30/4/2011 Ginger acoustic show @ The Borderline

Subject	Ginger acoustic show @ The Borderline
DateCreated	5/1/2011 5:20:00 PM
	Saturday night finds me back at the Borderline again - this time to see Ginger play an acoustic show. This gig is part of an acoustic tour, with the irrepressible Jon 'Random' Poole and Wolfsbane's Jase Edwards assisting on guitars. Although it's only a low profile acoustic tour, Jon Poole has already managed to get arrested on only the seconond date!  Apparently last night's show in Tunbridge Wells was beset with technical problems and didn't go that well, but tonight the gremlins have definitely been ironed out. The Borderline is sold out tonight and as expected the atmosphere is terrific. Due to the crowds I only bothered taking one (very poor) picture. The set was a mixture of Wildhearts and Ginger solo material, with a few covers thrown in. The Pogues-like 'Geordie In Wonderland went down a storm, and did everything else - including a very extended version of the 'Cheers' theme (already covered by the Wildhearts) with various extra bits dropped into it. Other covers included 'Hocus Pocus' and the Icicle Works 'Understanding Jane' from the Wildhearts covers album. There were some more obsure Ginger solo songs as well as old crowd favourites like 'I Wanna Go Where The People Go', 'Weekend', and the inevitable '29 x The Pain'. The acoustic 'In Lilly's Garden' worked out very well too. The set was broken into two halves - which gave a handy break to buy a T-shirt from the merch stall. The band was joined by Wille Dowling for the second set with everybody taking a turn on lead vocals during the night - we even got Jase singing a Wolfsbane song! Ginger promised before the break that they would come back and play for "fuckin' ages!" but in fact they finished about 15 minutes before the venue's 10.30 curfew - the only disappointment in an evening of great music, banter, and all round top quality entertainment!  Normally I'd have stuck around afterwards to meet and chat to a load of the usual suspects until they threw us out, but on this occasion I was out the door shortly after Ginger & Co finished playing in an attempt to get back to a covers gig in Barnet - which due to my bad memory and hopeless planning turned out to be wasted effort.  And then I spent too long chatting to someone in the pub and missed the last bus home as it turned up a minute early. FAIL.  Sorry to anyone who knows me that I didn't meet at the Ginger gig - it was all my fault!