Ginger & Friends

Ginger has been added to the line up for the 10th anniversary Download Festival at Castle Donington.

Tweeted Ginger: “Hit the tarmac at Stanstead to hear that I’ve been added to the Download bill. Playing big festivals and landing safely make me very happy.”

Details are scant at the moment, but we’ll fill in the blanks as and when we have the information. In the meantime, you can check out the Download announcement here.

Now that hopefully you all recovered from a fantastic end-of-year tour and a stunning Birthday show in London, Ginger would like to share with you all this personal message:

“2011 will be a year I’ll never forget. Beginning the year by enduring a brief dance with budgetary disaster (The Frankenstein Effect, which will hopefully be put straight soon in 2012) the year continued into great disappointment as I left the Michael Monroe band under circumstances beyond my control, and then seemed to hit a wall sometime in July when I seriously considered giving up the idea of making a living from music. It appeared time in my life to get a proper job.

Gx”

Less than 6 hours after the PledgeMusic campaign launched, your outstanding support propelled the campaign through the 100% target, and into PledgeMusic’s record books.

Thank you and well done to everyone who has helped Ginger to become the fastest growing campaign in Pledge history!

It isn’t over yet though – the 100% target was what we needed to ensure the triple album can go ahead, but the Headline grabbing campaign will continue to run for the next 60 days.

Don’t worry if you thought you’d missed your chance, you can still pre-order your copy here, although if you want to secure one of the ‘Special Thanks’ CD and Limited Edition Vinyl exclusives, you’ll need to hurry as there are now fewer than 40 remaining.

We’re closing in fast on 200% raised, so keep an eye on the Pledge counter and let’s see how high that meter goes!

Ginger’s Gibson Les Paul charity auction in aid of the British Red Cross came to a fantastic end last night.

The guitar broke the £5,000 reserve shortly after the auction was posted, climbing steadily throughout the week, before a flurry of late bidding and counter-bidding took the total to an impressive £17,000 which will go to help those in desperate need throughout the world.

In thanks to the winning bidder – an incredibly generous Japanese fan from Sendai – and to all those who helped to spread the word, Ginger Tweeted:

“SEVENTEEN FUCKING THOUSAND POUNDS!”,”I am the luckiest motherfucker out there. I’m in LOVE with you lot. You are fucking edible. Thank you. x”

before the following statement was issued:

“I feel proud to feel this connected to my supporters. I’m a very lucky guy. The money from the guitar will mean more to some than the memories mean to me. Often we have to give things away to get things in life, and in this case I’ll be receiving the gift of helping someone less fortunate than myself.”

As a bit of a taster for the recently announced live dates in August, we’re making the deleted 16 track acoustic album Potatoes And You available as a FREE download.

You can get the download from Ginger’s Bandcamp, where you’ll also find a reminder of the dates and links to all the Facebook event pages.

Please download, pass on and enjoy!

We’re pleased to announce that Ginger will be heading out for more Acoustic fun and games in the summer.

The new UK Tour dates will take place in August, and are as follows:

• Tue 16 Aug – Wrexham, Central Station – Event Page
• Wed 17 Aug – Stoke, Sugarmill – Event Page
• Thu 18 Aug – Bolton, Dog & Partridge – Event Page
• Fri 19 Aug – Newcastle-upon-Tyne, O2 Academy 2 – Event Page
• Sat 20 Aug – Huddersfield, Parish – Event Page
• Sun 21 Aug – Bedford, Esquires – Event Page
• Mon 22 Aug – Oxford, O2 Academy 2 – Event Page
• Tue 23 Aug – Brighton, The Hydrant – Event Page
• Wed 24 Aug – Exeter, Cavern – Event Page
• Thu 25 Aug – Plymouth, White Rabbit – Event Page

Ginger will be ably assisted, although perhaps aided and abetted would be more accurate, by ‘Random’ Jon Poole and Eureka Machines’ Chris Catalyst, and special guests once again will be Willie Dowling & John Steel of the wonderful Jackdaw4. Anyone who caught the first leg will tell you that this is an evening not to be missed!

There are Facebook Event Pages for each date, so please let us know if you’re coming.

Tickets will be on sale soon. Keep checking the website for links.

Rock memorabilia collectors now have the chance to get their hands on something very special!

Ginger’s famous, one-of-a-kind stickered Gibson Les Paul is being auctioned to raise money in aid of the British Red Cross.

Says Ginger, “Released in 1978 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Gibson Les Paul, I bought this guitar around 1987 when I was asked to join New York rockers The Throbs. After a short term in NYC the guitar came back to England with me to form The Wildhearts. I formed the band and recorded every Wildhearts album with this guitar (also Silver Ginger 5 ‘Black Leather Mojo’, Supershit 666 and multiple solo projects). This fine guitar acted as my main guitar on every tour The Wildhearts ever did, including the AC/DC ‘Ballbreaker’ tour, as well as appearances with Sex Pistols, Manic Street Preachers, and many more. And it rarely needed tuning onstage. Basically if you ever saw The Wildhearts I was playing this guitar and if you ever heard The Wildhearts then you were listening this guitar. Every song was written, played and recorded with this instrument. THIS is history.”

Any questions regarding the guitar can be addressed directly to Ginger via his Formspring account.

Click Here for the eBay auction.

Happy Bidding!

Ginger, Jase and Jon were interviewed by Tom Russell of Rock Radio in Scotland yesterday before their show at Glasgow’s Apollo 23.

As well as having a chat about current musical goings-on, the guys performed an acoustic version of Cheers.

The whole thing was videoed for posterity and you can watch it at the Rock Radio site.

Ginger will play a benefit show in Tokyo on Sunday 24th April in aid of those affected by the recent devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

The show takes place at Koenji High in Tokyo, tickets are ¥3,500 in advance (¥4,000 on the door), on sale from the Vinyl Junkie store from 26th March and general sale from 2nd April.

All proceeds will be donated in support of the ongoing aid efforts. Please see the Venue’s show page for full details and ticket links.

Following more than a few interest-piquing teasers from the man himself on Twitter, the details are in place and we can now reveal that Ginger will be heading out on an Acoustic tour in April and May.

This time ’round, Ginger will be accompanied by Jase Edwards and ‘Random’ Jon Poole which is likely to result in an evening’s entertainment you won’t forget in a hurry. Special guests each night will be Willie Dowling & John Steel from the wonderful Jackdaw4.

The dates are:

• Thu 28th Apr – Sheffield, Corporation
• Fri 29th Apr – Tunbridge Wells, Forum
• Sat 30th Apr – London, Borderline
• Sun 01st May – York, Fibbers
• Mon 02nd May – Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach
• Tue 03rd May – Ashton-under-Lyne, The Witchwood
• Wed 04th May – Glasgow, Apollo 23
• Thu 05th May – Reading, Sub89
• Fri 06th May – Leicester, Sub91
• Sat 07th May – Southampton, Talking Heads
• Sun 08th May – Birmingham, HMV Institute

You can find event pages for each gig on Ginger’s Facebook.

Tickets for all shows are £10, except London which is £12.50, and are on sale now from the usual outlets.