Hands Of Gretal’s Lauren Tate catches the ears and eyes in a fetching red cocktail dress which strangely suits the venue and her enjoyable acoustic set. Her distinctive voice has that delicious grunge touched raspiness and tonight it resonates throughout this well attended and the also impeccably observed opening thirty minutes which made up of tracks from her new solo album.
The Wildhearts are bang smack in the middle of a well-deserved period of critical recognition with the mini-album ‘Diagnosis’ and the full length ‘Reinnasiance Men’ both hoovering up a bag full compliments from both the mainstream and the more traditional rock press. Armed with a gleaming new solo album ‘Headzapoppin’ ready for release and a non-Wildhearts back catalogue at bursting point Gingers shot glass once more overfloweth with top-shelf quality tunes. The evening kicks off with two solo favourites ‘The Pendine Incident’ and the beautifully dark yet powerfully emotive ‘Toxins And Tea’. ‘Do You’, ‘The Daylight Hotel’ and The Georgia Satellites ‘Six Years Gone’ are all trumped by the addictive bubblegum popgun attack of (the much-missed) Hey! Hello!’s ‘Swimwear’. Throughout the night Ginger is handed whiskey from various crowd members including The Professionals (and former Yo-Yo’s) frontman Tom Spencer who seems intent on getting him absolutely ratted. Ginger’s army of war stories and anecdotes helps keep the between-song chat as enjoyable as the tunes themselves and there’s no denying that he’s a natural raconteur as the tales are delivered with a disarming cathartic charm. The duo of ‘Honour’ and ‘Paying It Forward’ were both always way out of Courtney Love’s league and it’s hard to imagine she would ever fully comprehend the depth of heart in which they (and especially Pay It) came from. (The later remains many fans go-to song when an emotional pick me up is needed.) A three-song encore is made up of ‘Geordie In Wonderland’, ‘Caer Ufra’ and a glorious, almost celebratory ‘Loveshit’. On this cold November night at the beautiful 229 venue, Ginger (and the superlative Sinners) gave the lucky three hundred or so inside yet another memorable songs and words filled performance in the company of Britains greatest living songwriter.