and The Wonder Stuff answer is...'Why the fuck do you think you go to work?'..... And I admit the gigs we played last year were for the money.... but now I understand. You see, I've been making a record in the US the past couple of months, and I was in New York. And you know, I was backstage at this festival where Jane's Addiction were playing. They only played like 25 minutes and 7 or 8 songs. But it's really weird because you're not allowed to smoke, and it's an open air stadium gig on a beach. Anyway, we had backstage tickets and I couldn't even see the stage or Perry's hat or anything, so we went running past security guards and down the front like a teenager, except I never did that as a teenager... I do it now, and I'm 35... and we're down there at the front, the fourth row, and it's high tide so we're about four inches deep in water... and they're playing Up The Beach and I'm crying like a baby... and now I understand when I see lots of bald, fat blokes in their thirties in old t-shirts crying and yelling down the front. And then there's two birds next to me who notice I'm sneaking a sly fag, and so they ask me if they can have a couple whilst Jane's Addiction are playing 'Stop!', and I'm like, yeah, go on, and then they start talking to you, and in the end I'm like SHUT THE FUCK UP! I haven't waited 11 years and travelled 3,000 miles to talk to you.... and I went home lonely. And so now, now, I understand."

Obviously highly reconstructed from a hazy memory of last night, but that's near enough what Miles said. But what can I say? I know how he feels.

On the tenth stop of the Wonder Stuff's temporary-sort-of reformation, it's really really weird how little has changed. It seems as if all of them have been dipped in formaldehyde as up this close they haven't aged at all since 1994. As is the rule with band reformations, they've got another bassist,the best one I think they've had since the eighties.

And they've also managed not to slur the memory by making a crap-reformation album, probably warned off by Miles opinon of Echo & The Bunnymen without Pete De Freitas, or the bassist who I can't remember. Whilst I've no doubt they could make a brilliant album, if they wanted to, one of the things I think we all love about The Wonder Stuff is that they near enough always did what they wanted.

And so to tonight. For at least some of tonight, I chose to watch the Wonder Stuff instead of dance around like a sweaty loon. And it's just as rewarding to see the vibrant expressions they pull, the silly faces and obvious enjoyment on their faces as Gilks, best drummer I've seen ever I think, forgets that people might be looking at him, gurns and plays. Same with Fiddly, who reminds of nothing so much as your incredibly talented cool uncle, and Miles who looks as if he's actually really missed this band.

One of an evening of highlights is when Miles dances around the lip of the stage during Goodnight Though, then realises he can't get back offstage as there's no room, so he pulls faces at Fiddly before Fiddly moves back and he scampers off.

Even newbie Stuart pulls some great shapes, especially during Poison as he manages the trick of leaning over and appearing to be horizontal, but has bent himself near enough in two. I could list all the songs and what they mean to me, but really, whats the point? It's almost as if they have come back to show the rest of the world how Good Music is done, and done properly. The sound is crystal clear - probably in fact the best gig sound I've heard in years, and shows just how damn good they are.

And anyway.. what do we get? Just some of the best songs ever. There's a list at the end, but don't worry. There's not a duffer there, excepting possibly Ruby Horse, which still stands heads & shoulders above the crap in the charts. Every song is laced with the vibrant self-awareness, wit, and occasionally painful honesty, that great art needs. And some of them are simple third-person jokes and vicious comments upon a past time, both sincere and insincere at the same time. (Give Give Give Me More More More for example). In a time where greed was good, where plastic celebrity was all-important, something as brutally, mockingly honest as It's Yer Money I'm After Baby was a rare voice of much needed reason and common sense.

We also get a startling reinvention of the back catalogue - not played since last Sunday, and before then not since 1989 - we get Inside You, Gimme Some Truth / Jane Says, and the forceful Play. Also present is that bizarre brilliance of the (live at least) semi-funk metal beast called Donation complete with a megaphone solo. And the funny powerchord ending of Ten Trenches where they slowly bring every bar further and further down in key until it splutters, falls over, and makes everyone laugh.

I make no apologies. I love The Wonder Stuff. And can you blame us? Can you blame us? (Cheers Morrissey). When I look at the uninspired drivel that passes for music these days, (Steps, Coldplay, TRAVIS?, please!) I realise that in fact a few years ago music had more of everything. More vision, more wit, more talent, more drive, more ambition, and most importantly, more substance than the current poor harvest. It's like 1975 out there.

Originally Miles formed the band because (I think he said) there weren't that many bands that he wanted to see, he thought he'd form a good one. I can see why they reformed. It's the dark ages of music out there and if the best we can get formed in 1986 and hasn't made an album since 1993, well, hmm, kids of today... They've just got no imagination anymore and would rather let MTV pummel them into apathy.

Ok.. setlist time. Mission Drive - Inside You - Circlesquare - Cartoon Boyfriend - Here Comes Everyone - Ruby Horse - Golden Green - Welcome To The Cheap Seats - The Size Of A Cow - Sleep Alone - Donation - Caught In My Shadow - Play - A Wish Away - Give Give - On The Ropes - Poison - Ten Trenches Deep - Can't Shape Up - Gimme Some Truth / Jane Says - Unbearable - It's Yer Money - Don't Let Me Down Gently - Piece Of Sky - Goodnight Though

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