Ginger Wildheart - Hard Rock Cafe, Glasgow, 25th January 2024

And tonight was my first opportunity to see how Ginger and Ben combine as he accompanied Ginger throughout his set.

But before that we had two support acts to entertain us. First up was Baz Francis (Magic Eight Ball, Mansion Harlots) who gave us an enjoyable set, overcoming the inevitable chatters doted around the round. I’m wasn’t familiar with his material but will be checking more out having been particularly impressed by ‘Russian Ballet’.

After a short break, Carol Hodge and Ben Marsden got up to give us a really entertaining set that saw them trade songs from each others back catalogues - Carol on keys, Ben on acoustic guitar and both taking turns on lead vocals - as well enjoying a bit of friendly banter between the songs which clearly helped the Glasgow crowd warm to them. A really fun set, with Carol’s strong vocals and wit particularly standing out. We even got a wee bit of Rabbie Burns poetry to acknowledge that it was Burns Night.

Time to grab another beer and get back down the front in time for Ginger’s set - it’s a very low stage at the Hard Rock Cafe in Glasgow, so if you want to see what’s happening, you don’t want to be too far back. Especially if, like this, it’s a sold out show.

Ginger arrives to a hero’s welcome and is accompanied by Ben and his loyal companion, Maggie the dog. ‘Geordie In Wonderland’ provides the perfect start to the night and has the crowd instantly in full voice. So much so that Ginger asks for his monitor to be turned up and the bottom and middle taken down so he can hear himself over the crowd. “Make it sound really shitty….no, even shittier than that!”

A large portion of the show was determined by audience requests - a brave move! One clearly inebriated punter hadn’t quite got the ‘Ginger plays Wildhearts’ brief and asked for some AC/DC, to Ginger’s bemusement. He got a wee blast of ‘Back in Black’ to keep him happy. We also got the theme tunes from ‘Friends’ and ‘Cheers’ over the night, but it was the Wildhearts material most of us were really here for and we certainly weren’t left disappointed.

Over the last 32 years I’ve seen Ginger play several times, but never in this semi-acoustic setting, so I had been intrigued to see how some of the more hard hitting tunes would come across without the drums and crunching guitars. I have to say, brilliantly! On a couple of occasions, Ginger got the crown to ‘sing’ some of the riffing parts. And Maggie, not to be outdone, chipped in with the odd bout of barking. All good fun.

Ginger and Ben made an excellent partnership - vocal harmonies have always been a really important part of the Wildhearts sound - with Baz occasionally jumping up to help on a few tunes too. And there was SO much crowd participation. “I should be clapping you!” quipped Ginger. He was definitely feeling the love.

For the final half dozen or so songs, all of tonight’s performers got involved, which worked really well. This section kicked off with ‘The Price’ from Carol’s latest album, a song on which Ginger guests. If I remember right, I think we even got a bit of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ at some point before the end, which rounded off on the brilliant ‘I Wanna Go Where the People Go’.

What a great night, I enjoyed it so much, and it was good to see Ginger in such good form. Here’s hoping we see the new Wildhearts lineup touring the UK later this year 🤞.