17/12/2010 Ginger's Birthday Bash @ The Garage

Subject	Ginger's Birthday Bash @ The Garage
PostedDate	12/20/2010
	This show always looked like being one of the highlights of the year, and as usual it didn't disappoint!  Support came from the always excellent Eureka Machines. Really, everyone should see this band - they are so unique, and also highly entertaining. Tonight they get to play on a bigger stage than usual, and also through a state of the art PA system - I've never heard them sound so good! You can't really categorise this band - unless you invent a category called 'Eureka Machines'. They stand alone in a class of their own. There are a few influences in their sound, maybe some Metallica and Wildhearts, but they have poppy catchy tunes mixed in with all the heaviness - and yet they still sound nothing like the Wildhearts - or anyone else for that matter. Their debut album is very good, but really you have to experience this band live to get what they are all about. Oh, and we didn't have to wait until Ginger's set for the first special guest of the night as the enormously popular Jon 'Random' Poole joined Eureka Machines on stage - so we already knew who at least one of Ginger's 'special guests' would be! And so, onto the main event. The Garage is a great venue for these shows - apart from the corporate rip-off bar prices at this venue since it reopened.  It's ridiculously easy for me to get to since I've moved as well.  As I said in my previous blog - current and ex-Quireboys are turning up on stage all over the place recently - well here's another one! *There should be a picture of Nigel Mogg here - don't know where it went, but I know he was there as I was chatting to him outside before the show* Ginger's birthday gigs are becoming the stuff of legend and this show sold out many months in advance. In fact, all the tickets went so quickly (to real fans, not the touts who lurk on the main ticket agencies) that a few other gigs around the country were added to form a mini tour. Ginger really pulled all the stops out for his Birthday Bash at this venue last year and it was always going to be a hard show to match. I think they got close this year. In the pictures you might spot members from the Sex Pistols, 3 Colours Red, The Professionals, Buckcherry, the Yo-Yo's/Loyalties, Amen, Antiproduct, Wolfsbane, Silver Ginger 5, We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Gonna Use It, and even Snow Patrol - and that doesn't include all Ginger's guests tonight. The setlist this year consisted of mostly Wildhearts and SG5 songs and was light on covers - apart from a couple of Sex Pistols tunes. I don't think many people recognised 'Silly Thng' (I still have the 7" single) but 'Pretty Vacant' went down a storm - particularly as Steve Cook was on drums! There were a few surprises as well as some old favourites - I was particularly pleased to hear 'If Life Is Like A Love Bank I Want An Overdraft', 'Can't Drink You Pretty' and 'Anthem' with Chris Catalyst taking Danny's place of lead vox/bass - a song I thought I'd never hear live! I was surprised to hear two or three songs from recent Wildhearts albums as well as all the older stuff. All in all, a great night! Nice to catch up with a few people I tend to see only about once a year at gigs like this, as well as a load of people I see more regularly. Like a proper Wildhearts gig the atmosphere was terrific and virtually every song was a big crowd sing-along.  Same time next year then?