The Wonder Stuff

“Unbearable” is the 13^th track on, “The Eight Legged Groove Machine,” which is the debut album of The Wonder Stuff, released on 8/15/88.

Listening to this I have to say I enjoy the rhythm and tightness of it. Good drums, guitar, lead vocal and harmonizing. Simple lyrics but the message is clear.  Listening to some of the other cuts on the album, I can hear a definite Morrissey/The Smiths flavor to them.

Tidbits:

The Wonder Stuff were formed on 3/19/86. Their name reportedly came from a remark made about a very young Hunt by John Lennon. The original line-up of Miles Hunt (whose uncle, Bill Hunt, was keyboard player with ELO and Wizzard) on vocals and guitar; Malcolm Treece on guitar and vocals; bassist Rob “The Bass Thing” Jones (died July 1993 at age 29 from undetermined causes); and Martin Gilks (died April 2006 at age 41 in a motorcycle accident) on drums grew from Hunt and Treece’s collaboration with future members of Pop Will Eat Itself in a band called From Eden that featured Hunt on drums.

In September of that year they recorded a self-financed debut EP, A Wonderful Day. After finding management with Birmingham promoter Les Johnson and signing with Polydor Records for £80,000 in 1987, the group released a series of singles including “Unbearable”, “Give Give Give, Me More More More“, “A Wish Away” and “It’s Yer Money I’m After Baby” (their first Top 40 entry) that featured on their debut album.

Per Mark Deming at Allmusic:

Somewhere between the mid-’80s and mid-’90s, the Wonder Stuff were one of the biggest bands in the U.K. Starting as a revved-up guitar pop band, later adding offbeat folk influences while occasionally nodding to the excess of the Madchester scene, cleverness and eclecticism were the Wonder Stuff’s calling cards. The group was also blessed/cursed with a frontman, Miles Hunt, who had the gift of arrogant gab, delivering bitingly witty lyrics and lively interviews that won plenty of space in the U.K. music press. The Eight Legged Groove Machine’s … modest success led to the Wonder Stuff’s first headlining nineteen-date national UK tour, ‘Groovers on Manoeuvres’, as well as appearances at the Reading and Glastonbury Festivals.

After 4 albums, in June 1994, the Wonder Stuff announced in their fan club newsletter that they were calling it a day. Post-breakup, Miles Hunt toured as a solo act and formed the band Vent 414, while Malcolm Treece, Martin Gilks, and Paul Clifford worked together in the group Weknowwhereyoulive.

The Wonder Stuff got back together in 2000, 2004, and 2006. In 2016, they celebrated the 30th anniversary of their founding with the release of their first album in ten years, 30 Goes Around the Sun. With the band playing live in various incarnations over the next few years, Hunt brought back original guitarist Malcolm Treece to play on tour to support the group’s 2019 ninth studio album, Better Being Lucky. With the tour coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the release of Hup! (their second album,) the revitalized band — which now included members of Eat and the Mission — also played the album in its entirety at the shows.

Room 512, the “unofficial wonder stuff fansite” has a wealth of information about the origins of the band and up into what looks like 2015.

Put paid to what you say
Put your money where your mouth is
Come and join us on holiday
I won’t lose you round the mountain

I didn’t like you very much when I met you
I didn’t like you very much when I met you
I didn’t like you very much when I met you
I didn’t like you very much when I met you

And now I like you even less
I don’t know what to do
For the best

You spend your money so frivolously
Why don’t you save it for the children?
You spend your money but it’s not on me
Or a man of lesser income

I didn’t like you very much when I met you
I didn’t like you very much when I met you
I didn’t like you very much when I met you
I didn’t like you very much when I met you

And now I like you even less
I don’t know what to do
For the best

Put paid to what you say
Put your money where your mouth is
Come and join us on holiday
I won’t lose you round the mountain

I didn’t like you very much when I met you
I didn’t like you very much when I met you
I didn’t like you very much when I met you
I didn’t like you very much when I met you

And now I like you even less
I don’t know what to do
For the best
For the best
Songwriters:  The Wonder Stuff

sources: wikipedia, allmusic