LIVE REVIEW:
THE WONDERSTUFF & NED'S ATOMIC DUSTBIN
Shepherd's Bush Empire 31/3

In recent years, there have been many documentaries, articles and editorials appearing in 
the media and on television extolling the virtues of 
the great British indie music scene of the last 40
years or so. The usual history that is written goes a little something like this: Joy Division, New Order, The Smiths, My Bloody Valentine,The Stone Roses, Suede, Britpop. However, during the two years or so between the tail-end of the baggy scene in the late 80s and the arrival of Suede in 1992, there was another big UK indie movement that although hugely successful, seems to have been written out of the history books entirely. Based around the small West Midlands hamlet of Stourbridge, this scene came to be known - mostly by the three weekly music papers - as the Grebo Sound. The three bands at the apex of this movement - The Wonder Stuff, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Pop Will Eat Itself - all very quickly journeyed from tiny gigs in the back rooms of pubs to headlining festivals, appearing on Top Of The Pops, and selling millions of records. And then, almost as quickly, they were all gone.
Pop Will Eat Itself - or The Poppies to their fans - hit the ground running first, with a couple of minor hit singles in the late 80s. Their peak period was 1991-92 when they followed their huge 'Cicciolina' hit single with the excellent 'The Looks Or The Lifestyle' album. A massive US tour with Nine Inch Nails led to a more industrial and experimental sound in the mid-90s before head honcho Clint Mansell left the band to pursue a hugely successful soundtrack career in America. Co-founder Graham Crabb has continued with various iterations of the band since then, but they've never really regained their previous stature.

 Ned's Atomic Dustbin - named after an episode of The Goon Show - formed in 1987 and immediately stood out from the crowd thanks to their use of two bass players in Alex Griffin and Mat Cheslin. With their lineup completed by guitarist Rat, singer Jonn Penney and Dan 'Dan The Drumming Man' Worton, the band soon found favour with the local scene after supporting The Poppies and The Wonder Stuff in quick succession. After a brace of sparky singles - including the magnificent 'Kill Your Television' - the band's striking debut album 'God Fodder' was released in early 1991, by which time they had already appeared on prime-time TV and sold out Brixton Academy. The following year's 'Are You Normal?' continued their strong run before the wheels came off after a fractious US tour the following year. Penney was diagnosed with anxiety and depression and a third album - the stodgy 'BrainBloodVolume' - was released after the band had been dropped by Sony. The band split soon after but have been revelling in the nostalgia circuit for the last few years and have toured solidly.
The most commercially successful of these three bands, The Wonder Stuff, garnered huge critical acclaim with their debut offering 'The Eight Legged Groove Machine', a fantastic collection of jangly, raggle-taggle earworms. The tragic death of original bassist Rob Jones didn't halt their trajectory and by the time of 1989's 'Hup', their motormouth frontman Miles Hunt was calling his band "the best group in Britain". He may not have been right but he wasn't far off. 'Hup' was an excellent second set and the anticipation for 1991's follow-up was huge. 'Never Loved Elvis' didn't disappoint, entering the charts at Number 1, delivering massive hit singles in 'Size Of A Cow' and 'Welcome To The Cheap Seats', and allowing the band to sell out three nights at Brixton as well as headlining the following year's Reading Festival.

They even hit Number 1 in the singles chart with their duet with comedian Vic Reeves on 'Dizzy'. Once again though, a draining US tour was to be the end of them and by the time of 1993's 'Construction Time For The Modern Idiot' album, the band couldn't stand the sight of each other. A split was inevitable and even though Hunt has reactivated the band in recent years - releasing albums and touring constantly - he is the only original member left.
My first live experience of The Grebo Scene - having fallen hard for some of the early records - was a trip to the late, lamented Astoria Theatre in Soho in late 1990 to witness the Ned's perform one of their first big London gigs. The support act were big, ballsy Leeds combo Cud but, upon arrival, it was immediately apparent that something special was afoot. The bass drum on the stage bearing the legend 'The Eight-Legged Groove Machine' kind of gave the game away. Hunt and company duly took to the stage as the 'secret' support act and a fantastic night was had by all. Over the next couple of years I saw The Stuffies, the Ned's and The Poppies on countless occasions - the Stuffies Reading headline slot and a storming set from Ned's at a Finsbury Park one-dayer headlined by The Cult and Pearl Jam stick in the memory - but, if I'm honest, I haven't missed them much since they all disbanded. I've seen adverts in the back of the music mags promoting their comeback gigs but I've never been that tempted to pop along and see how they've progressed - if at all. Until now that is! Something about the recent announcement of the 'Love From Stourbridge' tour piqued my interest and without too much hesitation, tickets were purchased. Both Penney and Hunt have said in recent interviews that this is not just a nostalgia cash-in, but a genuine appreciation not just of each other's music but of the fans and the enjoyable times they had back in the day. So here I am, on a dank and parky Saturday eve in West London, wondering if - after almost 30 years - Ned's Atomic Dustbin and The Wonder Stuff can do more than just give me a Proustian rush and a brief desire to give 'God Fodder' and 'Hup' another spin on the turntable.

The first and most notable thing about tonight is how many torn and faded t-shirts are on display. Both The Stuffies and Ned's were renowned for their merchandise in the early 90s - indeed, Penney has said that there was close on 80 different designs of Ned's t-shirts produced between 1990-93 - and most of them are getting an airing tonight. As expected, there is a large swathe of paunchy, balding middle-aged types - somewhere in the City there's an entire IT department full of empty chairs - most of whom look like they might have trouble getting up off the sofa each evening. But, man alive, do they prove me wrong later. There is a real crackle of excitement in the room though, with complete strangers congratulating each other on their choice of t-shirts and ageing indie kids of all stripes sharing war stories from the pre-Britpop trenches. First up on stage is Graham Crabb, de facto head honcho of the current PWEI lineup, who regales us with his DJ skills. Sporting a huge bandage around his head - which he describes as "not a fashion statement but a warning to men in their 50's not to skateboard down hotel corridors" - Crabb gets us all in the mood with some killer tunes. New Order, Happy Mondays, The Breeders, The Stooges, Primal Scream, The Prodigy - by the time his brief set is over, the gathered multitudes are champing at the bit. And then Ned's bound on stage - with the complete original lineup - and any worries I had about this being a bit of a sad throwback to more innocent times are tossed aside in seconds. Sounding beefier and more forceful than I ever remember them being, tonight Ned's are a revelation. Griffin and Cheslin's 'one high, one low' bass lines are thick and meaty but with enough bounce to get anyone moving, Worton's drumming is as frantic and pummeling as ever and Rat's guitar work is superb. The moshing starts almost immediately and never lets up - you haven't lived until you've seen a rather hefty chap of advancing years, bumcrack, overhang and all, crowdsurfing away like he was 16 all over again. Marvellous. Penney is centre stage of course, and even though he's a little more stiff these days and his dancing leaves a little to be desired, he's in fine voice all night. The tracks from 'God Fodder' and 'Are You Normal?' quite rightly make up the bulk of the set, with 'Cut Up', 'Grey Cell Green' and the magisterial 'Throwing Things' from the former standing out, whilst 'Not Sleeping Around' and 'Intact' - for my money their best song - from the latter sounding massive in this setting. There's some real deep cuts too. The standalone single from December 91 - 'Trust' - is a superb highlight of their back catalogue and is given a rollicking airing tonight, while 92's 'A Leg End In His Own Boots' sounds just as angry and vicious as it did 25 years ago with Penney almost spitting the lines "I must confess, I think it best, that I separate your breath from your body, it's only a shell - so don't you worry". They end, but of course, with the hits. Both 'Happy' and 'Kill Your Television' have stood the test of time quite wonderfully and during the latter the crowd go suitably bat-shit with the mosh-pit in particular turning into a veritable frenzy of old-man nutjob craziness. Do these guys realise there's another band to come? I'm grinning from ear to ear by this stage - I honestly didn't think I'd be having this much fun. Hats off Ned's, you still are Terminally Groovy.

    

Miles Hunt has never been particularly backward in coming forward - in the past he's been called cocky, arrogant and a mouthy wanker - and as he leads the latest version of The Wonder Stuff onto the stage (after a second DJ set from Crabb) it's obvious that he hasn't changed his personality in any way. If he's not prefacing the band's airing of 'Size Of A Cow' with the words "Let's get this piece of shit out of the way", or berating the elderly crowdsurfers for being "idiotic c***s" and warning them they'll be chucked out of the venue if they carry on, one can't help but smile at the fact that some things never change. Still sporting his mass of curly hair and jumping around in baggy trousers and Dr Marten's, it's as if the last 25 years haven't existed. Flanked by his wife Erika Nockalls on all manner of fiddles, guitarist Dan Donnelly, bass player Mark McCarthy and drummer Tony Arthy, Hunt and his crew are on fine form musically. If not quite as surprisingly exciting as the Ned's set beforehand, The Stuffies performance is still chock-full of glorious tunes, all performed brilliantly. 93's 'On The Ropes' starts proceedings - the only track from the final album that's given a spin - and the mosh-pit amazingly carry on where they left off, until Hunt's warning later in the set dampens the mood somewhat. There's a few new tunes sprinkled throughout the set, all of which sound fine, but it's all about the early classics. 'Red Berry Joy Town', 'A Wish Away', 'It's Your Money I'm After Baby', 'Give Give Give Me More More More' and 'Who Wants To Be The Disco King' from that first album are all fabulous tonight whilst the more expansive, Celtic-influenced tunes from the later records like 'CircleSquare', 'Golden Green' and 'Caught In My Shadow' prove what an excellent songwriter Hunt has always been. In fact, I wouldn't hesitate to compare The Wonder Stuff's catalogue of singles as a indie version of Madness's stellar run in the early 80s.

The band are on top form too, with Donnelly in particular a fine six-string foil to Hunt's crunchy, janglesome riffs. Nockalls fiddle playing fits in perfectly too. Coming across like an indie-disco version of Brienne from Game Of Thrones, Nockalls strides around the stage behind Hunt, adding those fondly remembered raggle-taggle riffs to the biggest hits. Wonderfully, there's room for some of my all-time favourite Stuffies tracks with the still thrilling 'Mission Drive' and the hilarious 'Cartoon Boyfriend' bringing the house down. Marks docked though for not playing 'Don't Let Me Down Gently' though. Still their best single. By the time the 11:00 curfew comes around, it's obvious that  - along with the tiring mass of senior citizens down the front - Hunt has had his fill. I sensed a slight feeling of "this is a bit beneath me" from him earlier in the set, and it'll be interesting to see how he handles the rest of the dates on the tour. He certainly didn't seem to be as into the whole experience as the Ned's boys earlier in the evening. It didn't detract from the tunes though, and with a final burst of 'Unbearable' to end proceedings, Hunt and company are gone. All in all, this was a splendidly enjoyable evening and far more fun than it had any right to be. See you for the 40th anniversary eh chaps? 

SETLISTS:

NED'S ATOMIC DUSTBIN:

Suave And Suffocated

Not Sleeping Around

Until You Find Out

Trust

Walking Through Syrup

Less Than Useful

You Don't Want To Do That

A Leg-End In His Own Boots

Stuck

Throwing Things

Terminally Groovy

Legoland

Who Goes First?

Traffic

Cut Up

Happy

Grey Cell Green

Intact

Kill Your Television

Selfish

THE WONDER STUFF:

Red Berry Joy Town

On The Ropes

Don't You Ever

A Wish Away

Can't Shape Up

Mission Drive

CircleSquare

Caught In My Shadow

For The Broken Hearted

The Size Of A Cow

Golden Green

Cartoon Boyfriend

Room 512, All The News That's Fit To Print

Here Comes Everyone

It's Yer Money I'm After Baby

Radio Ass Kiss

Who Want's To Be The Disco King?

Give Give Give Me More More More

Unbearable

Ten Trenches Deep