Tonight we are going to be treated to the very best of the Wonder Stuff. And they really have got some wonderful stuff in their back catalogue (their last album excluded). Miles Hunt, the new bassist Stuart Quinnel and the other Stuffies come out in front of an Eight Legged Groove Machine back drop. The set starts off steadily with Mission Drive and then really kicks in with Don't Let Me Down (it is obvious we aren't going to be!) which is followed quickly by a brilliant Ruby Horse.
All is lost now, we are a sweating amorphous mass of bodies all moshing to the memory of these once chart topping post punksters. Miles asks us if we mind that they 'started out as an angst ridden guitar four piece who became a sold out cartoon band' before announcing 'well stick this in your pipe' and bursting into Welcome to the Cheap Seats. It takes Miles a while to bring out his familiar mega phone, but when it finally does emerge for Connection it is a splendid big red one and well worth the wait!
A big fat man is thrashing about like he has the devil himself inside him. He's blowing like a racehorse and sweating like a rapist. I bet that 6 years ago, before The Stuffies split up he was 10 stone of lean mean moshing machine. Since then he has sat in his bedsit with the TV remote control in one hand and a pizza permanently in the other, his body turning to blubber in despair. Then Miles announced they were coming back and fat bloke snapped up tickets for all 5 nights. If he continues like he is going tonight then he will surely be back to his fighting weight by Sunday morning.
The first of the two encores starts with Red Berry Joy Town and ends with the man himself Vic Reeves bounding on stage for Dizzy. Despite having rucked and rumbled for nearly two hours the mosh pit go mad for Vic and we don't even care that he can't remember the words (Dizzy is not a very tricky song, I remember the words and I've been Christmas drinking all day!). They come back on for the last time with Cartoon Boyfriend and then leave appropriately with Goodbye.
Fantastic! if it hadn't been for Miles acting like a concerned parent then it could have been a contender for gig of the year. As it was being told to ' be careful jumping around so much, your not getting any younger' and later being asked to stop crowd surfing because "people have only paid to see one fat old man up here" wasn't what we wanted.
The people up the front have paid to remember younger days when we punched and kicked our way to the front in order to get on the stage and hurl ourselves onto a sea of flailing hands. So that's what we do! bollix to you Miles, just belt out some classics like Wish You Were Here and Size of a Cow and stop being so constructed like a modern day idiot.
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