On November 3rd 1991, The Wonderstuff (in conjunction with Vic Reeves) sat at number one in the British singles chart with 'Dizzy'. Fast forward almost twenty years and I find myself watching Miles Hunt at a 150-capacity venue (albeit in the run-up to a national tour with the Levellers that will culminate with a show at the Brixton Academy).
If this was the mid-90s then I'm sure this would have been a very depressing, angst-ridden show, however it's fair to say that Miles Hunt seems comfortable with his lot these days. I have memories of the first time I saw Tyla solo, post-Dogs D'Amour, and it was dreadful. He insisted on only playing new material, responded with disdain to any requests for the 'hits' and was generally a moody bastard. I saw him again a few years later and he'd clearly moved on (or cleaned up), churning out whatever the audience wanted and cracking jokes between songs.
Hunt's on-stage banter tallied with that latter experience, with fond references made to touring in the early 90s as well as current project 'Shared'. Although the first half of the set comprised solely of recent material, the second half was a happy run through the older Wonderstuff back catalogue, with specific focus on songs which leant themselves to the simple guitar/vocal/violin set-up (he was joined by partner Erica Nockalls) such as 'Circle Square', 'Golden Green' and, with a nod to Kirtsy MacColl's contribution, 'Welcome To The Cheap Seats'. Although they garnered more dancers, the Wonderstuff hits didn't wholly overshadow the less-familiar material, which retained some of Hunt's characteristic barbs (I'm guessing he's not a fan of Bono).
A slightly sarcastic comment about Strawberry Fair, the local free festival this gig was a fundraiser for, appeared to bring about a small disagreement with the promoter, suggesting that Hunt is still capable of getting people's backs up. Some things never change.
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