WHEN Wonder Stuff’s Miles Hunt found his house flooded back in the 90s, he unexpectedly found refuge in Kent at his old friend Vic Reeves’s country pad.

The pairing of bile-filled singer and laid-back comedian might seem an odd one, yet they bonded over their cover of 60s classic, Dizzy, that earned them a number one hit.

Such pop dalliances came as an immensely welcome relief from a listless pre-Oasis music scene dominated by bland boy bands and atrocious Euro disco.

"Doing Dizzy with Vic was great as it was so removed from my normal music. We are still great mates and he’s always such a gentleman with everyone," explained Miles, after apologising for sounding a little slow due to his suffering from an especially heavy night on the town.

"I was down there at Vic’s place near Aldington for about 3 or 4 month. He would be at one end of the house doing his TV comedy work and I was at the other doing all my dark songwriting and we’d meet up and discuss our work over tea," added the indie veteran of his experiences in the county.

Though he’s swift to play down any suggestion of his having mellowed in middle age, the 41 year-old sounds remarkably less angst-ridden than at the height of his group’s fame.

Many observers had been all too hasty in writing Hunt off following the unceremonious demise of the band back in 1994. But after a hiatus of several years pursuing other projects including the ill-fated rock project Vent 414, the Wonder Stuff reformed.

Always a tempestuous act at the best of times, yet further internal wrangling over performing rights threatened to put an end to their fortunes.

Against the odds they once again re-surfaced with a new line-up featuring the only other original member, guitarist Malc Treece and female violinist Erica Nockalls. She will be joining Miles for a series of low-key acoustic dates which sees them call at the Forum in Tunbridge Wells.

"I love doing both the acoustic shows and playing with the rest of the band too. It’s good to be able to chop and change between playing small bars and the playing for thousands at festivals this summer. We’ve just done the smaller ones, which I think have a lot more character to them.

"Some people are surprised by our acoustic act, thinking it’s going to be some serious goatee beard folk music, but it’s not at all. Things are a lot different from when I was a young gobshite.

"We’ll play some of our new songs and some old stuff too and there will be lots of banter in between. The crowds tend to get pretty rowdy when we do the old songs," he added.

There clearly remains a strong affection for his lyrically deft brand of pop, which has shouldered the test of time well since it’s arrival nearly 20 years ago.

With an uncle who played as part of 70s supergroup ELO and a jazz musician father, there was a certain inevitability that Miles had been destined to follow the family trade. The arrival of punk was to seriously ignite his interest in performing.

Like his old dad, Miles started out as a drummer in a Midlands group called From Eden. But as he’s admitted, wanted to be more part of the limelight, so stepped out from behind his kit.

Gathering together his group of long-standing mates and transforming himself into a lead singe proved the making of their fortunes. Their debut, Eight Legged Groove machine was destined to be a critical and popular success.

As Miles lamented, two of the original band members have now died, "Bass Thing" and drummer Martin Gilks (who was killed in a biking accident last year) are no longer around to reflect on their considerable achievements. Does their frontman ever feel any sentimental for those early adrenaline-rush years?

"Not really to be honest. At the time it was good but I have no desire to go back to that lifestyle of living out of a tourbus. I just think of the great Leonard Cohen interview in which he’s asked 'It must have been an amazing time for you back in the 60s' - he just said 'We didn’t think of it as being the 60s, it was just a normal time'.

"That’s how it was for us, we got signed and went out on tour in America and it just never stopped from there."

The offers of work don’t look like drying up just yet. In addition to an unlikely commission for a C’beebies children’s TV theme, Wonderstuff fans will be pleased to know there are plans afoot for fresh recording next year.

For now, the chance to catch a true master of cynical lyrics and up close at the Forum shouldn’t be missed. He may be a little older, wiser and a little more relaxed, yet he’s no-less determined to put on a memorable show.