Sounds From The Junkshop Special - The Wildhearts Part 2: The Split Years

 

"If hate is black and love is white then doubt's a shade of grey..." - Silver Ginger 5 - Church Of The Broken Hearted

I'll be honest, I've been wanting to do the second part of my Wildhearts story for a while now but given the amount of stuff I've had to sort out in the meantime for SFTJ I wanted the time to be right rather than just jumping ahead of the timeline. Well, we're now up to 1998 and I think it's safe to pick up the story again so let's do this.

As I mentioned way back in part one of the Wildhearts story, 1997 saw the band splitting up amid a flurry of drug demons, record deals gone wrong and a chronically unstable line-up (in more ways than one). However, with so many ex-members now moving on to new musical projects, it did mean that there were suddenly a lot of new bands on the horizon featuring one or more ex-members of the group and it's fair to say that I had quite a few stories based around the band from that split in the dying days of '97 (and even slightly before as we'll see) up until the band's reformation in the early weeks of 2001. We looked at Danny's Yo-Yo's yesterday (as I stated then, they were a large part of my life beyond this time frame so I decided they deserved they merited their own entry) but let's look at the other musical strands of this very complicated era, shall we?...

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HONEYCRACK

Weirdly, for our first Wildhearts spin-off band we're actually gonna go back in time a bit to 1995 and Honeycrack. Formed by CJ and Willie after both left the band in the summer of '94 (Willie jumped, CJ was pushed), they were quickly snapped up by Epic thanks to the Wildhearts' growing profile and scored two Top 40 hits in Sitting At Home (probably their best song) and King Of Misery (allegedly written by Willie about Ginger although both have denied this) with Go Away and Anyway being minor hits.

Unfortunately, I have to be honest, I just never quite got off the ground with Honeycrack and I think a big part of this was down to the fact that the first time I saw them at Leeds Duchess in late '95, they were comprehensively blasted off stage by their support band China Drum, as I've mentioned in a previous SFTJ column (see link). By the time the Prozaic album landed in early '96, I'd gone from regarding them as an exciting new prospect to a sort of middling Britrock band. It did have some good tunes on it with Dowling's ultra-dark lyrics on songs like No, Please Don't and Samantha Pope certainly setting it aside from a lot of the Britrock field but compared to the Wildhearts' Fishing For Luckies (which emerged around the same time) it definitely felt like a bit of a poor relation unfortunately.

I would've been interested to see how Honeycrack had developed if they'd been given the chance - Willie and CJ have shown in subsequent years that they're both very talented songwriters - but the group would split in 1997 with CJ going on to the Jellys (more of whom in a moment) and Dowling to the Sugar Plum Fairies (whose album contained a number of tracks which had originally been intended for Honeycrack's sophomore effort) and then Jackdaw 4 (who we'll probably cover in a future SFTJ). All of which leaves Honeycrack as one of those "what might have been" bands more than anything but I'd certainly give Prozaic a mild recommendation - it's not aged badly at all and even if there's a few anonymous songs on there, the good bits are more than worth checking out.

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CLAM ABUSE

Perhaps unsurprisingly it was Ginger who was the first of the '97 era Wildhearts line-up to resurface albeit with possibly one of the weirdest things he's ever put his name to. Linking up with American singer/guitarist Alex Kane, the pair would put together what can only be described as comedy psychedelic industrial band Clam Abuse. Kane had started out with Philadelphia power-pop-glam types Enuff Z'Nuff before moving on to the very under-rated Life, Sex & Death whose album The Silent Majority is certainly a prime contender to be featured in our Garbage Days Revisited column at some point in the future.

To be honest, I've still no idea how you'd describe Clam Abuse's sole album Stop Thinking. It keeps the whole industrial dynamic of Endless Nameless but takes out the sheer hatred and vitriol that characterised that album in favour of an utterly bizarre weirdo humour. Including odes to Geri Halliwell (Message To Geri), a tribute to Alex Kane's porn collection (She's So Taboo) and the immortal There's Always Someone More Fucked Up Than You, it's brilliantly insane stuff.

Inevitably, Clam Abuse were not long for this world and soon afterwards Alex would move on to Antiproduct (more of whom in a future SFTJ) and Ginger would move on to other projects. I do actually remember seeing the band live once in York of all places (weirdly the support act that night was Tyla from the Dogs D'Amour and fellow ex-Wildheart Danny McCormack pre-Yo-Yo's doing an acoustic set) and it was a wonderfully bizarre set as you'd expect - seeing Alex suddenly jump into the front row and serenading a couple of girls by asking them to touch the neck of his guitar then pretending to have an orgasm when they did was certainly something I don't think anyone who saw it will forget in a hurry... Yup, Clam Abuse were definitely very odd but Stop Thinking is definitely worth a curiosity listen - the country ode to exploding ex-lovers Unlucky In Love still makes me chuckle to this day.

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THE JELLYS

Formed by CJ after the dissolution of Honeycrack (see earlier), the Jellys also included former Wildhearts drummer Stidi (who'd been on sticksman duties for the Earth vs album) fresh from a stint with Whatever and ex-Wolfsbane bassist Jeff Hateley (last seen dressed as Paul Stanley in a Newcastle kit playing the mandolin when the Wildhearts did Geordie in Wonderland on TOTP!). The group were a much more straightforward punk-pop rush than Honeycrack had been - CJ has always made no secret of being a big Descendents fan and the Jellys were definitely a testament to that.

The Jellys lasted for two albums, 1998's Welcome To Our World and 2000's Doctored For Supersound. Both had their fair share of joyous Buzzcocks style spiteful power-pop - Lemonade Girl was the standout on the debut while the rollicking Milk And Honey and the chugging Ship Goes Down on the sophomore effort were good stuff.

I saw the Jellys live a few times and they were always great fun - my main memory is at the Breeze Festival in 2000 when they had an early afternoon slot on the main stage and came on just as the rain gave way to bright sunshine with the crowd getting involved in a full on mudfight during the closing song much to the amusement of the band! They were also one of the few "name" bands I remember playing my local venue during my student days, the Rigger in Newcastle-under-Lyme. Unfortunately the group made next to no headway commercially and when CJ got the call from Ginger to rejoin the Wildhearts he took it (the pair had actually collaborated on one of Ginger's solo EP's shortly before) with Stidi joining him. Both Jellys albums were good fun though and should definitely appeal to those who like good sugar-sweet pop-punk with a spiky lyrical centre. Definitely a very under-rated band.

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SUPER$HIT666

Another Ginger side project, this time featuring Dregen from the Backyard Babies and Nicke from the Hellacopters (both of whom will almost certainly feature in SFTJ somewhere down the line) plus guest spots from Grand Theft Audio’s Chris and Jay (see below). Super$hit666 lasted for just the one six track EP but it was a truly raucous blast of none more stripped down garage rock, sort of like Motörhead jamming with the MC5. Featured in there were an embryonic version of the Backyards’ Star War and You Smell Canadian (possibly an ode to one-time Wildhearts stand-in guitarist Devin Townsend?) which Ginger has been known to dig out at his solo gigs on occasion.

Super$hit666 were clearly not meant to be a long term thing with the Backyards and Hellacopters both just about to hit their commercial stride and Ginger having his main post-Wildhearts project almost up and ready to go by this point (again, see below) but their EP is well worth a listen if you can find a copy. To be honest, I’m still kinda gutted that the “Ain’t no party like a Super$hit666 party” t-shirts which were jocularly being mooted at the time never became an actual thing - I know I’d certainly have bought one…

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GRAND THEFT AUDIO

Grand Theft Audio were regarded as something of a supergroup when they first started up - as well as Ritch Battersby on drums, the group also included Chris McCormack from 3 Colours Red on guitar, ex-RealTV frontman Jay Butler and producer Ralph Jezzard (who'd manned the decks for Endless Nameless among others) on bass and electronica.

While other Wildhearts splinter groups saw the members behind them largely sticking to what they knew best, GTA attempted to move with the time with an industrial rap-metal sound which was in keeping with the nu-metal era. Except their love of classic rock (they had one song Rock The House which sampled the riff from Back In Black and another, As Good As It Gets which borrowed from Sweet Child o'Mine) and general sense of humour set them apart from a lot of the horrible knuckleheaded misogynistic neanderthals that comprised a lot of that particular movement. Their debut single We Luv U was like Smoke On The Water given a shot of pure punk adrenalin and follow-up Stoopid Ass was even better with the ominous verses giving way to a full shoutalong riff attack on the chorus.

Unfortunately within six months of arriving the group had seemingly disappeared, packed off on endless tours of the States while making no impact back home. And when the plaudits for nu-metal dried up in 2001, the writing was very much on the wall for them - by the end of that year the band was no more.

Surprisingly, Ritch wouldn't go back to the Wildhearts when the group got back together as GTA were still just about hanging on at this point. He would eventually rejoin the band in the mid noughties in time for the band’s self-titled album...but we'll deal with that when we come to it. Grand Theft Audio are currently back together (minus Chris who's now guitarist with the Professionals) and a new album should hopefully be in the works later this year. Blame Everyone is another under-rated effort that deserves a second look - certainly they were princes among a lot of the dross that comprised the nu-metal era.

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PLAN A

Formed by latter day Wildhearts guitarist Jef Streatfield and former Big Boy Tomato bassist Nick Peckham (BBT had also had Tom from the Yo-Yo's among their number) and drummer Gary who would subsequently join the excellent Urban Voodoo Machine, Plan A would sadly last for just a couple of EP's before imploding but they were a top live band - it's just a shame that their debut album never surfaced.

There were a number of good tracks across the two EP's with Hey Ho! the lead off track on the first EP being the pick. As I've said before they were a great live band and I've fond memories of them absolutely detonating the Fenton in Leeds one miserable midweek rainy night in front of an audience of about 30 hardy souls. Jef would kind of disappear from the music scene after this although I've seen him guesting at one of Ginger's birthday bashes in the intervening years and apparently he nearly joined the Yo-Yo's for their reunion tour in 2012 only to be stuck abroad and unable to make it after his flight got cancelled which led to Tom jocularly commenting "Some people'll do anything to get out of playing with us!!"

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SILVER GINGER 5

It's perhaps not a surprise though that the most Wildhearts-sounding of all the post-Wildhearts bands came from Ginger. After the weirdness of Clam Abuse, and the ultra-raw Super$hit666 EP, Ginger would hook up with ex-Electric Boys singer/guitarist Conny Bloom, former Cardiacs bassist Jon Poole and a series of drummers (including getting Bladz on loan from the Yo-Yo's and Ritch Battersby towards the end of the group's existence). Their sole album Black Leather Mojo sounded like Ginger's proper comeback to singalong rock anthems, shamelessly indebted to Kiss, Queen and Van Halen. From the opening "SHAKE! SHAKE! SHAKE!" refrain of Sonic Shake, it really was one classic after another.

Highlights? Bluddyell, where do you start? The supremely singalongable Girls Are Better Than Boys? The full on rush of Brain Sugar? The quite beautiful one-two shot of The Monkey Zoo and Inside Out? The truly epic Church of the Broken Hearted? They were all good man. It was the sort of album that should have seen Ginger breeze back into the Top 10 but unfortunately he released it right into the middle of the nu-metal explosion when baseball caps, bad rapping and atonal bludgeoning riffs were in and the traditional touchstones of memorable tunes and melodies were very much out and it took two years for the thing to even get a UK release with the only option being to buy an overpriced copy on Japanese import. Ginger did eventually decide to self-release the album as a two CD set with a bonus disc of live recordings and demos. They were a great live band as well - I've fond memories of seeing them at Joseph's Well in Leeds (easily the smallest venue I've seen Ginger do a full band set in) where the crowd were literally hanging off the staircase at the back and it was great stuff with the band really on form and kicking arse.

Ginger has always said that he'd love to do a second Silver Ginger 5 album at some point but circumstances as of yet just haven't allowed it. Certainly there have been a couple of reunion gigs scattered about over the last two decades (normally as part of Ginger's birthday bash) and it's something I'd love to see if it ever happens. The group would kind of quietly split up when Ginger put the Wildhearts back together in 2001 with Jon eventually joining Ginger there on bass and Conny moving on first to the 21st century version of Hanoi Rocks and ultimately back to the Electric Boys. Certainly, if you're unlucky enough to have not heard Black Leather Mojo yet then you really should - it really shows up just how anaemic and half-arsed a lot of the modern day "classic rock" pretenders like the Dust Coda and Greta Van Fleet really are.

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And so ends our rumble through the Wildhearts' Split Years. In the dying days of 2000, Ginger announced that him, CJ and Danny (soon to be joined by Stidi) would be reuniting for some gigs and, in the long term, a new album and we'll see how that panned out in part 3 of this story. Which...well, let's  just say it might be along a bit sooner after its predecessor than this one was...