Anyone who knows anything about the U.K. pop scene understands how important the music weeklies are to the success of young artists, and while the Internet has undermined that influence they can still make or break a band. Miles Hunt should know. He and his group, The Wonder Stuff, were darlings of the three big weeklies in the late '80s.

"Back then we had NME, Melody Maker and Sounds," he says over the phone from a studio near his home in the U.K. "We were very popular with all three, which was unusual since each one had its peculiarities. Melody Maker went for the goth bands, Sounds was more for rock and NME preferred some political intent."

Hunt claims to have never considered the reason for this confluence of attention. "I don't know why it was, really," he says. "I gave good press at the time. People knew that if they sat down with me for an interview, I'd be full throttle. I had an opinion on everything. At the same time, our first album had that excitement of the late '70s — Buzzcocks, Ramones — so I suppose it was OK to like us and not have to worry about how cool a decision it was. We covered all the bases. And, if I can be allowed to blow my own trumpet, we were always brilliant live."