On a cold night in Milton Keynes at the amazing Crauford Arm, Ginger Wildheart brought the full spectrum of Wildhearts songs to a full house in a set of 'kind of' acoustic arrangements. And it was very good!
Opening up was Carol Hodge, a singer songwriter, self described 'seven fingered pianist' with a wonderful take on a number of melancholic subjects. She has a wonderful voice and a lovely rapport with the crowd as you ran through her songs. The keyboard only arrangements had the crowd hanging on every word and a fantastic cover of Therapy's 'Going Nowhere' did just as she promised and warmed the crowd up ready for main event.
And what a main act. As Carol said, this was the first gig with the new live lineup of The Wildhearts due out on tour in the spring and summer 2025 across Europe. Ginger, 'Random' Jon Poole, Carol Hodge, Ben Marsden, and 'Charles' the new drummer who only hooked up with them a couple of days prior made up the group. And of course Maggie, Ginger’s much loved dog, who chased a ball around the stage for the duration of the set, much to the joy of the crowd.
Launching straight into 'Geordie in Wonderland', it was clear from the outset this was going to be a joyous sing-along with the sell out crowd knowing every single word. The band were relaxed and comfortable but above all they were enjoying themselves. Between songs, most of the time was spent laughing. ‘Top of the World' ran into 'Just in Lust' then 'Red Light, Green Light'. Ginger had to prompt the crowd for reminders about what albums the songs were from, "it’s from one of those new albums, I think" but by halfway through the set, we had gone from start to finish in a number of bounds.
After 'Sleepaway' and 'Diagnosis', Ginger helped out a couple of the newbies with the lyrics for ‘Mazel Tov Cocktail’ "Its just Whoa, and then follow what the rest do" and the 'whoa's' nearly took the roof off. By this point I sneaked a peak at the setlist and it confirmed they were playing everyone of my favourites. 'Sunshine from New York' was followed by 'Miles Away Girl' with a middle 8 morphing into Grease’s ‘Summer Lovin' and even a little ‘Fool on the Hill’ in there.
And then you have Random shenanigans from start to finish. After Maggie nearly wiped him out from a stray ball throw from Dunc, the almost ‘as famous as the band’ crew member, we had a verse of the hastily written "Killed by Maggie". We had a little blues jam at one point and a version of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ that was, indescribable. But all of this just showed how much fun they were having.
'29x The Pain' was followed by an 'Earth vs' medley of 'Caffeine Bomb', 'My Baby is a HeadFuck' and 'Suckerpunk' although in a slightly different order as Maggie was lying across the setlist and Ginger couldn't see what was next. The set ended on the massive 'I Wanna Go where the People Go’. And then it was over. It felt like it was over in a blink of eye, but it was a pretty full on 90 minute set.
I've been going to Wildhearts gigs for 30+ years and have seen them in lots of different venues and incarnations, just Ginger on his own, electric, acoustic and somewhere in between and this was the most relaxed and happy I have seen Ginger in a long time. It was the most polished performance; it wasn't about that. There were some nice arrangements of those all-time great Wildhearts tracks but a group of musicians really enjoying what they were doing. A really fantastic night.
Words and Pictures by Glenn Morrison
