The Wonder Stuff

In the mid eighties an alternative rock band emerged from the black country to storm the charts and make the indie scene a sought after alternative.

The band consisted of Miles Hunt, Malcolm Treece, Rob Jones and Martin Gilks. The band spawned from another band Pop will eat itself. The band formed in 1986 and then self financed there first release and EP called 'A wonderful day'.

This provoked much interest in the music offices and eventually the band signed to Polydor Records.

After the signing of the contracts the band released a number of singles with 'Unbearable', 'give give give me more more more', 'A wish away' and 'It's yer money i'm after' which was there first top 40 hit in the UK singles chart.

This led to 1988 album release 'the eight legged groove machine' which debuted very well in the UK and reached number 18 in the UK album charts. There live music was gaining more interest and were on the road playing at Glastonbury and Reading festivals and also touring Europe and the USA. In between all that they found time to release 'who wants to be the disco king'.

In 1989 saw another successful year for the band when 'Don't let me down gently' broke into the top 20 UK single charts and this was followed by the album Hup which went top 5 in the UK album charts.

Personnel changes did occur where Rob Jones left the band to move to the USA and was replaced by Paul Clifford and also Martin Bell joined the band where his influence of Violin and Banjo were prevalent on some of there songs such as Golden Green and Unfaithful.

It wasn't until the early 1990s that the band really became household names They released the critically acclaimed album Never Loved Elvis which went top 3 in the UK album charts but it was the release of the single 'Size of a cow' reached number 5 in the UK single charts and was backed up by 'Caught in my shadow' which went top 20.

They then covered a Tommy Roe cover 'Dizzy' with comedian Vic Reeves and the song went to the top of the charts and this lifted the band profile hugely and the follow up 'welcome to the cheap seats' went top 10 in the single charts.

But like all good things sometimes they come to an end and the band eventually went there separate ways in 1994 after playing the Phoenix festival near Stratford upon Avon. During the 1980s the band released 2 studio albums and released 9 singles enjoying 5 top 40 successes.