Ginger Rocks!

Been back from Nottingham for hours & head's still full of music :-)

The Ginger gig was all I'd hoped for & more. For a start, it had moved to a smaller venue, so it was Joseph's Well over again, like they were playing for a bunch of friends (which we are...). But instead of being halfway back, we were three feet from the stage - bliss!

Stood politely through the first support act (rather strange) because that's what Ginger's fans do... stood fascinated through the second support, feeling worryingly unsqueamish as the two nice young men stuck bits of metal through themselves, while a woman of restricted growth (is that the right term?) wandered round the stage in a gasmask (well, it was Ginger and the Sonic Circus).

Ginger's main set was amazing. Two full hours of blistering happy bittersweet rock - they were never going to get through the whole of Valor del Corazon, but we had a rich selection, some banter & jamming, & a glorious 29x the Pain for any old Wildhearts fans (ie 95% of the audience) while the two nice young men popped back to have smoke blown through their heads...OK, you had to be there :-)

Must note the eye candy in the form of Swedish lead guitarist Connie Bloom, sporting Jack Sparrow style beaded dreadlocks....

Age just didn't matter. Ginger made some throwaway remarks about how even Grans are signing up to his MySpace site now, but there were old be-leathered rockers & barely-legals, all united through a common love of this man's music.

(Mind you, they say you're as young as the (wo)man you're feeling, but I'll spare you the antics of one of my companions!!)

You either "get" Ginger, or you don't, but if you do, you're probably hooked for life.
Who else could belt out a lyric like "There's a smell, and I can tell, it's the stench of a lonely man, rotting inside of his shell" & lift a roomful of people into sheer joy?

Cheers, Ginger :-)