The Wonderstuff @ the Waterfront
Hup!
Classic indie band The Wonderstuff hit Norwich's Waterfont as part of the Down By The River Weekender. Kicking off tonight’s proceedings on a misty Norwich riverside evening is new song Don’t You Ever, the standout track from the new album, 30 Goes Around The Sun.
The studio album, recorded some thirty years on from their first ever sessions, is the band’s finest studio release since the original line up’s, Construction For The Modern Idiot and it is indeed a fine testament and celebration of the band's continued success.
It sets the tone of the evening off on a good footing with Miles Hunt and the rest of the band in fine form throughout as they glide through a faultless performance during the next hour and a half much to the delight of their loyal followers.
They burst into Change Every Lightbulb and Here Comes Everyone, closely followed by Caught In My Shadow, Red Berry Joy Town, Play, Mission Drive, Welcome To The Cheap Seats, Size Of A Cow, Circle Square, Don’t Let Me Down Gently, Donation, Play, Cartoon Boyfriend, On The Ropes and Golden Green to name but a handful.
It’s an absolutely exhilarating set, and it’s just crazy at the Waterfront this evening. The Wonderstuff are hitting dizzy heights as it is all gets rather sweaty.
For a man that is fast approaching his fiftieth birthday, Miles wasn’t apparently designed to be singing some of these high tempo songs at his age, as he duly acknowledges in between songs with the customary megaphone in hand, “if only I had written some ballads it would have been a lot easier”! proclaims Hunt.
And for a band that’s no longer on its original line up apart from the lead singer, you have to give them credit for continuing to epitomise everything that has always been crucial to The Wonderstuff’s spirit and sound. The high energy and aggression that still runs through the band's live set is a true testimony to their ongoing appeal.
This evening the Stuffies groove machine is full of life, giving their blood, their sweat, their tears and all that they said they would…HUP!
