As announced by Tracii Guns on the Brides of Destruction website, Ginger has gone to LA to work with the band as a second guitarist and to assist with writing their next album.

Ginger will be sending over a statement later in the week (as soon as he sorts out an internet connection etc.), which we'll send out as soon as we get it.

We've got an update from Ginger following everyone's comments on the DVD situation: "Thank you all so much for your support and ideas. We still haven't given up hope of releasing a DVD, we have just given up hope of releasing a DVD on the Gut label. The day the industry stops us fulfilling our dreams is the day that we cut off our cocks in public. Try as they may this industry can only slow us down."

An update from Ginger on the DVD: "We are sad to report that the proposed DVD, intended to feature a live show, a documentary and a complete promo video archive will now no longer go ahead. GUT records have pulled out of the venture. No official reason has been offered as yet.

Due to the limited time left to arrange alternative finances the project will have to be shelved.

Thank you so much for your videos, DVD's and MP3's, intended to be used on the documentary. The band intend to continue to look for financers to fund the documentary. The live video, however, due to be recorded at the forthcoming London show on 8th December, will be impossible to film. We apologise to everyone.

In the meantime, look forward to the documentary."

Ginger will be appearing on Phill Jupitus's breakfast show on BBC 6 Music on Wednesday 24th November. The breakfast show runs from 7am to 10am (GMT) although Ginger shouldn't be appearing until after 9.

You can listen to the station live on the internet using: http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/ and the homepage for the breakfast show is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/presenters/phill_jupitus/home.shtml

Ginger has arranged a special one-off gig to celebrate his birthday. He'll be playing at the Marquee Club in London (1 Leicester Square) on December 17th. The band will be completed by Willy Dowling, Rich Battersby and Random Jon Poole. There will be no support act, instead the band will be playing two sets. Tickets are available from TicketWeb for 11 pounds.

A few more changes to the upcoming tour dates, both for Ginger and The Wildhearts. From the acoustic shows, Preston and Bristol have both been postponed, hopefully to be rescheduled in the new year. The remaining acoustic dates are as follows:

13 November - Doncaster - Leopard
14 November - Mansfield - Mill
26 November - Newcastle - Archer
27 November - York - Cert 18
28 November - Newport - TJ's

There's also been more Wildhearts shows booked; here is the full list of dates for December.

03 December - Sunderland - Ku Klub
04 December - Wrexham - Central Station
05 December - Preston - The Mill
06 December - Belfast - Limelight
08 December - London - Astoria
09 December - Manchester - MDH
10 December - Glasgow - Garage
11 December - Sheffield - Leadmill
13 December - Cambridge - Junction
14 December - Bristol - Anson Rooms
15 December - Wolverhampton - Wulfrun Hall

The song vote has also now closed - thanks to all who took the opportunity to cast their votes, Ginger comments: "Thank you to everyone that took part in voting for the new set list. Great choices. This should be a very memorable tour for us both.

We are delighted by the amount of new songs in there, a sure fire sign that the band 'still have it'. It will also be a pleasure to play some of the older less played tracks featured in the closing vote.

If you can't vote in a great future for America then you can vote for a great night for Britain.

December looks likely to ROCK much more than any other Month of 2004. What a fine, fine way of ushering in a new year and shaking hands with the present one.

It's been a great ride, see you on the other side...'till then let's party like it's nonsensical Prince song. Alrite."

We have a message from Ginger following the sad death of John Peel.

"It with great sorrow that we find out that John Peel is dead.

Without John Peel, music would not have the scope that we all enjoy. He gave meaning to making music as a personal statement. He championed so many great bands that we would never have heard (you have your own, mine is Big Black). He didn't give a fuck about acceptance, and because of that everyone not only accepted his lead but embraced it. Now Radio One is officially shit. It is a truly sad day. It feels like a really individual friend has gone and there is no one like him to go to. The world of music will never be as exciting and intriguing without him. The original maverick has gone, and everyone out there (yeah, you) should put their balls on the line like he did, in everything that you do.. He showed that there is nothing to fear in being an individual. Remember this for the rest of your lives."

Ginger has news about the Christmas tour: "although to be confirmed, we hope to have CARDIACS on the bill as special guests. One of our all time favourite bands, for anyone that hasn't seen this band in concert CARDIACS are one of the most amazing bands to ever grace a stage, and we will be proud to have them as our guests on this tour.

Support also looks likely to come from Deckard (ex-Baby Chaos), another incredible band you will suffer from missing, should you be crazy enough to miss.

Can I hear a 'fuck yeah'? Thought so".

For fans wanting to help choose The Wildhearts setlist for the Christmas tour, the song vote page is now on the website.

You can select 15 songs - once the votes are collated they'll be used to form the setlist for the band's Christmas tour. In order to keep things fair (and make sure everybody gets one vote only!), all voters must be registered on the Wildhearts update list (you can sign up on the front page of the website). Once you've voted with that e-mail address, you won't be able to use it to vote again.

Ginger has details on the recent changes to the tour dates: "As eagle-eyed readers of the site will notice, the London date has replaced the Cambridge date, and vice versa.

From what I gather to be official, the 13th of December is on a GAY night. This means a gay disco would take place within half an hour of us leaving the stage. We plan to film the the event for a DVD, which would mean bringing enough lights to be able to actually see something on the screen, and enough cameras to film it all in it's glory. This amount of gear, combined with our own would not be stripped down in half an hour, it would take hours.

In short, it would be impossible to film a DVD at the intended London date.

Also, I understand that this show would take place on a Kerrang evening, complete with a lot of bands also playing. Don't get me wrong, I imagine they would all be amazing, but it means that we would have effectively play last on a pre-booked, festival style bill, and not be able to bring in our own touring bill, stage set, lights and soundsystem. Effectively starving the London fans of the same show and the same bill as the rest of the country will see.

If everyone would prefer a hurried set on an unknown bill, cut short for a disco, then please let us know your dissapointment and we will reschedule the original booking. If, however, everyone thinks that switching the London date for a better sounding, smarter looking show (with a bill designed for Wildhearts fans) that can be recorded for a DVD that will feature a load of extras, then let us know.

The choice, as always, is yours."

Ginger has another album in the pipeline: "A Break In The Weather", a collection of 'singles club' tracks which will come out on January 31st. The album will also feature unreleased tracks, including "The Dying Art Of The Chorus" (with Barney, of Napalm Death), as well as original artwork from the creator of 'the singles club' covers, David Heulun.

Ginger has also added more dates to the acoustic tour - he will be playing the following shows:
Bristol Bierkeller, November 19th
Newcastle Archer, November 26th
York, Cert 18, November 27th
Newport TJ's, November 28th

See the gigs page of the website for full tour details.

The Wildhearts are releasing their first official UK live album - The Wildhearts Strike Back - on 25th October. The album (double album in fact) features blistering versions of established live favourites and more obscure b-sides recorded from several shows during the band's recent UK tour. The full tracklist for the album is:

I Wanna Go Where The People Go
Greetings From Shitsville
Top Of The World
Vanilla Radio
Caffeine Bomb
O.C.D.
Someone That Won’t Let Me Go
Nita Nitro
Caprice
Girlfriend Clothes
Jonesing For Jones
Suckerpunch
Beautiful Thing You
Weekend 96 (vinyl only)
Turning American
My Baby Is A Headfuck
Loch Ness Interlude
Cheers
Nothing Ever Changes But The Shoes
Dangerlust
Love U Til I Don’t
Don’t Worry About Me

The album will be available from ChangesOne, Amazon and record shops country-wide.

The Wildhearts UK tour dates have been revised and are now as follows:
8th London - Astoria
9th Manchester - MDH
10th Glasgow - Garage
11th Sheffield - Leadmill
13th Cambridge - Junction
14th Bristol - Anson Rooms
15th Wolverhampton - Wulfrun Hall

We have confirmation of three more acoustic gigs with Ginger, Random Jon and Hot Steve:
12 Nov - Preston Mill
13 Nov - Doncaster Leopard
14 Nov - Mansfield Mill

"Okay guys, work on the documentary has officially started.

What I need you guys to do is find me footage, footage, FOOTAGE.

I am looking for specifically:

* Live footage from the first years of the bands formation ('89 to '93)
* Television appearances (especially The James Whale show)
* Live footage of interesting events on stage. You, the fan, can be the judge of what constitutes an 'interesting event' (anyone with stuff like guitars being smashed in anger, Danny falling asleep onstage in Newcastle, and that kind of thing will be treated like royalty).
* Live footage from every tour that we have ever done.

Credit will of course be given to anyone whose footage we use on the documentary, as well as a free DVD. There is no financial reward, just satisfaction that you assisted in the most kick-ass documentary on the shelves.

Please compare notes regarding what is good and what is not. I do not want hundreds of video tapes arriving at my door. And would you e-mail me before submitting anything, so we can agree that what you are sending me is what I really need.

Come on guys, spread the word and let's make history.

The first ever Wildhearts documentary, and you are a part of it."

Ginger

The Wildhearts will be touring the UK in December, playing the following shows:

8th Cambridge - Junction
9th Manchester - MDH
10th Glasgow - Garage
11th Sheffield - Leadmill
13th London - Astoria
14th Bristol - Academy
15th Wolverhampton - Wulfrun Hall

Ginger says "We are going to put together a killer bill, and we are also hoping to film the London show for a DVD.

What we want to know is... what songs would YOU like us to play? We want you to send in your requests for songs that you'd like to see us play live.

Obviously, with DVD being a visual medium it would be nice to have a set list that promotes band and audience performance. The choice, however, is yours.

Pick wisely, and try to think of an entertaining set list, as opposed to 'the B-sides you'd most like to see performed but will ultimately bore the crap out of the viewer and/or most of the audience '.

We await your decisions with, to be honest, dread.

And also a bit of excitement. This should be fun. And if not? We won't do it again!

Happy Xmas!"

The song request page will be available on the website within the next few days.

We'll be performing site maintenance over the weekend which will include an outage on mail (ginger@thewildhearts etc) for the duration, so no mails will be received, and the website itself will be unavailable for periods. Please bear with us during this work as it should allow us to improve the resiliance of the site.

Ginger has a request that the Wildhearts community may be able to help with....

"Hey guys, I am looking for a singer.

Before anyone get's the wrong idea, I am not leaving The Wildhearts, not now and probably not ever, but I really want to record and start up something new with a singer, with a view to starting up a brand new band.

I guess that ideally I'd like the guy to be British or Australian, but would not turn away anyone from the States or Europe if they fit the bill.

The bill? Anyone with the God given talent and charisma to floor people. I don't care what style or image the guy has, just as long as he has an incredible voice and personality.

It's going to take an awful long time to find the right character, so what better way of beginning the search than with a network as healthy as our own?

If anyone thinks that they have what it takes then they could always send a tape/CDR to the Po Box address on the site.

Or maybe they just know of an amazing vocalist who's talents are not yet known? That way everyone can join in the search.

I imagine that it would be more fun if people could compare notes as to who is the most underrated, or criminally unknown vocalist that they have ever heard.

Like I said, I am not expecting to find someone overnight, so we have the luxury of time on our side.

Fingers crossed but twitching in anticipation,

Ginger"

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