around eleven years ago, the building that it's on was a recording studio that we used to use to do demos at, and the artist in getting the permission to put the logo on the building, had no idea because that's like a day care centre for children. He had no idea, and that really surprised me. But yes, it's in a lovely spot. If you're going around the ring road on the bus on the number nine, you'll see it.
Which actually brings me to another point because you had 'From The Midlands with Love' LP, celebrating some of the great bands.
Yeah, it was a whole album. We did Slade, Duran Duran, UB40.
I mean, there's so much to choose from, from Black Sabbath to...
Well, I'm not a metal fan. I'm a little bit more relaxed about it now, but I've never enjoyed Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath or Judas Priest who would be Midlands as well, wouldn't it? It just wasn't for me. So when I was saying to people, you know; "we're going to choose a bunch of artists from the Midlands", those were the first names if you're in a pub conversation; "well, you've got to do a Zeppelin song!". I hate that music, so they're all genuinely songs that I loved and probably bought when I was a kid.
Looking back to 'Never Loved Elvis' [1991]; what was that like for you to hit that success at that time?
It all happened very quick for us. I mean, we were doing things like Top of the Pops by our second album ['Hup', 1989]. I hated it. I think we did it seven times, and every time I begged the label to let me off; "I don't want to go! I hate it!" So it didn't feel like that much of a jump for us.
There's an interesting story. A guy that used to promote at a pub in Walthamstow in East London, the Royal Standard, we were booked to play there the night of the King's Cross fire [18th November 1987], so we were up in Birmingham in the morning watching that on the news, going, "Jesus Christ!", and so he phoned and said, "Look, you're not going to sell it out because it's the northern line, and given what's happened, people aren't going to be able to get out to here, but if you want to play, then play". But of course we want to play, so we played, and it was less than half full, so he was quite right. But then I would see him at like Reading Festival and Phoenix Festival every year, and he would always remind me that he was the last promoter that lost money on The Wonder Stuff, because I think after that, our next gig was The Astoria in London, and for about six years there, we did really, really well, and that that period of 'Never Loved Elvis' really just felt special. So from about '88 to '94, we were very fortunate.
Well, you had a number one single in that period with 'Dizzy' with Vic Reeves; how did that come about? Did he approach you? Was he your friends?
I met him at a party and we'd got a gig that we were promoting ourselves in Walsall in the West Midlands at a football club there, so it was a 22,000 capacity stadium, and met him at this party and I said, "We've got this gig next month. Do you want to compère it?" And he was like, "Yeah", and he said, "Can I sing some songs?" So I think we did 'A Little Bit of Love' by Free, and then one of his songs, 'Mr. Songwriter', and then he phoned me the week after that and said, "Okay, I've done you a favour. You've got to do me one now". And I'm like, "What's that?", and he said, "be my band on my next single", because he'd already had 'Born Free'.
That was Vic's first hit, wasn't it?
Yeah. And I said, "Yeah, fine". so we spent a week or two discussing what to do. I'd never even heard the song 'Dizzy'. I'd somehow missed that one, so I don't think of it as a us having a number one; it's Vic's number one, and it was Vic's record label Island that put it out, not Polydor.
I guess though, like in a situation, he didn't have to co-credit you on the title, but he did.
It's 'Vic Reeves and The Wonder Stuff', and because I don't play on it, I just do a bit of vocal at the end, badly, I feel like I had very little to do with it. But the great thing that's come out of Vic, so that would be 1990, I think, is that me and Jim - that's his real name, Jim Moir - we're still friends, still see each other every year, 30 years later. So that's the great thing that came out of it.
Was it a surprise to you that it went to number one?
Yeah, we sort of did know, and it was scuppered as well because the same week of the release was the same week as U2 coming back. They'd been away for a year. Was it 'The Fly'? And of course the same label released ours, so the label were instructed by U2's people to not release all formats of 'Dizzy' because U2 had to have a first week number one, so it did outsell it.
That's crazy! People were waiting on U2's 'Achtung Baby!'
I wasn't! But so the next week 'Dizzy' knocked U2 off and it stayed there for two weeks. So that is one little bit of trivia that I do remember. I just thought, how fragile must your ego be to need that number one spot when you were U2 in 1991? I mean, I had no time for them anyway, and I've had less time for them since.
You don't hold back, do you!? The band split up a few years down the road after that. But were you shocked by the success of the reunion in 2000?
Yeah, we did did a couple of warm up nights in the Midlands at JB's, which was the home of our very first gig in '86. We did those, and then so the agent was Paul Boswell, and he said; "you can do five nights at the forum in Kentish Town". I'm like; "we can't", and so he put one on sale and he goes; "this will go in a day and then I'm holding the five", and then sure enough, it did the five, which, yes, in answer to your question, surprised me. But it was really good, really enjoyable.
And you've been going strong ever since, 26 years since then.
Yeah, it has been 26 years since we started again, a few line-up changes, but it's still me and Malc [Treece], the original guitarist and backing vocalist who I did most of the song writing with. Erica [Nockalls], our violinist, has been with us now for over 20 years, which is crazy. I still think of her as this 21-year-old girl that we met in the early 2000s.
It's been a few years since 'Better Being Lucky', which was released in 2019; have you plans for a new album?
We're going to start writing it next year. So this year, me and Pete, our drummer, were doing Vent 414, our other band, so that's out now, and then yeah, we're going to probably get together in the studio late March and just start jamming out some ideas.
So you're looking at a release date for 2027?
It might be '28 at the rate we work. I mean, we'll write it quite quickly, but I like to be in the studio for like two, maybe three days at a time, and like weekends on certain occasions, so yeah, we'll take a long time. I've got no attention span, so if you put me in a studio for two weeks, I'll come up with nothing.
Do you like to go in with your songs prepared?
No. Make them up when we get there! There's a lot of songwriters in the band now with Erica and Mark Gemini Thwaite who do their own albums. Mark's got another band, Holy Apes, so we should know what we're doing.
Good, yeah. It's noisy. I live in the middle of nowhere in England, where the only noise pollution is the occasional blurt of a sheep, so I'm not used to hearing five different pieces of music going on.
It's a little overwhelming, isn't it?
It really is. I can think of other words to describe it too.
It's been ten years since you played in Ireland.
Probably. Yeah, I think that's about right. I think we did Belfast and Dublin in 2016, probably, when the band was merely 30 years of age.
And it's now 40; can you believe that the band is still going all this time later?
It's curious, yeah. We lost some along the way, but it's a strong line-up now. Our original drummer and original bass player both passed away, but the current drummer and bass player were in a band called Eat from London, and they used to do a lot of touring with us in sort of '89 and '90. and so Pete Howard, our current drummer, was best mates with Martin Jobs, our original drummer. Tim [Sewell], current bass player got on great with The Bass Thing [Rob Jones], so I think that's quite a unique situation to have two really good friends of the guys that passed away carrying the mantle, as it were.
I guess it feels almost like it's validated by the other guys.
When I asked Pete Howard, I said, "Would you be interested in joining?" This would be back 2018. Would you be interested in joining the band? And he said the loveliest thing, he said; "it would be an honour to play Martin's beats". That was really sweet.
I spoke to Brian Tatler from Diamond Head recently, and we were discussing the Diamond Head mural that has just gone up on Stourbridge, and it was him that told me there's one for the Wonder Stuff, and Pop will Eat Itself as well.
And The Neds [Ned's Atomic Dustbin] who were here the night before last.
Fuzz Townsend from Pop Will Eat Itself was in the Wonder Stuff for a while, wasn't he?
Yeah, Fuzz, god he's done so much you can't list what he's done, and now he's a TV presenter on Car SOS.
What was it like to have a mural in your honour in your hometown?
Yeah, it's curious, really. I mean, actually the placement of it's really odd because probably around eleven years ago, the building that it's on was a recording studio that we used to use to do demos at, and the artist in getting the permission to put the logo on the building, had no idea because that's like a day care centre for children. He had no idea, and that really surprised me. But yes, it's in a lovely spot. If you're going around the ring road on the bus on the number nine, you'll see it.
Which actually brings me to another point because you had 'From The Midlands with Love' LP, celebrating some of the great bands.
Yeah, it was a whole album. We did Slade, Duran Duran, UB40.
I mean, there's so much to choose from, from Black Sabbath to...
Well, I'm not a metal fan. I'm a little bit more relaxed about it now, but I've never enjoyed Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath or Judas Priest who would be Midlands as well, wouldn't it? It just wasn't for me. So when I was saying to people, you know; "we're going to choose a bunch of artists from the Midlands", those were the first names if you're in a pub conversation; "well, you've got to do a Zeppelin song!". I hate that music, so they're all genuinely songs that I loved and probably bought when I was a kid.
Looking back to 'Never Loved Elvis' [1991]; what was that like for you to hit that success at that time?
It all happened very quick for us. I mean, we were doing things like Top of the Pops by our second album ['Hup', 1989]. I hated it. I think we did it seven times, and every time I begged the label to let me off; "I don't want to go! I hate it!" So it didn't feel like that much of a jump for us.
There's an interesting story. A guy that used to promote at a pub in Walthamstow in East London, the Royal Standard, we were booked to play there the night of the King's Cross fire [18th November 1987], so we were up in Birmingham in the morning watching that on the news, going, "Jesus Christ!", and so he phoned and said, "Look, you're not going to sell it out because it's the northern line, and given what's happened, people aren't going to be able to get out to here, but if you want to play, then play". But of course we want to play, so we played, and it was less than half full, so he was quite right. But then I would see him at like Reading Festival and Phoenix Festival every year, and he would always remind me that he was the last promoter that lost money on The Wonder Stuff, because I think after that, our next gig was The Astoria in London, and for about six years there, we did really, really well, and that that period of 'Never Loved Elvis' really just felt special. So from about '88 to '94, we were very fortunate.
Well, you had a number one single in that period with 'Dizzy' with Vic Reeves; how did that come about? Did he approach you? Was he your friends?
I met him at a party and we'd got a gig that we were promoting ourselves in Walsall in the West Midlands at a football club there, so it was a 22,000 capacity stadium, and met him at this party and I said, "We've got this gig next month. Do you want to compère it?" And he was like, "Yeah", and he said, "Can I sing some songs?" So I think we did 'A Little Bit of Love' by Free, and then one of his songs, 'Mr. Songwriter', and then he phoned me the week after that and said, "Okay, I've done you a favour. You've got to do me one now". And I'm like, "What's that?", and he said, "be my band on my next single", because he'd already had 'Born Free'.
That was Vic's first hit, wasn't it?
Yeah. And I said, "Yeah, fine". so we spent a week or two discussing what to do. I'd never even heard the song 'Dizzy'. I'd somehow missed that one, so I don't think of it as a us having a number one; it's Vic's number one, and it was Vic's record label Island that put it out, not Polydor.
I guess though, like in a situation, he didn't have to co-credit you on the title, but he did.
It's 'Vic Reeves and The Wonder Stuff', and because I don't play on it, I just do a bit of vocal at the end, badly, I feel like I had very little to do with it. But the great thing that's come out of Vic, so that would be 1990, I think, is that me and Jim - that's his real name, Jim Moir - we're still friends, still see each other every year, 30 years later. So that's the great thing that came out of it.
Was it a surprise to you that it went to number one?
Yeah, we sort of did know, and it was scuppered as well because the same week of the release was the same week as U2 coming back. They'd been away for a year. Was it 'The Fly'? And of course the same label released ours, so the label were instructed by U2's people to not release all formats of 'Dizzy' because U2 had to have a first week number one, so it did outsell it.
That's crazy! People were waiting on U2's 'Achtung Baby!'
I wasn't! But so the next week 'Dizzy' knocked U2 off and it stayed there for two weeks. So that is one little bit of trivia that I do remember. I just thought, how fragile must your ego be to need that number one spot when you were U2 in 1991? I mean, I had no time for them anyway, and I've had less time for them since.
You don't hold back, do you!? The band split up a few years down the road after that. But were you shocked by the success of the reunion in 2000?
Yeah, we did did a couple of warm up nights in the Midlands at JB's, which was the home of our very first gig in '86. We did those, and then so the agent was Paul Boswell, and he said; "you can do five nights at the forum in Kentish Town". I'm like; "we can't", and so he put one on sale and he goes; "this will go in a day and then I'm holding the five", and then sure enough, it did the five, which, yes, in answer to your question, surprised me. But it was really good, really enjoyable.
And you've been going strong ever since, 26 years since then.
Yeah, it has been 26 years since we started again, a few line-up changes, but it's still me and Malc [Treece], the original guitarist and backing vocalist who I did most of the song writing with. Erica [Nockalls], our violinist, has been with us now for over 20 years, which is crazy. I still think of her as this 21-year-old girl that we met in the early 2000s.
It's been a few years since 'Better Being Lucky', which was released in 2019; have you plans for a new album?
We're going to start writing it next year. So this year, me and Pete, our drummer, were doing Vent 414, our other band, so that's out now, and then yeah, we're going to probably get together in the studio late March and just start jamming out some ideas.
So you're looking at a release date for 2027?
It might be '28 at the rate we work. I mean, we'll write it quite quickly, but I like to be in the studio for like two, maybe three days at a time, and like weekends on certain occasions, so yeah, we'll take a long time. I've got no attention span, so if you put me in a studio for two weeks, I'll come up with nothing.
Do you like to go in with your songs prepared?
No. Make them up when we get there! There's a lot of songwriters in the band now with Erica and Mark Gemini Thwaite who do their own albums. Mark's got another band, Holy Apes, so we should know what we're doing.
RSS Feed