Artist:  Ginger, Robochrist & The God Damn Whores

Venue: Bradford Rios, Bradford

Date:  23 January 2007  

The year has only just begun and we are making are second visit down to Bradford Rios in less than a week.  It seems like we are never away and for a venue that is a good two hours drive away, that isn’t bad going.

The reason for tonight’s visit is none other than one of the North East’s finest sons - Ginger.  Well if the Mountain won’t come to Mohamed, then Mohamed will have to come to the Mountain.

After a delayed start to tonight’s show due to the band only arriving at the venue half an hour before the doors were due to open, the crowd outside the venue were praying the forecasted snow would not arrive while we were all standing in waiting.

Fortunately the weather refrained from doing its worst and we were eventually let into the venue, be it a good 45 minutes late.  But it wasn’t long before the first of the two support acts took to the stage.  As the band came down the stairs there was a surprising similarity in band members to the headline act.  In fact Ginger had come up with the ultimate touring support band, as The God Damn Whores consisted of John Poole on guitar and vocals, Ginger on bass guitar, Jason Edwards on lead guitar and Denzil Pearson on drums.  A great concept for up and coming bands who can't find a suitable support and want to cut down on overall costs.  Could all this 'be your own support act' catch on?  Well we will have to wait and see.

Back to the band, envisaged by Poole The God Damn Whores are very much a work in progress with a rare mix of Punk, Metal, Country and down right craziness.  As the band ploughed through a set that included such ditties as ‘God Damn Hustler Take You Out’, the delightful ‘Mod Rock’ and ‘Do You Feel Lucky’, all of which seemed a little overwhelming for the majority of the crowd, who just looked in wonder. 

Those who came in late looked even more bemused at what was coming off.  Was this the main event and had they missed something?

Fans of the Clam Abuse album would be very familiar with this sort of outrageous mix of styles and genres.  Fans of Ginger himself will be all too aware of his many side projects and ventures into the somewhat sublime and surreal.

Poole isn't the best of vocalist but when he puts his voice to the punkish tones of ‘I’m A Private Man’ he gets away with it, but all in all this seems like an experimental project that I feel will be somewhat short lived.

Now if you were thinking things couldn’t get any more bizarre than the first band, things were just about to get even weirder as RoboChrist hit the stage.  This one man show really is something completely different.  Those of you who caught Ginger and the Sonic Circus last year know that Ginger has a liking for something different in his support acts as last years Psycho Cyborgs showed all too well.

Well with Robochrist things aren’t quite as bizarre as that, but are along similar lines as this one man show set out this electro fusion of light and sound.  This heavily made-up performance artist was like an Insane Clown only without the Posse.  As he set out his stall of mixed sound effects, TV ads and themes, I thought anyone who can get away with mixing the Charlie Says ads and the Wurthers Originals ads together into one mass of sound is either a certified loon or a complete genius.  The verdict is still out on that one. 

But as Johnny Vegas apparently put it ... “Robochrist is like shit off a stick” ... but then that is just one mans opinion.

Now on to the main event as once again for the second time tonight Ginger, Poole, Edwards and Pearson return to the stage and gave us what we had all came to see, the former Wildheart do what he does best, rock the house down.

The set opened up with ‘Black Window’ and immediately the confusion over The God Damn Whores and this band were dismissed, as this was the real article with Ginger on fine form and with the man mountain Edwards spewing out immaculate riffs to Gingers earthy northern tones, this was a match made in rock n roll heaven, and with the ever present jovial Poole on bass, things could only get better.

And better they did get as it was now time to really get things rocking with ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’ and ‘So Into You’, before giving the crowd time to get its breath back, the band slowed things down with ‘Drinking In The Daytime’.

However, this was only a short interlude as things got into full swing again with the excellent ‘Brain Sugar’, and the new song ‘How Come You Can't Be Normal All The Time’.  Both of which were well received by the now swelling and jubilant crowd.

Then it was time for the sing-along to top all sing-alongs, a song that really got the crowd going as the band set about ‘This Is Only A Problem’.  Throughout the whole song both band and crowd sang out loud and proud as one voice.

However, this was only a short interlude as things got into full swing again with the excellent ‘Brain Sugar’, and the new song ‘How Come You Can't Be Normal All The Time’, both of which were well received by the now swelling and jubilant crowd.

Then it was time for the sing-along to top all sing-alongs, a song that really got the crowd going as the band set about ‘This Is Only A Problem’.  Throughout the whole song both band and crowd sang out loud and proud as one voice.

The set continued with ‘Can't Drink You Pretty’ and an old Wildhearts B-side ‘When She Comes’, before returning to obvious crowd favourite ‘Eager To Leave Her’ and the stomping ‘Revolver’ and ‘Answering Machine’.  The band finished off the set with one of my favourite Ginger compositions from his Silver Ginger Five opus ‘Sonic Shake’, which once again had the crowd going absolutely mental and rocking along to each and every word.

The band had hardly left the stage when the familiar chant of 'Don’t Worry About Me' rang out from the crowd.  It wasn’t long before the boys returned to give us one more, this time it was the icing on the cake in many peoples eyes as the band went into ‘29X The Pain’.  With the time rapidly approaching midnight it was time to call time on this mighty rock n' roll extravaganza and time to reflect on days gone by when The Wildhearts ruled the world. 

I've always felt that what Ginger does with his solo stuff is actually more what the man is all about, all his witty lyrics and retrospective look at life.  It was good to see Ginger looking so healthy and relaxed with himself and the banter with the audience in between the songs made the whole evening feel more like a gathering of old friends than fans coming out to watch a band.  Let's hope the new album 'Yoni' will mark another landmark chapter in his ever growing life story for all the right reasons.

 

 

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