I am a fan of The Wildhearts, and a Ginger fan, most of the time. Many people have no idea who or what I am referring to in both cases. I came across their name about 15 years ago whilst visiting their hometown of Newcastle Upon Tyne (UK) and checked them out promptly; I only wish I was able to see them live. Sadly the band and the person(a) behind the band are not as well regarded by the masses as they should be. To those of us in the know, there are wildly wonderful hooks and choruses abound. PHUQ being their seminal release and 25 years since it was issued so it’s time to celebrate I suppose. Probably their most commercially successful, although in my opinion there is so much other terrific material. Examples: “Vanilla Radio”, “You Took the Sunshine from New York”, “Caffeine Bomb: are just a few you should check out.
On this live release, they play PHUQ in its entirety. I am not sure I like this format from any band. Listening to this confirms I am not so much a fan of this layout for an album release and/or live.
Now that I have whined a tad, let me tell you, on most of the tracks it hardly sounds live. Having never had the pleasure to see The Wildhearts live I cannot attest to this personally but I do know their reputation of live sound quality is amazing. That said, the crowd noise sounds like a KISS live album specialty which I could care less about either way.
Not much talking to the crowd, at least not captured here. The easy stand-out song is the first; “I Wanna Go Where the People Go”.
I love the band, the sound; but this release doesn’t really do it for me. This is a band that releases a ton of material so I have expectations more will be coming soon, at least I am hopeful. There is always somewhere to hear Ginger and/or The Wildhearts there is no doubt about it!
- Blair De Abreu
The Wildhearts Website / The Wildhearts Facebook / The Wildhearts Twitter
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B4iPkisrzE[/embedyt]
