On Sunday, my wife and I, made our way to Islington to meet our youngest daughter and her boyfriend, for a nice dinner at Carlucio's. As we were leaving, my daughter discovered that she'd lost her 2 tickets, that I had given her the night before. What went through my head was the fact I would be giving her my ticket and I had to put on a brave face, resigning myself to the fact that I would either be being fleeced by a tout for a couple of tickets or I would be missing the gig. Very quickly we came up with another backup plan. I had sent her a photo of her tickets so we thought we'd see if that was enough to get her in. When we got to the venue, the bouncers said we would have to take this up with the box office and let us through. Anouska kept walking and next thing we are all in the gig. Thank f**k!!!
Ginger was on stage for around 3 hours, performing a mixed set from all the different incarnations over the years, various bands and a multitude of people and friends that have worked with him over the years, came on stage for a few songs. He kicked off gently with some of the mellower stuff from his new album, "Ghost in the Tanglewood", moving on to some of his solo stuff and Hey! Hello! A tribute to Husker Du drummer, Grant Hart, "Wichita Lineman" as a tribute to Glenn Campbell and extracts from "Free Falling" and "American Girl" for Tom Petty.
At one point the stage was filled with a mass of wrinkles and grey hair as various punk and fringe rockstars joined the stage which culminated in a stonking version of "Girls are better than Boys" sung by David Ryder Prangley as well as a superb version of "Live Wire" as a tribute to Malcolm Young. The surprise was to see the great Bernie Torme, a man that played with Gillan and stepped into Randy Rhoads shoes after his tragic death, to finish the tour, a great guitarist and he was excellent: Bernie Torme
It was great to see Dregen from the Backyard Babies performing the Supershit 666 songs, an album that I am not overly familiar with but will be buying very shortly.
Finally the Wildhearts closed the show and everything ramped up a gear. There were various guest vocalists singing the songs, finishing with Frank Turner singing "Shittesville" and "29x the Pain". It was a varied night that was more a celebration than a gig, it was disjointed, familiar and amazing, a set that just ramped up till we all got to scream ourselves hoarse to "Sick of Drugs" and another singalong choruses that cropped up in 90% of the songs. The Wildhearts are what live music is about, they are proof that magic is a collective component and despite the genius that is Ginger, there is always something about the Wildhearts that draws us in and him back to them.
I didn't have the blues that I usually get with a Wildhearts gig, knowing that I had (stupidly) booked 2 tickets to see the Wildhearts acoustic, yesterday, in Southampton. Yep, the plan was to drive 2 hours, straight from work, to a gig, 2 hours home and work the next day...Mission accomplished!
I was looking at the acoustic gig as the poor relation and it couldn't have been further from the truth, sure, it wasn't loud but the audience was as deafening as usual, singing their hearts out. The setlist was a dream choice, every song was a killer, but let's take a step back. We got there just before 7.30, the Engine Room in Southampton is in the middle of a small industrial estate, right in the middle of nowhere. We bought T-shirts and I stocked up on a couple of CD's that I didn't have and then Ginger and CJ came out to meet people. Anouska got her ticket signed by both of them, got the CD's signed by Ginger and had a photo taken with each of them.
Support was Dave MacPherson, a very nice guy, a good guitarist and emotive singer.
The Wildhearts acoustic was simply Ginger and CJ playing acoustic arrangements of the Wildhearts songs. They harmonised beautifully and the set was stunning, kicking off with "Stormy in the North, Karma in the South" and going into "You took the Sunshine from New York" and "You are proof that not all Women are insane", "Vanilla Radio" etc.
Geordie in Wonderland
It just shows the quality of the song writing that the songs stand up acoustically as well as they do electrically and the connection between Ginger and CJ is strong, no second guessing except for Ginger forgetting the words to one of the songs and looking blankly at CJ as he sang them. It was a superb night, personal, funny and ultimately sad to reach the end of the night. I did get that hit in the chest when they played "29x the Pain". I will never understand why they weren't a huge stadium band, their songs have enough pop in them an enough hard edges that they should appeal to the rock fraternity as well as the pop metal fans. Ginger is a genuinely nice frontman, his audience love him and he gives back, constantly touring and releasing new music, and like last night, taking the time to spend some time with us, at a cheap gig where the tickets were about £15 each, the T-shirts were a tenner and I am sure his time is worth more than that (I know mine is!).
I am now going to have to buy tickets for the triple header next year when they go out with Reef and Terrorvision...that is after I go to see the Damned at the Koko in Febuary. To steal a couple of lines from "29x..."
"Kiss my Heart
Like The Damned did from the start"
I've not seen the Damned in a few years and as their last album was a stunner and everytime I've seen them they have been amazing, roll on Feb, unless I have to give up my ticket to Anouska...
No comments:
Post a Comment