Share the post "Gig Review: THE WILDHEARTS – ABC, Glasgow, 4 April 2013"
I am ashamed to say that this gig was my first live encounter with The Wildhearts. They have always been one of the bands near the top of my ‘must do’ list, but up until now our paths hadn’t crossed. When this current tour was announced in celebration of the 20th anniversary of ‘Earth V’s The Wildhearts’ album, I knew the time was right to pop my Wildhearts cherry.
There were a couple of supports to warm up the crowd first though and on entry to the hall the guitarist of Baby Godzilla was standing on top of a wall at the rear of the venue whilst the singer was in the middle of the crowd giving his all. This, unfortunately, proved to be the band’s last track and I didn’t see enough to form an opinion, although they appeared to go down well.
The next band up though raised the game somewhat and proved to be the perfect warm up for Ginger and Co. Eureka Machines have obviously been influenced by The Wildhearts and had an arsenal of great melodic rock songs with which to assault the crowd’s ears. Frontman Chris Catalyst is a born performer who used his dry Yorkshire wit to win over the crowd, especially when he was joking about the size of the band’s backdrop which looked like a beach towel!
Playing a mix of new tracks from their current album, ‘Remain In Hope’, and older tracks from their previous two albums, the guys put in a great, energetic set which went down a storm with the crowd. With the crowd now suitably warmed through, the stage was set for The Wildhearts who took to the stage to a huge roar and launched into ‘Greetings From Shitsville’.
The first part of the set was made up of the entire ‘Earth V’s The Wildhearts’ album played as on the album, Ginger did point out it was the original version though and ‘not the re-release from ’94 with the extra track’ in case anyone was in doubt. ‘TV Tan’ was then followed by ‘Everlone’ and the crowd was loving every minute, singing along with every word. The highlight of this section though was the double hit of ‘Headf*ck’ followed by the riot that was ‘Suckerpunch’, rock really doesn’t get much better!
Rounding off the album section with final track, ‘Love U ‘Til I Don’t’, the band left the stage to huge cheers. Having caught a glimpse of the set list on stage which only contained the songs from the album I was interested to see what the band had up their sleeve next. I soon found out as ‘audience participation time’ was announced by the compere for the night. This proved to be a fun section where the crowd were offered up two songs for the band to play via large placards brought on by two of the road crew and the crowd had to choose what song they played.
First round went to ‘Caffeine Bomb’ which got the bodies flying, keeping the security busy. Other winners included ‘Sick Of Drugs’, a rapid ‘Mood Swings And Roundabouts’ and a fantastic version of ‘Geordie In Wonderland’ with the Glasgow choir singing the first verse. The best though was saved until last in the shape of ‘I Wanna Go Where The People Go’ which again had the bodies flying and the crowd bouncing for all they were worth.
Ginger said he couldn’t have started the tour in a better place and judging by the sweaty, grinning people leaving the ABC I think the crowd were in agreement. A great night to celebrate a classic album, here’s to the next 20 years.
Review and Photos by David Wilson
Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK
Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.
In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.
Latest session: Sunday 14 April
Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio
David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 7 April 2024.
UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 2 April 2024.
How to Listen Live?
Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)
Listen via Windows Media Player. Click or tap here and “open file”
Listen via other media player (eg. VLC) Click or tap here and “open file”
Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.
More information and links at our radio website where you can listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com
Power Plays w/c 15 April 2024
ENMY The Ledge (FiXT)
KAROBELA Get Hard (indie)
KATH & THE KICKS Neptune (indie)
THE BEE TELLERS River Poem (Black Sand Records)
LAUREN FREEBIRD Like A Bomb (indie)
Featured Albums w/c 15 April 2024
09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023
14:00-16:00 KATARINA PEJAK – Pearls On A String (Ruf Records)
To see our Tweets you need to be logged in to a Twitter account
Popular (last 10 days)
Share the post "Gig Review: THE WILDHEARTS – ABC, Glasgow, 4 April 2013"
PDF - you can delete unwanted sections
