The Wonder Stuff: They Came, They Went
Published September 18, 2003
Pat Collier was a member of the Vibrators, one of the earliest British pop-punk bands in the late-'70s. As the '70s became the '80s Collier turned to recording, owning and operating the Greenhouse Studio in London, and over the course of working with dozens of young bands he developed Collier's Corollary.
Collier's Corollary explains what young bands have: "When you are a kid, you can tell what's cool and not cool because your peer group is essentially the market for pop music. When you're too close to the music business, or have been in it for too long, you lose the ability to have a gut reaction to something."
Collier's work with the Wonder Stuff illustrates these points aptly.
The Eight Legged Groove Machine, the Stuffies 1988 debut, is full of all the snarling punk bravado one could expect from a quartet of Birmingham youths. Collier captures the energy and flinty soul of the band (led by Miles Hunt's surly, savory vocals) with clean, immediate production. "Red Berry Joy Town" and "No, For the 13th Time" kick where it hurts. The cynical, jaded "It's Money I'm After, Baby" sounds like the Clash of Give 'Em Enough Rope. Groove Machine is an unambiguous classic.
The band's next, Hup, was still smoking, adding Martin Bell's fiddle and banjo, and James Taylor's organ to diversify the sound. "Radio Ass Kiss" and "Don't Let Me Down, Gently" are standouts. Though the group never even charted in the U.S., they were superstars in Britain by their third album, Never Loved Elvis, produced by Mick Glossop.
Collier returned for Construction For the Modern Idiot, but by 1993, the angry young punks had become listless pop stars and the bloom was way off the rose. The band broke up soon thereafter, and Miles became a host for MTV Europe. Heh.
I interviewed Miles twice in the early-'90s and he was just a flat-out prick: supercilious, rude, bored, dreadful. He put on a good show, though. The Wonder Stuff was a great band live.
After a couple of iffy solo releases, Miles came back with some thrust with the Miles Hunt Club last year. He could not look much more different now than he did in the Wonder Stuff days: then a young, lean, wan, sneering artiste in leather pants with wild long red hair bouncing around the room. Now - a slightly puffy, respectable type in a suit and tie with accountant hair whom no one would mistake for young nor presume to be artistic. Ten years isn't THAT long.
- The Wonder Stuff: They Came, They Went
- Published: September 18, 2003
- Type:
- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Alternative Rock
- Writer: Eric Olsen
- Eric Olsen's BC Writer page
- Eric Olsen's personal site
- Spread the Word
- Like this article?
- Email this
Save to del.icio.us
Comments on this articleComments
Jim, I'm sure you're right about the discrepancy between stardom in the UK and cultdom here being a factor in his attitude, but the other guys in the band were very pleasant. I imagine Miles took it personally and they didn't. He was still pretty young at the time also.
The "industry"-only show I saw in L.A. (Whiskey?) was just tremendous, one of the best ever. I felt more charitable afer that.
I loved and love the stuffies music, I think miles solo stuff ,and new band stuff is great.
He may well be a prick ,as a lot of people have thought so, but in the end its not about his character (like Oasis for example, 2 pricks who make the band by being so) , its abotu the music, and the music is up to standard in my opinion.
Well I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinions. The sneer character only continued because the fans loved his verbal backchat so much. Off stage, Miles is a cracking guy as are the rest of the group that I've chatted to.
Whatever your views, you can't knock the fact that on their five-night reunion residency at London's Forum a few years back, every night was sold out and the crowd broke the record for bar sales. The Stuffies still have a huge fanbase both in the UK and overseas. That they did not break the US was down to the ineptitude of Polydor in the US. Miles has done a number of solo dates across the UK and the States which have all generally been well recieved.
Anyone wanting to hear more of Miles' solo stuff should head on over to GIG Records' website - www.gigrecords.com.
You can get Vibrators stuff there too.
Mark and Rob, I am here to praise the Wonder Stuff, not bury them - the prick stuff was just a personal reaction and not meant to be the final word on anyone's character. I'm sure Miles has matured after ten years anyway - who hasn't? I hope Miles does well with his new material, he's a major talent.
I'm not sure about why they didn't break here - the standard line is the label, but the label people I dealt with were totally in to the band and pumped them pretty hard as far as I could tell. Some bands just don't translate well across the ocean (in both directions) for whatever reason. Maybe there will be a Stuffies resurgence here.
Thanks for the link back to the way back.
Now I have to check whether they're from Birmingham or Nottingham - and I suspect I'm wrong.
thanks for reading! I don't remember where my inof came from - please let me know if I'm wrong.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/8480)
Oddly enough I've seen The Vibrators, and worked with The Wonder Stuff. Yes, Miles could be a prick, but the fans were worse.
The Wonder Stuff never got the support from their US record label they deserved (which accounted for the prickitude, one week you're playing Reading the next you're in some toilet in New Jersey).