Ginger Wildheart interview

But it's not here.

I participated in the interview on a moonlighting job with the New Hellfire Club, although moonlighting doesn't really describe it as I spend more time hanging around the NHC than here of late

Anyway. Here's a link.

With just a clickety click of the mouse and as if by magic you will be knee deep in the words of Ginger, and they are rather good words.
There's news on the forthcoming tour and a project with Chris Gordon of Baby Chaos.
Yeah, It's pretty darn good.
Even if I do say so myself, and I just did.

CJ Wildheart - Down the Drain (Mable pledge campaign)

The pledge campaigns are coming hard and fast from The Wildhearts and Ginger associated acts just now.
The Eureka Machine lads have been at it, Jon Poole had a go, and now he is back with Willie Dowling for a second bite, while CJ has just released this rather nifty video as a taster to the forthcoming Mable album.

You can get on board here.
That's not a recommendation.
It's an order.
Jump to it.

The Wildhearts - ABC - 14/04/14 (Glasgow)

While Ginger Wildheart continues to release music at an unparalleled rate through his pledge campaigns I have been left as a fan financially destitute and a little bit worried that I am at times doing little more than funding vanity pieces.

In conversations I find myself more frequently saying aloud that sometimes less is more.

The litmus test on this is that initially not many agreed, but of late more are airing the same view in a piecemeal fashion.

Even now with the newly purchased Albion spinning away I’m not getting the sense of all killer and no filler, although that may come.

However of his recent sonic outings I couldn’t really find one negative point to highlight about the Hey! Hello! project that he completed with Victoria Liedke.

The melodic power pop, pop punk, pop-tastic album is pretty much one that hits every button for me. So it was a fantastic bonus when it was announced that they would be opening for the Wildhearts.

My heart sang.

Build up of expectations be damned as I just knew it would be good, and it was.

Ginger unsurprisingly maintained the centre stage position as for many he is the draw, but he only held it physically as the lead was left to Victoria to take, and as a front woman she had it all nailed down.

They powered through their set at breakneck speed with Victoria building up an easy rapport with the audience that must surely dictate that the support will be there for a follow up release to their debut.

The hint that this may be on the cards was the inclusion of a new song that matched the quality of everything else in the set.

With Gingers involvement it is doubtful that the band will have to start at the bottom rung in playing live and they can jump straight to good sized venues, and if that’s the case then I could very well be front and centre.

Following Hey!Hello! were the Finnish curveball thrown by Ginger that was the Von Hertzen Brothers.

It would be fair to say that they are a good band, a very good band with some progressive rock leanings, and it would also be fair to say that they are deserving of an audience, but not a Wildhearts one.

Song after song the lost the interest of the audience and that was tough to watch.

If they opened for the classic Brit rock band Magnum and they would have had the crowd eating out of their hand, add them to a bill with Helloween and not one person attending would have had a complaint - and I suspect they would have done a roaring trade in merch - but the inclusion on this bill was similar to shoe horning 1Direction onto a stage at Download between Killswitch Engage and Bring Me the Horizon.

While they will have picked up some fans from the tour in the main they weren’t what the majority would have been looking for.

It’s a good move to haul a band out on the road in support that will challenge the perceptions of an audience, but in doing so it has to be accepted that it can be a bit hit and miss with this being more miss than hit.

The upside of the lull that the Von Hertzen Brothers provided was that The Wildhearts didn’t have to stand in the wings wondering how they were going to follow a headline slaying band and could simply saunter on and do their thing, and that’s exactly what they did.

It was nice to see Scott Sorry back in the line up as I’ve always enjoyed the punkier stage attitude he has brought to the band, but while I was enjoying myself there was a small voice whispering that it all seemed a bit Wildhearts by numbers.

While one support was an exercise in giving the audience something they didn’t want, this was a headline set made up of giving the audience exactly what they wanted, and maybe I was looking for another curveball with this one being Wildhearts shaped.  

Highlight was the introduction of Gingers son Taylor who along with Scott stormed his way through the classic People Who Are Dead by Jim Carroll before then hanging around to help out on Nexus Icon.

It’s very obvious that Ginger wants to keep the The Wildhearts as a separate entity from his outings as a solo act, but as the last Wildhearts release was the excellent Chutzpah! in 2009 it’s possibly time to step away from experimenting under his own name and take control at the helm of one of the best rock band that this country has seen and give us a new album that will provide fresh material for any future Wildhearts tours.

The Wildhearts / Eureka Machines - ABC - 04/04/13 (Glasgow)

In the cold light of day it's a bit difficult to maintain a grip of the magic from last night.

Akin to a midsummers dream the whole evening feels as if it existed in a time and place that thrives on only having a tenuous link to reality.

Gigs shouldn't be this good, but occasionally they quite simply are.

The Wildhearts owned the night.

That's one of those terms that is used so often that it has begun to lose all meaning.

'They owned it' doesn't really carry a certain sense of weight to it any more, but this was a show that deserves to be described in such a way.

From the moment Ginger surveyed the sold out crowd it was as if a fire was lit.

The power of an album that was released twenty years ago had not been dampened in the slightest, and the crowd were there to bear witness to the resurrection of the tracks played.

Over the years The Wildhearts have been described as everything from grebo punks to heavy metal warriors.

All descriptive terms that are often completely right while still being completely wrong.

The Wildhearts are really just The Wildhearts.

An extension of the fever dreams of Ginger himself.

A mish mash of rock and roll, pop harmonies, and a magpie tendency to throw everything at the wall to see what will stick.

Often emulated by others, but never surpassed in the schizophrenic rush to get the party started, this is the band that people should have on their bucket list as one to see.

The whole Earth Vs The Wildhearts album was played in a blur.

It just felt like one classic song after another after another was laid out to trip over each other in their haste to be heard.

The band themselves looked as if they were equally as caught up in the moment as the audience were.

Strange to think that it has taken twenty years for the songs to get the full one hundred percent appreciation that they deserve.

By the time the initial set was locked down they had provided proof that rock and roll can transcend just about anything.

Proof of that will this morning be throbbing through the tired knees of people who couldn't manage to run for a bus most days, but didn't even need a second wind to get them through dancing like an amphetamine fuelled teenager for a substantial period of time to the wondrous sounds of the Wildhearts.

A second set of fans choices was the proverbially icing on the cake.

Very obviously the fans went for the 'best of' material and who could blame them.

If a famous alcohol beverage manufacturer made gigs then this is the gig they would make.

If anyone left the ABC wanting more then that would just be an expression of sheer greed.

Similar superlatives could be expressed towards Eureka Machines who played prior to The Wildhearts.

With two fantastic albums under their belts they had recently considered calling it a day, but with a successful pledge campaign now completed they are back with what I consider to be their best album to date and a newly invigorated attitude.

Their set was a prime example of how to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

How good they are is still bedding in with people, but the lack of exuberant bouncing around was no reflection on how the band were perceived and maybe a little more to do with age.

Everyone I spoke to was very quick to praise the performance and rightly so.

Hopefully it doesn't take twenty years for them to get a sold out audience for 'Remain in Hope.

The Wildhearts Vs Glasgow

Tonight is the night.
Remember that feeling that we all used to get when we were just about to head out to a gig?
Well I still get that.
Not for every gig of course, but there's the odd one here and there that set the butterflies flapping in a frenzy in the pit of my stomach.
I feel like I could do a piss every ten minutes and I have no idea if it's rooted in excitement or an oncoming bladder problem, but I'm hoping it's not the latter.
The reason for feeling like this is because The Wildhearts are in Glasgow tonight on the first date of the Earth versus tour.
They have thirty odd songs brushed off and given a rub down ready for this, and by all that is unholy I can't bloody wait.
Very often people would prefer if they could just jump to the main course when an event like this rolls around, but I've heard good things about Baby Godzilla, and of course I just know that Eureka Machines are going to kill it.

My morning has consisted of jumping out of bed and slipping Remain in Hope on to accompany my ablutions.
(Ablutions is the upmarket term for a shit and a shave for those who didn't know.)
Then Earth versus the Wildhearts got a spin while I munched down on a bacon roll and answered emails.
(There you go. Who said men can't multitask?)
After that Champion the Underdog blasted out while I showered and right now 555% is on.
I am considering playing PHUQ or Do or Die while I wax my mustache.*
Between now and catching the train the world of music is my oyster.
It's all crashing guitars, throbbing bass lines and harmonies to die for.

Oooft.......and ooft again. This is going to be all killer and no filler.
Strangely enough I don't actually remember the first time I seen The Wildhearts.
It was supporting Love/Hate in Glasgow in Tuts and I remember Love/Hate, but not one singular memory of Ginger and the Wildhearts of the time has left a memory in my head.
Since then I have seen them more times than I care to count, and add on the Ginger solo outings and it's possible that I've paid one or two electricity bills for Ginger.
Not that a single penny is begrudged as this is as a front man who gives it his all always.

Tonight Glasgow belongs to Ginger. Don't let anyone tell you different.

PS . After the show there's a party in Bar Bloc with Chris catalyst of Eureka Machines playing some tunes.

*that's not a euphemism.

Calling all Wildhearts.

This is just a cut and paste job in an attempt to spread the word.

After a 3 year hiatus, The Wildhearts (Ginger, CJ, Jon Poole & Ritch Battersby) made their explosive live return in front of a sold-out crowd at The Forum in London, on December 17th 2012.

In April 2013, The Wildhearts will once again take to the stage, when they perform their classic debut album “Earth vs” at four special shows. The album was voted the number 1 album of the year by Kerrang! Magazine in 1993.

The show will be broken into two halves – the first will see “Earth vs” performed in full, and the second half will allow the audience each night to help choose the songs they want to hear.

The dates are:
April 4th – Glasgow, ABC
April 5th – Manchester, Academy
April 6th – Nottingham, Rockcity
April 7th – Wolverhampton, Wulfrun Hall

Tickets go on sale at 9am on the 7th January 2013 from all major ticket outlets.
Support comes from the always excellent Eureka Machines.
Now where have I heard about them before.
Eureka Machines Glasgow date.

Champion the underdog. A missive from Chris Catalyst.

Christ Catalyst of Eureka Machines has just posted this on facebook and I firmly believe it's worth sharing.

So repost it if you will.

Someone somewhere is wondering if anyone is listening and the answer is yes.

So let's tell them.

There are those of us who care not a jot of you have a large multinational supporting your art.

If you are good we want to hear what you are doing, look at your art, read your stories, poems, listen to your jokes.

Enough from me though.

Here's Chris.

This week, Tulisa's debut album entered the midweek charts at Number 17, despite her position as a judge on supposedly the most popular programme on the telly.

A few weeks ago, No Doubt (once a reasonable band, but no longer sold on their tunes or ability) sold 680 copies of their single, after appearing on said TV show to 10 million people.

The Ginger Wildheart album I was involved in earlier this year went in the midweek charts at Number 5, with no press fanfare, no hype, and no TV. Just an independent guy who has worked hard and built up a fanbase WHO CARE ABOUT MUSIC.

The forthcoming Eureka Machines album has now pre-sold 700 copies, not a gargantuan figure by any means, but one borne out of hard work, love in what we do, and the belief in us by a bunch of people WHO CARE ABOUT MUSIC.

Nobody ACTUALLY REALLY GIVES A SHIT about Tulisa's music.

What this all means is that there is a divide. There are two kinds of people. Those who are into MUSIC, and those who are into MARKETING. It's the same for everything, really. For every ten faceless Starbucks will spring up one independent coffee house, run by people who care about coffee and buns for people who care about coffee and buns. For every hundred flashy Hollywood blockbuster CGI fests will spring up one homegrown self-funded film with a thousandth of the budget but with ten thousand more ideas.

None of this is new news, but it gaining momentum and will only continue to do so with your support.

Music over marketing. Graft over good looks. Content over cheekbones. Ideas over idolatry. Community over competition.

A new world is arriving. More and more people are seeing through the landfill and dross that fills our every day existence. We don't have to put up with the nonsense. Supporters of the bespoke underdog are rewarded with decent quality, while the rest of the world continue to fatten on their McDonalds. It's no longer cool to be stupid, and we don't have to stand for it. Vote with your feet, your heart, your lungs and your minds.

The End.

Chris.
X

While this blog update is not an advert for the forthcoming Eureka Machines album you can buy it here, and should do.