The Wildhearts

ow, i am still deaf!

a quick roundup:

-no cyborgs support slot (banned from venue apparently...)
-Tim Smith / Ginger / Jon Poole = excellently eccentric (but not to everyone's tastes)
-lots of rock...
-Jon Poole crowdsurfing and being completely random
-Cyborgs did a mini-show resulting in bloodshed onstage, and piercing Ginger with syringes during 29x the pain
-place was kind of rammed...
-new album is being recorded in April (i think that's what was said!)

all over - great gig, amazing musicianship, LOVED the saxophone-ness and extra rhythm and rapping and....it was just great! So many different musical styles in one gig!

Bring on the next tour!

glad I wasn't the only one with ringing ears...

I enjoyed last night much more the Garage gig, which, though it had some lovely moments, seemed to drown in a wash of sound. I know it makes me sound about 80, but rock gigs are too blummin' loud these days. Heck, they probably always have been. In fact, I know they always have been - it's probably why I've had tinnitus for the last two years.

Still, every cloud has a silver lining, and this one has taken the form of a pair of musicians' earplugs, which means I now get to actually hear all of the instruments when I see a band live. As I exclaimed after last night's show: "It was like a gig, only I could hear the music!"

Seriously, it sounded fuggin' great, though the sax could perhaps have been a little more upfront (physically and audibly - though the latter could just be me; like I say, I had bits of plastic in my ears). The sweet-sounding backing singers - and I'm including Jase Edwards here - were ace, I dug that reggae breakdown and, best of all, everyone on stage looked like they were having a ball.

It's certainly a big band, in sound and number - and as Mr Matt Byrne said to me t'other day, it brings to mind Ginger's aborted Eureka project from 1998, who were described as a 10-piece band with a horn section. How close they are in sound, we'll never know, but I thought it was an interesting observation.

Oh, and how 'bout that splendid version of Answering Machine? The Replacements' original was a mainstay of my compilation tapes through the Nineties. I've never been the biggest Mats fan in the world, but I think that's as close as any song's got to being perfect, and it was a wonderful moment last night when those opening lines rang out: "Try to breathe some life into a letter..."

The band were on stage for almost two hours - that's twice as long as the Garage gig. Unfortunately, I thought that last night’s show skidded off track in the last 10 to 15 minutes. It seemed to be building towards a climax - the four cover tunes followed by a swift word of thanks and a celebratory 29 x The Pain (the ultimate cover song in many ways) would've topped things off nicely. Instead, there were lengthy introductions (with brief solos) and some impromptu skin drilling/piercing, and, well, the momentum was lost.

Still, those niggles aside, I'm happy. And the band seem to have enjoyed this tour, which bodes well for the future - though I'll be surprised if the Sonic Circus doesn't have a revolving door (tent flap?) when it comes to the line-up, flexibility being the stepmother of invention and all that.

...and to think i thought the garage gig was great!
this one blew my forking head off

i took a quite frankly, ridiculous number of photo's, so there's bound to be a few gems in there. it's going to take me absolutely ages to upload them though, curse my slow PC!

*edit* That said....

what a fucking gig , came all the way from wales and was well worth it .

right first off , me and my mother(sorry no other choice) booked into the kings cross travel lodge after about 4 hours travelling to london on coach and then about another 2 hours looking for the hotel , we finally found it and guess what ? guess who else was staying there ? YES thats right Ginger & The Sonic Circus were there , as my mother walked through the door , she turns round and says "isnt that ginger ? " and theres me the plank i am , i shout GINGER and theres him and conny bloom sitting having a drink and he waves at me , and my face just lit up , went over immediatley and made a mong of myself had a little chat and got Ginge and Conny to sign my copy of Valor , then they dissapear to their rooms and then who comes straight down , Random Jon Poole , what a guy he is the nicest bloke you are ever likely to meet , top bloke had a good conversation with him and got him to sign my album aswell. That just fucking made my day , then the gig

Right after searching for the venue for ages , it was in a shopping centre ? whats going on there then. quite suprised when there was bit of a que there , but that went quick enough. got inside got a t-shirt must admit not up to much to be honest , seems pretty cheap , oh well . right i decided to leave my mother to go down the front , had to be on the barrier which brilliantly i was , right dead centre aswell. after continuesly playing Valor over and over it got me in the mood a bit , then Tim , Ginger and Jon appear , me not having heard the cardiacs before i really didnt know what to excpect . There Was Ginger and Jon in suits just standing either side of Tim and throughout the entire set they were both motionless NOTHING at all not even a smirk when Tim was talking all that bullshit about birds , faries and ducks etc .... btw great stuff hilarious. The Music was decent enough , not something that i will go out and get immedialey but worth a listen although very very strange.

The Psycho Cyborgs , gets cancelled cause of age restrictions or something like that , cant say i can complain i really didnt fancy seeing it anyway.

Right onto the main event
Ginger & The Sonic Circus
as the lights dimmed and the sound of gtt starts it started getting exciting , and then as the band come out all nine of them plus sammy for the first song 'ugly' just gotta say immense , right it just got better from there playing all the amazing material from Valor , certain highlights had to be 'yeah yeah yeah', 'drinking in the day time' , 'this is only a problem' and the brilliant silver ginger 5 song 'sonic shake' , every song was just brilliant , they are great on the album but LIVE there is so much of a better feel to it , the atmosphere was fantastic , the crowd tottally loved it.and proved so when the huge singalong of 'dont worry bout' me started and just went on and on FANTASTIC. then the encore , wow 'The Man Who Cheated Death' live now that is something else , ive never been in such a passionate atmosphere ever , this was truley the highlight of the night just a fantastic song , honestly i think its the best song Ginger's ever written. then the covers came along , after reading the previous set lists and seeing there was a few covers that id never heard of , i immedeitley got hold of just so i could learn the songs to be able to sing along , cause thats what this gig was for me just a massive sing along and a fantastic one at that. The Replacements ' Answering Machine' was outstanding along with 'boys keep swining' and then 'pump it up' (during the start of this i went quite mad and started jumping and i accidently elbowed a women very sorry for that) and then 'listen to the music' which eventually turned out to be an introduction to the entire band , gotta say every member played with 150% last night they were all fantastic. then as finally we got through chants of RANDOM (who btw did a nice dive into the crowd) and then GINGER. It was time for the night to close but there was still a little more time and with that Ginger introduces the Psycho Cyborgs , 2 blokes with piercings and holes through there entire body , along with a dwarf hanging from a metal pipe wth hooks on it lovely , just lovely. All i could do was just look on in amazement to see what they were doing to themselves putting sharp metal through arms isnt nice to say the least , and then into the last song of the evening my fav all time song '29x The Pain' nothing could have topped that , what a fucking singalong everyone in the building knew the words to that one , even the psycho cyborgs who were piercing Ginger through 29x. And then it was over. I had just witnessed the greatest gig ever , not the greatest Ginger related gig but the Best Gig ive ever been too. It was that good. And my view now is may this last as long as possible, Ginger dosent need The Wildhearts anymore , as much as i love the wildies but this truley beats it. At last Ginger seems really happy and enjoying playing roll on the new album and roll on the next tour . I cannot Fucking wait.

also was great to meet hannah , if anyone is wondering who on earth i am , well i was right infront of Ginger all night , tied back hair have the smley bones tattoo.

you talk too much. did you not see the bird in the spandex shorts? ya see thats your problem.

great review.

you lucky bugger staying at the same place as Ginger.

Actually I enjoyed the Garage gig more.

Dunno if it was the people stood around me, the newness of it or just the look on Gingers face when we all sung The Man Who Cheated Death for the first time, but I preferred it.

Praps its just me

Keev wrote:you talk too much. did you not see the bird in the spandex shorts? ya see thats your problem.

nope sorry kev i didnt , and yes i talk to much

geordierussell wrote:great review.

you lucky bugger staying at the same place as Ginger.

thanks and yes i am a lucky bugger, but not lucky enough to have a camera with me at the time , but was cocky enough to bring the booklet of valor and a marker just incase

It did rock!! Yeah it was great to see some proper rock chicks out last night showing a bit of flesh!! And Sammy was looking rather fine too!!

I'd love to know what those cover tunes were cos I thought praps it was new material.

The Garage gig and last night were 2 very different gigs, but both featuring many of the same songs of course:) The first gig was special cos hardly anyone new about the band apart from those on the list and those who'd caught on thru the radio. It was his first gig with that album, and the air was filled with expectancy cos everyone was so made up with 'Valor...'. It was really cool!

Last night's gig was pretty much the same band but it had started to realise how good it actually was after the recent tour, and they'd grown in confidence as well as numbers. Ginger was probably more at ease last night and just in the mood to give it some, seeing as it was the last night of the tour.

billyK wrote: I'd love to know what those cover tunes were cos I thought praps it was new material.

Covers played at the Academy were:

Answering Machine (Replacements)
Boys Keep Swinging (David Bowie)
Listen To The Music (Doobie Brothers)
Pump It Up (Elvis Costello)

Keev wrote:you talk too much. did you not see the bird in the spandex shorts? ya see thats your problem.

ooh!! it's kev!!!

Where have you been hiding fella?

Just a quick one from me on the gig

One of the singers wore my hat throughout the whole encore which made me very happy. Then she actually walked down to the front of the crowd to put it back on my head for me so I gave her a kiss. What a lovely lady and very exciting that 'part of me' (kind-of) was part of the Sonic Circus for a short time.

Also got 2 plectrums and a drumstick which is always nice.

Not keen on the guy down the front who kept shoving himself backwards everytime someone touched his back. Pleb.

Great gig, great fans (apart from the Pleb)

And that is all I have to say for myself