The Wildhearts are proud to announce the release of Renaissance Men on 3rd May, their first full-length studio album in 10 years.
To coincide with the release of Renaissance Men the Wildhearts’ classic line up of Ginger, CJ, Ritchie and Danny, are to play an 8 date UK tour.
Before this tour, the band play 2 festivals in March plus a special warm-up show at the Exeter Cavern on Friday 8th March.
The Wildhearts are proud to announce the release of Renaissance Men on 3rd May, their first full-length studio album in 10 years.
To coincide with the release of Renaissance Men the Wildhearts’ classic line up of Ginger, CJ, Ritchie and Danny, are to play an 8 date UK tour. This intimate tour will start in Manchester at the Academy 2 on Friday 3rd May and concludes at the Riverside in Newcastle on Sunday 12th May.
“Well fuck me it’s only been 10 years since our last release and we have a monster album on its way. Danny is back in the band and we hit the road in May, playing new tunes and all the old hits. Can’t wait and I know the boys are super bloody excited for this. ROCK!” – CJ Wildheart
Before the Renaissance Men UK tour, The Wildhearts play 2 festivals: the Winters End 2019 in Chepstow and Great British Alternative Festival in Minehead, plus a special warm-up show at the Exeter Cavern on Friday 8th March.
Creatively brilliant, The Wildhearts play a distinctive fusion of hard rock, perfectly complemented by contemporary melodies. With a career spanning nearly 30 years The Wildhearts helped change the landscape of British rock through the ’90s, and to this day they haven’t shown any sign of slowing down. Miss these shows at your peril.
Not Just your regular summer, no sir, this one is hot! and its only getting hotter!
June 2018
Whilst May was relatively quiet (slang) June was positively bristling with releases and live shows for the RPM crew and the beginning of the festival season was open. But we couldn’t mention June 2018 without a few tributes to fallen comrades in Rock and Roll.
Firstly, Heavy Drapes frontman Garry Alexander Borland passed away the first week after returning from Holland after a really successful show at Rebellion over there. Garry’s passing was a huge shock to people close to him obviously but his passing was also felt in the wider alternative community with his band on the verge of much bigger and better things what with the up and coming decent billing at Rebellion UK and their debut album ready to go so its only right we record this moment and pay tribute to Garry. May he rest in peace.
Another sad passing was that of DJ Fontana who was Elvis Presley’s drummer for many a year, Dominic Joseph Fontana was responsible for laying down the backbeat on almost 500 songs with the king which is no mean feat and a really impressive CV by any standard also it’s only right we recognise his contribution to music. Rest in Peace DJ.
Sadly a third influential musician passed away in June this year, none other than Nick Knox the second but longest-serving Cramps drummer. Nick joined the band from the Electric Eels and occupied the drum stool from 1977-1991, Knox toured with the band and appeared on some of the Cramps’ best recordings, ‘Songs The Lord Taught Us‘, ‘Psychedelic Jungle’ and ‘A Date With Elvis’. Rest In Peace Nick Knox the man behind Lux and the man behind the shades.
Sadly the fourth person to pass away in June was none other than West coast punk rock legend Steve Soto of The Adolescents. Steve was originally the bass player in Agent Orange back in ’79 he then served as bass player in the Adolescents until passing. the most recent album ‘Cropduster‘ being his final piece of work and easily one of 2018 finest albums. The band went on to tour the summer around Europe with stand-in player and dedicated the set each night to Steve where they had a backdrop replacing the band’s logo and replacing it with SOTO at Rebellion in August Tony Reflex dedicated the show to his bandmate in a touching speech and subsequent performance that was electric and memorable, Rest In Peace Steve 54 is way too young.
Right hopefully onto much happier matters for the month of June 2018. With Festival season in full swing Fraser headed to Download and watched The Bronx, The Hives and Turbonegro show the festivals other acts how Rock and Roll was meant to be delivered to the people. elsewhere it seemed like the world and his Mrs were off to see the Rolling Stones play some enormadome or should that be a field?
IT might have cost the GDP of some countries to get close enough to see the band measure up to the size of a subbutteo player but it has to be said nobody was disappointed in either the performance or the setlist the band was knocking out on this leg of the tour. Jagger was ever his peter pan like self careering from one side of the huge stage to the other like he was a child with more energy than most performers more than half his age and some.
Nev decided he’d bowl darn London way and take in what Camden Rocks had to offer. Basically, all the pubs of any note and the dive bars, as well as the more famous landmarks such as Dingwalls, Electric Ballroom etc throw, open their doors to live Rock and Roll for the day and if you have a wristband and there’s room at the inn then uh, you’re in! Just wear some comfortable shoes and a stage planner. You might just happen across your favourite new band or someone you’ve been meaning to catch and hey presto there they are. (Deep Breath time) This year Nev caught The Ramonas at the Dublin Castle – Dirty Thrills at The Underworld Talia Dean in Brew Dog then back to the underworld for Sonic Boom Six and some knees up skanking ska which went down rather well with Nev. It wouldn’t have been right had our roving scribe not caught Urban Voodoo Machine down at the lock where the place to be was indeed Dingwalls then to finish off a marathon of live entertainment it was Camden Assembly for some Ryan Hamilton & The Traitors before the Rifles was a curtain call for Mr Brooks but he wasn’t banking on bumping into Paul-Ronny Angel either so his night wasn’t quite over!
Ben went to Rambling Man Fair and enjoyed the performances of such heavyweight rockers as The Cult and also managed to catch RPM favourites Jim Jones and The Righteous Mind as well as the real mock rockers Steel Panth..Nah I can’t type it sorry folks I’d be doing RPM a disservice even mentioning them. anyway, Ben also managed to take in the large club gig of the month that was the triple-headed Britrock Must Be Destroyed touring carnival that featured a rotating line up of Reef, The Wildhearts, and Terrorvision. there were multiple dates to be fair and it was decided on the day how the running order would play out. I reckon each band made new fans on the night as reports were coming in of all three raising each others game and an excellent way to tour. The night Ben had in Leeds also saw Dodgy added to the lineup.
Our intrepid European correspondent or one of them Craggy got to see Repetitor live at Kabinet Muz, Brno I said Craggy got to see Repetitor in Brno…oh forget it he enjoyed it anyway said it was one of his highlights of the year to be fair.
Now with a sharp intake of breath June was positively overflowing with album releases that would bother top tens come the end of the year. Just a few of those contenders has to be The Interrupters with their ‘Fight The Good Fight’ that saw them leap up the rankings with a fantastic collection of tunes that was shaking up not just fans of the bands previous two albums but new music fans who heard one of the many potential hits on the radio or tv with the album set to just keep on selling and selling we are looking at the next big thing as they won’t be playing clubs for much longer.
Getting Tim Armstrong in to produce the record is a great move as the guy oozes class and knows his way around a ska-punk record and if he had a hand in any of the songwriting or arranging then boy pat yourselves on the back because the infectious ‘A Friend Like Me’, ‘Shes Kerosene’ and the awesome ‘Got Each Other’ are three reasons why this record will deservedly be in many ends of year top 3’s and rightly so..
Elsewhere June saw the release of London Towns Portuguese legends The Parkinson’s return with the LP ‘The Shape Of Nothing To Come’ that confirmed that these gentlemen still had it and it was a fine return to the fold in every way. Now expanded to a five piece you can take the boys out of punk rock but you can’t ever take the punk rock out of the boys and that boys and girls is a fact. the Parkinsons still have the chops.
Another couple of worthy mentions in the albums released in June has to be Smash Fashion and their ‘Rompus Pompous’. Which has gone down a right storm at RPM as they’ve really hit their stride on this one and joioning them would have to be Nottingham’s The Speedways with the fantastic slice of power pop that is ‘Just Another Regular Summer’ the brains behind the idea to write an album was Matt former guitarist of The Breakdowns he’s since formed a band after the success of the record and has played a number of shows and next year they’ve already planned some shows in Spain and London. It really is power pop perfection and a record we highly recommend.
The old school shouldn’t be forgotten either because June was also the month when the phrase you can’t teach an old dog new tricks was debunked because The Uk Subs once again released a new album ‘Subversions’ of some of their favourite songs by other people – sure a cover album. there might well be some you could see coming but there are others on the album that you would never have seen coming.
Over in NYC the birthplace of hardcore and home to some of the best bands around Madball made a new record they put out in June 2018 and the brutal ‘For The Cause’ was unleashed on the world and immediately felt at home with the RPM crew.
Finally a mention of records released in June this time for the magnificent London power poppin’ punk rockin’ Los Pepe who released their long playing Greatest Hits on Snap Records! it came with a CD of the album and they also got to knock out a single this month as well which was nice. Don’t get me started on singles that appeared this month because ther were plenty with my pick of the pack coming from the Randy Savages who were ‘Guilty Of Nuthin’ .
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.
Ginger swings from rock genius to self-indulgent pledge monster, crafting some of the finest tunes the UK has tasted in the last 25 years or so, but seemingly a social media time bomb primed to explode. Either way, whenever I’ve met him he’s been a totally nice guy so in I guess that’s just the internet for you…
Kicking off with the low key “May The Restless Find Peace”, I can’t quite place the songs it reminds me of but it’s a nice downer of a tune much greater than the sum of its parts.
On to “Why Aye (Oh You)”. I could be facetious and say this is pound shop Jimmy Nail or I could be constructive and compare it to Del Amitri. You decide.
The album carries on in a similar vein. I guess the slide guitar gives it a country kind of vibe. You could say it’s a companion piece to 2018’s previous outing “Ghost in the Tangle Wood” It certainly sounds like an extension of that acoustic driven folky introspective sound.
Along with the aforementioned “May The Restless Find Peace”, “Better Love” is another standout track. To my ears it has a Crowded House feel, with perhaps a bit like Billy Bragg’s “Don’t Try This At Home” era. A great tune none-the-less.
The title track “The Pessimist’s Companion” has a bit more going on but remains on the “sounding up but feeling down” theme.
Like many of the tunes found here, “Sweet Wanderlust” and “In Reverse” feel like sketches of classic (Wildhearts) tunes, proving without a doubt that below the self-destruction is a great songwriter trying to find his way out of a chaotic mind.
Last up is the dark and desperate “There Is A House”. Another stand out tune and certainly one you’ll want to skip back to once the album ends.
Ultimately, if you’re a paid-up disciple of Ginger’s gang you’re gonna love this album. whatever I or anyone else thinks about it and more power to you.
The band will also be their own support act by evolving into The Moodswingers before their main set. The crowd will be able to enjoy a back-to-back performance of the Wildhearts’ first two EP’s, which were released prior to their debut album. The Amorettes will be opening
Twenty five years in and the Wildhearts are ready for more – originally formed in late 1989 in the depths of Newcastle, the group are returning to the big stage to perform their debut album, Earth vs the Wildhearts, in it’s entirety. A testament to their celebrated authenticity, 99% of the album is an amalgamation of original demos, which were aptly recorded on second hand tape, and is characterised by the band’s distinctive fusion of hard rock, perfectly complimented by contemporary melodies.
Having released two EP’s, the Wildhearts prepared to record their 1993 studio album Earth vs the Wildhearts. The album included underground hits, ‘Greetings from Shitsville’, ‘TV Tan’, and favourite, ‘Caffeine Bomb’. An undisputed iconic debut, Classic Rock recently ranked Earth vs the Wildhearts as the 5th best debut rock album of all time, surpassing the likes of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden.
Despite their many reformations, frontman Ginger will be joined on stage in what is now considered the classic line up of CJ, Ritchie on drums and Danny (bass) to create an extraordinary show.
Never ones to shy away from unusual formalities, the band will also be their own support act by evolving into The Moodswingers before their main set. The crowd will be able to enjoy a back-to-back performance of the Wildhearts’ first two EP’s, which were released prior to their debut album.
Working on their first full-length studio album in 10 years, the live shows are bound to be a reminder of the Wildhearts’ mastery of music and a portrayal of 25 years of prevalence within the industry.
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