The current and classic Wildhearts
line-up: (l-r) CJ, Ginger, Ritch
Battersby, Danny McCormack.“
W
e’re like family, you can’t
get rid of us,” says Ginger
Wildheart, musing on
the unlikely and
continuing saga of The
Wildhearts. “We’ve been through so much together- all the fall-outs and the shit that’s gone on. We
shouldn’t even be alive. But listen to the noise that
us four fuckers can still make!”
“It’s one of those evolving situations,” says
guitarist and co-founder CJ. “There have been
occasions – and this is true of me and Ginger –
when we’ve detested being in this band. Equally,
there have been times when it’s been the best job in
the world, and that’s what keeps pulling us back.”
Seated next to one another in the corner bar of
their Central London hotel, Ginger and CJ are in
good spirits – CJ laid-back and relaxed, Ginger
a bundle of focused nervous energy. Their
conversation wanders off on small tangents, from
mention of Netflix’s Mötley Crüe biopic (CJ hasn’t
seen it yet), to the fact that London doesn’t really
agree with either of them these days, both having
preferred to set up home in different parts of
Yorkshire. Being in their company feels a little like
talking to shared survivors of some secret and
arduous campaign. And with good reason.
Formed in Newcastle in 1989, The Wildhearts’
stop-start career has been driven by chaos as much
as by music. They’ve survived bust-ups, drugabuse, numerous changes of personnel, and the
kind of bitter feuding (both internally and with
record companies) that would’ve seen off most
bands. But not only have they endured, they’ve also
created an extraordinary body of work that stands
testament to the blazing passion and ravaged
power of rock‘n’roll.
Neither have they been slaves to zeitgeist. When
Britpop fiddled, The Wildhearts burned. They lit
up the 90s with albums like Earth Vs The Wildhearts
and P.H.U.Q., Molotov cocktails of punk, metal and
thrash-pop, whose titles alone betrayed their
attitude to the rest of the music business and the
world at large. It was a decade that saw them set fire
to the Top Of The Pops studio, vandalise theCLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 59