From the forthcoming issue of SPIN (Feb 2004), "The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed" reviewed by Doug Brod is the highest rated album reviewed, even on import and without having a US label backing it up!

Read on for the full review...

For better, not worse, the Wildhearts may the least fashionable band in rock'n'roll: too metal for pop fans, too pop for metalheads, fun but necessarily funny. And they've made the catchiest hard-rock record you'll hear this year.

Myriad line-up changes, drug madness, and soured record deals have led the Wildhearts to release only a handful of legit studio albums in their 14-year career, through their singles still routinely crash the U.K. Top 40. On Destroyed - which re-teams singer/guitarist Ginger with two of the guys who played on the band's lone U.S. release, 1993's Earth vs. the Wildhearts - they come off like a British version of another great singles band, Cheap Trick, especially since "Only Love" and "Top Of The World" are each a word away from being Cheap Trick titles, while yet another, "It's All Up To Me" does a reversal on that band's "It's Up To You".

Gearhead Records (first US home to the Hives) will release a raucous B-sides collection here in March, but Destroyed better displays Ginger mastery of the roaring riff and indelible refrain. The raging "Nexus Icon" begins with a distorted staccato howl decrying celebrity worship and segues into the disarmingly sweet- natured "Only Love," which suggests the Beatles on steroids - or at least ephedrines. On "Someone That Won't Let Me Go," Ginger needs a lover who's "Gonna make me feel I truly am the best that I can get," and by the 2.10 mark, he's delivering a thrilling pitch shift to rival the key change in "Livin' On A Prayer."

Things get ferocious with "Get Your Groove On," a lockstep thrash featuring guest screams by the Darkness' Justin Hawkins. But at heart Ginger is a lover man, and he saves his choicest words for "So Into You," with witty self deprecation ("I like your taste in outfits/ But I love your taste in misfits") and lets a Police-style interlude stands so close to the glammed-out crunch. If this is unfashionable, bring on the drum solos.

DOUG BROD - EXECUTIVE EDITOR SPIN
GRADE A

Not content with European and US tours, The Wildhearts will be returning to the UK in April to rack up even more road miles with a tour taking in 14 shows in just 15 days! Additionally the band have added a further warm-up show in February at Dudley JB's.

The full UK dates for the forthcoming months are as follows:

26/01/04: Wolverhampton - Civic Bar (Ginger Acoustic)
27/01/04: Oxford - Zodiac (Ginger Acoustic)
28/01/04: Cambridge - Boat Race (Ginger Acoustic)
29/01/04: High Wycombe - White Horse (Ginger Acoustic)
04/02/04: Dudley - JB's (Warm-up date)
06/02/04: Whitehaven - Civic Hall (Warm-up date)
07/02/04: Wrexham - Central Station (Warm-up date)
08/02/04: Brighton - Concord 2 (Warm-up date)
13/04/04: Liverpool - Academy
14/04/04: Sheffield - Leadmill
15/04/04: Wolverhampton - Wulfrun Hall
16/04/04: Bristol - Academy
17/04/04: Southampton - University
18/04/04: Cardiff - Uni Solus
19/04/04: Hammersmith - Palais
20/04/04: Norwich - Waterfront
22/04/04: Oxford - Brookes University
23/04/04: Manchester - Academy
24/04/04: Glasgow - Garage
25/04/04: Edinburgh - Liquid Rooms
26/04/04: Leeds - Met University
27/04/04: Nottingham - Rock City

We've been deluged with questions about what the Wildhearts are warming up for in February. I'll leave Ginger to explain the good news:

"I'm delighted to say that we are being invited to join The Darkness on their European tour. Some bands promise a lot when they start out, and often forget all about promises made when things take off for them. Or simply turn into fucking arseholes that forget their roots.

Well not many bands take off bigger than the Darkness, and I'm delighted to say that they have lived up to every promise they made. Genuine guys with real talent? Now THAT is fucking rare. God bless 'em for remembering us, and helping someone other than themselves.

If you are in a band you should learn something from bands like The Darkness. And of course the Wildhearts!"

The tour begins on Feb 10th in Amsterdam and takes in dates across Europe, finishing on March 2nd before the band head out to the US (full dates coming soon). The band can't wait to play to new audiences across Europe, with CJ commenting "It's going to be a fine tour and I can't wait to get my mouth round a big juicy bratwurst. Hold the mayo 'motherfucka'"

The full Darkness dates are as follows:

10th Feb - The Max, Melkweg, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
11th Feb - Grünspan, Hamburg, Germany
12th Feb - KB Hallen, Copenhagen, Denmark
14th Feb - Arenan, Fryshuset, Stockholm, Sweden
15th Feb - Rockefeller Music Hall, Oslo, Norway
19th Feb - Columbiafritz, Berlin, Germany
21st Feb - Flex, Vienna, Austria
22nd Feb - New Backstage, Munich, Germany
23rd Feb - Transilvania, Milan, Italy
25th Feb - Limmathaus, Zurich, Switzerland
26th Feb - Batschkapp, Frankfurt, Germany
27th Feb - Zeche, Bochum, Germany
29th Feb - Laiterie, Strasbourg, France
1st March - Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, Belgium
2nd March - Elysee Montmartre, Paris, France

The Wildhearts will be playing several full electric warm-up gigs in February, the dates are as follows:

6th Feb - Whitehaven - Civic hall
7th Feb - Wrexham - Central station
8th Feb - Brighton - Concord 2

Ticket information will be added to the tour page shortly.

We've received information about four of the acoustic dates that have been rescheduled:

26th Jan - Wolverhampton Civic Bar
27th Jan - Oxford Zodiac
28th Jan - Cambridge Boat Race
29th Jan - High Wycombe White Horse

Depending on the venue's policy (worth checking with the venue), tickets from the postponed tour will either have been refunded or will remain valid for these shows.

Full set-lists from the December 2003 Wildhearts shows are included below; many thanks to Maz who runs: www.wildhearts.jp for these!

Setlists as follows:

Zepp Tokyo - 1st Dec 2003 1. Nexus Icon 2. Suckerpunch 3. Vanilla Radio 4. Everlone 5. Someone That Won't Let Me Go 6. Stormy In The North, Karma In The South 7. Nothing Ever Changes But The Shoes 8. Top of the World 9. O.C.D. 10. Jonesing For Jones 11. GiNGER Solo 1 12. Caffeine Bomb 13. GiNGER Solo 2 14. Action Panzer 15. GiNGER Solo 3(Riff) 16. My Baby Is A Headfuck 17. Caprice encore 18. I Wanna Go Where The People Go 19. Sky Babies 20. Love U 'Till I Don't

Club Citta - 2nd Dec 2003 1. Nexus Icon 2. Suckerpunch 3. Vanilla Radio 4. Get Your Groove On 5. Everlone 6. Someone That Won't Let Me Go 7. Stormy In The North, Karma In The South 8. Woah Shit, You Got Through 9. Top of the World 10. O.C.D. 11. Jonesing For Jones 12. GiNGER Solo 13. Caffeine Bomb 14. Action Panzer 15. Nita Nitro 16. Caprice encore 17. Nothing Ever Changes But The Shoes 18. I Wanna Go Where The People Go 19. Love U 'Till I Don't

Osaka - Club Quattro - 3rd Dec 2003 1. Nexus Icon 2. Suckerpunch 3. Vanilla Radio 4. Get Your Groove On 5. Everlone 6. Someone That Won't Let Me Go 7. Stormy In The North, Karma In The South 8. Woah Shit, You Got Through 9. Top of the World 10. Jonesing For Jones 11. O.C.D. 12. Caffeine Bomb 13. GiNGER Solo 14. Action Panzer 15. Caprice encore 16. I Wanna Go Where The People Go 17. My Baby is a headfuck 18. Nothing Ever Changes But The Shoes 19. Sick of drugs 20. Dangerlust 21. Sky Babies

Nagoya - Club Quattro 4th Dec 2003 1. Get Your Groove On 2. Suckerpunch 3. Vanilla Radio 4. Everlone 5. Stormy In The North, Karma In The South 6. Woah Shit, You Got Through 7. Top of the World 8. O.C.D. 9. Nita Nitro 10. Jonesing For Jones 11. Caffeine Bomb 12. Action Panzer 13. Caprice encore 14. Nothing Ever Changes But The Shoes 15. I Wanna Go Where The People Go 16. Love U til I don't

As reported earlier, the acoustic tour has had to be postponed till the new year; Ginger has sent a message explaining things.

"Dear all, the reason for cancellation of the acoustic tour is that I have broken my hand. Bollocks, 'n' all that, but the tickets will still be valid for the rescheduled dates. Sorry to anyone that has arranged travel for these shows, but a one handed acoustic show? I'm sure that would entertain very few people!"

Tour Update: the acoustic tour now been postponed and Ginger is hoping to reschedule the dates for January '04. Contact the venue / booking agent you purchased tickets from for details of ticket validity at rescheduled dates / refunds.

Please accept our sincere apologies on Ginger's behalf.

The first three dates of the acoustic tour (Wolverhampton, High Wycombe and Cambridge) have had to be cancelled as Ginger has a throat infection. We will hopefully have an update on when these dates will be rearranged soon.

Ginger has announced a number of UK acoustic dates in the run-up to Christmas. The dates are as follows:

10/12/03: Wolverhampton - Civic Bar
11/12/03: High Wycombe - White Horse
12/12/03: Cambridge - Boat Race
13/12/03: Milton Keynes - Woughton Centre
14/12/03: Oxford - Zodiac
15/12/03: Bournemouth - Engine Rooms
16/12/03: Portsmouth - Wedgewood Rooms
17/12/03: London - Borderline

The Wildhearts will have their first US release since 'Earth Vs' in Spring 2004, when the rocking Gearhead Records release 'Riff After Riff' with a US tour to co-incide!

Riff After Riff is envisaged as being a full length version of the Japanese release, minus Vanilla Radio but bringing the following Wildhearts gems along to the party: Bang!, If I Decide, Move On, The People That Life Forgot, Action Panzer, Lake Of Piss and Return To Zero, with the latter appearing on CD for the very first time.

The band will be performing at South By Southwest and undertaking a US tour in March (dates to be confirmed) with The Dragons who have been great Stateside supporters of the Wildhearts.

For those not yet in the know, Gearhead are the home of bands like The Hellacopters, Dragons, The Hives, Demons, New Bomb Turks and Turbo A.C's and are great advocates of rock 'n' roll. You can check out their website at: www.gearheadrecords.com

Top of the World entered the UK single chart at number 26 this week. Thank you to everyone who supported the single by either buying copies or by requesting it on radio and TV.

The Wildhearts will be at the Mean Fiddler in London on Friday 7th November (this friday!) doing a PA to celebrate their brand new single "Top of the World", which is out this week.

All of the band will be there, giving away Wildhearts goodies (CDs, programmes, t shirts etc...), and booze! There will also be a signing session - it's a great chance to come along and get some of your own Wildhearts stuff signed by the whole band.

This is part of the newly launched Rock club, called Rock at the Mean Fiddler. The doors open at 11pm, and the night runs through until 4am. For more information, you can check out the Mean Fiddler website - www.meanfiddler.com

If you want to come along, please let us know and we can put you on the reduced entry guestlist - you'll get in for £3 when you'd normally have to pay £6. Please e-mail names to: becky@gutrecords.com.

The Wildhearts will DJing and giving away prizes at the Subculture Halloween Night at Birmingham Academy on 1st November. It's a great chance to meet the band and get things signed, as well as having a great night out! For more details see the Subculture website.

The Wildhearts are playing the following Japanese dates.

1/12/03: Tokyo - Zepp Club
2/12/03: Kawasaki - Club Citta
3/12/03: Osaka - Club Quattro
4/12/03: Nagoya - Club Quattro

Forthcoming single 'Top of the World' is due for release on 3rd November. For audio/video clips, request details and an exclusive competition, see the Top Of The World mini-site.

The video for forthcoming single 'Top of the World' is now on Kerrang and Scuzz TV.

To request on Kerrang TV, call 09012 930 666, the video number is 707. Scuzz TV is Sky channel 471, press the red button on your remote to request.

As you may have guessed; the superb cover of the 'Cheers' theme that Radio 1's Chris Moyles has been playing is The Wildhearts! The Cheers theme will feature on forthcoming single 'Top Of The World' to be released 3rd November. Email chris.moyles@bbc.co.uk or other Radio 1 DJs and tell them that you want to hear it again; alternatively you can text Radio 1 on 81199

The Wildhearts are playing two warmup dates for the Motorhead tour.

3/10/03: Dudley - JB's
4/10/03: Newport - TJ's

Check out the gigs page for venue details.

Following The Wildhearts having to withdraw from the Serie Z festival last week Ginger has made the following comments.

"The band didn't play the Spanish festival as we had to write, rehearse and record new B-sides for the up-coming single. CJ as you know, no longer lives in this country and we have only limited time to work with him while he is not in Japan. The decision to spend this time recording new material was made by all parties involved with The Wildhearts.

I personally apologise on behalf of the band, management and record company, and all I can say is that it is very important that we record new material for every single, instead of putting demo's and re-mixes on B-sides.

Sorry to anyone that we let down, but it really wasn't ever 100% guaranteed that we were even playing this festival, there are no internal problems within the band and we are massively excited to present brand new material."

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