When THE WONDER STUFF bowed out with their poignant and memorable set at the 1994 Phoenix Festival, we assumed that would be the end of the road for one of the UK's very best pop bands from the pre-Britpop years. Especially when lead singer/ songwriter and mouth about town MILES HUNT went off to be an MTV presenter and form the short-lived Vent 414.
But we would be wrong in that assumption, because after reforming for several re-union tours over the past three years, our Brummie heroes are back to wreak tuneful havoc with their new abum "Escape From Rubbish Island". As we'll see, Tony Blair, the music industry and figures from his own past are still firmly in Miles's sights, as he took time out from rehearsals from the band's forthcoming tour to speak to W&H.
Despite a reputation for arrogance, Miles is one of the most intelligent and articulate people we've been lucky enough to speak with. He's outspoken, sure, but a great conversationalist, brilliant company and very open. We choose a brilliant moment to call his mobile as he's just pulled up at traffic lights while on his bike. Fortunately, the ights are still red and he's time to pull off the road and chat.
Miles, when you originally got back together for the Wonder Stuff reunion shows at Christmas 2000, was there an intention to make a new record or did the thought only come along later on?
"No, that wasn't the idea at the time really," replies Miles, who's still panting a little.
"I mean, after the band split in '94, we still got lots of offers to do festivals, even during 1995 and '96, but no-one was interested in getting back together then. It was always a possibility after I started working with Malc (Treece, guitarist) again in 1998, but it never happened because there was always someone busy and we couldn't get together at the same time, y'know."
He pauses and regroups for a moment.
"So yeah, finally in 2000 everyone was available and we thought yeah, why not? Let's do it. And we enjoyed it again. After that I guess there was always a chance of us doing a new record. Another significant event was us doing the Fleadh (Finsbury Park festival - Ed) where we got talking to Joe Strummer, who encouraged us to think about making a new record. After that we thought it might be possible."
Right. But the new Wonder Stuff is rather different. What's happened to a couple of the familiar faces, not least founding member and drummer Martin Gilks?
"Well, he decided to go," says Miles candidly, "and I'm fine about it because it got to be a situation where we were always arguing and banging heads. Martin was acting as our manager and trying to sort gigs where we would be playing huge places and charging the fans £25 per ticket. That wasn't on at all. Anyway, in the end, Martin said he didn't want to be in a band with me anymore. Fine by me."
Ok, so it's still you and Malc, but now you've got bassist Mark McCarthy (ex-Radical Dance Faction) and drummer Luke Johnson (Amen, believe it or not) on board. How permenent is the current Stuffies line-up?
"It's very much a permanent thing, though we'll be a bit different live than on record," Miles responds.
"Luke (Johnson) drums on the album and I've known him since he was like 5 years old. He's the Wonder Stuff's old tour manager's son, so he sort of grew up with us. He's been out in California spreading his wings and playing with a load of reputable Goth rockers over there, including Amen, but he was visiting his parents in Birmingham last Christmas and I asked him if he'd stay on to make the record with us."
Simple as that?
"Yeah, yeah," laughs Miles. "He's only 23, so obviously he's not gonna stay on with The Wonder Stuff and play with a load of old farts, so live we have a guy called Andres Karu. He's played on my solo records and he's a great bloke to have around, so he's out on the road with the rest of us."
The 'rest' of you also including new bassist Mark McCarthy. I love his playing on the new album. He sounds like a cross between The Bass Thing and Jah Wobble...
"He'd love that description! Jah Wobble's his favourite bassist," Miles reveals.
"Actually, it's funny you should mention Bob (Jones, The Bass Thing, late Wonder Stuff bassist - Ed) because Mark very much reminds me of him," he continues.
"Like, they both look quite scary and aggressive, tattoos near their face and so on, but yet Bob was actually a real sweetheart underneath it and so is Mark. He's a lovely bloke. It's strange and quite amusing watching him learn all Bob's old basslines....in rehearsals he'll be standing there smoking a spliff and trying to get his head round all these million changes in the old songs," he finishes, chuckling.
The diversity of the new record suggests this is a creative new Wonder Stuff...
"Yeah, it is," confirms Miles. "Now we have a line-up that can work together from rehearsals. I mean, Mark's brought that with him. Songs like "Better Get Ready For A Fist Fight" were written from the bass line. Also, it'll be interesting to see how he works with Malc in future because - by his own admission - Malc's quite an odd guitarist, but he's always got good ideas, so it'll be interesting to see how they work in tandem."
I made a reference to you still being "pissed off" at 37 in my album review. You've always been known for being outspoken and have taken verbal potshots at plenty of people over the years, but are you as angry these days, do you think?
"Well, I'm still irritible, yeah," Miles says without hesitation.
"It's part of my personality, I guess. But I have a three year-old daughter now, so that means I have to act like an adult when it's appropriate and that's a good discipline. But y'know, I used to waste so much energy getting wound up by shit pop songs in the 1990s and now I don't pay any attention to what the music press....or what's left of it...are saying, like. I exist in my own bubble and tend to let my friends turn me onto new bands through word of mouth."
The new album suggests you're sick to the back teeth of Blair's Britain. The title track especially vents spleen aplenty yet - while I agree pretty much wholeheartedly with the sentiments - where's the alternative to Blair's bullshit?
"In mainstream politics, I don't think there is one," Miles considers.
"But at the same time, British people could stop being so fucking apathetic and get off their arses to protest about it, couldn't they?" he continues, not unreasonably.
"I mean, it frightens me the level of shit we seem to swallow and the attitude of politicians repels me. They seem to have conveniently forgotten they're 'our' representatives and they just act like bullies. As a parent, I don't know how Blair can sleep at night. Leadership? Don't make me laugh! The man's a coward! I'm ashamed to admit I voted for him and I feel cheated and lied to."
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The band's new single "Better Get Ready For A Fist Fight" espouses the idea of leaving Britain behind altogether as a result of this disillusionment. How realistic is that for Miles Hunt? And where would he go?
"I had huge plans to move to Dublin last year," reveals Miles.
"Then I got a surprise call from my ex-girlfriend, the mother of my child. I mean, I knew all about my daughter, but when her mother called me and basically said "your daughter needs you in her life", well, obviously that became my priority. My daughter lives in Devon and so I'm down there as much as I can be."
You're keeping out of London then?
"Yeah, well I'm moving back to Shropshire after this next UK tour," he replies.
"I'll be glad to. London permeates into everything and it's all hatred and negativity. My blood pressure rises like a fuckin' million per cent every time I'm there."
To return to the idea of anger and arrogance (or a lack of it), the song "Another Comic Tragedy" on the new album casts you in a more vulnerable light. Are you a more cautious individual these days, Miles?
"Yeah, I probably am really," he concedes.
"After 4 or 5 serious relationships coming to the same depressingly similar end and a friend of mine calling me a serial monogamist, I've learnt to perhaps not just leap in all the time and fuck the consequences," he continues, slightly ruefully.
"I mean, I'm certainly more cautious about giving it all away so easily these days. I know I have to keep myself in check more because I both love and hate with a passion. A real vengeance."
There's a real darkness attached to this sentence, but Miles immediately leavens it when he continues to tell me about the writing of the song.
"I wrote that tune with Johnny Male, a friend of mine who has a similarly chequered past," he says.
"Plus, we both love Squeeze, Tom Robinson, Joe Jackson....great new wave. There isn't really a contemporary version of Squeeze, is there?"
No, not really, I guess.
"I think it's the way their songs are great narratives, yet they don't really have obvious choruses do they?"
I'm thinking about "Up The Junction," "Cool For Cats," "Another Nail For My Heart"....no, they don't really...not in the orthodox sense. You're right!
"Yeah, you learn something every day, don't you?"
Nice one, Miles. But to go back to the album's title track for a moment, we do indeed seem to be living in a nostalgia-based society where - at least in some quarters - "forty years on, The Beatles rule" as you put it. At present, we're celebrating the tenth anniversary of the first Oasis album and all things Britpop: roughly the time The Wonder Stuff initially bowed out. Do you feel the likes of Oasis and Blur owe you a debt?
"No more than we do to the bands we nicked stuff from," shrugs Miles.
"Mind you, that Brit Awards where Blur were crowned as saviours, I found that pretty irritating, because all they were doing was carrying on what was started by the C86 crowd initially. I mean, you've gotta remember back in the mid 80s, there was still shit like Simon Bates and "Our Tune" clogging up the airwaves."
Don't remind me. I've tried hard to forget...
"Yeah, right," guffaws Miles.
"But yeah, it was bands like The Shop Assistants and the Jesus & Mary Chain and then Pop Will Eat Itself and The Wonder Stuff who paved the way certainly. 1994 wasn't like Punk's Year Zero or whatever."
So did you applaud the arrogance the Gallaghers displayed, pretty much from the word go?
"Yeah, well when I was at MTV one of the first interviews I had to do was with Liam and Noel," says Miles.
"I mean, I didn't really care that much for them, but I did admire the way they walked it like they talked it. We did the same with The Wonder Stuff. It's the arrogance of youth, sure, but what's the point of being a young guy and being in a band and not believing you're the best fukcing band in the world? You SHOULD be telling everyone that!"
Hear hear.
"Mind you," he continues, "I still hear Liam banging on about it and it sounds ridiculous these days. I mean, come on - he's a millionaire now. What hunger can he still have now? Nonetheless, Britpop wasn't such a bad thing....I mean, I love Nirvana, but there was a load of shit came in the wake of the whole Grunge thing and Britpop killed it off, so respect to that. Besides, Blur especially have really developed....."Out Of Time", I'd have fuckin' sawed my leg off for that song!"
Crikey. Praise indeed. Surely this humility isn't the sound of the new, mellow Miles Hunt is it?
"Hardly," he scoffs, "but I do think I'm priveleged to still be able to play to so many people with this band again these days," he admits.
And you've got a load of UK dates coming up as well, but what after that? Is this new Wonder Stuff in this for the long haul again?
"Yeah, it is," says Miles, still burning with a fire in his belly.
"Me and Malc have both agreed this is full time now. We enjoy it as friends and writers. We're starting rehearsing on Saturday and we have new ideas already. Now I wonder why I jacked it in the first time round. I enjoy the security of just being in a band. I love it. It can't be bettered, can it?"
I'd say not. And it's still a foolish man who'd argue the toss with Miles Hunt. The Wonder Stuff are back, and driven by much more than mere nostalgia. Better shape up.
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