The Wonder Stuff hit 30 ! Does any group, when they first get together and start to make a racket in a small rehearsal room expect still to be around and making that racket 30 years later ? Granted, this isn’t the same Wonder Stuff that started out 3 decades before, but most of the bands I’ve obsessed about over the years didn’t get anywhere close to that type of longevity (The Jam lasted just 5 years, The Clash not much longer). These days I tend to look at The Wonder Stuff in terms of pre and post the 2000 reformation and in the post 2000 years “30 Goes Around The Sun” stands out as one of the bands very best records.

The album was recorded back “home” at Mockingbird Studios in Stourbridge with long term Stuffies live sound engineer Simon Efemey producing. This gives the whole record an overall sense of sound and a real punchy feel. Simon has been front of house for TWS on and off for over 30 years so he knows what they should sound like. He is also something of a renowned producer in the Metal world (his credits include albums with Paradise Lost, Wolfsbane, The Wildhearts and Napalm Death for whom he also mixes FOH) and while not quite turning the Stuffies metal he knows how to capture guitar music (Lordy I hope he never reads this, he loves himself enough as it is 😂. Luv ya really Si). 

I know I keep rattling on about Track 1 Side 1 but they are important as they set the tone for a record and “Don’t You Ever” is a superb Track 1 Side 1…although technically it is Track 2 as the moody “Intro” begins Side 1. Miles lays out some of his life lessons in the lyrics (“I made choices that ain’t been so clever, But hold out that we learn from our errors”) and unusually for a song of almost 4 minutes length we don’t get to the chorus until 2 and half minutes in, it’s worth the wait. This may be a little controversial but as opening songs go, “Don’t You Ever” is right up there with “Mission Drive” fighting it out for the number 1 spot.

I have my ideas about who the target of “In Clover” is (and BTW I’m likely completely wrong about it) but whoever it is I’m glad it’s not me suffering at the end of one of Miles’ most savage lyrics. “Last Days Of the Feast” is a rare TWS political song aimed at the “noses in the trough” career politicians who we thought were about to be swept away by a more human politics. Sadly the sharpening of knives worked to deny us that too. “Misunderstanding Burton Heel” introduces us to a character who Miles has yet to breathe more life into (ooooh, cryptic). “For The Broken Hearted” is a superb bouncy Wonder Stuff single that deserved much more attention and has possibly their 2nd daftest video to accompany it (https://youtu.be/VWEQyy6m4rg?si=KCn9Lvdwqlj_h3uu).

“The Kids From The Green” is a dreamy look back at simpler times, The Green being Marston Green in South Birmingham where Miles’ and me grew up and made friends that we still have today. We didn’t care about school, we lived by Springsteen’s proclamation that “We learned more from a 3 minute record baby than we ever learned in school”, much to our parents frustration. Some of those in the song we don’t see too often, them having scattered around the world, some are no longer with us but it’s a fitting musical celebration of what now feels like an idyllic time in our lives.

Everything wraps up with the upbeat title track (the lyric “And all this time I’ve not had one regret, I’m sure they’re all in the post but I’ve not had to face them yet” feels like a hook back to “Don’t You Ever”, closing the circle), it’s like a part 2 for “The Kids From The Green”, what happened next. 

Released on clean white vinyl in a gatefold sleeve containing a pop-up ferris wheel and city skyline (including a Walsall FC badge) when you open it up, “30 Goes Around The Sun” was a thing o’ beauty too.

Last Days Of The Feast - https://youtu.be/azbPA1IRzXg?si=AyZ3mzzBdlIBnYos