In Session At The BBC (Intl Ver.)

Indie undergrounders turned grebo heroes turned pop monsters the Wonder Stuff's alternate history is revealed via their British radio appearances on BBC Sessions. We first meet the Stuff in late 1987, playing a quartet of songs recorded for Radio One DJ Janice Long, all of which would reappear on their debut album The Eight Legged Groove Machine. At the time, the group were already ferociously finding their stylistic feet, and an insouciance worthy of the Small Faces helped lay the foundation for the entire Brit-pop movement to come. By the summer of 1991, when the Stuff recorded their next radio session, they were already huge stars, and their pop transformation was complete. A year later, the BBC caught them in all their glory at that summer's Reading Festival, strutting through a set stuffed with hits and songs culled from their recently released, chart busting Never Loved Elvis album. Another full concert, recorded in Leicester, in March, 1994, found the group seemingly going from strength to strength, even if we now know that the end was already nigh. However, the Wonder Stuff went out on a high note, with a ferocious performance at the Phoenix Festival in July that year. This compilation ends fittingly with two numbers from that show. Live, the Stuff really were wonderful, as this set well shows, and it really didn't matter what clothes or label they were laboring under at the time. ~ Dave Thompson|