Miles Hunt & Erica Nockalls @ Open, Norwich
Far from unbearable, Wonder(ful) stuff at Open
Tonight sees erstwhile Wondestuff fontman Hunt and ten-year veteran violinist Nockalls put in a set taking in classic and recent Stuffies, songs from their own albums and a reading from Hunt’s recent Diaries.
When The Wonderstuff came bursting out of Stourbridge in the late 80s in a storm of vitriolic bitterness, they were known as much for baiting audiences as for their rousing, melodic pop. For a while tonight, I thought Hunt had mellowed, enjoying some light hearted exchanges with the – for the most part – deeply passionate audience. That was until someone insisted on talking during a spoken word interlude and got an absolute – and well deserved - rollocking.
With a set including The Cake. Circlesquare. Welcome To The Cheap Seats, Cartoon Boyfriend and It's Yer Money I’m After Baby this was damned close to a classic. (9.5/10)
Opener and promoter of tonight’s show Matt Watson plays a short, politically-charged set, bring to mind TV Smith singing Billy Bragg’s songs. (7.5/10)
Playing solo, Pele and Amsterdam frontman Ian Prowse comes across like a Scouse cut-price Joe Cocker or budget Springsteen. This didn’t really do it for me but went down pretty well with most of the audience. (6/10)
