Tonight I am at my very favourite venue, KK’s Steelmill in Wolverhampton, a concert photographers dream with a great photo pit and great lighting, oh and always a good pint to boot.
First up is Carol Hodge who takes up her position behind the keyboard and demonstrates her piano skills along with a beautiful voice that reminds me of Arielle and even a touch of Eva Cassidy.
The strange thing is Carol’s style does not seem an obvious choice to warm up for a rock band but somehow it actually works really well with the atmosphere of the night and the sort of crowd who are here tonight, top marks to Ginger and the gang for giving her the opening slot.
She is a great musician and has some really good tunes amongst her armoury and the crowd have really warm to her, well worth checking out.
So now is the time for Mr Wildheart and his sinners to step onto the stage.
I have a special memory of Ginger and The Wildhearts as they were the first band I ever photographed from the pit and so I am really looking forward to seeing him tonight with his new band. I also have great respect for Ginger for being so honest and talking about his mental health struggles in the past, he has had his struggles but he has kept on fighting through them. I have nothing but respect for the guy.
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When I saw Ginger play that night with The Wildhearts, he looked like he wasn’t feeling the gig with not much interacting going on with his band mates nor the crowd but tonight is a different story all together.
All night he has a big grin on his face and his banter with Neil Ivison is great, giving the crowd plenty to laugh about.
It is a very intimate relaxed vibe in the room that lends itself to funny exchanges between the band and the audience. There are only two songs on Spotify from this group: “Wasted Times”, which they performed brilliantly, and the brilliant “The Words Are Going To Have To Wait”. As such, we expected and heard a few covers with a version of Status Quo’s “Dirty Water” a particular highlight. The set ended with a cover of “Jessica” and The Wildhearts track “Loveshit”.
All in all it was a great gig with the guys attracting a great audience.
Well worth going to see if you can, and to Ginger… keep on smiling dude!
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Photos by Shaun Hulme
