We arrived at the Islington academy at what in late night london these days is considered fashionably late. Yup, just after 7pm where we then spent about 10 minutes sorting out that we were actually on the guest list and watching with disbelief the monitor that seemed to show that Ginger was on stage already!
Well once we had sorted everything out we were allowed in. Oh and many thanks to the folks from HAWK EYES for sorting this out so that we could get into this gig that sold out impressively fast.
On getting in to the already packed Academy GINGER WILDHEART was indeed already on stage!! What what what had we missed the support acts already what was going on, well no this being Ginger's Birthday he gets up onstage and stays there all night while everyone else comes up and plays with him.
What we had missed was actually the first Ginger and friends set of 4 songs and had got in just as he was playing with Exit_International and doing a great version of Junkenstein that was fine punky. They then did an Exit_International song Glory Horn (pretty damn good and a little bit filthy) as was the implication when someone from the audience asked afterwards what a Glory Horn was. Well Ginger the host and compere made much mirth out of this before they launched into Woah Shit, You Got Through. It was a touch ragged but a real rush of a song that got a large part of the crowd singing along to the chorus.
During a quick changeover, Ginger had a chat with us and thanked us for coming to his birthday party and in unheard of speed for a gig, HAWK EYES were onstage with Ginger and he was telling us how this Band from Leeds are one of his favourites. The first song they did was one of theirs (Scorpieau) and it sounded great. They reminded me a lot of Pulled Apart By Horses having that great modern hardcore sound going on. It worked brilliantly on Suckerpunch that really should have been dedicated to the memory of Colonel Potter, Hawk Eyes' old boss who died recently.
The Hawk Eyes singer almost sounded like he wanted to be Frank from Gallows in places which is no bad thing. They finished up with a cover of Helmet's In The Mean Time that was just spot on: nice and speedy, full of aggression and Ginger doing a killer solo in the middle of it. A real highlight.
Our Compere for the Night Ginger then continued his evening's ramblings while musicans swapped places and out came the current first team in Ginger's pack of Nuts - Rich Jones, Chris Catalyst, Denzil, Jon Poole and Victoria Liedtke - who form the back bone for most of the rest of the evening.They fired up the engines with a punked up jumping version of Inglorious that was like a riot onstage with all of them apart from the drummer leaping all over the place. The Hard Way was almost as action packed and they were going at a good pace, there was a bit of discussion before they belted through Caprice like their lives depended on it.
There was some mucking about at the start of Inner City Overture and I think Ginger messed up the start of it badly enough for him to stop everyone and go back and start again. The second time it all worked as the songs disparate parts all came together and the lurching strides between the parts worked as they should. Vernix was almost slow in comparison and a bit more metal than punk.
Slaughtered Authors was done as an almost episodic 3 or 4 part story with a couple of lenghty breakdowns before they all got back to full speed pace, attacking us with the front line and screaming the chorus at us as the crowd screamed it back at them.
Can't Do Right for Doing Wrong was just a great rabble rousing sing along punk anthem that led to Ginger giving us some great banter while the next guest joined the band and a few others left. This time the guests were Jimmy Ashurst on bass from Buckcherry and Izzy Stradlin band and on vocals for one song only Texas Terri. Damn Terri it's along way to come to sing one song, but when that one song is - Search & Destroy played at furious pace and attack and when you're giving it your best female Iggy routine I'm mighty glad you joined the party! A storming version and I may need to hear some more Texas Terri on that evidence.
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What is the perfect yang to the Stooges Yin if your gonna do a pair of covers? It would have to be the Osmonds right? Well it is if you're Ginger Wildheart, so they totally molested Crazy Horses with the singer from Hawk Eyes back on guitar and vocals and who knows who else in the band. It was gloriously demented and brilliant and at the end of it as the musicians were leaving and coming onstage Ginger decided to play it again so we got a second version with a different drummer, singers and guitarists. Or maybe they just swapped instruments and off they went again with more crazy Horses as you just can't get enough of the Osmonds right!??!
The next mutation then did Love You Till I Don't which is a good honest love song if ever there was one. It was followed by another one with So Into You. That was followed by another song that had a false start, Caffeine Bomb. I think Ginger was guilty again but it didn't matter as it looked like they were having so much fun up there we needed to sing him happy birthday again.
The Cribs' Ryan Jarman was next to join the mutations for Just In Lust and then (I think it was on Anthem) Ginger played drums They then closed the main set with a barnstroming run through Mazeltov Cocktail.
This being the sort of night it is, the encore meant another band line up and more guests up for all of the encore. Ex-Wildhearts lietenant CJ made his first appearence with Ginger for a few years and they and the rest of the mutations that are up there did TV Tan while the next guests ready themselves.
TV Tan still souds great and CJ looked very happy to be up there bashing it out. The next special guests turned out to be Ginger's three kids his eldest (I Guess about 12) was making his debut on Guitar and his sister and brother were both on backing vocals for Vanilla Radio. That was done as a great sing along anthem with his son trading solos with CJ and Ginger. It was as much fun to watch as it seemed to be for them playing it. Once the kids left the stage the rest of the band did My Baby is a Headfuck: a great rabble rousing punkathon that only left room for one more song and well they had to finish with I Wanna Go Where The People Go: a perfect song to end a gloriously messily, brilliant Birthday gig from Ginger.
On the way out we ran into a few friends and Matt's girlfriend (sorry I don't know her name) told us that the Ginger nut they were waiting for has a book about how Ginger and the Wildhearts changed his life coming out next year. I'm afraid I forgot who she said had written the book or it's title. Sorry , but it may well be worth finding when it does come out next year.
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