The Greatest Rock And Roll Band Are Back (Wildhearts in general)

Member Name: SilverGinger5

Product:	Wildhearts in general
Date:	18/06/01 (150 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The Greatest Band ever, did i mention that they're the greatest band ever?, They're so great

Disadvantages: the gig will be over at some stage

I don't know how many of you have heard of/remember The Wildhearts, but they were simply the most exhillerating Rock and Roll experience of the 90's.

They have been through many line-up changes, as is to be expected of such a volatile group, but Ginger has always remained as the lead guitarist, singer and songwriter, so each album has carried his distinctive stamp.

Danny McCormack has been secure as the bassist in the wildhearts almost since the beginning, and it is Ginger and Danny that everyone associates most closely with the Wildhearts.

There have been 3 drummers that were with the band for any length of time, and they were Stidi who was there at the start and after an altercation with Ginger he was replaced with Pat who was there for about a year and a half and was then replaced with Rich Battersby.

The Wilhearts have gone through four guitarists other than Ginger, the longest serving being CJ, who was with the band at their inception, and then stayed there for about 5 years before being replaced with Devin Townshend. He lasted just under a year, and was then replaced by the very short lived Mark Keds. He was with the band for one single, and should have been with them on a tour, but decided not to turn up. (Ironically Mark Keds was involved with recording their song "Friend For Five Minutes". After this, the final guitarist in the line-up was Jef Stretfield, who lasted about years before the untimly demise of the wildhearts.

Every album that the wildhearts have released has been truly phenomenal in my mind. Admittedly i have never actually seen a copy of the fabled "Mondo Akimbo A-Go-Go", but have heard most of the tracks on later recordings, and it was a great start to a great band.

The first properly available album was "Earth Vs. The Wildhearts", which was a twelve track masterpiece, every song is a finely crafted drop of heaven. It is great guitar based rock and r
oll, which was such an improvement on the bland indie rock that was around at the time.

"Don't Be Happy, Just Worry", (which is counted as an EP, but it has 8 tracks, so i class it as an album) came after that, which is in a similar style to Earth Vs., but i don't think it quite managed to live up their debut, but I find this to be the same with most bands.

The next album was p.h.u.q. which i found to be slightly more poppy that their first two albums, and although excellent seemed to be trying to gain commercial success more than staying true to their roots (as i believe was shown on the single "I Wanna Go Where The People Go"

The final album was taking a step in the completely opposite direction. "Endless Nameless" was huge amounts of distorted guitars and vocals, and wasn't as popular with people who had like p.h.u.q. but I believe that it showed the wildhearts in a great light.

Anyway, the incredible news is that the wildhearts are back and touring again, and i'm going to go and see them in London on Wednesday, which is going to be one of the most important events in my life (perhaps)

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