From
daveling.co.uk
Sunday 21st September
Look… I don’t wanna talk about the football, okay? After the afternoon’s debacle at Selhurst, my spirits needed a drastic elevation. The Wildhearts were just the band to do it. Their 1993 debut ‘Earth Vs The Wildhearts’ is one of all all-time favourite albums, so I’d been looking forward to see them play its in its entirety. With the band steering clear of alcohol – pre-show, at least! – the night turned out to be a complete joy. Seated up in the balcony, with a terrific view and an awesome sound mix, an earful of ‘Greetings From Shitsville’, ‘The Miles Away Girl’, and ‘Suckerpunch’ was just what the rock ‘n’ roll doctor ordered. Er… what’s that you say? Palace lost at home to Plymouth Are Gargoyles?! I clean forgot!
Not only did the Wildies play ‘Earth Vs The Wildhearts’, after a short interval they returned for a whole other hours’ worth of music, running through the album’s singles and B-sides, a whopping 10 tunes. If you expected the quality levels to drop you’d have been wrong. ‘Beautiful Thing You’ is arguably the best song that Cheap Trick never wrote, and ‘Shut Your Fucking Mouth And Use Your Fucking Brain’ is a track that perfectly encapsulates Ginger’s no bullshit manifesto. Having introduced his small son Jake to the crowd earlier in the evening (“He’s in a band called Thunderbike – how cool a name is that?”), the frontman/guitarist ended by namechecking a few people that didn’t make it this far, including the band’s former singer Snake (of Tobruk fame) and 3 Colours Red/Skyclad drummer Keith Baxter, proclaiming: “Thank yourself lucky for every breath that you take.” A nice touch. Here’s the set-list: ‘Greetings From Shitsville’, ‘TV Tan’, ‘Everlone’, ‘Shame On Me’, ‘Loveshit’, ‘Miles Away Girl’, ‘News Of The World’, ‘Drinking About Life’, ‘My Baby Is A Headfuck’, ‘Suckerpunch’, ‘Love You Till I Don’t’, ‘Dangerlust’, ‘Show A Little Emotion’, ‘Down On London’, ‘Girlfriend Clothes’, ‘Caffeine Bomb’, ‘Shut Your Fucking Mouth And Use Your Fucking Brain’, ‘And The Bullshit Goes On’, ‘Beautiful Thing You’, ‘Two-Way Idiot Mirror’ and ‘29 x The Pain’.
