The Wildhearts, Jim Jones All Stars, Dirt Box Disco

Rock City, Nottingham,

Saturday, March 15

Dressed like a riot of colour (and sounding like one too) rowdy power punks Dirt Box Disco aren’t ones to let a tune get in the way of a good old shout along. Immature humour is always the funniest and these gentlemen are old enough to know what works when on stage. And it’s this – ear defender-necessitating loudness and such classics as ‘Second Hand Sex Toys’, ‘My Life is S**t’ and ‘Standing in a Queue’. Hilarious interaction with the crowd fuels this set even further. Never before has a band that look like a fancy dress box has thrown up on them opened a show so well.

Smokin’ rock, blues, groovin’ Jim Jones All Stars are what Saturday nights are for. With a band membership of almost Slipknotian proportions you could do with three pairs of eyes to take it all in. Vocalist in chief Jim Jones sways and shimmies those slender hips around, with the stage presence of the proper band leader that he is. Jim Jones All Stars are an explosion of ALL the decades. Sixties, seventies, way back when to the fifties, and through to flippin’ 3025. Proper musicians, outstanding performers, true entertainers. This band are pure class.

Ginger Wildheart doesn’t swagger around the stage. He could do. He’s earned the right. But he stands at the front of Rock City with grace and humility. His demeanour is warm. He’s smiley. That lovely Geordie lilt can tear flesh from bones when it needs to, with both skin flaying gravelly yells (the intro to ‘Eventually’) and with scathing observations and opinions (‘Diagnosis’). ‘I Wanna Go Where the People Go’ lands just like an anthem should. Songs from new album ‘Satanic Rites of The Wildhearts’ sound right at home alongside the classics. ‘Troubadour Moon’ comes right after ‘Vanilla Radio’ and they just fit sooooo well. The catchy choruses, those harmonies… Ginger can write a classic tune, play a blinding set and enthral a packed Rock City. 'The story is far from over,’ he reassures us mid-set. Thank God. Ginger leads his band with the skill only a musical lifer like himself can have. Truth is he could lead the entire venue anywhere too. The pub? Let’s go Ginger! Into the River Trent? Right behind you Mr Wildheart, let’s go swimming! ‘My Baby is a Headf**k’ is the complete package. The trademark Wildhearts’ chorus, Rock God guitar solos, the swears, the shouting. It’s the set closer you just lose your mind to. But back on the chilly streets of Nottingham you use your mind. There’s a lot to think about behind Wildhearts' lyrics. A lasting image from tonight will be hands in the air to ‘Failure is the Mother of Success’ refrain, ‘You took a lot of knocks to get where you are today’. None of us have made it this far without battle scars. We’ve wanted to give up before and we’ll want to give up again. But where there’s The Wildhearts, there’s a way. Ginger Wildheart embodies that.