Recorded at the 12 Bar Club way back in August 1998, this double set finds Wildhearts mainman Ginger unplugged with backing by former 'Hearts keyboard man Willie Dowling, various former bandmates and a voracious crowd.
The album's been released in undoctored form, which means there's almost as much between-song exchanges with the crowd as music, although that means an hilarious country version of Metallica's 'Enter Sandman' and drunken attempts at 'Kum Ba Ya' and the 'Postman Pat' theme, among other delights, are preserved.
The first set is conducted in a more serious manner, with the ginger one debuting some new material, covering Korgis' 'If I Had You' and KISS's 'Hard Luck Woman' as well as Wildhearts' outtakes 'Church Of The Broken Hearted' and 'Tom, Take The Money'. The new tracks, 'Inside Out' and 'Re-Inventing The Wheel', are fine country-style ditties and different to his more familiar material.
The second set captures the night's descent into drunken debauchery as various ex-Wildhearts are called up to tackle the band's back catalogue. Drummer Rich adds some percussion to a rousing '29 x The Pain', guitarist CJ strums and sings on a heartwarming 'Dreaming In A' and bassist Danny spectacularly forgets the words to the closing shambolic version of 'Caffeine Bomb'.
Such a warts-and-all recording means the album's appeal is likely to be quite selective. Having said that, it was the right decision to thrown in everything as the banter makes the album all the more enjoyable. If you were lucky enough to get into the gig the album probably scores a 5, if you're not a Wildhearts fan a 1. As I'm the latter camp but not the former, I'll give it a hearty…
