Friday 4th July 1986…the band I was in back then, Pop Da Freak, had a fairly prestigious gig booked at The Railway, Curzon Street, Birmingham. Don’t bother looking for The Railway now, it was demolished in 2007 as part of the redevelopment that saw the creation of the Thinktank Science Museum in Brum, and a somewhat ignominious period as a Mexican Restaurant, but back in the 80’s and all through the 70’s it had been quite the prestigious pub venue for Brummie bands along with the Barrell Organ and The Mercat Cross. On that night we had invited my brothers new band to support us, this would have been one of their first 10 gigs, they were called The Wonder Stuff. They played their, then, usual 20 minute set and off they went.

We had also invited that night local journalist Paul Flower who wrote for legendary local publication Brum Beat, obviously hoping for a favourable write up. After what we thought was a great gig for us we were keen to see what Paul made of it when the next issue came out. I found the review in the paper, there we were, “Pop Da Freak & The Wonder Stuff, The Railway, Birmingham”, oh he’s put TWS in the header too. Then imagine my dismay after one sentence saying we were OK, to find that the entirety of the review was about how fantastic The Wonder Stuff had been and how they really were going places. That was the day my dreams of rock stardom died and I realised that Miles and his band of long haired, ripped Levi’s  and stripey shirted Indie poppers really did have something going on.

This is where things start getting difficult to write. For those who haven’t been paying attention Wonder Stuff singer Miles Hunt is my brother, I worked on The Wonder Stuff’s crew from late in 1987 until the end of 2019 (on and off), these records we’re about to talk about mean as much to me as classics by The Jam, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie or any of the other artists that have helped make me who I am now (and make no mistake music has been that important to me being who I am). The people who made these records aren’t distant images on a stage or pictures in the music press, they are my mates, in some cases my very much missed no longer with us mates. So let’s see if we can explain these records importance in my, and maybe your, world.

“The Eight Legged Groove Machine” (from here on referred to as “ELGM”) is that classic debut album, basically the bands live set up to that point in time, honed to perfection on stages of all sizes up and down the country with the addition of a couple of newer songs constructed in the studio, and all committed to tape with a little finesse courtesy of producer Pat Collier. Pat had been the original bass player in The Vibrators and just prior to “ELGM” had produced albums by the Motorcycle Boy, the Soup Dragons and King Kurt. He would, after “ELGM”, go on to become the Indie producer of choice, making records with Neds Atomic Dustbin, The Darling Buds, The Seers and The House Of Love alongside a long standing relationship with Robyn Hitchcock. Pat was an unflappable presence in the studio.

The “ELGM” bursts into life on a song that is still close to the heart of many a Stuffies fan, “Red Berry Joy Town”, one of the very first songs they ever wrote. All ringing, scratching guitars and, psych-ie harmonies, you can almost hear all that hair flailing around. There’s absolutely no letup for the first 3 songs as that is followed by the breathless “No For The 13th Time” (or “No x 13” as it appeared on setlists) and the sarcy “It’s Yer Money I’m After Baby” (note the mis-spelling tip of the hat to the mighty Slade). All the live favourites up to that point are here, single “Give, Give, Give Me More More More” (the Kerrrching at the start was sampled from Wizzard’s “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday”…gotta keep things in the family), “Ruby Horse” (giddy up kiddies it’s the horsey song), “Poison” (nobody wants to get hurt…), “Grin” (during which myself and Roadie-ing partner in crime Digby Cleaver would sing “Shake it like a shaking thing that you’ve never seen, Cos the thing that pays your wages now is the The Eight Legged Groove Machine”) and of course “Unbearable” or as Miles often refers to it “the song that got us into all this trouble". It’s a manic pop rush from start to end equal parts Psyche Rock, Glam Rock, Punk Rock and the sound of 1988.

Of those newer songs the most contentious was “The Animals & Me”. “Bass Thing” Rob Jones absolutely hated it, on his vinyl copy the track was scratched out, and I think I’m right in saying he doesn’t play on the album version (I’m sure Miles will put me right if I’m wrong on that). The reason it was re-arranged for it’s live incarnation wasn’t because they couldn’t play it live like it was on the record but that Bob wouldn’t play it like that !

Following the albums release we set off on the “Groovers On Manoeuvres” UK tour. That was my first experience of working a  headlining UK tour. For some gigs I was on double duty as my band, The Libertines, were the support at shows in Manchester, Keele, Birmingham, London, Cardiff, and Liverpool. I would spend all day setting up the Stuffies show then, when soundcheck was over and I should be getting dinner, I would setup and soundcheck with The Libertines and as soon as we finished our gig, rush off, get changed and rush back to the stage for the changeover to start the Stuffies show…oh to be 25 again !!!

From 2 nights at the tiny Newcastle Riverside to 2 sold out nights at London’s (sadly demolished) Astoria, the tour was an absolute blast. The band were on fire and the audiences were just wild. Within 2 years The Wonder Stuff had gone gone from support band in a backstreet Brummie boozer (£1 on the door just to make you all really jealous!) to headlining UK tours and a top 20 album, for which I still have the silver disc on my record room wall. It was bye-bye West Midlands, we were aiiirborne…

Grin - https://youtu.be/6i4ha0Z831A?si=BTK2e2tauZGskgSg