The Wonder Stuff

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The Wonder Stuff - Cheese and Grain, Frome 14.07.17 Live Review


While the "Theme from S'Express" was sitting proud at number one in April 1988, The Wonder Stuff first graced the charts at number seventy-two with "Give Give Give Me More More More". But did we gather at the Cheese and Grain on Friday to pay homage to those chart-topping, early acid house masters, with barely a clutch of recognisable tunes, or were we in fact on the Stourbridge Express, stopping off at a series of belters from the Wonder Stuff's extensive thirty-year back catalogue? It's a bona fide crime that so many people under the age of forty scratch their arse, shrug and mumble, 'Didn't they do that Vic Reeves thing?' when you mention Miles Hunt and his indie-shindig ministers. Their set at the Cheese and Grain, although clearly preaching to the converted, not only confirmed that the Stuffies have crafted some fine works over the decades, but also that they just seem to get better with time.

The Wonder Stuff - Cheese and Grain, Frome 14.07.17 Live Review

Hunt still possesses all of the magnetic frontman's exuberance that coursed through him in the early 90s. His voice has become slightly richer. The resplendent, trademark locks remain. Erica Nockalls' fiddle playing gives the band's sound an extra profundity and gravity that you'd associate with violinists like Lau's Aidan O'Rourke or "Purple Electric Violin" loopmeister, Ed Alleyne-Johnson - in immediate evidence on opener, "Don't You Ever" from their latest release, "30 Goes Around the Sun." Bassist Mark McCarthy drove the rhythms on mightily from a wheelchair and in a leg cast, making a welcome first appearance on the tour, having previously been attacked by a scaffolding lorry when out cycling. 

1987 to 1991, and especially "The Eight-Legged Groove Machine", "Hup" and "Never Loved Elvis", dominated the twenty-three song setlist. Successive 'Elvis' tunes, like the run of "Here Comes Everyone", followed by "Mission Drive" (documenting Hunt's falling out with Clint Mansell of PWEI) and "Caught in my Shadow", or the pairing of "Size of a Cow" and "Welcome to the Cheap Seats" sent the crowd apesh*t. Lost property filled swiftly with everyone's inhibitions. The more the middle-aged indie kid next to you moshed like they were mashed, the more you gave it a 'when in Frome' shrug and jumped right in with them. The energetic connotations of "Hup" came through in the typically-scathing and still-too-relevant "Radio Ass Kiss" and rock 'n' roll ceilidh "Golden Green".

Continue reading: The Wonder Stuff - Cheese and Grain, Frome 14.07.17 Live Review

Bestival Line Up And Ticket Information - 5-8th September 2013

Posted on31 January 2013

Bestival Line Up And Ticket Information - 5-8th September 2013

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