Hup (album)

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Hup

Studio album by The Wonder Stuff
Released	1989
Genre	Indie
Length	39:35
Label	Polydor
All Music Guide link
The Wonder Stuff chronology
The Eight Legged Groove Machine (1988)	Hup (1989)	Never Loved Elvis (1991)

Hup is the second album by The Wonder Stuff.

The Hup album contains several references to the 1980s BBC sit-com The Young Ones.

"30 Years In The Bathroom" features the rather morbid line: 'Now it's time to share the joke that the latch on the bathroom door was broke.' The song name is taken from an exchange between Neil and Rik after Neil has been waiting outside of the bathroom door for Rik to come out. Rik asks Neil 'How long have you been waiting there?' and Neil replies "30 years".

There is also another Young Ones reference in the song "Cartoon Boyfriend". In the episode called Sick, Mike walks into a room and says to the other house mates "Whats this fish doing in my bed?" before walking back off set looking perplexed. In the song Miles sings the line "there's a worm in my head and a fish in my bed, she said. Confused? You will be..."

"Let's Be Other People" mentions the book by Leonard Cohen called Beautiful Losers.

"Piece of Sky" was originally planned to be the next single after "Golden Green", but this plan was abandoned when Rob Jones left the band in December 1989. The promotional video originally filmed for "Piece Of Sky" was re-worked (notably with all shots of Rob Jones being removed) and ultimately used for their next single, "Circlesquare", which was written on the same day as "Can't Shape Up"; May 9, 1989.

"Can't Shape Up" was originally much slower and played on acoustic guitar with harmonica. One version featured references to Rick Astley. The slower version was released on a live album.

"Good Night Though" refers to a line in a 1976 BBC play by Mike Leigh called Nuts in May, featuring a group of Brummies going camping.

"Unfaithful" is the folksy ballad on the album, and does not feature percussion, only strings and acoustic guitar. "Golden Green" was originally a purely electric guitar and percussion song which had Martin Bell's fiddle and banjo skilfully added. There was an alternate chorus to "Golden Green" which was not included in the version on Hup. The final version with the fiddle had more finesse and harmony and sounded like a better-chiselled, more coherent song. It is perhaps a forerunner of the sort of music The Levellers from Brighton would also adopt: a sincere charming melody with folksy guitar not forgetting poignant but slightly cheeky lyrics.