18 & Life

From Brig Newspaper. Co-written with Nina Glencross.

Cowell thinks about Steve Brookstein.

What would you like to see as Christmas Number One? So far there have been Facebook groups set up to get The Trashmen’s Surfin’ Bird, Pantera’s Walk and the Mortal Kombat theme to the coveted festive hot-slot, not to mention the ‘Cage Against The Machine’ campaign to for John Cage’s 4’33” – a few minutes of absolute silence. Amusing, but what Brig Music would personally like on the Christmas Day airwaves is a crap cover song by whatever irksome dunderhead wins The X Factor.

Continue reading “Christmas Number One, December 2010” »

From RagnarokRadio.co.uk.

Ginger is one of those musicians who you can tell couldn’t be doing anything else with his life. Riffing his way onto the UK Britrock scene in the early ‘90s with The Wildhearts after earning his chops in glam outfit The Quireboys, he has since graced the audio world with numerous musical outings and solo projects, leaving behind a scorched trail of drugs, fights and broken Kerrang! office equipment. All of this rock ‘n’ roll excess, however, is imbued with the insignia of one of the country’s most talented, uncompromising, unafraid and integral musicians.
Most recently, he found himself playing guitar for Michael Monroe (Hanoi Rocks) who, in November this year, opened for British metal institution Motörhead on their 35th anniversary UK tour. Even a broken, infected foot couldn’t stop Ginger (born David Walls in 1964) getting up every night, and it certainly hasn’t hampered his plans to take a new band on the road in December, performing sets of Wildhearts tracks. The lyrical tales across their albums have always been brutally (and sometimes embarrassingly) honest, and make for some of the finest, most heartfelt offerings in alternative music. From stories of vegetating in front of the television (1993’s ‘Earth vs. The Wildhearts’) through the first tastes of success and drug binges (1995’s ‘p.h.u.q’) to learned, sage views on life today (2009’s ‘Chutzpah!’), Ginger has cemented his reputation as a fully-conscious, worldly observer with a knack for turning experience into what Ragnarok writer Gordy Jeans calls ‘choruses so sugary they’ll rot your teeth faster than acid-flavoured sherbet’ and ‘fantastic, crushing riffage’ in equal measures.
I caught up with the unable-to-sit-on-his-arse frontman to get an insight into the life of such a passionate player (and fan) in today’s world of rock music.

Continue reading “Ginger Wildheart Interview, November 2011” »

These are some of my contributions to my local newspaper, for which I reviewed music albums and concerts in the town while I was still a student. I enjoyed writing for the paper, but I sometimes found that I had to dilute my work and speak in broader tones. You may notice a difference between these reviews and other articles on this site.

Continue reading “Clydebank Post Excerpts, 2007-2008” »

For two decades now, Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s The Wildhearts have been making glorious hard rock songs laced with feel-good vibes, punk spirit and choruses that burrow into your brain like a denim-clad tick. Having toured the world with legends including AC/DC and Motörhead, but never achieving the same level of popularity (bar a few Top Of The Pops performances), they have become a cult favourite in the UK rock scene and further afield.

Continue reading “CJ Wildheart Interview, September 2009” »

From RagnarokRadio.co.uk.

If there’s one way to shake off a hangover (or possibly make it two thousand times worse), it’s the grooves and rumblings of some Finnish melodic death metal. Thankfully (or possibly unfortunately), we have Insomnium’s (3/5) thundering strides pulsating across the fields and through the skulls of the gathered metalheads already regretting last night’s celebratory drinks upon arriving at Bloodstock Open Air 2009. Everyone has just about recovered in time for Sodom (3/5), returning to British soil for the first time in twenty years to air the likes of ‘Napalm In The Morning’ to a fair few rows of pumping fists. Add ‘hundred’ to the end of that ‘fair few’ statement and you have a rough description of Saxon (5/5), who are, simply put, fucking awesome. The piledriving ‘Let Me Feel Your Power’ is delivered with the energy of a band several times younger than they are (Saxon could be the grandfathers of some of today’s metal upstarts) while the seminal ‘747 (Strangers In The Night)’ sees cheerful drunken moshpits erupting from stage left to stage right.

Continue reading “Bloodstock Open Air, August 2009” »

I wrote this piece at fifteen years old after visiting New York. It’s my young self’s recollection interspersed with facts about the Big Apple.

Darkness. Just darkness. Where am I? Argh! Now there’s a shrill ringing sound coming from somewhere. Slowly but surely, little by little, my brain starts to function again. The next sense I recover is my sight; I’m in my bed. It’s dark outside. The glowing orange digits of the noisy alarm clock read 0500. Five in the morning!? It’s not time for school yet, is it?

Continue reading “The City That Never Sleeps, April 2006” »

Written for a Glasgow concert promoter. This was one of my first interviews, and I see it as a strong, informative Q&A piece, but I have since started to prefer prose articles. I find they allow for greater expression from a writer, better quality entertainment for a reader, and more effective publicity for an artist.

New Yorker Acey Slade (born Emil Schmidt) certainly lives up to his Sagittarian star sign; he can’t sit still for one minute. Being a past member of a string of bands – Dope, Murderdolls and Trashlight Vision have all at one time counted him in their ranks – he has certainly been round the music industry block a few times. He is currently fronting his own solo project, The Dark Party, which he is touring extensively in the run-up to the release of their debut album. Standing in the cloakroom area of a dingy underground Glasgow club, and speaking in much friendlier tones than his glam-punk rockstar persona would suggest, he took the time to give a little insight into life in such a travelling circus…

Continue reading “Acey Slade Interview, May 2009” »