Another of the records I first heard because my parents had it. Roy Wood’s 1973 solo album had seen its birth in recording sessions as far back as 1969 and was finished by 1971. Its release was delayed until 1973 due to his other gigs with The Move, ELO and Wizzard. Wood liked to collect musical instruments and started recording “Boulders” as a way of getting some of the more unusual instruments on to a record. It includes contributions on cittern (a Renaissance instrument similar to a Lute), bouzouki (a stringed, Lute like instrument from Greece) and water bowl (that’s a bowl of water to you and me). Apart from John Kurlander playing harmonium on one song, all the instruments on “Boulders” were played by Roy Wood (although I’m sure I recall a family rumour that Uncle Bill had contributed somewhere, uncredited, which was probably why my parents had a copy). 

It runs through a lot of different styles and sounds, some work some don’t. One that does is opener “Songs Of Praise” a gospel-ish rocker that would have made a great single but only achieved B-side status as backup to “Dear Elaine” (which did make #18 in the charts so...) a ballad we encounter later in the record.

There’s a weird pair of country/rock ’n’ roll tunes in the rollicking “When Gran'ma Plays The Banjo” (guess which instrument he’s highlighting there), which is a song a little like that scene from “Deliverance” but with a little more humour about it. The first part of the final “Rock Medley”, that being “Rockin' Shoes”, also has a very country feel about it.

“Miss Clark And The Computer” left me emotionally scarred as a kid, I ain’t kidding. It’s the story of a computer that has fallen in love with its operator but is in need of some technical jiggery-pokery as it is failing. The technician arrives to fix things and when the computer delivers the lyric “Screwdriver so sharp, Now I’m…scared Miss Clark” it still makes me well-up to this day ! When NASA’s Opportunity Rover sent that last message from Mars a few years ago (“My battery is low and it’s getting dark”) all I could think of was this poor computer and Miss Clark.

Roy Wood is one of this little islands greats. A superb musician and songwriter who deserves to be held in much higher regard than it seems he is.

Miss Clark And The Computer - https://youtu.be/4bBYwk5Zy10?si=870BjgNnNASgEPMR

If you’re going to produce short run/limited edition vinyl pressings of your albums then you might as well make them a thing of beauty to look at as well as a delight to  listen to. “Better Being Lucky” is not only a great album the actual physical thing is a work of art. Three 12” singles playing at 45RPM, one on blue vinyl, one pink and the third yellow (I believe they are officially Pale Blue, Fuchsia and Custard) all housed in a box. It’s an absolutely gorgeous thing.

One VERY important thing to know about “Better Being Lucky” and its sound was that Malc was back ! After stepping away from the band after “Suspended By Stars” for reasons that shall remain unspoken it was a fucking joy to have Rockin’ Roy Treece back in the fold. I’d been looking after Malc and his guitars and equipment for almost 30 years and I know I’ve said before that so long as Miles is upfront it’s still The Wonder Stuff to me…but there’s only Milo and Malc left from that band that supported Pop Da Freak at the Railway in Birmingham in 1986 so to have done gigs without him there, stage left (and this is no slight to Stevie or Dan or Jerry who stood in for him for a few years) always felt a bit off to me. Love ya Malc…

It was back to Mockingbird Studio in Stourbridge with Simon Efemey behind the mixing desk again (hey, if the formula works stick with it). This time we introduce another set of legs to the Groove Machine too, they are now twelve legged. The Wonder Stuff these days is something of an alt.rock supergroup. Miles and Malc are still there from the original line-up. Erica has now been in the band for almost 20 years (!!!) and has 3 solo albums to her name along with stints with The Proclaimers and The Mission. The rhythm section of Pete Howard and Tim Sewell played together with the mighty Eat and then there is 3rd guitar slinger Mark Gemini Thwaite who has played with such leg-ends as Spear Of Destiny, The Mission, Bauhaus/Peter Murphy, Tricky and Gary Numan. We’re getting close to that Skynyrd 3 guitar attack here.

The first two songs on “Better Being Lucky” are honestly as good as any lineup of The Wonder Stuff has ever produced. “Feet To The Flames” and “Lay Down Your Cards” both made it into the set on the “Better Being Lucky” Tour (only 5 songs from the album were included in the set, all played up front so the crowd knew the hits were coming later), as did song number 3, the truly wonderful “Don’t Anyone Dare Give A Damn”. Taking its title from the tuning Miles used to write the song (D-A-D-G-A-D) it’s right up there with Miles best, full stop.

Miles got some help with the songwriting this time around, only 2 songs are credited just to him (the title track and “Map & Direction”). MGT co-wrote 9 of the 11 songs including some crunching guitar riffs on “No Thieves Among Us” which I’m sure Simon enjoyed recording. Erica helped with “Lay Down Your Cards”, “It's The Little Things”, to which she also adds a wicked violin solo, and the beautiful “The Guy With The Gift”, Milo’s thank-you to those influential people we all have in our lives. With all those people contributing to the writing, for a band that have chiefly been led by Miles’ songs, at no point does “Better Being Lucky” sound like anything but a Wonder Stuff record. The overall sound is big and punchy but sympathetic to the quieter moments. 

We’ve already established my bias when it comes to all things TWS and here it comes again, “Better Being Lucky” is bloody wonderful and we haven’t really mentioned absolute highlights like the thunderous “When All Of This Is Over” (aka “The Custodian”) and Miles' hymn to the Shropshire hills “Map & Direction” (“In this timeless place I’ve been living, Every woman, every dog has had  their day”).

This was where my direct connection to The Wonder Stuff, as part of their crew ended. I’d tried to retire from the road once before, at the end of the 2013 “Sleigh The UK” tour. But in the summer of 2014 Miles coaxed me back to do “just one more gig” at V Festival in 2014 (it was going out live on the radio and I don’t think he was that confident in the crew they had around them at the time) and I stuck around for another 5 years after that. But after the Nov/Dec 2019 “Better Being Lucky” tour, the next thing we knew we were in the midst of a global pandemic and by the time the world got back to normal I stepped away for good. 

As we come to the end of our journey through their albums (for now ?) I’ll say it, The Wonder Stuff don’t get anything like the respect they deserve to my mind (yes, as we’ve said before, I’m biased). From 1988 until they split in 1994 they were one of (I’d argue at one point in time actually) the biggest bands in the UK. They are still to this day a formidable live experience (watching them support the Levellers on tour in 2011 was to see a masterclass in setlist construction, hit after hit after hit with very little time to draw breath and I have no hesitation in telling you they blew the Lev’s away every night) with Miles one of THE great frontmen. Other contemporaries, or those that followed, that are eulogised over endlessly by critics to this day (The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Blur, Oasis, Pulp blah, blah, blah ) pale into the background in comparison while The Stuffies have almost been written out of history. Fuck it…those of us that know, know, and god bless the fucking lot of us x

But as Miles would likely say...

Don’t Anyone Dare Give A Damn - https://youtu.be/EKEyPzyqZQ4?si=cze-wd-hJexITlDz

The Wonder Stuff hit 30 ! Does any group, when they first get together and start to make a racket in a small rehearsal room expect still to be around and making that racket 30 years later ? Granted, this isn’t the same Wonder Stuff that started out 3 decades before, but most of the bands I’ve obsessed about over the years didn’t get anywhere close to that type of longevity (The Jam lasted just 5 years, The Clash not much longer). These days I tend to look at The Wonder Stuff in terms of pre and post the 2000 reformation and in the post 2000 years “30 Goes Around The Sun” stands out as one of the bands very best records.

The album was recorded back “home” at Mockingbird Studios in Stourbridge with long term Stuffies live sound engineer Simon Efemey producing. This gives the whole record an overall sense of sound and a real punchy feel. Simon has been front of house for TWS on and off for over 30 years so he knows what they should sound like. He is also something of a renowned producer in the Metal world (his credits include albums with Paradise Lost, Wolfsbane, The Wildhearts and Napalm Death for whom he also mixes FOH) and while not quite turning the Stuffies metal he knows how to capture guitar music (Lordy I hope he never reads this, he loves himself enough as it is 😂. Luv ya really Si). 

I know I keep rattling on about Track 1 Side 1 but they are important as they set the tone for a record and “Don’t You Ever” is a superb Track 1 Side 1…although technically it is Track 2 as the moody “Intro” begins Side 1. Miles lays out some of his life lessons in the lyrics (“I made choices that ain’t been so clever, But hold out that we learn from our errors”) and unusually for a song of almost 4 minutes length we don’t get to the chorus until 2 and half minutes in, it’s worth the wait. This may be a little controversial but as opening songs go, “Don’t You Ever” is right up there with “Mission Drive” fighting it out for the number 1 spot.

I have my ideas about who the target of “In Clover” is (and BTW I’m likely completely wrong about it) but whoever it is I’m glad it’s not me suffering at the end of one of Miles’ most savage lyrics. “Last Days Of the Feast” is a rare TWS political song aimed at the “noses in the trough” career politicians who we thought were about to be swept away by a more human politics. Sadly the sharpening of knives worked to deny us that too. “Misunderstanding Burton Heel” introduces us to a character who Miles has yet to breathe more life into (ooooh, cryptic). “For The Broken Hearted” is a superb bouncy Wonder Stuff single that deserved much more attention and has possibly their 2nd daftest video to accompany it (https://youtu.be/VWEQyy6m4rg?si=KCn9Lvdwqlj_h3uu).

“The Kids From The Green” is a dreamy look back at simpler times, The Green being Marston Green in South Birmingham where Miles’ and me grew up and made friends that we still have today. We didn’t care about school, we lived by Springsteen’s proclamation that “We learned more from a 3 minute record baby than we ever learned in school”, much to our parents frustration. Some of those in the song we don’t see too often, them having scattered around the world, some are no longer with us but it’s a fitting musical celebration of what now feels like an idyllic time in our lives.

Everything wraps up with the upbeat title track (the lyric “And all this time I’ve not had one regret, I’m sure they’re all in the post but I’ve not had to face them yet” feels like a hook back to “Don’t You Ever”, closing the circle), it’s like a part 2 for “The Kids From The Green”, what happened next. 

Released on clean white vinyl in a gatefold sleeve containing a pop-up ferris wheel and city skyline (including a Walsall FC badge) when you open it up, “30 Goes Around The Sun” was a thing o’ beauty too.

Last Days Of The Feast - https://youtu.be/azbPA1IRzXg?si=AyZ3mzzBdlIBnYos