Wildhearts – Azkena Festival Withdrawal
By Kris | September 3, 2003
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.”
The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed – UK Release
By Kris | August 25, 2003
‘The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed’ has now been released in the UK. Rock Sound describe it as ‘an album reminding us why music is so important in life… an album that not only entertains and provides some escapism, but one that really makes you feel alive’.
‘The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed’ is available in all good high street record shops and also online from Amazon and ChangesOne.
The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed – Song by Song Review
By Kris | August 19, 2003
A song-by-song review of The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed is now available on the features page.
Only Love Audio Clip
By Kris | August 19, 2003
A clip of Only Love is now available, on the audio page – you’re looking forward to that new album right?
Ginger – Edinburgh – Forth On The Fringe festival
By Kris | August 16, 2003
Ginger will be playing an acoustic show as part of the Forth On The Fringe festival upfront of his forthcoming acoustic tour. He’ll be perfoming on the same bill as Athlete on 18th August at The Underbelly in Edinburgh. The tickets are free and you can ONLY obtain tickets by one of two methods shown below:
Forth One 97.3 will be giving away half of the tickets to listeners on the day BEFORE the gig (17th August) so tune in to find out how to get them. Competition winners and their guest should collect wristbands in person from the Smirnoff Underbelly box office.
Half the tickets will be given away at the Smirnoff Underbelly on the day of the gig. These tickets will be released at 8.00PM and will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis. To stop improper trading of the free tickets they will be issuing wristbands. As a result, each person must collect the wristband in person – only one wristband per person.
Gut Records Street Team
By Kris | August 12, 2003
Gut Records are looking to setup a Wildhearts street-team dedicated to promoting the band, building from the regional teams setup earlier in the year and need your help! To get involved please send your details to website@thewildhearts.com and we’ll send them forward to Gut Records. Please supply your name, email address and postal address.
Nexus Icon Audio Clip
By Kris | August 12, 2003
A clip of album opener Nexus Icon is now available, so everyone looking forward to the new Wildhearts album (that will be all of you right?) can whet your appetite a little further by having a listen from the audio page.
Someone That Won’t Let Me Go Audio Clip
By Kris | August 4, 2003
We now have a sneak preview of the new album ‘The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed’ (released on August 26th). A clip of ‘Someone That Won’t Let Me Go’ is available on the audio page of the website, so feast your ears! More samples will be coming soon.
Ginger – Acoustic Dates – Autumn 2003
By Kris | August 4, 2003
Ginger will be setting out on the road in September with only his acoustic guitar for company. That’s right – acoustic dates!
The current tour dates are listed below, but there are more on the way. For full details of upcoming dates (including Friday’s headline appearance at the Bulldog Bash and 29th August at the Serie Z festival in Spain), see the tour page
Acoutic Shows:
Tuesday 16th – London – The Barfly
Wednesday 17th – Scarborough – Kazbah
Thursday 18th – Northampton – Soundhaus
Friday 19th – Mansfield – The Mill
Saturday 20th – Bedford – Esquires
Sunday 21st – Reading – Fez Club
Wednesday 24th – Aldershot – West End Centre
Thursday 25th – Leicester – Charlotte
Friday 26th – Wrexham – Newi
Saturday 27th – Rugeley – Red Rose
Sunday 28th – Kingston – The Peel
Monday 29th – London – The Barfly
Song After Song After Motherfucking Song
By Kris | August 1, 2003
The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed – Song By Song ยท Words by Kris Coverdale
‘Nexus Icon’ opens with an angry Ginger solo vocal and comes packing rhythm changes, a low-fi Groop Dogdrill-esque noisy feel and an overriding sense of urgency. There’s a lot of action packed into its two and a half minutes and as Ginger says ‘if someone’s gonna die it ain’t gonna to be me’.
‘Only Love’ is standout pure pop dedicated to being in love – no matter what with; in contrast to ‘Nexus Icon’ you can take this one home to meet your parents, not least because it sounds so good it could have been written in the 70’s. I was hooked on this song after just one listen and the good news is that it keeps getting better and better, from the massive gospel choruses to the oh-so-instant verses this is chart-busting material. If this is ‘Only Love’ then count me in!
‘Someone Who Won’t Let Me Go’ combines the traditional Cheap Trick influenced chugging Wildhearts feel (‘Beautiful Me, Beautiful You’ style) with the production know-how and dynamics gained from ‘Black Leather Mojo’. The results are special, as all those who saw the recent Wildhearts tours (or have checked out the soundclip) can testify to.
‘Vanilla Radio’ you know all about that already right, “where’s my Elvis and all that”? Well not quite: in the gap before the album it’s been working out and now sounds bigger, dirtier and nastier than its previous incarnation, with guitars that would bite your hand off and a bassline which rattles your bowels and destroys your car speakers. We already know this as a great song, and this version hones the song to perfection.
‘One Love, One Life’ should take people by surprise, slow and tuneful with a low key backing and barely a hint of distortion. All that time experimenting with the singles club has obviously been paying off as this may become a surprise favourite for a lot of people.
Following from ‘One Love…’ into ‘Get Your Groove On’ is like unexpectedly stepping on a mantrap in a child’s ballpool. It leaps out of the blocks at you like a rottweiler after a burglar, with a frenzied political rant from Andy Cairns leading into a ‘Moodswings… / Shut Your Fucking Mouth…’ style guitar barrage. The uncanny thing is the result is one of the catchiest bits of hardcore metal in far too long.
Recent chart entry ‘So Into You’ has like ‘Vanilla Radio’ undergone the revamp treatment. It’s still infectiously melodic, with lyrics to die for, but new improved So Into You now features entire arsefuls of bottom end and layers of extra guitars that would put Brian May to shame.
‘There’s Only One Hell’ seems like the soundtrack to the cover art and defines everything that’s great about this album: joyous choruses masking bitter lyrics, a traditional introductory Wildhearts bag of riffs and the inbuilt sense of when to take it simple and when to soar that Ginger brings to all his songs. This is the song from the album I most often find running around my head.
‘It’s All Up To Me’ continues the groove set out from ‘There’s Only One Hell’, and Ginger makes songs this good look effortless. You can’t predict where his melodies will go next, but you know it’ll a fun ride, the drumming is at times frenetic, the guitars scintillating and the vocal is very confident. It also features the classic line ‘They say the harder they come, they say the harder they fall; this ones hard as a hand grenade in a cannonball’.
‘Out from the Inside’ is a CJ penned song, imbibed with lashings of the Jelly’s, but toughened within. Highlights include summery lyrics – ‘climbing up a rainbow’ anyone – driving guitars (or is that guitars to drive to?) and the joy of CJ’s shiny vocals.
‘Top of The World’ is the final track and you’d think they would be winding down, but instead go out with a bang! This is another that is already on its way to classic status following the recent tours and its album incarnation is everything the live shows promised.