Certainly Never Loved Elvis is a grander affair than either of its predecessors. Those niggly little lurking melodies are still omnipresent. but swathed in wreaths of what could be called ‘electro-folk‘. much of which is due to the now permanent presence of Martin ‘Fiddly‘ Bell.
‘Guitars are basically boring. especially electric guitars.‘ says Miles. somewhat perturbingly. ‘Once you get behind what we did with them on our first album you start getting into public masturbation. That‘s all Eric Clapton is to me. It‘s not pleasant. it‘s not enjoyable. it has no feel. it‘s just wank.
We knew we had to "expand the sound“ . . .So that was basically why we got Fiddly in. to see what else we could do. Apart from our dislike of electric guitars. neither me nor Malcolm are particularly good on them. so anything we used to do was dead simple. It always seemed there was a lot of room in the music for the melody and the voice to carry over. Now we‘ve got somebody that can really play an instrument. Malc fucks around on mandolin. and we‘ll be taking a
Hammond organ player out on tour with us. '
So the whole thing has filled up a lot more.‘
Whether this new musical business will significantly alter the manic mania ofThe Wonder Stuff live extravaganza remains. at this stage anyway. Open to conjecture. It‘s doubtful. Whatever. what is indisputable is that where once this band were marginalised. greasy groovers. now they‘re premier-league stadium boys. the main attraction. Luckily. offsetting any cries of ‘sell-out‘ or ‘cop-out‘. Miles is as queasy as you or I at the prospect of the band playing the likes ofthe S.E.C.C. on a regular basis.
‘To be quite honest. I am a bit wary about these dates we’re doing. and I‘m kinda looking forward to the end ofthe year when we do a proper tour. We‘re just doing these dates because we wanted to make ourselves a bit nervous. If we went back to doing the same sort of tours as we‘ve done in the past couple of years. it‘d be too easy.‘
These event-style. one-off dates are just an attempt to break the routine?
‘Yeah. and give us something to be scared about. Once we‘ve done them. I don‘t think we‘ll stay in that arena - for want of a better
word — doing those type of venues. We would do Barrowlands again. but you can‘t fucking breathe there! You‘re ill all the next day — it‘s absolutely desperate the way you feel! But I reckon it‘s the best gig in Britain. basically.‘
And with that cheery bit of matey banter. he‘s off. The Miles Hunt of 1991 is. as is readily apparent. a more conciliatory. amenable. chirpier chap than of yore. What
we‘re really trying to say is that he‘s maturer. '
Why'.’
‘One ofthe reasons is that a big mouth never gets you fucking anywhere. unless you‘re saying something that makes sense. And as far as the way we deal with the record ' company and press. yeah you‘ve got to take it a bit more seriously. ‘cos if you act like a dick you end up looking like a dick. We've done that to ourselves plenty oftimes. It‘s like. let‘s stop acting like a bunch of cocksuckers and start thinking about what we‘re saying. . .‘
The Wonder .8‘!u_/_‘/‘pla_v Ilze S. [5. (1 ( '.. Glasgow on Wed 26. ;
The List 14— 27June 199111