The Wildhearts are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their album P.H.U.Q. with a UK tour this autumn.
Frontman Ginger and the band will be performing the album in its entirety at a series of shows across the country in September.
Writing via The Wildhearts’ Facebook page the band said: “Blimey, has it really been 20 years already!? Indeed it has, and to celebrate we’ll be doing the whole PHUQing thing live in September.”
Support will be coming from Baby Chaos and Hey!Hello! Tickets go on sale this Friday the 8th of May with confirmed dates as follows:
17th Sept: Nottingham, Rock City
18th Sept: Manchester, Academy
19th Sept: Newcastle, O2 Academy
20th Sept: Glasgow, O2 ABC
22nd Sept: Leeds, O2 Academy
23rd Sept: Wolverhampton, Wulfrun Hall
24th Sept: Bristol, O2 Academy
25th Sept: London, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
The Wildhearts mainman Ginger has been speaking to Team Rock Radio at this weekend’s Download festival.
Ahead of two appearances at the Castle Donnington metal fest, Ginger declared that Motorhead’s Lemmy was his icon, and that he’s only still alive because Lemmy is too.
“I’ll never get used to Lemmy saying hello before I do. That’s the best thing of being the part of this little fraternity of ours,” he said. “And the fact that I’m still alive – that was never part of the deal. I was going to go around 25 or 30; I’m 49 fucking years old.”
“How did that happen? Because Lemmy is my icon, and he did it. If my icon was someone like Sid Vicious or Johnny Thunders I’d already be dead. But my icon is better than your icon. Lemmy’s a good icon to have – he’s indestructible.”
Something of a rock n’ roll icon himself these days, Ginger also admitted that he’s still surprised when he meets his music heroes and they know who he is: “I had a tweet from Dee Snider mentioning me. He said, ‘I’m going to be backstage getting ready to go on, but I’ll be singing every word of My Baby Is A Headfuck.’ I was thinking, ‘Wow, that’s another part of my bedroom wall come to life – referencing a song I’ve written.”
“I walked by the guys in Status Quo and they said hello; I didn’t have to introduce myself. I’m still surprised that anyone knows or gives a fuck who I am.”
You can listen to Ginger’s interview with Team Rock Radio below:
Photo credit: from Classic Rock Magazine, CJ at Manchester Academy
CJ Wildheart is set to release his first solo album, Mable. You can watch the video to lead single, “Down The Drain”, below.
Following a three year break from music, during which the Wildhearts guitarist ran his own cleaning business in London, the 46 year old is now living in Yorkshire, making and selling his own brand of hot sauce, and playing music again both as a solo performer and with his bandmates in The Wildhearts.
Speaking to Classic Rock Magazine, CJ reveals that with his first child on the way, life is very different to his days partying as part of his previous groups, Honeycrack, and The Jellys.
“The Jellys were fuelled by speed,” he says. “Now I’m fuelled by good cheese and nice bread. I’m laid back and there isn’t that hectic, on-the-edge sort of sound.”
“I retired from music for three years,” he continues. “After the Chutzpah tour with The Wildhearts I needed a break; I wanted to do something I’d never done before, which is have a job. I started the cleaning company and employed a bunch of guys. At times it was great but at others it was really horrible.”
“A lot of musicians are wrapped in cotton wool – the Wildhearts aren’t massive but we tour at a level where we have a lot of crew doing stuff for us, and you’re kind of detached from reality. Doing a day job was the biggest lesson I’ve ever had. It grounded me and made me a better person.
“I’m singing about stuff that kind of pissed me off when I was cleaning for a lot of rich, snobby people who I wanted to kill. I had to suck it up; as a musician you don’t have to do that – you can rage at people and not get fired. I had to suppress all that rage and anger in my business.”
Skin Back Alley 