On the 30th October, fans descended in their droves to see The Wonder Stuff and Inspiral Carpets as part of their sixteen-date co-headline tour, celebrating the former's fortieth anniversary. With the city’s Grade II listed building as their backdrop, the bands delighted audiences to sets which cleverly toed the line between time-honoured tracks and modern materials. Significantly, such elements could similarly be observed for, and within, the bands themselves. For The Stuffies, the gig saw the band play a mere 10 miles away from their hometown of Stourbridge, with the group’s local connection emphasised throughout the evening, much to the delight of seasoned and fresh fans alike. In a similar fashion, Inspirals also united the tenured and the tender, with guitarist Oscar Boon playing alongside his father, keyboardist Clint Boon and original vocalist Stephen Holt - who rejoined the band in 2022 - and with drummer Kev Clarke filling the mighty boots of the late Craig Gill.
As the evening’s first instalment, Inspirals immediately exerted their command from the opening, ripping bass notes of ‘Burn Like The Sun’, the title track from their upcoming album set for release in the new year. Hits began to arrive in quick succession with the swirling ‘She Comes in the Fall’ transporting audiences to its 1990 release on a cloud of militant percussion and punchy keys, whilst ‘Weakness’ injected a Buzzcocks-style ferocity alongside the vibrancy of Madchester guitar tones.
Perhaps the most explicit demonstration of the band’s marriage between new and old was within the successive ‘Drag The Bag’ and ‘I Want You’. The former, a single lifted from their impending album, boasted a snappy beat that Boon assured audiences they could “clap the f*ck out of”. Clap they did and with great gusto before ‘I Want You’ was spearheaded by the blunt force of The Fall’s Mark E. Smith’s sardonic snarl. Such a series saw the seamless meeting of the present and the past, with Inspirals performing both with equal effect.
The tail end of the band’s set saw the gleefully received ‘Joe’, ‘This Is How It Feels’ and ‘Saturn 5’ - a rolling sequence between the brash, the sombre and back again, all with fine quantities of Boon’s signature splicing synth. And with that, as Inspiral Carpets departed the stage and punters prepared to tackle the lengthy queue for the bar, Wolverhampton was duly primed for the evening’s second act.
Upon gracing the stage, The Wonder Stuff - made up of singer Hunt, guitarist Maclolm Treece, violinist Erica Nockalls, guitarist Mark Thwaite, bassist Tim Sewell and drummer Pete Howard - received the warmest of Black Country welcomes, before opening with the melodic ‘Mission Drive’. As if expert navigators, the band proceeded to work through a setlist that seamlessly ebbed between earlier albums, such as from 1991’s ‘Never Loved Elvis’ into the well-crafted ‘30 Goes Around the Sun’, released in 2016 - all of which fell upon eager ears.
The setlist was practically punctured with hits and fan favourites, none more evident than in the impressive run of ‘Circlesquare’, ‘Caught in My Shadow’ and ‘The Size of a Cow’. The former, which demonstrated Nockall’s artistry in abundance, revelled in its lasting lustre, whilst ‘Caught in My Shadow’ manifested almost as an audible love letter to the West Midlands, the song’s accompanying Pigeon Park-filmed music video and the people who featured. The track was positively jubilant for both group and giggers, all of whom appeared to exude a palpable sense of pride of place. Such enjoyment was then tactfully channelled into the wonderfully wacky ‘The Size of a Cow’, as after all, as per Mr Miles Hunt “credibility doesn’t pay the bills!”.
A band ever aware of their audience, the setlist assumed slower speeds for the sake of fan’s “cardiac health”, with 1991’s ‘Sleep Alone’ standing out on account of its tenderness and lasting poignance for Hunt. However, just as hearts had chance to settle, their rates were once again jolted by the swaggering fervour of ‘Red Berry Joy Town’, a track that has oozed confidence since its initial appearance on the band’s debut album, ‘The Eight Legged Groove Machine’. If there was ever doubt that The Stuffies were slowing, then the completion of the main set expelled those ideas with a self-assured raw power, as ‘Give, Give, Give Me More, More, More’ culminated a blistering affair.
With chants of “give, give, give me more, more, more” ringing throughout the Civic Hall, The Stuffies were predictably lured from the wings to deliver a considered encore. Featuring tracks such ‘Can’t Shape Up’ and ‘Ten Trenches Deep’, the encore’s heart consisted of a tribute to original bassist Rob "The Bass Thing" Jones, whose red bass lay on stage in its “rightful place”. It was a fitting reminder of a musician who was integral to the early The Wonder Stuff, and whose memory endures over three decades on.
Ultimately, both bands - in equal measure - thoroughly reduced the distance between the stage and stalls, between those in the spotlight and those in the rafters. The audience were ushered into the bands’ fold, with the music serving as a triumphant emphasis of the enduring shared history between the groups and their fans. Additionally, both sets warmly commemorated past members, their legacies and their influences, keeping their place on the stage warm, be it physically or sonically. The Wonder Stuff and Inspiral Carpets displayed a masterclass in how to move forward, whilst keeping memories of people, places and even of sticky dancefloors alive.
Elizabeth Guest
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