offices of music publications and incite near-riots
at festivals in Europe.I
t seemed as though we might have heard the
last of The Wildhearts after the release of
2009’s ¡Chutzpah!, their eighth studio album,
which followed a series of break-ups. Since then
various members have busied themselves in
a range of solo endeavours and other projects,
with Ginger especially prolific.
Now, finally, they’re back. Their new album,
Renaissance Men, features what many consider to be
the classic Wildhearts line-up – Ginger, CJ, bassist
Danny McCormack and drummer Ritch Battersby- and sounds as ferocious and
hands-down heroic as anything
any Wildhearts have ever done.
The album is all the more
remarkable for the involvement
of McCormack, who, since
quitting the band in 2005, has
recovered from both heroin
addiction and, in 2015, a brain
aneurysm that very nearly
killed him. As a result, his right
lower leg had to be amputated.
“Even when I was out of the
band I always felt I was
a Wildheart,” states McCormack, on the phone
from his home in the North-East. “Ginger and
I didn’t speak for thirteen years, but we bumped
into each other at Camden Rocks [festival] and it
was like I’d only seen him two weeks ago. We just
picked up where we’d left off. Obviously he asked
about my leg, because my toes were black at the
time and were falling off. That whole thing has
been life-changing. I was wheelchair-bound for
nearly eighteen months, which was soul destroying.
It was a real struggle. But I’m adjusting now, finding
things that I can do and trying to keep positive. And
I’ve been clean for four years. I’ve not
injected since I lost my leg.”T
he impetus for this latest
reunion, it seems, was last
year’s Britrock Must Be
Destroyed tour. A triple-header that
worked its way up and down the
country, it included full sets from The
Wildhearts, Reef and Terrorvision. Soon after, the
band embarked on a tour for the 25th anniversary
of their debut LP Earth Vs The Wildhearts.
“We’d be lying if we said there weren’t certain
reservations about whether we could get through
the Britrock tour and be half-decent,” Ginger
admits. “Danny had been in the wilderness and we
hadn’t played with him for a long time, so we didn’t
know how he was going to be. And that’s what
made it all click.”
“There’s been talk of a new Wildhearts album,
on and off, for the past ten years,” Battersby says
when Classic Rock catches up with him a few days
later. “When it came to the Britrock thing, I think it
was a case of: ‘Let’s see how we
feel, and if Danny’s on form,
and if it feels right then it’s the
best time to do it.’ It turned out
we had a killer time doing that.”
It’s this unique chemistry
that pumps the beating heart
of Renaissance Men.
“Me, CJ and Danny were
responsible for putting the
band together, based on the
mutual bands that we loved:
the Ramones, Metallica, Cheap
Trick, Bad Brains, Motörhead
and so on,” recalls Ginger. “When we started
practising as The Wildhearts, we knew Danny was
the guy, because as soon as he began playing it just
took off. It had wings.”
“You never know which way it’s going to go with
The Wildhearts,” CJ adds, “but we had some really
good shows last year. To me it felt like it did back in
the old days. It’s the noise we make, the four of us
together. We all know what each person does best.”
To gauge how The Wildhearts feel right now, and
with a nod to their turbulent past, the lyrics of
Renaissance Men’s title track display a sense of bothdefiance and self-worth: ‘Some thought we were
through... but you can’t keep a good band down.’
Another self-reflexive highlight is Pilo Erection
(a reference to goose bumps), which closes the
album with what could easily be interpreted as
a band manifesto: ‘Take the bad times and the trauma/
Wear them like a badge of honour.’
“I can’t write lyrics now that don’t represent us,”
Ginger says. “I was never a ‘driving down the
highway’ kind of guy anyway. I always hated those
kind of fantasy lyrics. Instead we always sang about
what we knew, whether it was something as simple
as sitting in the house watching telly and getting
stoned. And this one was very much like that.”
The riff – brash, bolshy, thunderous – is king
when it comes to Renaissance Men. Unlike some of
the band’s previous records, there are precious few
concessions to pop or avant-noise here. Instead
they’ve drilled directly into the source.
“There was no cabin fever,” explains CJ. “We went
into the studio ready, having done demos.
We weren’t in there pissing in the wind, we knew
where this album was going. It’s intense. There are
moments of real melody in there too, but it’s really
in-your-face. For me, a sign of a really good band is
that they know what they do well and they just
magnify it.”
Renaissance Men has even surprised Ginger,
allowing him to see The Wildhearts from a fresh
perspective. “I’m gradually becoming more of a fan
of the band, or at least getting to understand what
other people like about us,” he says. “Obviously it’s
a product of what we all grew up listening to,
coming together with the guitars. I remember first
hearing the finished album and going: ‘I get it now!’
This is the essence of what our band is: let’s stick to
what we do, let’s not push the boat out, let’s not get
involved in any too-weird time signatures,’ which
we have done in the past.”
“We were all full of beans making this record,”
adds McCormack. “It makes the hairs on your arms
stand up. I found I was getting that all the time in
the studio, with every song. I was proper buzzing. It
was better than any drug I’ve ever tried. Honestly.”Y
et Renaissance Men isn’t merely a riotous
celebration of a band at maximum tilt.
Lyrically it’s peppered with allusions to
mental health and the daily struggle, set against the“We were all full
of beans making
this record... It
was better than
any drug I’ve ever
tried. Honestly.”
Danny McCormack
Killing in the name of: The
Wildhearts on the 2018 Britrock
Must Be Destroyed tour.Swinging^ low:^ CJ.60 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COMTHE WILDHEARTS