Being a lifelong weegie, I don’t often venture through to the East for a gig, normally sticking to Glasgow City centre or its immediate environs. However, with no Glasgow date on this tour, I risked a nosebleed and made my way, with my brother, another ginger Hodge (sans quiff) through to my first ever Bannermans gig.
As I thought may be the case, we immediately bumped into another West coaster who had made the trip through and soon, I was bumping into several friendly faces, making the trip worth it before a note was even played.
Carol Hodge
This was a night of firsts, and despite my championing her music for some time, reviewing her albums and interviewing her for the blog, this was the first time I had seen my fellow Hodge live (apart from on several online gigs during COVID – but they don’t count). I still need to determine any familial links back on the old Hodge family tree, but despite being a Yorkshire lass, as I discovered on a previous interview, her family originates from Port Glasgow, a fact which she reminded the Bannermans crowd of (another West Coast infiltrator).
As expected, Ms Hodge played a near flawless set, despite an irritating cough obviously frustrating her on occasion. Carol has put together a full live band on the back of her last album, The Crippling Space Between, tonight though it was just her and her piano (complete with lights!) to entertain and she wasn’t going to let a cough impact her performance. Performing songs from across her albums, including a touching rendering of one of my favourite songs from the latest album, Best Thing in This Town.
She really got the crowd onside when she introduced The Witch is Dead, an ode to the late PM, Milk Snatcher, written on the day she died, the song garnering cheers from the crowd at the appropriate lines in the chorus. Using this to her advantage she had the crowd “Oooo-ing” along in unison to her last song, one of hope and positivity for the future, 20 Miles High.
Like buses, you wait for one for ages…this was just my first of two Carol Hodge gigs within a week, the next one sees her playing with Steve Ignorant performing the songs of Crass on Saturday at this year’s Scotland Calling.
Ginger
It was then the turn of Ginger, Jon Poole and Carol (again) to take the stage for the headline set. Another first for me. Despite losing count of how often I’ve seen The Wildhearts, this was the first time I’d attended a Ginger acoustic show, and hopefully it won’t be the last (given the current hiatus of The Wildhearts).
With a burgeoning back catalogue to pick from, Ginger treated us to a range of songs from across his career, including a selection of cover versions, and a few Jon Poole songs.
Ginger was travelling with the famous Maggie on this tour, and I did get a bit of a start at one point when, standing near the merch table, I felt something rubbing against my calves, looking down to see Ginger’s faithful companion trying to make a run towards the stage.
After a faltering start (Jon hadn’t plugged in his guitar…) they launched into the Taxi theme, merging this into the them from Cheers and the party was in full flow.
Some of the highlights of the show included tracks from the upcoming official release of The Pessimist’s Companion including the emotional title track itself, and a raucous singalong in the shape of Why Aye Oh You. A personal highlight was a brace of Geordie songs, kicking off with the old Lindisfarne song Run for Home, which led my memories straight back to being knee high to a grasshopper, immediately followed by one of the ultimate Wildhearts sing-a-long anthems, Geordie in Wonderland (which, for some reason, always reminds me of Christmas).
Having survived a breathless version of Hey Hello’s How I Survived The Punk Wars (“there are too many words in that song” – Ginger), it was over to Random Jon for a few songs, who more than lived up to his name with his on stage banter. I still have visions of fingers and beards in my head…
Not one to leave us wanting, the closing brace of tunes pulled from his Silver Ginger 5 incarnation with Inside Out, before finishing with the classic 29 x the Pain, inducing another mass singalong.
Another great night in the company of Ginger and Co, which also finally resulted in a meeting of great minds, I give you, the Hodges – Ginger or otherwise…
