Ginger's Birthday Bash 2014

17/12/2014

Ginger's Birthday Bash is always one of the gig highlights of the year - more of a party than a gig. This year's 'Oh Fuck I'm 50' bash is no exception. These shows seem to get bigger every year, and for 2014 have moved up to The Forum in Kentish Town. Needless to say, the venue is packed and the atmosphere is terrific! It's always fun trying to guess who will be joining Ginger on stage at these events - it's a given that there will be some past or current members of The WiLDHEARTS as well as some or all of the Ginger Wildheart Band. But who else will appear? One of Ginger's first comments concerns current 'gig etiquette', or the lack thereof - he suggests people enjoy the show through their faces instead of their phones , and goes on to suggest what to do if the person in front of you is obstructing your view by holding their phone up...

The basis for tonight's band is Chris Catalyst of the brilliant Eureka Machines on guitar, Jon 'Random' Poole (Wildhearts & Cardiacs) on bass, and Denzel on drums - these guys are the backbone of the 'Ginger Wildheart Band' and play on Ginger's more recent solo records. Victoria from another of Ginger's many projects Hey Hello! is usually on backing vocals for these sort of shows, but tonight we have the excellent Kelli from Obsessive Compulsive instead.

We are treated to a wide selection of songs from most stages of Ginger's post Quireboys career and his many side projects such as Silver Ginger 5, Hey Hello!, Mutation, and his currently running G.A.S.S. thing. Musicians from some of these projects crop up throughout the evening, and also many you might not expect, although I did know about one or two of them in advance. Robin Guy for instance, who has played with... well, nearly everyone. Tonight we get a real treat with Robin playing drums together with Denzel - who is a pretty amazing drummer himself. See picture below.

We also get Robin Guy's bandmate from Rachel Stamp David Ryder Prangley on lead vocals and guitar for the Silver Ginger 5 song 'Girls Are Better Than Boys'. Sorry I didn't get much in the way of pictures, but: 1. I wasn't near enough the front to make it worthwhile. 2. If I was near the front then decent photography would have been virtually impossible due to the tightly packed crowd/jostling/dancing, etc. 3. I knew that there would be far better photographers with much better cameras recording the event and making their pictures available for you to see online. If you want a great photographic record of the entire show I suggest you go look at Trudi Knight's terrific pictures on her own website - there's loads of them!

There is no support act as there is so much to get through - for a full setlist (including who is playing on what) click here.

The guests kept popping up all through the show. We get most of the Hey Hello! live band  (ex-Towers Of London & The Howling) guitarist The Rev, Toshi (Antiproduct) on bass and Ai Sugiyama on drums to join Ginger and Kelli performing Hey Hello! songs. Ginger actually played all the instruments on the album himself in the studio, but obviously he can't do that tonight - although he does play drums or a song or two during the evening.. The guests keep on coming, and include Saffron from Republica, Sami Yaffa from Hanoi Rocks/New York Dolls,  Vix from Fuzzbox, Tom Spencer (Yo-Yo's/Loyalties), Beki Bondage (Vice Squad),  Dom Lawson, Yolanda Quartey (amazing singer), Paul-Ronny Angel, Chris(tmas) McCormack from 3 Colours Red, and many others. A particular highlight is Ginger introducing one of his favourite songs ever - 'White Lies' by Jason and The Scorchers - featuring that band's guitar slinger (literally) Warner E. Hodges and also 'borrowing' my cover band's bass player a certain Jason Knight - who was also 'borrowed' by Warner E. Hodges for a UK tour earlier in the month. For this song the latter day Wildhearts drummer Ritch Battersby takes the drum stool - where he stays for the final half of the set consisting of 15 Wildhearts songs - including some rarities and some songs that might not have ever been played live before. All the many guests end up on stage at the finish of the show as confetti cannons shoot into the air to mark the end.

Ginger winds up an amazing night with the news that 2015 might see The WiLDHEARTS playing their 'P.H.U.Q.' album in full on stage, might see a second Hey Hello! album, and might see a new Wildhearts album! Needless to say, each of these announcements went down very well with the audience. It sounds like we have a lot to look forward to...