Ginger and Eureka Machines – The Marr’s Bar Worcester -1st March 2008.

We went down to the Worcester show at the Marr’s Bar. An hour’s drive and I hate to say it, but it was, without doubt, the worst show I have seen Ginger play and I’ve seen a few. But there will be more about that later.
But 1st off though, a mention to the support bands who were both memorable and unmemorable.
The 1st band up, who I have no idea of their name, were out of place musically I thought, although they played acoustically as the show had been advertised (Ginger being the acceptation playing electric). The songs seemed to drift by and over my head. The music seemed a little more middle of the road and pop orientated, and as the wife put it, ‘more her style’. So at least she enjoyed them. The trio were made up of a guitarist and a bassist and vocalist. The only real memorable part of their performance was the lead singer stepping aside for a guest girl vocalist, but even then fairly normal sounding. Oh and the lead singer’s t-shirt stood out as being rather nice and colourful even with the drug related logo.

Now, onto what turned out to be the main attraction of the night (for me anyway), Eureka Machines. I’d never heard of this band before or should that be duo as they were for this gig. They were noticeable from the moment they were spotted behind the merchandise table. The pair of em were sporting matching black suits, black shirts and white ties. I put me foot in it when enquiring as to if the cd’s being sold were that of the 1st band on. The guy replied with a ‘no, my band are on next’ Now these guys got the crowd ready for a good rocking' night from the moment they hit the boards. The banter began from the front man, Chris Catalyst, as soon as he hit the boards, with apologies for a bad cold and wanting a bit of sympathy from the crowd. I knew within a matter of the 1st few bars of the 1st song ‘Scream Eureka’ that these were going to play my kind of tunes. One of the lines in the 1st tune ‘Don’t ignore us people bore us, open wide and sing the chorus, are ya with us….’ Seemed to sum them up. So what were they like you ask? Well very catchy tunes played in a semi acoustic style with duo harmony vocals shared between them both. Davros seemed to be the shy yet younger one of the two with the natural blonde spiky hair, with Chris being the witty frontman complete with Mohican and large sideburns. Oh and did I mention the pair had white loafers on to complete the black suits A couple of stand out tunes were ‘Story of My (Fuckin) Life’ and ‘The light at the end of the tunnel’, complete with it’s trick repeat of one line at the end of the song begging the question ‘Is it over?’, Classic. Their own tunes were then topped off with according to Eureka Machines’ the best song in the world’, Wichita Lineman, and ended the set with a rousing and audience participated version, of the second best song in the world Aha’s ‘Take On Me’. Well to say I didn’t sprit over and snap up the 3 cd’s on sale would be an under statement. Even got the things autographed… Oh and Davros gave me that ‘I knew you would be back’ look upon my return. Enough about them now….. Ps I haven’t stopped playing the cd’s yet, there so damn good! They remind me of Honeycrack (well I read somewhere Chris is a friend of Willie Dowling’s) and Wow! The full band versions of the songs are brilliant. I look forward to catching the full lband line up later in the year.

Now onto the Ginger one…… What can I say, but by the end of the night I thought what a rip off ‘Take the Money and Fucking Run! ….. Ginger was in a grump from the moment the screen went up on the stage and made it quite clear from the off and from the look on his face all the way thru (the hour that we got), with the only banter from him for the evening being to moan about the sound and it was going to be a bad gig.
It all seemed to me to be a money making tour/gig knowing that Ginger fans will turn out in the droves to see him play in any format. So minimal people to pay and pocket the cash himself, for minimal effort it would seem. Even down to letting the audience sing 29 times the pain, where incidentally he knocked the mic stand over towards me and being the helpful chap I am I repositioned it correctly only to get a dirty look from Ginger and have it pushed into the audience again in readiness for the Jack Black look-alike who was on stage (playing bongo’s for free I might add, more money saving ideas) to push the mic out into the crowd for people to sing into. And then to top off the gig we didn’t get one encore and not even with the crowd in full singing voices with ‘Don’t worry bout me… summed Ginger up in Worcester.
Helping out on 2nd guitar was Scott Metzger and not Scott Sorry as I expected. Mind you, I really expected to see Jase Edwards playing alongside Ginger, as I’d literally bumped into him upon entering the bar, so was surprised to find him not on stage. Incidentally the Marr’s Bar had advertised him as playing in the line up.
As I said though Ginger didn’t play acoustic but Scott did really shine on some of the guitaring when he was not tuning up or replacing strings. Reminded me of some great Thin Lizzy guitar work.
But just to put into perspective I really enjoy the songs that Ginger has produced on his solo work ( Ginger and Willie Dowling are two of my favourite songwriters), I’m not massive on the recent Wildhearts stuff, and have seen him several times over the past few years but that gig has just about done it for me, as far as going to watch him play live again (a Sonic Circus gig excluded maybe). The last time I spoke with Ginger was at a gig in Nuneaton, where I asked him for a photograph and he refused in his grumpy style….. Maybe I should of learnt my lesson then.