THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT... THE WiLDHEARTS

Your first time is always special and my first gig was The Wildhearts at Warrington Parr Hall on April 14th 1996, and it's still one of the best that I've ever been to, even though it nearly destroyed my dad's eardrums and I could hardly walk when I came out because I'd been kneeling down in the seating area around near the top of the stage. If I hadn't declared my undying love to Ginger, Danny, Jef and Ritch before that gig, then I certainly had by the time they finished the encore of Don't Worry 'Bout Me.

If there was any justice in the world, which there of course isn't, The Wildhearts would be the biggest rock band around, because they're certainly amongst the best these British isles have ever produced, right up there with Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. At times it looked like they might be able to make it big, but part of being "rock 'n' roll" is having that self-destructive streak and The Wildhearts certainly have that, having split up as many times as most of us have had breakfasts.

Ginger IS The Wildhearts, having started the band in 1989, and he's the only constant in an ever-shifting line-up. Their first EP came out in 1992, called Mondo Akimbo A-Go-Go and 15 years on it still sounds fresh and exciting, not least the classic Turning American, which still features in their gigs to this day. However good their first two EPs were, their debut album Earth vs The Wildhearts took things another level with a collection of stunning tracks that mixed heavy metal riffs with power pop melodies.

The high point of the album was My Baby Is A Headfuck, which featured Bowie guitarist Mick Ronson in one of his last recordings before he died soon afterwards. With great singles like Greetings From Shitsville, Suckerpunch and the hyperactive Caffeine Bomb (the song that helped me discover them), the album simply didn't have a weak track and will hopefully one day be recognised as one of the greatest British rock debuts of all time.

But Ginger had only just started to show off his talents, with fan-club-only follow-up Fishing For Luckies one of the most experimental and exciting rock albums released in the 90s. From folky sing-a-long Geordie In Wonderland to 12 minute sci-fi epic Sky Babies, it was easy to see why record label EastWest baulked at the idea of trying to sell it commercially, but their cowardice was their failing and the start of the disintegration of their relationship with the band.

Second album proper p.h.u.q. (say it however you like) saw guitarist CJ sacked and the band have a few more minor hits with I Wanna Go Where The People Go and Just In Lust. In 1996 they re-released Fishing For Luckies with some new tracks, including Sick Of Drugs, which got into top twenty, and with a relatively settled line-up, things seemed to be going well. Of course, it all went wrong, and they split before releasing Endless Nameless, a massively-underrated raging beast of distortion and feedback that sounded like career suicide.

They came back in 2001 with the Earth vs The Wildhearts line-up, and your Editor went to see them at Dudley JBs, only to witness yet another implosion as heroin addict bassist Danny scuffled with CJ and Ginger on stage after struggling his way through the first half of the show. However, in true Wildhearts style they battled on (not literally) with the bassist from the support band standing in, and when Danny returned they released The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed in 2003.

It was a fairly lightweight return though, lacking the punch or insane genius of their classic material, and probably was their first slightly disappointing release. Fairly predictably, they split up again in 2005, despite having had a radio success with a cover of the Cheers theme tune (a b-side like so many of their classics - 29 x The Pain, Show A Little Emotion, Dangerlust, And The Bullshit Goes On, Shut Your Fucking Mouth And Use Your Fucking Brain, etc), and it looked like their time was finally up. They'd lived fast, died young (many times over) and left a beautiful corpse. But then it rose from the dead again late last year, with a line-up of Ginger, Scott Sorry (on bass), CJ and Ritch Battersby returning on drums.

They've got a new self-titled album out in April and Ginger has promised a return to their classic sound: "The melodies are still there, the big choruses are still there, but the mammoth guitar riffs are back and heavier than ever," he said, which promises much. They might never recapture the glory days of the mid-90s, but they will always be one of the most interesting and exciting rock bands around, and their live shows are legendary. They'll be playing the Academy in early May, so why not check them out? Who knows, they might change your life. They changed mine...

(PS, also well worth checking out is Ginger's excellent recent solo album Yoni...)

THE EDITOR