The Wildhearts

The Wildhearts are a rock group from Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The band's sound is a mixture of hard rock and melodic pop music. When the band released thei

The Wildhearts are a rock group from Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The band's sound is a mixture of hard rock and melodic pop music. When the band released their first EP Mondo Akimbo a-Go-Go they were touted in the music press as combining influences as diverse as The Beatles and 1980s-era Metallica although this was refuted by the band themselves who saw their influences as ranging far wider, as shown in the song 29 X The Pain which details many of singer Ginger's influences. The Wildhearts were hugely influential in the mid-1990s, although they themselves never achieved huge success, owing in part to the indifference of radio stations and the mainstream music press, and also many "in camp" problems often relating to recreational drugs and depression. In the band's turbulent and unpredictable history, many members have come and gone, but they have always been based around founding member Ginger (real name David Walls), the singer, guitarist and predominant songwriter. Despite many of their singles being refused air play on the radio in their early days they still managed to enter the British charts in the top 20, and the band has remained at the forefront of the British Rock Scene since 1993.

The band has had a fairly chaotic history, splitting up several times, adding and subtracting various members, and their career has been blighted by drug and alcohol related problems throughout. Much of the band's career was affected by sometimes bitter feuds with their record company, East West.