Artist: Ginger & The Sonic Circus 

Venue: Legends, Newcastle

Date:  25 March 2006 

2005 had been an eventful year for Ginger to say the least what with him leaving the Wildhearts to join The Brides of Destruction, his falling out with London Le Grande and his dismissal from said band, his addiction to heroin addiction and his fall from grace. 

But the old adage of 'you cant keep a good dog down' was never so apt, and once again Ginger bounces back, this time with a new project 'The Sonic Circus', together with a spanking new album 'Valor Del Corazon'.

Returning home to his native Tyneside has always been an emotional event and tonight was no exception.  Combining this with the added complication of problems with the PA before the gig even opened it's doors, it was certainly touch and go as to whether tonight’s show would even take place.

So with no time for the allotted support band, it was time for Psycho Cyborgs to come on stage.  This trio of two heavily tattooed gents and a midget woman came onto stage and subsequently shish kebabed each other with 12 inch skewers, before fastening bits of electronic circuit board to each other, much to the disgust and delight of the crowd. This was a much-shortened version of the show that they usually perform, much to mine and a good few others stomachs delight.

Now to the main event as the nine members strong band hit the miniscule stage at Legends.  The only thing to surpass the size of the stage, or lack of it, was the lack of decent lighting so you could actually see all members of the band.

I’ve only been to this venue to see bands once before and the acoustics are not very good for live bands, tonight being no exception.  I think it's probably down to where the stage is situated which tends to make the sound bounce around the venue.  

The band opened up with ‘Ugly’ from the new album and immediately all Gingers misgivings were thrown aside, as the 400 strong crowd gave a giant thumbs up to the local hero, from this point on the crowd belonged to one man.

But the partisan crowd had come to see Ginger perform no mater what songs he played and from what band or bands he had been involved in over the years.

With a backing band that was in its own right a gathering of stars, which included the mighty Connie Bloom and Jon Poole the band rampaged through the set and given the poor sound they still managed to do the new album proud.  Highlights from the set (and there were many) included ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’, ‘Drinking in the Daytime’ a song for every Geordie, ‘Ten Flaws Down’ with Connie Bloom getting a little funky on the guitar and ‘Sonic Shake’ the only song taken from the Silver Ginger 5 album.

But it was the encore that was the real surprise package with the three covers ‘Boys Keep Swinging’, ‘Pump it Up’, and Listen to the Music’, plus the Wildhearts ‘29X the Pain’.

Most of all Ginger seemed to enjoy playing once again and this new band brought the best out in him.  This is surely the best the man has performed for such a long time and I hope that this is the first step to Ginger being back at the top where his undoubted talent certainly belongs. 

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