The Wildhearts – White Album (Round Records)

The Wildhearts – White Album (Round Records)

I was overjoyed when through my letterbox popped the remastered double cd version of the classic Wildhearts self-titled album (otherwise known as the White album).

Before we get into this sonic beast of an album I want to point out how lovingly packaged this reissue is.

Round Records is Ginger’s own label and in fairness to us Wildhearts fans we would be happy with a newly remastered White album but in this day of digital downloads, Ginger and his team have gone out of their way to give us something special and boy do they deliver. This double cd book edition features great inside comments from the band on the making of the white album and also has stunning pictures which make this a must-have.

Right onto the music and kicking us off is the nearly 9 minute opener ‘Rooting For The Bad Guy’ which just blasts out of the speakers with a heavy riff, pounding drums and driving bass with ginger’s great gruff vocals shouting out and leading us into a gorgeous harmonic chorus with great backing vocals from Cj and Scott.

Next up is ‘The Sweetest Song’ which is a tale of a woman who has ruined a relationship and starts off with another ginger shouty vocals then goes into a stunning band sang “Na, na, na” chorus.

‘The New Flesh’ was a single off the album and is yet another earworm with some great call to arms lyrics of troubled times which sadly in the years since this album has been released are still as relevant as ever.

“Slaughtered Authors” starts off with the driving bass of Scott Sorry with the drums of Ritch Battersby joining the party before Ginger and Cj complete the line-up. This gem of a track starts off in a slightly more relaxed mode and then builds up to a great band sung chorus. This track is another over the eight-minute mark but with its great instrumental passages when it finishes leaves you still wanting more.

‘Bi-Polar Baby’ is another in a long line of classic Wildhearts tracks with it’s beautifully arranged pop melody wrapped up in bone-crunching guitars.

Ending this album is the other single off the album the pounding ‘Destroy all monsters’ which is a tale of a man spurned by a woman and brings the original White album to a fantastic end.

Now after this emotional rollercoaster of an album has come to an end if like this reviewer you want more (and you will) slip in disc 2.

Right out of the speakers is the awesome track titled ‘Borderline’ which was available as a download off the band’s website many moons ago and is a song worthy of being included on any Wildhearts album with it’s catchy melody which immediately gets in the listeners head and stays.

Other highlights on this bonus disc are ‘Oh Bonita’ and ‘Unbroken’ which were extras on the Japanese version of the white album and the ‘New Flesh’ single which will just show the quality of this bands music that even songs  that didn’t originally make the album are songs which are pure class in their own right.

With cd versions and vinyl versions available, this caters to every Wildhearts fans needs and is a must buy.

Author: Gareth ‘Hotshot’ Hooper

Buy The White Album on Vinyl Here

Twelve days of Christmas – A look back at 2018 with RPM – February

Twelve days of Christmas – A look back at 2018 with RPM – February

February 2018

Foulmouthed Filthy February or something like that.

February began with a road trip to see a band who for me has been my go-to pilgrimage in North Wales for The Gathering weekend for the last quarter of a century (almost). A weekend celebrating the music of Mike Peters & The Alarm reached a high point on the Saturday night as a Four-hour performance rounded off an impressive weekend. I’ve enjoyed going for almost quarter of a century where special guests have included Billy Duffy, Craig Adams, Steve Diggle, Pete Wylie, Dave sharp, Ian McNabb, Eddie McDonald and a whole bunch of other musicians I’ve forgotten and I’ve managed to attend without missing a single year.

I must admit the thought of such a marathon performance on a Saturday night filled me with dread can any fans watch for four hours? The answer is a resounding yes! It flew by and was one of the best Saturday night shows I’ve ever seen Peters perform especially when he was joined on stage by Craig Adams for the final hour (that still doesn’t sound right – the final hour). Roll on February 2019 when I can do it all again.

 

Staying on the live front, Other RPM scribes went to some far-flung countries to catch their Rock n Roll with Craggy taking in an excellent show from Fertile Hump live at Kabinet Muz, in Brno. but a large gathering of writers took in a show or two when the Damned went around the UK this time with the added excitement of Paul Gray back in the fold for the first time in decades which was rather nice.  Seeing the Damned with a new album in tow and playing sold out shows all across the UK in decent sized venues was awesome and it has to be said so were the band.  Gray seemed to give them a right shot in the arm just in time for this stint of dates was easily the highlight of February. But with the recent news of our Brother Scott Sorry battling a serious illness the Rock and Roll community rallied and a series of benefit shows were arranged to raise funds for Scott at such a difficult time what with the American Health system being what it is  The likes of Role Models, Main Grains and  The Empty Page rocked out at The Parish to rave reviews whilst Wakefield Warehouse saw the Professionals, the Wildhearts, Massive Wagons and Sonic Boom Six take care of business and send Positive vibes across the ocean as well as money raised at these spectacular shows.

Before Feb was done The UK also saw the return of Bullets And Octane and Ben attended a memorable show in York that proved that Gene Louis had lost none of the fire he had inside his beating heart when he first toured the UK.

 

As for recordings to hit the shelves, historically early in the year, things open slowly in the music business and January being about new resolutions before finally seeing new releases hit the shelves, so, Feb saw an avalanche of really big hitters for RPM writers.  We had the release of Imperial State Electric’s Live album ‘Anywhere Loud’ as well as some garage awesomeness from the likes of the Cavemen and The Bellrays getting round to release records. 

Several writers were also impressed by the latest Buffalo Tom long player ‘Quiet And Peace’ with Craggy picking it as one of his albums of the year. February belonged to a few foul-mouthed releases, the first came in the shape of Jonesey with their self titled long player with its down n dirty sleazy punk rock n roll and song titles and lyrics that would make a sailor blush no doubt about that. But one of the years highlights hit us like a sledgehammer between the eyes has to be Motherfuckin’ Motherfuckers with ‘MFFFMF’ (I think that’s the correct amount of F’s) inspired by Supershit 666 and the idea of some friends from the most splendid Bitch Queens and Oz and Lee from the mighty Hip Priests recording a mini album packed full of songs that were written in the shortest of times. I’ll let Lee Love tell you, good people, what happened, ” Ah the dumb Lee Love story. Well, me ‘n’ Oz went To Basel for a few days to hang out with our mates from Bitch Queens and we ended up getting pissed (as you do) and I was winding them up saying I could write and get em to record a mini album in a day. So we went into the Queens studio the next day and played through everything once maybe twice and hey presto it was done”.  Creating that Copters supershit 666 vibe.

To be fair this pack of loons rose to the occasion and absolutely knocked it out of the park in fact they didn’t just knock it out of the park they followed out tied it to the back of their pick up truck dragged it around the wood then kicked any life left in it out then did it all again for shits and giggles.  An absolute giant of punk rock n fuckin roll – make no mistake about that! Motherfuckin’ Motherfucker should and one day will rightfully be seen as a classic of its genre.

 

Also, The motherfuckin’ Dwarves were taking back the night in February as well and a jolly fine record that was.  Maybe it should be renamed Fuckin’ foulmouthed February from now on.  What a month. Outstanding stuff.