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Ginger, the legendary hard rockin' hard drinkin' frontman for the Wildhearts, has been doing these small venue acoustic sets for a couple of years now, but I've never been in the right place at the right time to catch one. Until now that is. 

I have a copy of the album "Grievous Acoustic Behaviour" so I had a good idea of what to expect, and I was looking forward to being entertained with witty banter and some more laid back versions of some of my favourite tracks.

The rig isn't a big place, so I knew the crowd wasn't going to be huge, but arriving in the middle of the support act to find the place pretty empty was a bit of a surprise. The Support was supplied by a young lady on the acoustic guitar who did a few covers of some well known songs, very competent but not that thrilling, apart from a neat rendition of the New Order classic "Blue Monday" which I thought was very good.

Ginger took to the stage about 9:15, with Random Jon Poole and Hot Steve in tow, and the main event for the night began. The set consisted mostly of Wildhearts tracks, obviously as that's why we were there, but the quieter nature of the gig meant that there was lots of opportunity to sing along. Even though the crowd was small they were in good voice and belted out the words. Some of the highlights were "So Into You", "29 x The pain" (Always a crowd pleaser) "News of the World", you get the picture. 

In amongst these was a hearty rendition of "Unlucky In Love" (not the Leo Sayer one the other one, you now it goes "Unlucky in love, Unlucky in love, All of my lovers reside up above, I might as well face it when push comes to shove, I guess I'm unlucky in love", don't know who did write it though) given by Trace from the merchandise stand (cardboard box on a table) and another lass, the theme from Cheers and a very surreal version of Focus's "Hocus Pocus". 

Apparently there was also something to do with an inflatable sheep and something else with a ladies shoe but as the stage is low I couldn't quite see what was going on but Trace suggested that it was probably a good thing not to see it!!

The guys left the stage around 11:00 as the punters were turning up to rock the night away in the rig, leaving a small but appreciative crowd feeling well entertained, and not a little tiddly (because the crowd was small, access to the bar was not as restricted as normal). 

So, a great night, well worth a tenner, shame about missing the  football though.

Before I go though I have one thing to say to you all.

Potatas, potatas, potatas are new.

Cheers

Simon

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