I’m not sure anyone hits the drums harder or faster than The Wildhearts and Grand Theft Audio drummer Ritch Battersby. He was the undoubted musical backbone and fercious backbeat of the recently separated ‘Hearts. Before you can say ‘We Luv U, he’s back on tour with GTA some two decades after the band went their separate ways. GTA has been on the biggest and brashest video games and featured on some high-profile movie soundtracks. So, why did it end, and why has it taken so long to get back together-ish? Once gentlemen Scott Sorry had vacated the “press corner” at the rear of XOYO’s backstage area, Ritch and GTA lead singer Jay Butler headed towards the table. Ritch was the only current Wildhearts band member I’d yet to interview as I’ve met CJ, Ginger and, unsurprisingly, Danny on numerous occasions and interviewed them for various publications. Grand Theft Audio’s resurgence, The Wildhearts somewhat toxic demise, plus future plans and Warped Tour memories are all up for discussion as Jay and Ritch join us for part three.
GS. I’ve been listening to the album ‘Pass Me The Conch’, which has a melange of styles and an everyone in the pool vibe. If it sounds good, we’re going to use it. So how, when and where did you decide to reform after such a long period apart?
JAY. “Well, it was never a decision taken; it wasn’t like we phoned each other up and said shall we get the band back together. I think it happened quite organically, and I hate that fucking word, but I just started writing songs again. It was like waking up from a deep freeze, and I just started writing stuff and recording it. Initially, Ralph (Jezzard) and I started trading ideas, and it just felt like GTA; then Ritch got back involved, and that’s how it started, and it just snowballed from there. It wasn’t a conscious, hands-in-the-air who wants to get back together decision, but it did just snowball.”
GS. When the label folded and GTA stopped playing, you entirely removed yourself from the music industry.
Jay. “Me, personally, yeah yeah, I left music entirely.”
GS. May I ask why?
Jay. “Umm, just because it was such a strange experience. It was like being one of those dimwit lottery winners, you know. Having a tonne of money, a tonne of attention and a tonnes of other stuff, was all quite overwhelming. I don’t think I was quite prepared for it. After years of struggling to get somewhere, when you finally do get there, you have to ask yourself, what are you going to do, now you’re here, and I’d never thought that far ahead. So after it was finished, (pauses). What do you want to do after you’ve done everything you want to do? As it turned out, what I wanted to do was get pissed for five years. Everyone grieves differently.”
GS. Ritch, what about you?
Ritch. “I was just thinking about it now while Jay was talking, I think because I was so used to The Wildhearts splitting up, getting back together and then splitting up again. I think I thought that GTA was just another band that had split up, and I was used to this thing happening. It all fell apart, so I hung around a bit, and then The Wildhearts picked up again a couple of years later, so I was back doing that.”
Jay. “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
GS. There a differing reasons why The Wildhearts (continually) split up, and you guys, I mean the record company, folded, yes?
Ritch. ”The record company didn’t fold; it was just the staff that were initially at the label when we did the first album. (Switches tact) because there was such a long period of promoting that first album, we were out in America for, like, two years, and the staff had all moved on to work for different labels. So when it came to doing the second album, there wasn’t anyone there who knew anything about the band or where we were coming from or what we were into. Plus, we were all exhausted, blown out and came back from America divorced and homeless and just didn’t have anything left to give. We were contracted to make demos, so we would just have to (do them). Basically, we were in a position where we’d made some demos we weren’t thrilled with, but it was the best we could do at the time for a label that didn’t understand what we were about anyway. It was just that kind of combination.”
GS. Going through the professional motions.
Ritch “Yeah.”
GS. And what about now because Ritch, I mean, you still hit the drums insanely hard, and Jay, you put one hundred and ten per cent into every performance. Does this feel like a rebirth or a second chance?
Jay. “You know what, yeah and just for me, and we’ve talked about it alot on this tour; for me, it’s been really, and I hate this word, cathartic. There is a part of you that wants to know, having lived through that experience of being of the last bands that lived through that (record company) hurrah, we’re going to throw tonnes of money at you. The old school way, like the guy with the big fat cigar (in an American accent), “you guys are gonna be famous”, and it’s effortless to lose yourself in that. So for me, there was alot of, was this all just piss and wind or was there something to it; did I have something to offer. Being sober as well, you get to see it with the fucking scales of your eyes, and ahh, we had something you know and like you (Ritch) quite rightly say when we go and do it, there’s no other reason for us doing it other than the pure enjoyment and wanting other people to enjoy it. What better reason do you need to do anything.”
GS. Ritch, what’s the difference for you? I don’t want to burden you with Wildhearts questions, although there will be a couple. CJ has said he loved being on this tour, and it looks and feels refreshing.
Ritch. “Really refreshing, that’s the right word. It just seems, for the last (pausing), it just seems, the atmosphere has been sour for so long and doing this has been a real reminder of what it’s all about it and how it is just to get on and for every gig to be good. Everyone’s mucking in together.”
GS. CJ made it very clear that it was a clean bus, not shiny, but no one falling over pissed at three in the morning…
Jay (cutting in) “It makes a huge difference to the group psyche. All addictions are selfish, but when you’ve got one person who’s continually pissed or inebriated, the herd moves away from them, so you get divisions straight away, and there’s none of that.”
Ritch. “None, and it’s brought out the creativity as well, are we allowed to talk about that? It’ll be out on Friday. We’ve actually recorded, me Jay, Scott and Ben (Marsden) have recorded a new track while we’ve been on the bus. We’ve been playing the shows, packing the gear down, loading the trailer up, going for food and then getting back on the bus, getting the laptops out and recording. We’ve basically finished it and are ready to release a new track.”
Jay. “It’s a joint track with a new video and everything.”
GS. Let’s not turn this into Oprah, but are you harnessing the adrenaline from the gig that used to get wasted by being wasted?
Ritch.”Absolutely.”
Jay. “Without sounding like a complete wanker, it’s about having the confidence to have pride in your skill. Whereas I think all that drinking and drugging brings out all your self-loathing, it doesn’t bring out your pride in yourself.”
Ritch. ”What we would have done if we’d still be drinking was we’d have the same idea and talked about it and drank and talked about it some more until we went to bed, and that’d have been as far as it would get. When you don’t wake up hungover, you’re straight back on it (work-wise) again. Very positive.”
Jay. “And you’re able to listen to each other, whereas when you’re all pissed, you just wait for your turn to fucking shout. It started with Scott and me. I just put a song on, and it was like I’ve always wanted to cover this, and he’s like, yeah, me too, and we’re off, and by the afternoon, Ritch has done the drums. When everyone is on the same wavelength, it moves quickly.”
GS. Let’s revisit GTA because when you were in America for those twenty-odd months, you played a host of different festivals and gigs, including The Vans Warped Tour. Any memories or was it party central?
Ritch. “I remember it all being so weird back then because we just had so much (American accent), “You guys are gonna be massive” and everything. I felt a little bit out of place on those shows because it was American bands, and we were this little English band with rap samples and drum loops.”
Jay. “And that So-Cal thing Punk-Pop was at its height, so if you weren’t part of that Pop-Punk club which we probably weren’t in some respects, it made us a bit of a left fielder.”
Ritch. ”I think doing those show were a bit for the record company just to get us out there and make sure we could play and watch us in front of Changing tact) because we definitely got away with it, and the shows we played… we were fucking great, and the few people that were there watching us, absolutely loved us. Still, it was one of those festivals with bigger stages and much bigger bands playing simultaneously, so you’re just competing and have no chance unless you’ve already made a name for yourself. We were right at the start of the marketing campaign then, so no one knew who we were, so it was like, (trailing off).”
Jay. ”Three things stand out for me, Standing underneath those lunatics who do the big jumps on the motorbikes, as high as balls watching them. Waking up every morning to some shit Ska band which signified it was time to get up because I’d hear that guitar sound and think we’re on in twenty minutes, time to get up and then shitting myself on stage.”
GS. Okay, you’ll have to tell me about shitting yourself on stage.
Jay. ”Quite easy, it’s like shitting yourself in the bathroom except you’re standing on stage in front of loads of people.”
GS. What caused this, alcohol, food?
Jay. “I think alcohol and heat and a bit of alcohol poisoning maybe. I don’t know; we were hitting it pretty hard then. I think it was at Randalls Island (Ritch, ”I don’t remember”), but it was boiling, and during the first four beats of ‘We Luv You’, Ritch clicked it in, and it was almost like he was counting down my anus. (everyone laughing) 1-2-3-4 (raspberry sound), and I just saw loads of shit coming out from the bottom of my shorts, and I thought we’re off, and away we went.”
GS. Did you continue?
Jay. “What else can you do? The shows gotta go on!
GS. It can be paused.
Jay. ”I don’t feel like an anus has the right to top any good song. I just bowled on; I got in the crowd, and because it was such a hot day, they had these machines that blow out mist and water. I remember trying to look casual in there as I tried to wash my anus while singing simultaneously. It was one of those things, what can you do? I like to think I leave a tiny part of myself on every stage.”
GS. So we’ve got the new album; what do the next twelve months hold in store?
Jay. “I’m going to shit myself on stage again.”
Ritch. ”Yeah, what do the next twelve months hold? I think we’ll just take it as we have done up to this point. We’ve got no real concrete plans; we’ll just see.”
Jay. “When we did this, we had no expectation of it, which is why it could happen. I don’t want to speak for (looking at Ritch), but if we had sat down and said this is the plan, this is our strategy. The document for us was the album, for us to like it and to feel like it was with people hearing, and we’ve achieved that, so that’s step one. The reaction we’ve had leads us to step two, and now we’ve got to think about step three. People have been really receptive to it and liked so, at this point, it’s baby steps (Ritch nodding in agreement.).”
GS. Jay, how have you found coming back into the music industry after such a long time because it’s changed? There’s very little if any, money, promotion or anything?
Jay. “It’s a completely different animal. There are many pros and cons, and you could have an hour-long conversation about that. Personally, it’s like I’ve been put into orbit, sent around the earth and brought back in a time machine. It’s like, what, how does this even fucking work anymore? How does anyone make a living doing this anymore? But then are things that I find really exciting, like what we’ve done by making our videos, making your own album that you can record and produce to album quality in your front room. Stuff like that really opens up the artistic doors, and that bit I’ve found very exciting. So for all the shortfalls, I love the fact that we don’t have to rely on anyone. Whereas before, when it was in the hands of the monster (label), that’s how you end up with a spaccy cover like the front of our first album, looking like Vanilla fucking Ice. It’s nice to have hold of the accelerator.”
Ritch. “One hundred per cent artistic control. It was a huge deal for that first album, but we did sign; on the contract, I think it said the label had complete artistic control, the last say. You just think, what the fuck is that all about. Surely if you sign a band, you believe in them enough to let them….”
Jay. “Yeah, what they want is you and then change everything about you. When they bought that (‘Blame Everyone’) cover in we all fell about laughing. We were like, are you fucking kidding me!”
Ritch. “The poor guy, Wayne, it was who’d flown over from America. You could kind of tell already that he was going to show us, and we were going to be in bits, the poor guy.”
Jay. “He sought of slid it across the table while staring at the floor. What’s with the big fist? Dreadful.”
Ritch. “He was apologising before he’d even shown it to us. So having complete control for us is perfect.”
Jay. “I think through that, though, we found we had alot more strings in our bow because the first was so…We did all our growing up in public. It’s a bunch of songs written by a bunch of disconnected men, and then the band formed around it and then thrown in at the deep end. I think that was part of the problem; we didn’t have any identity.”
Ritch. “The other thing is we’re twenty years older now; we’ve got families and stuff, so we’re not in the position just to drop everything and go on tours for months and months and months. We’re in control of working stuff around our lives to make it doable, whereas being told, you’re going on tour, is never going to work in that set-up.”
GS. Unless you’re in the top five per cent, I’m not sure anyone is giving bands huge budgets to go on tour anymore.
Jay. “When I think of what they did with us back then, it was like craziness. Are we going home? No, you’re going out for three months with fucking, Gary Numan to play to seven thousand goths; let’s see if that happens. I wonder what the (record company) thinking was, just some bloke doing huge lines in an office somewhere (makes a sniffing sound). “Send ‘em out with Gary Numan!”
GS. Now you’re going back on tour with ‘Pass Me The Conch’, so how do you balance this with your day job?
Ritch. “I’ve always had the flexibility to do this, and I wouldn’t put myself in a position where I wasn’t able to do that career-wise.”
GS. Is it a tricky balance?
Ritch. “You know what, it’s alot easier now I don’t drink. When you’ve been on tour, and you’re constantly drinking more and more until you get to the point at the end of the tour, and you’re hammering it. Suddenly the next day, you’re on a building site and being given drawing that you’ve got to read to get walls in the right place and stuff; it’s a bit, what the fuck.”
GS. Final Wildhearts question, do you ever think we’ll see the original four Wildhearts back on stage together again?
Ritch. “I don’t know the answer to that question; I really don’t know. The band has been in this position before, and I’ve felt like it’s never going to happen again, and we have ended up back together; who knows. Everyone’s enjoying not doing it at the moment, but who knows.”
Jay. “You (The Wildhearts) are like herpes, aren’t you? You can be cured for a while, but then every now and again, when you get run down, you’ll flare up again!”
For GTA info, including tour dates, Merchandise and music, head over to
https://www.grandtheftaudio.uk/
Make sure you check out the new Bandcamp page going live on Friday, October 7th.
www.sorryaudio.bandcamp.com
In conclusion, it seems all three Wildhearts I spoke to in London are in a clean, safe and happy professional space. In a recent interview, Ginger has pretty much reiterated what CJ and Ritch have said about being in and touring with The Wildhearts. It starts off well but always ends badly. Old issues, grievances and differing personalities all seem to naturally collide. The ‘Hearts repeatative internal splintering always takes time to heal and can usually be patched up with promises of festivals, cash and fresh starts. This time, however, I fear the long term damage might be terminal, and while we may see the band playing the odd one-off gig or festival slot, future albums and tours look sixteen million miles away. GTA, CJ and Scott have their collective irons in a shared fire, and we wait with bated breath to see what aural delights that brings while Ginger is promoting not one but two Sinners albums and a solo record to boot. Danny is finishing-up his autobiography, ‘I Danny McCormack, Once A Wildheart Always A Wildheart’, while musically, he has plans and ideas but no definte course of action. The Wildhearts continue to give all their former members respective secondary outlets, and without their separation, we wouldn’t have this glut of music, tours and books. The Wildhearts created these unconventional avenues of opportunity, and while the band may be collectively fragile, apart, they are bursting with beautifully fresh ideas, artistic projects and most of all, hope; and as a proud member of this broad wildies community myself, I’m truly fucking thankful for that.
Ever forward, valour and once a Wildheart always a Wildheart.
For Ginger Wildheart news, tour dates and merchandise, head over to
https://www.facebook.com/gingersinners/
For Danny McCormack’s book information, head over to the Patreon Page,
https://www.patreon.com/Dannywildheart
https://www.facebook.com/dannywildheartbook
For CJ’s sauce, music and information head over to,
https://cjwildheart.bigcartel.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CJWildheart/
For Scott Sorry Information head over to,
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialScottSorry/