This was a great double bill on a Tuesday night and a chance for me to see Ginger Wildheart's latest band The Sinners. First on and promoting his excellent debut solo album Future Obscure was Marc Valentine from Last Great Dreamers, his solo band features Denley Slade on Drums, Richard Davies on Guitar and Steve Fielding on Bass as well as Marc on Vocals and guitar.
From the opening Last Train Tonight they were on fire this was high octane glammy rock & roll, played by a super tight band having loads of fun, while worrying about if they will catch that last train home. Linear Slopes had some really flash guitar parts with plenty of swagger to get everyone going.
Arcades stomped across the Bush Hall and had Marc emphasizing the words so you knew exactly where they were coming from. That may well have been the Zodiac Hotel that was full of charm and the sleaze that may have been at the hotels core. Marc told us that Mornington Avenue was all about his youthful days living in Camden and doing what was needed to survive, this was far swankier than living in Camden would have been back then.
Marc then apologized that Richard should have sung the next song, but he had a full-on case of man flu and was just about able to play guitar, but not to sing, before they played a brilliant yet unlikely cover of Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow that had sparkling guitars and enough glam and glitz to melt hearts and make sure that yes we will still love you.
As seems to be the way so often Marc was singing how you Break My Heart Anyway with the bassline helping to tug at the heart strings, as once again he's so broken hearted he has been wrapped in Electric Chains that was a full on glam stomp.
They closed there set by playing the main single from Future Obscure the wonderful Swiss Launderette that sounds like it was a far cooler launderette to hang out in than the one next door to the Bush hall, this was a great way to end a brilliant opening set.
After the break on came Ginger Wildheart & The Sinners who I hadn’t heard and had assumed might sound like some of Gingers previous bands like The Wildhearts or the Silver Ginger 5, or even like Hey! Hello! When in fact the Ginger band they are closest to is Ghost In The Tanglewood, as this is Gingers classic country rock band featuring Neil Ivison, Shane Dixon and Nick Lyndon, with Ginger on the right of the stage and Neil Ivison front and centre.
They opened with The Road and while I wasn't expecting them to sound how they did, damn they sounded amazing, totally together and tight as this tale of a senorita unfolded and Neil and gingers guitars played off of each other it was magical.
They then claimed rather convincingly that the only thing on there minds was indeed That Smile that had melted their hearts like the music had us all captivated.
Ginger then told us that they were a band that play songs brilliantly but introduce songs terribly, which turned out to be totally accurate, before they played the first of the evenings unlikely cover versions as they took Status Quo's Dirty Water down to the bayou with a very sweet acapella intro before the band came In and made this old rocker sound like it had just been learned from watching the Grand Ole Opry.
They then paid tribute to the boss of the recording studio they've been working in, with a sparkling cover of Six Years Gone by Georgia Satellites that was good but nowhere near as good as hearing Dan Baird play it at the Bush Hall a few years ago. Ginger also managed to have some guitar issues when he should have been playing his solo, so he insisted that they go back and let him play his solo, so we had a short reprise of his solo section.
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The bands second single Lately Always was next to get this country twanging good times rocking approach and loads of the audience happily sang along with them. Wasted Times had plenty of regret within the lyrics and some stunning playing from both Neil and Ginger.
They introduced Key Of Love as being off the bands next album that may be out in 2024 or so, it sounded like they just about knew it and were hamming it up in the best ways possible as the message to a lover came through loud and clear.
They then told us they were going to play a song by there favorite ever band from Dunfermline who are of course Nazareth, they then played a damn good version of Broken Down Angel, that was missing the long call and response section of the classic Live version by Nazareth, but still got lots of us singing along with them on my favorite Nazareth tune.
They kept on a similar theme on Walk Of Shame as they contemplated just how grubby they felt while making that long walk home.
I was then pretty shocked to hear them cover Little Feat's Willin' just about as straight as possible, this sounded majestic, just not a song I ever expected to hear Ginger or one of his bands play. Although Ginger insisted that it was the song that beautiful Neil should sing lead vocals on.
They fell deep into The Arms Of Love with a plangent bass line and super spry drumming, to help get the mood just right. They were soon looking round to see if they could find Diane’s Footprints In the Sand as they promised to play till they were kicked out, while talking enough between songs to have played a couple more tunes.
They closed the set with Code Of The Road all about the things you should do as road hardened touring muso's and some you should avoid.
They didn't leave the stage but encouraged us to cheer anyway before launching into Breakout as if they'd been banged up in Wormwood Scrubs and needed to get out, this has lots of interplay across the band as they were having a great time.
They then got Sophia up to help them sing The Words Are Going To Have To Wait the Ghost In The Tanglewood song, that felt like it was as much about a broken hearted break up, as about those we've lost in the pandemic, it was poignant and rather sadly beautiful.
Ginger then joked about how many special guests they had lined up, instead of choosing to bring up the truly legendary Nigel Mogg, he instead got Boss Caine up, who had been on first and whose set we had pretty much missed, to play additional guitar and sing backing vocals along with Sophia on The Weight as they did there best to sound as loose and homespun as The Band did, this was a cool version of another song I didn't expect to hear.
They then finished the night by covering Wilco's I Got You in as rambunctious a way as they could while celebrating the end of the century. This was a great show, they are a super-hot country rock band.
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