{"id":29210,"date":"2026-10-25T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=29210"},"modified":"2026-10-24T19:06:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T18:06:06","slug":"the-wonder-stuff-cardiff-great-hall-cardiff-uni-15-10-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=29210","title":{"rendered":"The Wonder Stuff – Cardiff Great Hall, Cardiff Uni 15.10.26"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ninety minutes in the company of The Wonder Stuff seems to have become a bit of an annual fixture, and I like that feeling; it’s something I look forward to every time, and over the last half-decade or so, the venues have gotten bigger, and Milo seems to be smiling more and more, which just doesn’t seem normal. We’ve done each classic album played in order with nothing left out (not something every band does), and this lineup has just gotten better and better. We’ve had new music, some Vent performances and an album and now, in the autumn of 2026, we have the band firing on all cylinders, playing a set that can go toe to toe with anyone currently treading the boards. Malc and Mark Gemini Thwaite are weaving some wonderful sounds from their guitars, ably assisted by Milo. But it’s the quality of the songs that wins the day, and so many of them from all eras of the band, going back to the pre-Eight Legged days and right up to the here and now, with ‘Feet To The Flames’ and ‘The Guy With The Gift’ fitting right in seamlessly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being billed as something of a 40-year anniversary tour, the set leans heavily into ‘Never Loved Elvis,’ with no less than seven songs from the album sounding fresh as a daisy, with ‘Eight Legged Groove Machine’ pushing hard with six picks mainly stacked at the tail end of the set, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves; let’s savour the early set first. <\/p>\n\n\n

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It’s classic Wonderstuff openers of ‘Mission Drive’ and ‘Play’ to kick things off, and I’m daydreaming about how long ago it was when these songs were brand new, and I was traipsing around England and Wales watching this band get bigger and better with every record. Gigs like The Bescot, where the whole crowd was bouncing, or The Phoenix Festival, where they reached a real high point, but fast forward to 2026 and Milo is beaming, regaling us with amusing intros and snippets of where some of the songs came from and lifting the curtain on who they might be about (check his diaries for the fine details). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m sure if you could pick a setlist, most of these would fall into place and pick themselves. Songs like the excellent ‘Circlesquare’ come sandwiched between the dreamy ‘Here Comes Everyone’ and the superb ‘Caught In My Shadow ‘, where Milo jokingly drops the C Bomb on the few fellow Brummies in attendance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love the fact they still make music and play it in the set Milo is a great songwriter and wordsmith as ‘Feet To The Flame’ is the last moment of respite before we go back to the year dot, and ‘Red Berry Joy Town’ collides into ‘On The Ropes’. It’s the familiar sing-a-long of ‘Give, Give, Give’ as the band leaves the stage before returning for a mighty encore. Starting with a ragged run through ‘It’s Yer Money I’m After Baby’ before the more polished ‘Can’t Shape Up’.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Be it acoustic solo or full-blown Wonder Stuff shows, you always get your money’s worth, and a greatest hits and some set from the Wonder Stuff is exceptional value. Now, lets dive headfirst into those encores which tonight for some reason seemed even better than the bazzillion times I’ve seen and heard these songs, maybe it was seeing Milo and Malc resting their heads on each others shoulders during a magnificent ‘No For The 13th Time’ followed by closer ‘Ten Trenches Deep’ that struck me as a real warm brotherhood moment between the pair who raised their heads and just smiled, they know these songs are still pretty bloody awesome and they also knew that they were playing really well and in this moment they captured a moment, and be it old or new – classic albums or deep cuts The wonder Stuff remain a pretty Awesome live show any where – any time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you get the chance, grab it with both hands the groovers are most deffo on manoeuvres. Thank you very much for coming back to South Wales again, as I always enjoy getting home before midnight these days. As we wander off, my companion commented on how happy Milo seems, and that’s infectious. Maybe he’s realised he’s onto something, and his beat combo is pretty bloody good at this live show business, and he can’t half write a bunch of top tunes. See you next year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Dom Daley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ninety minutes in the company of The Wonder Stuff seems to have become a bit of an annual fixture, and I like that feeling; it’s something I look forward to every time, and over the last half-decade or so, the venues have gotten bigger, and Milo seems to be smiling more and more, which just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29217,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29210"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29220,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29210\/revisions\/29220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}