Two years on from their less than amicable split, The Wildhearts are back, re-energised with a reconfigured line-up, and gigs being announced soon.
This month The Dirt was compiled by Lee Dorrian, Jerry Ewing, Ian Fortnam, Polly Glass, Rich Hobson, Rob Hughes Jo Kendall, Fraser Lewry, Will Simpson, Paul Whitelaw
Ever-present Wildhearts frontman Ginger, who co-founded the band back in 1989, recently recorded an as yet untitled eleventh Wildhearts studio album with bassist Jon Poole, guitarist Ben Marsden and drummer Pontus Snibb, and the four-piece are currently gearing up for a post-hiatus show at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire on June 6, with soon-to-be-announced tour dates to follow this autumn and winter.
When Classic Rock catches up with them – and Ginger’s friendly collie Maggieduring a break from rehearsals in the Glasgow studio owned by local guys Gun, they’re in very fine fettle.
“It’s all great,” Ginger enthuses. “We’re all friends anyway, so it’s a lot of fun. This is the third day we’ve been here, and we’ve just laughed every night. You go to bed with the sound of everybody laughing downstairs, and it’s a fucking beautiful thing.”
Former Cardiacs mainstay Poole has enjoyed three previous stints in The Wildhearts, and he’s glad to be back. Marsden and Snibb are new members.
“We’ve lost our Wildhearts virginity!” beams Marsden, formerly of Grand Theft Auto and the youngest member of the current line-up.
“It’s a privilege,” adds Snibb, who’s on loan from his day job as frontman with Swedish hard rockers Bonafide. “We get to play Ginger’s fantastic songs.”
The new album, which is set for an autumn 2024 release, was recorded at Treehouse Studios in Derbyshire with producer Jim Pinder, who has previously worked with Sleep Token, Bring Me The Horizon and Bullet For My Valentine, among others. He also produced The Wildhearts 2019 album Renaissance Men.
“He’s a Wildhearts fan,” says Ginger, “so he knew exactly what we wanted without us having to try and explain it to him. And it’s everything that Wildhearts fans want, really. There’s loads of variety, loads of riffs, loads of big choruses, there’s lots of melody, some unexpected parts… It’s just a collection of really, really strong songs with strong performances. I think everyone’s going to be surprised and delighted by it.”
Poole concurs: “It ticks a lot of boxes, but at the same time it feels really fresh. We’re not repeating ourselves. I think it’s fair to say that it’s quite from the heart – Ginger’s stuff always is.They’re personal songs, and you get that feeling from it.”
Ginger has always been commendably open about his mental health struggles. Last year he
