Miles Hunt (of The Wonder Stuff)

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The Wonder Stuff’s Miles Hunt embarks on a solo acoustic tour of the UK in October this year under the guise of The Custodian. With a back catalogue of over two hundred self-penned songs to choose from, written over the last four decades, Hunt says that the idea of becoming The Custodian came from a conversation with one of his musical heroes.

“I was in New York a few years back and was invited to guest at a Tom Robinson solo show. Tom has long been an inspiration to me and given the opportunity to perform with him... well, lets just say I couldn’t polish my boots quick enough. During our brief rehearsal together on the afternoon of the show Tom asked me who I felt now owned the songs that I have written over all these years. I answered that whoever the publishing company I signed with probably did, but ultimately, I did. Tom was quick to correct me pointing out that all of my songs now belonged to my audience. Going on to explain that the songs I have written have been part of the sound track to thousands of people’s live and it is those people that now truly own them. He said that my position was now of The Custodian, the person who’s job it is to see that the songs are treated and performed with the respect the audiences deserve. It was an incredibly important thing to have said to me and something I have not and will not ever forget.”

With this in mind Hunt has rehearsed over sixty of his best loved compositions to perform in chronological order on his upcoming UK tour.

“There are a couple of songs from the back catalogue that I just couldn’t bring myself to sing again. Either a lazy or nonsense lyric, or just a rotten set of chords. When you’ve been at it as long as I have I don’t think anyone could expect a 100% strike rate. But really there are only two or three songs I would prefer not to revisit.”

As well as performing songs Hunt will also be reading a handful of excerpts from his three acclaimed books, ‘The Wonder Stuff Diaries’.

“I’m so very thankful to my younger self for keeping hand written diaries during the early years of The Wonder Stuff’s activities. I’m fortunate that I do have a pretty decent memory of what went on in those days, but to have the actual voice from the past, recorded on the page, to tell me straight how things were and how I felt about what was going on, well, I would like to buy that young man a beer for having the foresight to give such a gift to his elder self.”

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Support - Small Town Jones

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