Taken from 19 March 1994 NME

Found and typed by Adam Maxwell

Slip on your American tan tights and grab an Outspan as MILES HUNT of THE WONDER STUFF tells you who rings his bell - and who gets on his wick!

MILES HUNT

HEROES

Charles Bukowski

I like him because he has the ability to get things off his chest very simply and get it onto paper in a very understandable and entertaining manner. And you can feel his honesty in what he writes and also you can feel his dishonesty, which is marvellous.
I read Post Office in one go and I'd never done that with a book, ever, because I'm not very literary, really. But since reading that I can't stop reading. I'd sort of given up on music, but reading has made me feel like a fan, it's given me something to collect.
Another thing about him is something that all people I've chosen have - it's the ability to turn you onto something new. Like, I'd never considered listening to reggae before I heard The Clash, and with Bukowski it's been an American writer from the '30's, called Fante. They're both brilliant.

Howard Devoto

I was a real musical snob when I was a kid, I'd go out of my way to find music that no-one out of my school would've heard or would be likely to if they did hear them. When I was at school everyone liked Queen and Genesis, who I liked but I didn't want them on my science book, so I discovered Magazine and 'The Correct Use Of Soap' album. And from there you can work back and discover the first couple of albums and collect all the singles.
I was a big fan of Magazine. I saw this lyric book, which is the collected works of Howard Devoto and Magazine, called 'It Only Looks As If It Hurts', and it's just brilliant reading. And reading through it I just realised how much I'd been influenced by him and the way he takes a common phrase and twists it around, which is the same thing I did with 'Unbearable'.
And he had a marvellous forehead as well, y'know? I always thought I had a high hairline, and people ribbed me for that, but I took strength from Howard's forehead.

Henry Rollins

I'm not that fond of his music but I found this book by Joe Cole, basically his diaries with an introduction by Rollins, which I loved, and since then I've bought everything ever written by Rollins. Now I've even started buying his records. I love that track 'Low Self Opinion', which is brilliant before you go onstage. I've started to stand on the edge of the stage before I go on, with my glass of wine and me fag and my Walkman with 'Low Self Opinion', and I feel like I've had about 4,000,000 watts of electricity shoved up my arse, and then I go onstage and do the job. And I love the Rollins lifestyle too, because I can easily become apathetic, like we all can, but then I think about Rollins and how much He'd smack me around the head and tell me to pull myself together, and it works. I met him last year and he gave me a bollocking about something. But if I find myself going into an apathetic mood, I thurn on my Rollins mood and I think, "I'm with it, I'm with it," and everything works out alright. He's one of the few people I find inspirational.

Alison Steadman

My first recollection of seeing her is in Nuts In May and I watched it so much that we decided to have a Nuts In May quiz on tour, we became obssessed with it. It got really petty, like, "What's Keith Pratt's addres?" and Bob, our bass player, was thrilled that he lived near it in Croydon. And we knew the expiry date on Keith's car tax disc. We were so pathetic. We knew everything. But then I couldn't believe it was Alison Steadman again when I saw Abigails Party. I couldn't make the connection between Candice-Marie and Beverly, it was genius.
I've got total admiration for everything she's ever done. It sickens me that the female acting talent that is lauded in front of us are nothing in comparison. Julia Roberts? Come on, please! The Americans would never get it, which backs up all my suspicions about them...

Oprah Winfrey

I don't think she's aware of how commercial her show is. You can't write comedy that funny. The very notion of putting the American public on a television show to talk about their problems is brilliant.
When we were out there we saw one on obesity and they had this live link-up with someone who was 800lb, which is 60-odd stone. She was so fat she hadn't been out of her house in two years! She was going, "I can't think why I'm so fat, I eat real good food - I eat pizza, I eat roll-pork, I eat hamburgers..." It was the funniest thing I ever heard! She said she was going to have her legs amputated because they were so badly ulcerated because they couldn't take her weight! She was going, "I've had my jaw wired up but I can still cram the food down the side"! I applaud The Oprah Winfrey Show for being pure genius comedy.

VILLAINS

Supermodels

I'd have them all locked up if I could. I don't know if it's the fault of the midless wenches or the fault of their superstar status, but they've got to go. It's a disgrace that their are so many brilliant minds around and the media chooses to support these nonentities instead of brilliant writers or political commentators or people who are creative. I wish they'd all just fuck off.

Art And Music Censors

In times of such acute averageness, someone like Robert Mapplethorpe or some of the more un-PC rappers that upset the middle classes are vital. We need them to remind us that we're alive, because if you didn't have those people going to those extremes we'd just die of absolute boredom. For someone to just shut them out is like censoring primitive man when he discovers fire because it hurt. We need people to push things along further.
But in a way the censors are counter-productive, because the more you go on about how bad something is, the more you want it. I used to buy punk records with the best sleeve, and I'm sure there are kids wjho just buy records with the parental guidance stickers on them. I reckon we should censor the censors.

Sonic The Hedgehog He's wasted so much of my time. I feel like I need rehabilitation from Sonic The Hedgehog. I can lose hours - no, days - playing the little bastard instead of doing something creative, or just something more important than chasing a hedgehog. It numbs me, even if I enjoy playing it. When I've finished I just feel numb. It's kind of like how I was when I used to smoke dope. It's pointless because, like dope, it makes you dull to be around and just makes you vegetate. You can kill time with it but I like the idea that you should be living life and not killing time. Rollins wouldn't approve of it.

Andrew Lloyd Webber

I think he should be stopped. I want to know what his point is. What does he think he is giving us, artistically, apart from suffering? It's fruitless entertainment because it's light entertainment of the lowest order. I hate him for his sets and the costume she makes the poor people in Starlight Express wear. And I hate his mouth, he needs a tissue roadie to mop his mouth all the time. Unfortunately, he's one of my labelmates!

The Conservative Government

I know it's a lame, easy target, but I was so pissed off when they got in the last time. I really was. I seriously thought about moving. I thought, I just can't share this place any more with so many people who respect and encourage such hateful people.
But I love all the entertainment they're giving us with all their scandals. The highlight of the American tour was the news that one of them had been found with an orange in his mouth and stockings on and hung. And that says everything about the Government, because it's what they're doing to us daily. That's how they get off and it's nice to think they do it to themselves as well and it goes wrong. I hope the country doesn't get caught with the Government's orange in our mouth. I do honestly wish them all dead. I wish every one of them a very, very painful demise. They're so hateful.

Miles Hunt was wearing the stockings, Ted Kessler had the rope and the satsuma...

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