Wall That You Can't Leave Behind

Perennial live arse kickers The Stunning are back on the road as I type, only this time they’re hawking a re-recording of 1992’s long out of print Once Around The World, now retitled, obviously enough, Twice Around The World. It received the rare accolade of a 9/10 review in a recent issue of this very magazine. So, Joe & Steve Wall, why now?

“Since the band got back together, we’ve had a steady stream of people asking about it. We already re-released the first album, and the live one, so this was the missing link. The problem was we couldn’t get our hands on master tapes, so we decided to re-record it”
An opportunity to improve things, perhaps?
“The band have developed this more muscular sound”, says Joe, “it’s impossible to recreate the original recording anyway, so where Once Around The World was very pacey and full of testosterone, it’s now played with a bit more swagger and control”

The release includes two new songs; Steve explains the thinking behind this.
“We wanted to set it apart from the original, and give the fans, a lot of whom still have the old LP, a reason to spend their money again”
Alongside the New Ordery ‘Almost You’, ‘Brighten Up My Life’ is a T.Rexian belter.
“When we asked the others about re-recording” Steve recalls, “It was Jimmy (Higgins) who remembered that old demo and insisted we had to include it”
It’s already been a sizable radio hit.
“1700 radio plays since last May, it’s been great!”

Things seemed to happen pretty quickly for the band after their formation in 1987 - hit singles and a number one debut album with 1990’s Paradise In The Picture House.
“You could say that”, Steve counters, “but ‘Half Past Two’ flopped at first. Nobody turned up to a signing in Grafton Street’s Golden Discs, we ended up flicking through records, pretending we were customers!”

But presumably confidence was high recording the second album?
“Yes”, says Joe, “It was an opportunity to spend more time making a proper album. Paradise had been recorded in various places but this one was done in a chateau in France”
Wild scenes of debauchery ensued, no doubt.
“No, the place was in the middle of nowhere”, Joe ruefully shakes his head, “good place to work though”.

The album went straight to number one, and an “unofficial” headline spot at Feile, going on after Bryan Adams, followed. They were flying high but, despite support slots with Bob Dylan and The B-52’s, the longed for international break through never materialised.
“Solid, our record company, had done a deal with Warners for a UK release which fell through, but we were constantly going over, doing shows. We played the Powerhouse in Islington, the place was full of record company people but, little did we know, they were there to see the support band”.
Who was that?
“Blur!”
Oh…

“All the money the band made touring Ireland went into those trips abroad”, says Steve, “but the deal never came.”
The band called it quits in ’94, the brothers going on to form The Walls.
“We got out there and played, Europe, New Zealand, even Russia, but again, it was all self-financed and we just ran out of money. The biggest thing for any Irish act is to preform internationally, and the gig circuit in Ireland is actually shrinking. I found the original flyer from the Heads Are Gonna Roll tour recently and it had twenty-two dates on it across the country. I’d say maybe five of those venues are still around”

So was the return of The Stunning, in 2003, a purely financial move?
“It wasn’t our idea at all. We decided to put Paradise back out on our own label as people were asking for it, and met up with mover and shaker Donal Scannell. He took over the whole campaign on the condition that we would tour. It was eighteen gigs, all sold out, culminating in four nights at Vicar Street. We were gobsmacked at the amount of people who were still interested”

Shows gradually became an annual thing, which brings us back to today, and the new/old album’s release. “Having the music back out there goes hand in hand with the gigs”, Joe reasons, “it’s easier to put the songs across when people already know them - it makes for less tumbleweed moments!”

Twice Around The World is out now. Full details, and live dates, over at https://thestunning.net