Tickets are now available to see The Wonder Stuff at Rock City!
The Wonder Stuff are a British alternative rock band formed in the Birmingham / Black Country area in 1986. Originally a four-piece consisting of Miles Hunt (vocals/guitar), Malc Treece (guitar/vocals), Rob ‘The Bass Thing’ Jones (bass guitar) and Martin Gilks (drums) the band released two independent EPs on their own ‘The Far Out Recording Company’ in 1987 before signing to Polydor Records (Universal) later in the same year.
Between 1988 and 1994 they released four Top 20 albums and fifteen Top 20 singles, including collaborations with Kirsty MacColl on ‘Welcome To The Cheap Seats’ and the Number One single with comedians Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, ‘Dizzy’.
Albums:
1988 – ‘The Eight Legged Groove Machine’
1989 – ‘HUP’
1991 – ‘Never Loved Elvis’
1993 – ‘Construction For The Modern Idiot’
During this time the band expanded their sound and their line-up. Replacing bass player Rob ‘The Bass Thing’ Jones with Paul Clifford (after Jones’ departure in December 1989) and adding multiinstrumentalist Martin ‘Fiddly’ Bell (also in 1989) an keyboard player Pete Whittaker in 1993. Primarily The Wonder Stuff are a touring band, from 1987 to 1994 the band was barely off the road, covering much of North America, Europe, Australia, Japan and their home turf of the UK, selling hundreds of thousands of records in the process.
Selling out four nights in a row at London’s Brixton Academy in 1991 and headlining Reading Festival in 1992 are just two early live accolades for the band. During which time they regularly appeared on the front covers of the British music press (NME/Melody Maker/Sounds/Q Magazine/Select) and making six separate appearances on the BBC’s flagship music TV program ‘Top Of The Pops’.
However, in 1994 Hunt announced that he was leaving the band but soon reappeared as the host of MTV Europe’s ‘120 Minutes’ alternative music show. In 1996 he launched a new band Vent 414 with drummer Pete Howard (The Clash/Eat/Queenadreena) and bass player Morgan Nicholls (Senseless Things/The Streets/Gorillaz/Muse) recording one self-titled album with Steve Albini. During the same period Treece, Gilks and Clifford formed the band WeKnowWhereYouLive with former Eat vocalist, Ange Dolittle, releasing two EPs.
In 1998 Hunt and Treece reunited as an acoustic duo and toured the UK and North America extensively. Treece and multi-instrumentalist Bell both contributed to Hunt’s debut solo album ‘Hairy On The Inside’ in 1999.
In 2000 Hunt, Treece, Gilks and Bell reformed The Wonder Stuff with new bass player Stuart Quinnell (Understand) and played five sold out nights at London’s Forum Theatre. Plans to record a new album with this line-up never came to fruition and at the close of 2003 both Gilks and Bell departed the band leaving Hunt and Treece to recruit a new line-up of Mark McCarthy (Radical Dance Faction) on bass guitar, Luke Johnson (Lowlives) playing drums in the studio and Andres Karu (Love In Reverse/Amazing Meet Project) playing drums at live shows and going on to record the band’s fifth album, 2004’s ‘Escape From Rubbish Island’.
Having toured both the UK and North America with the revitalised four-piece line-up the band returned to the studio adding violinist/vocalist Erica Nockalls (The Proclaimers/Immaculate Fools/EN) to record the 2006 album ‘Suspended By Stars’. Hunt and Nockalls then went on to record two albums together ‘Not An Exit’ (2007) and ‘Catching More Than We Miss’ (2009).
In July 2011 Malc Treece left the band and was initially replaced for live performances by Jesus Jones guitarist Jerry de Borg. Another guitarist, former TWS live sound engineer Stevie Wyatt, was enlisted for 2012’s ‘Oh No… it’s The Wonder Stuff’ album, which also feature’s Car SOS presenter Fuzz Townshend (PWEI/Bentley Rhythm Ace/The Beat) on drums. The single that preceded the album release, ‘Oh No!’, featured comedian and longtime fan of The Wonder Stuff Greg Davies in a leading role for the accompanying promo video.
A second pressing of the ‘Oh No… it’s The Wonder Stuff’ album came coupled with an accompanying disc, The Wonder Stuff’s tribute to fellow Midlands artists, ‘From The Midlands With Love’, seeing them cover songs by The Beat, The Move, Dexy’s Midnight Runners and Slade, among others.
The band’s 30th anniversary was marked by the release of the ’30 Goes Around The Sun’ album in 2016 and saw another lineup change with Dan Donnelly (The Levellers) taking over on guitar and Tony Arthy (Jesus Jones) at the drum kit. The album spawned two single releases, ‘For The Broken Hearted’ and ‘Good Deeds And Highs’, both with accompanying videos by director George Taylor. Happily, guitarist Malc Treece returned to the band for the 2019 album ‘Better Being Lucky’ which also marked the arrival of Pete Howard (Vent 414) on drums, Tim Sewell (Eat) on bass and Mark Gemini Thwaite (Spear Of Destiny/The Mission/Gary Numan/Peter Murphy) on additional guitar.
Alongside Hunt and Nockalls this remains the band’s current line-up. In 2016 Hunt published the first of three volumes of his ‘The Wonder Stuff Diaries’ which chronicle the experiences and inner workings of the band from 1986 to 1994, as seen from the frontman’s personal diaries.
In 2026 The Wonder Stuff will celebrate their 40th anniversary by performing extensively around the UK, Ireland and Europe. There are plans to release a double live album and even start work on the band’s 10th studio album.
Line-up:
Miles Hunt – vocals/guitar
Malc Treece – guitar/vocals
Erica Nockalls – violin/vocals
Mark Gemini Thwaite – guitar
Tim Sewell – bass guitar
Pete Howard – drums
For more events, check out our gig guide here.