If you’re going to produce short run/limited edition vinyl pressings of your albums then you might as well make them a thing of beauty to look at as well as a delight to  listen to. “Better Being Lucky” is not only a great album the actual physical thing is a work of art. Three 12” singles playing at 45RPM, one on blue vinyl, one pink and the third yellow (I believe they are officially Pale Blue, Fuchsia and Custard) all housed in a box. It’s an absolutely gorgeous thing.

One VERY important thing to know about “Better Being Lucky” and its sound was that Malc was back ! After stepping away from the band after “Suspended By Stars” for reasons that shall remain unspoken it was a fucking joy to have Rockin’ Roy Treece back in the fold. I’d been looking after Malc and his guitars and equipment for almost 30 years and I know I’ve said before that so long as Miles is upfront it’s still The Wonder Stuff to me…but there’s only Milo and Malc left from that band that supported Pop Da Freak at the Railway in Birmingham in 1986 so to have done gigs without him there, stage left (and this is no slight to Stevie or Dan or Jerry who stood in for him for a few years) always felt a bit off to me. Love ya Malc…

It was back to Mockingbird Studio in Stourbridge with Simon Efemey behind the mixing desk again (hey, if the formula works stick with it). This time we introduce another set of legs to the Groove Machine too, they are now twelve legged. The Wonder Stuff these days is something of an alt.rock supergroup. Miles and Malc are still there from the original line-up. Erica has now been in the band for almost 20 years (!!!) and has 3 solo albums to her name along with stints with The Proclaimers and The Mission. The rhythm section of Pete Howard and Tim Sewell played together with the mighty Eat and then there is 3rd guitar slinger Mark Gemini Thwaite who has played with such leg-ends as Spear Of Destiny, The Mission, Bauhaus/Peter Murphy, Tricky and Gary Numan. We’re getting close to that Skynyrd 3 guitar attack here.

The first two songs on “Better Being Lucky” are honestly as good as any lineup of The Wonder Stuff has ever produced. “Feet To The Flames” and “Lay Down Your Cards” both made it into the set on the “Better Being Lucky” Tour (only 5 songs from the album were included in the set, all played up front so the crowd knew the hits were coming later), as did song number 3, the truly wonderful “Don’t Anyone Dare Give A Damn”. Taking its title from the tuning Miles used to write the song (D-A-D-G-A-D) it’s right up there with Miles best, full stop.

Miles got some help with the songwriting this time around, only 2 songs are credited just to him (the title track and “Map & Direction”). MGT co-wrote 9 of the 11 songs including some crunching guitar riffs on “No Thieves Among Us” which I’m sure Simon enjoyed recording. Erica helped with “Lay Down Your Cards”, “It's The Little Things”, to which she also adds a wicked violin solo, and the beautiful “The Guy With The Gift”, Milo’s thank-you to those influential people we all have in our lives. With all those people contributing to the writing, for a band that have chiefly been led by Miles’ songs, at no point does “Better Being Lucky” sound like anything but a Wonder Stuff record. The overall sound is big and punchy but sympathetic to the quieter moments. 

We’ve already established my bias when it comes to all things TWS and here it comes again, “Better Being Lucky” is bloody wonderful and we haven’t really mentioned absolute highlights like the thunderous “When All Of This Is Over” (aka “The Custodian”) and Miles' hymn to the Shropshire hills “Map & Direction” (“In this timeless place I’ve been living, Every woman, every dog has had  their day”).

This was where my direct connection to The Wonder Stuff, as part of their crew ended. I’d tried to retire from the road once before, at the end of the 2013 “Sleigh The UK” tour. But in the summer of 2014 Miles coaxed me back to do “just one more gig” at V Festival in 2014 (it was going out live on the radio and I don’t think he was that confident in the crew they had around them at the time) and I stuck around for another 5 years after that. But after the Nov/Dec 2019 “Better Being Lucky” tour, the next thing we knew we were in the midst of a global pandemic and by the time the world got back to normal I stepped away for good. 

As we come to the end of our journey through their albums (for now ?) I’ll say it, The Wonder Stuff don’t get anything like the respect they deserve to my mind (yes, as we’ve said before, I’m biased). From 1988 until they split in 1994 they were one of (I’d argue at one point in time actually) the biggest bands in the UK. They are still to this day a formidable live experience (watching them support the Levellers on tour in 2011 was to see a masterclass in setlist construction, hit after hit after hit with very little time to draw breath and I have no hesitation in telling you they blew the Lev’s away every night) with Miles one of THE great frontmen. Other contemporaries, or those that followed, that are eulogised over endlessly by critics to this day (The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Blur, Oasis, Pulp blah, blah, blah ) pale into the background in comparison while The Stuffies have almost been written out of history. Fuck it…those of us that know, know, and god bless the fucking lot of us x

But as Miles would likely say...

Don’t Anyone Dare Give A Damn - https://youtu.be/EKEyPzyqZQ4?si=cze-wd-hJexITlDz