The Wonder Stuff's Mile Hunt plays The Custodian in Hampshire Â

Hunt says the idea came from a conversation with one of his musical heroes, Tom Robinson, when he was invited to guest with the legendary punk singer at a show in New York.

'˜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 more than 60 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 per cent strike rate. But really there are only two or three songs I would prefer no 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 handwritten 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.'

The 1865, Southampton

Monday, October 1

 the1865.com