Kerrang! - Highbury Garage gig review

Wildhearts mainman finds himself among friends in the capital.

LONDON MAY well be Shitsville according to The Wildhearts, but it's a town whose inhabitants clearly have a lot of affection for their former frontman Ginger. He had, very publicly, a bad time of it not so long ago, with a crumbling relationship, band splits and drug problems leading to some achingly personal posts on his website. But after retreating to country legend Willie Nelson's studio in Texas, he's back with a collection of his most heartfelt work ever, and, in the sold-out Garage at least, there are plenty of people who wish him well with it.

Ginger and the Sonic Circus - who, tonight, count Silver Ginger 5/The Electric Boys guitarist Conny Bloom as one of their number - kick things off at the ridiculously early hour of 8:30, with a set of grown-up, anthemic, bluesy rock that looks to the future and learns from the past. 'Drunken Lord Of Everything', in particular, comes straight from the heart, while the man himself looks genuinely touched by both the chants of his name and the singalong that greets 'The Man Who Cheated Death'. But tonight is not all about introspection. Come back onstage to encore, the band treat us to a handful of classic covers - David Bowie's 'Boys Keep Swinging', The Everly Brothers', 'Love Hurts' and Elvis Costello's 'Pump It Up' - that cause feet to stamp and beer to be held aloft in salute.

"Thank you very much and fuck the c**ts," smiles Ginger, before leading the crowd - who faithfully join in on every word - into '29 x The Pain'. On tonight's evidence, you can't keep a good man down. As the chants of 'don't worry 'bout me, I'll be alright' reach football crowd proportions, you just know that there's no more fitting phrase to end this show.

KKKK - Emma Johnston

Rock Sound - Valor Del Corazón review

The drugs don't work - just ask Ginger. Without them this talented rocker would have been huge on a global level, rather than having just cult status. Then again, perhaps Ginger would argue that the drugs helped make him what he is today. His post-Wildhearts effort 'Strength Of Heart' (the album title in English) is just as good as you'd expect from the enduring maverick. There aren't many musicians who can make nuggets of pop ('Mother City') sit so comfortably alongside the Happy Mondays-inspired bop ('GTT') and full-throttle rock ('Bulb'). Spread over two CDs, Ginger has written and recorded some of his best and most diverse material to date. Still tongue-in-cheek, still able to hit the heartstrings with his pen, and still a musical genius. Long live Ginger!

9/10 - Darren Sadler

Classic Rock - Valor Del Corazón review

An album built around confessionals sees the Wildhearts mainman shirking off the past and striding into the present.

Adversity, it is said, makes for great art. In which case the last 12 months of Ginger's life would generate enough grist for any emotional mill.

Ginger's intensely detailed diaries posted on his former band's website are nothing if not candid. Heroin addiction, a failed relationship, the albatross-like weight of a band - The Wildhearts - that never quite managed to make good on their promise... The list is endless. But through it all, it's clear that somehow, like a courtroom stenographer, Ginger has been taking notes about all of it, filing it away for later use.

Broken down by it all, he eventually headed for LA at the beginning of 2005 and then, after a series of dashed (sometimes self-inflicted) hopes, to Texas and the relative solitude of country music legend Willie Nelson's recording studios. Texas is big enough and easy to get lost in, and life in the Lone Star State appears to have appeased Ginger's demons and freed his artistic urges. His new album, Valor Del Corazon (roughly translated it means strength of heart) is a two-CD set crammed with ideas and not a small amount of bravura.

Those familiar with The Wildhearts will be pleased to find that Ginger has lost none of his appreciation of Cheap Trick's panache or Metallica's heft. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Bulb (which reads like a page from his drug diaries - I'm assuming he's kept some, and that they're probably about 50 pages thick) and Only Lonely all have Ginger's familiar stamp of urgency and brusque melody. Better still, however, are the songs where he wearies of the familiar: with its sweeping horns and persistent thrum, G.T.T. wouldn't have surprised me if it had turned up on an album by The Go! Team, while his Texan surroundings have put their fingerprint on the magnificent Drinking In The Daytime - which also tips its hat to Kansas at one point (the band not the State) - and the rueful honky-tonk of Something To Believe In. Ten Flaws Down (I'll forgive him the title, because the song is so strong) rails like a song that UFO have forgotten how to make, and The Man Who Cheated Death (another confessional - they run like a spine throughout the whole album) sees Ginger seated on the piano stool, doubtless with his head resting on the keys.

Whatever Ginger's emotional state, Valor Del Corazon sounds like someone shirking off the past, striding into the present and putting some dwindling ghosts to rest.

8/10
Philip Wilding

Classic Rock - Tour Bus Survival

Music: "I take out some modern heavy stuff like Mastodon and Avenged Sevenfold. Also, Alkaline Trio and Biffy Clyro. And I've always got some country CDs around. That sort of thing is perfect for any time of the day, and any mood."

DVDs: "I don't watch movies that much. But, being on the road so much, I always miss out on the hot new television series: I've only just found out who Peter Kay is! So I'm constantly buying a whole series on DVD. The latest one is Curb Your Enthusiasm. For an American comedy, it's very dry."

Books: "Now I'm not doing any drugs, I find it great to read. It helps me to fall asleep. I just devour books, and love the printed word. I just cannot get enough of that. It's so wonderful. So what am I reading right now? The latest book I'm hooked on is Can Cows Walk Downstairs? by Paul Heiney. It's got everything you need to know."

Tour bus anecdote: "Wow! So many. The first one that comes to mind features the Mayor of Toronto, Brian Johnson of AC/DC, two Canadian strippers and two poles. I won't say any more, except the mayor walked in to be confronted by the worst stripper in the world, showing everything!"

The Sun - Valor Del Corazón review

THAT The Wildhearts remain largely unheard of by the masses is one of the great travesties of British rock 'n' roll.

Soaring melodies, contagious hooks, outrageous riffs and an annoying tendency to self-destruct are their trademarks, with main man Ginger responsible for most of it.

He's had more than his fair share of drama, has Ginge. And when his life fell to pieces last in 2004, he could have gone off the rails for good.

Instead, he ended up in Willie Nelson's Texas studio... and sunk to new heights.

Valor Del Corazón is a stunning double album providing a rollercoaster ride through the raw emotions of relationship breakdown.

Easily his most personal work to date, this is a eclectic journey that deserves to be shared. Ballsy rock, soulful ballads, funk, grandiose epics and Country all feature, but the one constant is an untouchable talent for writing a great tune and an almighty riff.

Nineteen tracks. 19 gems. Pure tortured genius.

5/5 - MS

Kerrang! - Valor Del Corazón review

THE WORDS 'lonely' and 'alone' feature in half the songs on Ginger's new solo album and it's not hard to understand why: 'Valor Del Corazón' was written in the aftermath of the singer's personal and professional life falling apart after his Christmas 2004 admission to his (soon to be ex-) girlfriend that he'd been using heroin. With its title translating as 'Strength Of Heart', it's an eclectic, stream of (un)consciousness collection - 19 songs, spread over two discs, taking in country rock to dark piano ballads via booze-sodden swayalongs, funk, gospel and harmony-stacked pop-rock, in which the finest English songwriter of his generation attempts to piece together the shards of his life. And, eschewing self-pity for defiant optimism, it's primarily and empowering note-to-self reading 'deal with it'.

By their very nature, double albums tend to be self-indulgent, but as with Guns N'Roses 'Use Your Illusion' sets, the self-financed and self-released 'Valor...' is an audacious, occasionally flawed and infuriating, but always endlessly fascinating trip into one man's heart of darkness. It's an album of both great songs (the Ryan Adams-esque 'Only A Problem', the bitter-sweet West Coast pop-rock of 'Keep It Cool', the Wildhearts-esque crunch of 'My Friend The Enemy' and the gorgeously bruised REO Speedwagon-at-twilight hymnal 'The Man Who Cheated Death' chief among them) and wonderful moments (the Lizzy-esque instrumental mid-section on '10 Flaws Down', the twinkling, celestial layered guitars on 'L.O.V.E.', the snarling 'I will not repent' chants on 'Drinking In The Daytime'). On the album closer 'Something To Believe In' Ginger sings 'Music will get you through times of no love', but really, by then this belief is self-evident. In songs there is salvation, and ironically, at his lowest ebb, Ginger has never sounded more alive.

DOWNLOAD: 'The Man Who Cheated Death'.

FOR FANS OF: The Wildhearts, Johnny Cash.

KKKK - Paul Brannigan