Where have all the old fans gone?

[geordierussell]

They should go out of their way to get on the Jonathan Ross tv show

[firedup]

They should go out of their way to get on the Jonathan Ross tv show

Never going to happen!

I agree though, lack of marketing has been the main factor. I caught up with an old friend from '95 - me and him were the bigest WH's fans ever at that time. He wsnt aware they had done anything at all after EN. People JUST DON'T KNOW they are still around, unless maybe they read Kerrang.

I'm going to send a mail to Chris Evans later about trying to get a WHs song played on his radio show (and Chris Moyles as he played Cheers). Mght also invent some kind of story and get a WH's somg played on Jo Whileys show where she does that feature thingy. I think that sort of approach might just get through to a few more people and get them interested again.....

[Dark Lord of Barnet]

I agree though, lack of marketing has been the main factor. I caught up with an old friend from '95 - me and him were the bigest WH's fans ever at that time. He wsnt aware they had done anything at all after EN. People JUST DON'T KNOW they are still around, unless maybe they read Kerrang.

I think that hit the nail on the head. I often wear a Wildhearts T-shirt to gigs or in the pub and people regularly come up to me and say "I used to love the Wildhearts!". So I say - 'What do you think of the latest album?' or 'Did you go to the recent show?' - and I just get puzzled looks and they say "What gig? What new album? - I thought they split up years ago!" There are a lot of old fans out there who used to love the band who would still buy CDs and gig tickets if only they knew the band were still going...

[pete]

i think i lost touch with the band when i realised Kerrang was shite and i didnt have a computer i didnt even know about E.N till i heard Anthem and didnt even know who it was

what a shocking state of affairs call meself a fan !

hangs head in shame

[MikeH]

I was a massive fan of the original Wildies having first discovered them when Suckerpunch was released and the video was shown on Noisy Mothers (R.I.P) back in '94. When they split after EN I had no idea they had even reformed until Vanilla Radio charted and my ex-gf pointed it out to me saying "Wasn't that a band you used to like?" Became a massive fan again as the stuff they made in the Riff after Riff/Coupled With era is probably my own personal favourite Wildhearts sound (Vanilla Radio, Stormy, Move On etc) after the obviously classic Earth Vs/PHUQ era.

Times change and people move on - I suppose we have to remember that it's almost 15 years since the height of Wildhearts mania...

[hansblix]

i got into them when i was 13. just before PHUQ come out, 94/95 ish.
the wildhearts were everywhere back in those days.
their support was overwhelming, like y'know when you go to town nowadays and everyones got my chemical romance tops on it was all wildhearts shirts.

but like people have said their marketing was huge back then, major label, TOTP, ridiculous amount of press - they were in kerrang and raw almost every issue for something or other....but obvious all that hype inevitably dies down as kerrang et al find their next band who sells magazines to worship.

i still followed the band through EN and then their solo bands (SG5 being some of the greatest rock gigs i've ever seen) through till the 2001 reunion JBs gig, which turned out to be a really awful night for everybody there and my support for them lost a lot of momentum at that point, i still went to see them a couple of times after that but generally got less and less impressed with their newer stuff and i always missed ritch on the drums, being black country i gotta be loyal to ritch!

i'm loving their new album, yeah i'm battersby-biased but its got some fucking great songs on it and its made me pay attention again, they need to keep up this sobriety or whatever it is their doing cuz their gig last night was outstanding... and whoever says 'riffing for the sake of riffing', ya what? the wildhearts are all about the riffs! earth vs, fishing, dont be happy, phuq, EN all crammed full of sweet riffs!

so yeah, i'm an old fan and i'm still here (ish!) and where some people might say 'did EN lose them fans' i think i'm contrary to that assumption, cuz i thought EN was great. i think they lost fans when they dropped all the riffs.

heng d'ai

[Jen]

I'm an oldie and still kinda around. I first saw the band support the Almighty at the forum in October 1992, and never before or since have I ever felt such an impact from a support band! I followed them all thru the 90's, saw them more times than I can remember, but I've only seen them once this decade I still buy everything, but yeah life gets in the way a bit, I'm a 30 something now with mortgage and kid etc. Still loving the music, but got different priorities these days.

They lost me a bit over EN, the Shepherds Bush show on that tour rates as an all time Wildie low for me. Horrible show. But the SG5 album got me back on track!

Have to say, I'm leaning much more towards the solo stuff than the Wildhearts now. I absolutely love Valor and Yoni, but I'm really really disappointed with the new album, it's too shouty, and not enough of those glorious harmonies IMO. I probably need to give it a few more listens.

Maybe I'm just getting old

[Dark Lord of Barnet]

Friday night I was at the Water Rats to see Lullaby Project and afterward some bloke spotted my green smiley WH shirt and said how unusual it was to meet a fellow fan these days. It's not unusual as far as I'm concerned as this sort of thing often happens when I'm out and about in a WH shirt, but this bloke had no idea the band were on tour and had a new abum out! He thought they'd split for good back in the 90's and hadn't heard anything about them since. I get this reaction quite a lot...

This bloke was well interested in seeing them again and buying the new album - now that he actually knew. There must be thousands of people out there like him who the band need to reach...

[Nickinvincible]

seems like its the same everywhere - whenever i wear wildies t-shirts i get people saying oh i used to love them or you dont see many of them these days. or at gigs i've had people say, ooh i could just go a bit of shitsville now (one bloke said that to me, too a second to work out what he meant ha ha). they have just slipped out of the nations consciousness i fear.....press, singles, support slots etc etc....thats what they need to move back beyond just playing to us lot

[SteveP]

I was on lycos/ yahoo chat on friday night, and there was someone on there who said he was a massive massive Wildhearts fan.

Told him about here, and he didn't know we were about.
He thought we'd all just given up on the band

[fluffygrue]

I bought Phuq on the first day of release! ..course, that was back in the days when I actually knew when albums were going to be released. I think album charting is more complicated these days, especially with HMV fucking up release dates.

Life occasionally makes me lose touch with what the band's up to, but I've still been a fan for.. um.. 12 years. (Ow.) Not planning on going anywhere, really..

[Damian]

I very rarely have those discussions about The Wildhearts at gigs, because just about the only thing about them that never appealed to me was the T-shirts. I still start the conversation if I see someone with one though, which rarely happens at gigs, but every year at Reading Festival without exception there's still loads of them so I get talking a lot there!

[Ean]

...but every year at Reading Festival without exception there's still loads of them so I get talking a lot there!

You going this year? We've got tickets for sunday (got a wedding to go to on the saturday), but they've added a load of bands that make me pissed I'm not going for the weekend .

[madbloke]

i think i lost touch with the band when i realised Kerrang was shite and i didnt have a computer i didnt even know about E.N till i heard Anthem and didnt even know who it was

what a shocking state of affairs call meself a fan !

hangs head in shame

Heh! At least there's a nice friendly community here to get people back up to speed.

When I saw a new Buckcherry album was available, I went to their website for a bit of info, and posted on their forum. I got something like 20 or 30 responses, all slagging me off and calling me a 'fake fan' because I'd stopped following the band AFTER THEY SPLIT UP!!

[pete]

i think i lost touch with the band when i realised Kerrang was shite and i didnt have a computer i didnt even know about E.N till i heard Anthem and didnt even know who it was

what a shocking state of affairs call meself a fan !

hangs head in shame

Heh! At least there's a nice friendly community here to get people back up to speed.

When I saw a new Buckcherry album was available, I went to their website for a bit of info, and posted on their forum. I got something like 20 or 30 responses, all slagging me off and calling me a 'fake fan' because I'd stopped following the band AFTER THEY SPLIT UP!!

i suppose i should get on the Love/ hate Motley crue and LA Guns sites next then

stopped listening to them about ten years ago