Boys Wonder at Village Underground - Friday, Apr 11 2025 | Discotech

Brought up in South East London, twins Ben and Scott Addison both fell in love with the Sex Pistols after watching them swear on the Bill Grundy Show. But they were deeply in love with mainstream pop music too, having been exposed by their parents to an eclectic mix of soundtracks, musicals and classic pop.

The band’s two singles in 1987 on Sire Records, ‘Now What Earthman’ and ‘Shine On Me’ (contained on the Shine On Me EP) captured the band’s histrionic prowess but didn’t sell, so the band were dropped. Rough Trade picked them up for 3rd single “Goodbye Jimmy Dean” which should have been a nailed-on hit: blessed with a towering chorus, backing vocals to die for, and words dripping with attitude and humour, it gives nods and winks to The Who and The Beatles, and boasts a middle eight, a key change and a searing Graham Jones’ (previously of Haircut 100) guitar solo. And handclaps too! Sadly, it too refused to make a dent in the charts.

The band carried on for a while, taking another characteristically sharp turn left to follow the prevailing winds of dance culture, but by the time Britpop arrived in 1994, Ben and Scott had abandoned Boys Wonder and redirected their musical chops into the Jimmy Smith-inspired spy theme grooves of Corduroy and were finally able to grip momentarily onto the Zeitgeist.

Now, finally, all of the lost Boys Wonder recordings have been unearthed for your pop delectation. Don’t miss out this time.

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Presented by Crosstown Concerts.

This is a 16+ event.