Artist:  The Wildhearts, Sign & G U Medicine

Venue: Carling Academy, Newcastle 

Date:  7 May 2007 

The Phrase “it’s about time too” comes to mind when I first heard that Ginger and Co were returning to Newcastle to play a show, yes Ginger has played under the The Sonic Circus flag but it’s the Wildhearts where Ginger really made his mark on world and to many of his fans he will always be a Wildheart.

And with Newcastle having a decent mid-sized venue in the Carling Academy the fans of the man and the band have really turned out in force to see the return of too many is rocks prodigal son.

But first the support for tonight’s show beginning with Barnsley based G.U. Medicine who opened up the night with a storming set of guitar fuelled metal mixing the styles of the Foo Fighters with the more intense soundings of The Almighty in a rampaging half hour set.

They got things underway and instantly you were witnessing a band who were indeed honoured to be on the same line-up as The Wildhearts as lead singer and guitarist Lee later announced.

The set of intense riff filled stoner metal was highlighted by the songs ‘Occasional Drink’ ‘The Right Time Radio’ Amphetamine Express’ and rounding off with ‘A Meeting With Foul Play’ if you like you metal at its most intense than check out G.U. Medicine next time their playing a venue near you, you wont be disappointed.

 Next up were Iceland’s own Sign led by the vocal talent that is Zolberg, who comes across as a mix between Seb Bach and Kurt Cobane.  The band, like G.U Medicine before them, deliver a well balanced guitar fuelled set with Zolberg being the focal point of the band as he covers the entire stage at some point in the show.

The band opened up their account with the storming ‘Lift Me Up’ and instantly I was impressed with this band, especially the Zolberg’s powerful vocals.  The tempo was kept right up there as the band ripped through the set with some great riff spewn melodic metal with the likes of ‘Thank God For Silence’ a real crowd pleaser, the rocker ‘What You Don’t Know’ and even the cover of Skid Row’s ‘Youth Gone Wild’ went down a storm.  The band finished off with a real barnstormer of a set with my favourite of the night 'When
Demons Win’.  This band really impressed so much a rushed up after the set to buy the band album ‘Thank God For Silence’, something that doesn’t happen that much! 

Now for the main event, as local legends go they don’t get bigger than Ginger and no matter what band he has put together, whether it be The Wildhearts, The Sonic Circus, Silver Ginger 5, Clam Abuse or even a solo tour, the fans always gather in their masses and tonight is no exception.  As the band were about to come on stage I looked around to see a varying array of band t-shirts as well as Wildheart t-shirts, which only seals the fact that The Wildhearts music appeals to all spectrums of the rock world, be it metal, glam, or whatever, there is something there for all and tonight the band would deliver a set of both classic material and also a couple of songs from the band new album ‘The Wildhearts’.

Things got underway after a short mix up with the intro (it was played twice) with ‘Vanilla Radio’, which saw the already excitable Newcastle audience erupt into a frenzy of activity.  This carried on as Ginger and Co went straight into ‘Caffeine Bomb’, (no caffeine required tonight as the crowd are already wired!) and ‘TV Tan’.  There was no time for idle chit chat as the band tried to squeeze in as many songs into the set as humanly possible.

The continued their assault with ‘Someone That Won't Let Go’, a song that could very well be dedicated to the bands army of loyal fans, who have seen the band through the well publicised good times and the bad.

It was time for the first of the songs from the new album which Ginger informed us had charted in the top 30, the storming ‘The Revolution Will Be Televised’, which obviously most of the crowd knew, as they sang along with it as if it were an old classic.

It was back to the bands vast back catalogue for ‘Suckerpunch’ and 'Nexus Icon', which was saw Gingers guitar tech Doug retune the guitar which he informed Ginger was out of tune.  This made Ginger almost break into a dodgy stand-up routine, but thankfully we were saved by Doug’s speedy guitar tuning!

The band never came up for breath as things continued with ‘Sick of Drugs’ and on of my person favourite live tracks ‘Everlone’, which got the venue so heated the air conditioning finally kicked in, and not a moment too soon!  Although this never cooled down the crowd enthusiasm and actually seemed to give them a new lease of life.

With a vast array of songs to pick form the band put together a set that would please even the most diehard Wildheart fans with the likes of ‘Stormy In The North’ and ‘Headfuck’, which rounded off the main part of the set.

After the crowd chants of ‘Don’t Worry About Me' the band returned to rapturous applause and carried on with another new one ‘Rooting For The Bad Guy’, then it was back to the classics with ‘Top of the World’.  After which Ginger thanked the fans for sticking by the band and announced that they will be back at Christmas.  Which of course received yet another a big cheer of approval.  They then rounded off one of the best performances I’ve seen the band due with ‘I Wanna Go Where The People Go’.  After this performance it was clear to all that the band were back ready to put the Wildhearts back on the map. 

 

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