The Haiti Project
By Ean | January 26, 2010
The Wildhearts feature on a download only charity compilation that has been launched to raise money for the relief efforts following the Earthquake in Haiti.
A message from Haiti Project organiser, Gav:
Upon arriving back in the UK a few weeks ago at Heathrow (and being a little too wrapped up in seemingly important things like whether the plane would land in the snow or if my train would be running) I was immediately greeted and numbed by the horrific and shocking news reports that followed after the Haiti Earthquake. As the magnitude of the disaster continues to grow by the day, I was very keen (like most people) to do ’something’.
Thus The Haiti Project – a charity download album – was born. Within a few days of sending emails and calls to my nearest and dearest friends an album quite literally ‘came together’.
The album is spearheaded by the anthemic debut track from The Sonic Graffiti, a new band from LA put together by Ginger, Billy Morrison, Michael Butler & Scott Lipps. The track entitled Mystery Number was recorded at Matt Sorum’s studio in August 2009 & was produced by the legendary Mike Clink.
I’d like to personally say a big thankyou to Ginger, Billy, Michael, Scott & Mike for donating this exclusive track, and allowing The Haiti Project to (hopefully) raise even more money.
I would love for everyone to spread word around the internet world via their Twitterings, Facebookings, Myspacings, bloggings and other ‘ings’. Lets raise some money.
Gav
http://twitter.com/gavmccaughey
http://www.facebook.com/thehaitiproject
The Haiti Project Tracklist:
1) The Sonic Graffiti – Mystery Number (Exclusive)
2) Eureka Machines – Being Good Is Ok, But Being Betters Better
3) Electric Six – Newark Airport Boogie
4) Jackdaw 4 – Jesus Wants My Soul Back
5) The Loyalties – Sofa Surfin’ UK (Acoustic)
6) Antiproduct – When We Find Love
7) The Organ Beats – Happy Birthday/Come On Home
8) The Wildhearts – Unbroken
9) Tragedy: All Metal Tribute To The Bee Gees – Nights On Broadway
10) Radio Dead Ones – Take It On Trust
11) Ricky Warwick – Love Owes
12) Brijitte West (Feat. Jesse Malin) – How To Be Good
13) Moi? – This Is All That I Wanted
14) Laika Dog – Piano Song
15) Sorry & The Sinatras – Riverside
16) Children of The Unicorn – Nightshark
The album costs just £5 and can be downloaded from MusicGlue.
16 songs for £5!? Oh yes!
All of the money will be donated directly to the ongoing relief efforts and you’ll end up with 16 great tracks. Good deal.
http://www.facebook.com/thehaitiproject
¡Chutzpah! Jnr
By Ean | January 11, 2010
At last the news you’ve all been waiting for!
From today ¡Chutzpah! Jnr, previously only available from the Xmess gigs, will be available from our webstore.
The mini-album, recorded during the same sessions as ¡Chutzpah!, features the following tracklist:
• Chutzpah! Jnr.
• The Snake, The Lion, The Monkey And The Spider
• All That Zen
• Vernix
• Under The Waves
• Some Days Just Fucking Suck
• People Who Died
• Zeen Requiem
The CD will cost £10 and there’ll be plenty of stock to satisfy the demand from those who weren’t able to attend the Xmess shows.
We apologise but, due to a rights issue with Vinyl Junkie, we are unable to ship this item to our Japanese fans – or indeed Asia at all. Sorry.
In related news, we’ll shortly be releasing a limited edition coloured vinyl of the ¡Chutzpah! album. No release details as yet, but we’ll keep you informed!
Messageboard Update
By Ean | January 10, 2010
We’ve been doing a spot of remodelling behind the scenes and our updated messageboard is now operational.
The Sonic Circus forum has been given a well-needed overhaul and brought under the Wildhearts umbrella so we’ve got a thriving community already but new faces are always welcome.
We’ve incorporated a chatroom too, which you’ll be able to access once you sign up for the main messageboard.
The original link will still operate for a while yet, but your new bookmark is http://www.thewildhearts.com/board/, or click the link in the menu banner.
Xmess Tour Merchandise On The Webstore
By Ean | January 7, 2010
The Xmess Elves have finished counting and the post-tour inventory is complete!
The merch guys have done their thing and, for you guys who missed out before, the Xmess tour goodies are available from our Webstore.
All orders over £10 – so near enough all of them – will get a free Santa hat thrown in*. How can you resist…?
* while stocks last
UK Xmess shows are here!
By Andy B | December 19, 2009
Tonight sees the first of the UK Xmess shows kicking off at Leeds Rio’s. The tour then moves on to Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall on Monday 21st, and then ends up at London O2 Academy Islington on Tuesday 22nd.
Tickets for all of these show are still available, and you’ll find links to ticket agencies, and the venues themselves at the Tour page.
Remember, these shows also have the Chutzpah! Jr mini album available from them, as well as a load of new, festively-themed merch (details of which are here!)
Have fun, and see you down the front!
New Japanese Wildhearts Website
By Kris | December 17, 2009
The Japanese version of the Wildhearts website has reopened in the new Chutzpah! style, aptly timed for Ginger’s Birthday.
Check out the latest Japanese posts, or follow the language selection from this site’s front page to visit the site.
Congratulations & thanks to Yugo, Kai & Masayo for all your great work creating the site!
Ginger Birthday Show – Stage Time
By Kris | December 15, 2009
The Ginger Birthday gig is almost here – just a quick update on the times / running order etc.
There will be no support at this show, instead Ginger (and friends) will play from the start. The show will start around 8pm so it is recommended that people start cramming in before then, doors are set to open at 7pm. So try not to stay at the pub too late or you’ll miss the fun.
Talking of pubs, the fine folk from the Ginger / Wildhearts forum will be meeting at the Famous Cock Tavern, just over the road from the venue – the more the merrier.
Jägerbomb
By Ritch | December 12, 2009
Fucking hell!
I’m just coming up to the grand young age of thirty twelve, I’ve been playing drums for most of my life. Have been in bands for most of the time I’ve been playing drums, and have been drinking for most of the time I’ve been in bands playing drums.
So why is it that until the show that we just played in Helsinki, I’d never had a Jägerbomb whilst on stage?
Those of you who’ve never tried one, I suggest you do so at some point over the festive season, or sooner, and those of you who have tried one, will know exactly what I’m on about.
I mean, it’s not that I wasn’t having a great gig already. In fact it started off great and just kept getting better, but then I heard (what I can’t imagine is a very common sound at a gig in Finland) A vaguely familiar sounding Welsh bloke at the front shouting “Ritchie, fancy a Jägerbomb?”
Be rude not to now wouldn’t it.
So there we are, one song later and not one, but two of these cheeky little thirst quenchers turn up.
Egged on by the whole crowed I manage to down both drinks in the space of a few seconds and then it’s head down straight back into the set for a few more Wildheart classics.
Now I’m not sure if the combination of Jägermeister, intense physical exertion and Redbull is all that clever an idea, but I have to say that immediately after consuming said drinks I began to play the best I’ve ever played, the band was the tightest we’d ever been, the songs were the best songs I’d ever heard, the crowed sounded like angels, and the lights………good god the lights……..And at that point I realize that Scotty is pointing a mic in my face and I’m singing The Duck Song.
Damn! How the hell did that happen?
Thanx Steve, you bastard!
Go To Hell
By Ginger | December 9, 2009
Nestled unassumingly near the front of Töölö, in the heart of Helsinki, is the best restaurant in the world. Lots of restaurants seem like the best restaurants in the world, and almost are, but there is only one that can be king.
And this place is called Hell.
Stylish and sparse, and serving up fine food until 4am, this awesome hostelry offers treats ranging from reindeer pizza to snails with garlic and blue cheese (called Gas Lipstick, named after the drummer from Finnish megastars HIM and his obsession with this sublime dish – which is possibly the tastiest thing in the world).
It is here the four members of rock’s unsung super group (the band you hate to love, the over-proof underachievers, the resplendently independent… etc etc…) soak in the familiar air that is a Helsinki welcome, speak about activities in 2010, eat rare steak so tender that one has only the exquisite taste to remind you that there is actually something in your mouth, and recall the last 48 hours.
We hadn’t been in Finland for a full day before we’re being ushered to the One Eye Tattoo studio, where we will receive free ink, courtesy of Taneli and Pete. They will tirelessly tattoo wrists, necks, arms and ribs, gratis, while handing out free beers. The last time this happened to us was… um… that’s right, this has never happened to us before*.
Previous to that we were invited to attend the opening of a Wildhearts exhibition at the Helsinki City library, where a couple of Wildhearts fans had pooled their not inconsiderable collections together, much to the bemusement of the elderly patrons perusing the library section of the gallery, that serves as a humble reminder that the power of music is a transatlantic phenomenon in which no translation is needed.
MTV filming and magazine interviews/photos are conducted and radio interviews & station take-overs are undertaken before being treat to yet more delicious Finnish fare bolstered by copious Langerot (translated as ‘long drink’ it’s a pint of gin & grapefruit soda based heaven that must be tasted to be believed, I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t love this stuff instantly) and Fisu (a chilled vodka fermented with Fisherman’s Friend sweets that delivers a huge, delicious wave to the sinuses and plants a warm glow to the chest, simply outstanding) leaving us merry and satisfied.
It’s been a great couple of days spent with wonderful people. So great, in fact, that we didn’t want to leave this morning (after about 30 seconds worth of sleep**), but I’m glad to report that we are in Tampere right now, getting ready for tonight’s show. The hotel is lovely and the band are loud.
Also the Chutzpah Jnr mini album will be available at all future gigs that The Wildhearts will play, so I trust you will all get a copy. And in the meantime please feel free to pas it around in files. You deserve it. You’re lovely.
See you at Xmas.
Gx
*Actually I have had free tattoos before, in Japan, but it wasn’t a whole band session, and hey, let’s try not to let mundane details get in the way of literary flow. Artistic license is why reading is fun, right? Er… right?
**This is an exaggeration. Once again I’d like to take the time to admit to using a little artistic license with which to effect a blunt punch to what could be considered a humorous insert.
What Is It With Denmark?
By Ginger | December 6, 2009
So, it started when we left the beautiful, strange winter wonderland that is Norway, en route for Denmark.
Denmark, that nemesis of a place that very nearly sapped our lust for life during the recording of our last album. A place with so many memories it’s a shame they’re mostly horrible.
You could say that we haven’t enjoyed a great time in Denmark and you’d be right.
Would this time be any different?
Read on, dear reader, read on.
Turns out that the Punk festival that we are booked to play isn’t actually a punk festival at all.
“Just as long as it’s not a glam festival I’ll be happy” snorted Scott.
Ever wish you’d never said something?
On landing in Copenhagen we are met by a guy with half leather, star filled trousers who tells us that we will not be travelling by the traditional vehicular conveyance that would transport six people, as many guitars, a dozen suitcases and various merchandise. Oh no, we will not take a van or any such thing. We will take the train.
Yeah, I’ve seen the Anvil movie and no, I didn’t think we’d ever travel to a gig on a train loaded with our gear. Turns out the promoter, the guy who met us from the plane, is a confirmed pathological fibber and has been suitably economic with the truth.
“I lie to make people happy, and when they realise I’m lying I lie again”, says our promoter and host for the evening.
So we aren’t playing a punk festival, and we don’t actually have transport to the glam gig we are playing.
“It’s just around the corner from the train station”, he tells us, and after dragging our luggage and equipment around Copenhagen for 40 minutes we can see a theme developing.
After finally reaching the venue in time for soundcheck we are told that we have to turn the amps down onstage. Then, on reducing the volume to half of our usual output we are told once more to turn them down. This went on for a comedic amount of time until a stagehand is dispatched to the amps to turn them down quieter than I play my stereo when my son is sleeping next to me.
And on the strangest shaped stage in Scandinavia we locate the bottle of Jack Daniels, a gift from from our wonderful hosts in Norway, and begin to drink.
After coming to terms with the fact that the onstage sound tonight will resemble angry wasps in cookie jars we retire to our hotel. Or, to be more specific, hostel, where we are expected to sleep 6 in one room, including our female manager. The promise of single hotel rooms being less than honoured we settle for sharing two rooms leaving a 3rd single room for Virpi. Me, Scott and Dunc will be crammed into a tiny cell with barely enough space to fit our bags, and sleep on beds that have not been changed this century.
We continue to drink
It is agreed that the majestic waves of disappointment sweeping through our party will be best calmed by good food and fine wines.
This, however, will not manifest and will, instead, be traded in for a visit to the Royal Palace or, as Scott re-named it Hitler’s Chinese Buffet, which, it turns out, is run by the rudest, most obnoxious, unhelpful and over opinionated person living in a country of seemingly many rude, obnoxious, unhelpful and over opinionated people.
Virpi, who earlier, when asked where to buy guitar leads/chords was sent first to a record store, then a piano shop and a drum shop before finally being shown a guitar shop, is told that if she orders water with her meal she can not drink any drink of ours, not a sip of someone’s coke, not nothing. If you order coke you drink coke, if you order water you drink water, sharing is strictly forbidden. After enduring the charms of Denmark’s most disagreeable man Virpi loses the patience she has been valiantly clinging on to, and let’s him have a large slice of her mind.
In a bid to restore a peaceful equilibrium within the ranks it is decided that we should find a pub and just stay there until showtime, some four hours later.
Further to meeting up with the lovely Maria Anderberg (the wonderful woman who put me in touch with Maria Mckee) and friends we stagger, by this point, to the venue, in the pissing down rain, where we will wait for showtime while being serenaded by a DJ specialising in the worst music that the 80’s had to offer, namely hair metal.
The show goes off pretty well, a healthy reception and a very good natured audience, and after hanging out in the dressing room for long enough to be driven insane by the abhorrent music we conclude that the Danish don’t know what ‘Private: The Wildhearts Only’ means, and that taxi drivers would rather drive around at 90 mph than actually pick anyone up.
We drag our gear back through the rain and arrive at our digs around 4am to see a very high member of a glam band straightening his hair in the corridor mirror. We opt to drink to the death of a very strange day indeed.
Virpi wakes with a strange male member of staff leering over her bed instructing her to “leave right now”, the promised Wi Fi doesn’t work and everyone is still scratching their heads at the previous days activities.
We retire to an Irish pub where I decide I can’t leave Copenhagen with no fond memories and opt to visit the infamous hippie commune Christiania.
A very different face of Copenhagen welcomes us as we enter and take the main drag past dozens of hash and pot stalls hawking the strongest smelling weed these nostrils have ever imbibed. We almost get stoned by osmosis, such is the potency and open use of the local herbal fare.
Christiania is an incredible experience, a social experiment that began in 1971 where the only rules are no violence and keep the place tidy. The entire community muck in together and the enjoy everything from shows by major artists to public speakers addressing a huge tent on the benefits of sharing. There is a strong Buddhist vibe here and everyone is chatty and smiling, a far cry from the grumbling control freaks we’ve met just a few miles down the road. Even the dogs seem unnaturally laid back. You could get a place to stay here for around 100 quid a month. The police keep a respectful distance and the 1000’s of inhabitants live in a seemingly hassle free utopia.
I leave Copenhagen buoyant and so smitten by this strange community that I can forgive, easily, the rudeness of some of the people outside Christiania. After all, it would simply appear that most of the friendly people left the city to live in the commune. I know I would.
I hope to come back here one day to write and enjoy the spiritual balance that seems the true currency of this magical place.
I’d also like to continue my on going quest to fall in love with this country.
Denmark, you crazy fucking bastard.
Gx