The Wildhearts, Manchester Academy 2, 2021

Into the Manchester Academy and onto the club floor, its  time to go for a rocking night of tantalising British Rock. The punters were all ready for the mid-week party and for this evening in particular was about the restorative power of  heavy music. Its a testament to this beloved scene.

To start off the evening were the intriguing openers The Middlenight Men and from their presence on stage, the mega troupe were all about having a good time. Consisting of various musicians, backing singers and the brainchild of Nick Hughes, which some may recognise as the occasional trumpet player for Terrorvision. Watching the ensemble is like watching a round of the Can-Can, a brass-infused set and the odd hint of heavy metal all thrown into one. To the casual viewer it’s unusual, but for the keen listener, it was entertaining as well as engaging. As the group were primarily a groovy rock and roll band,  songs such as Rat Star, Prison of Love, and B.A. Baby gave the crowd the opportunity to simply dance!

It was the turn of Welsh hard rockers Those Damn Crows to occupy the evening stage. Playing to the sounds of church bells leading into the devilishly apt ‘Who Did It’, started off their set of floor fillers. Receiving a healthy reception from their spectators, the five piece kicked their set off at stomping speed as they launch into ‘Long Time Dead’ and ‘Send The Reaper’ further loosening the audience. It was safe to say that their dedicated fanbase was loving every moment when ‘Blink Of An Eye’ spread to every corner of the room. The band closing off their no frills performance with the fast-paced ‘Sin on Skin’ and the feet stomping ‘Rock N Roll Ain’t Dead’, the band were entertaining an et the stage perfectly for the final act of the evening. 

With a back catalogue that has spanned across 30 years, including their recent record 21st Century Lone Songs , The Wildhearts was about to reveal to their exultant audience that they were excited to to return to sweaty room with their setlist at full throttle. No matter where the spectators were looking or hearing, Ginger Wildheart and his crew had no issue on letting rip a brilliant set. Kicking off with a fantastic trio of ‘Diagnosis’, ‘Vanilla Radio’ and ‘Sick of Drugs’, the quartet set the pace on the right foot and instantly the Mancunian crowd ate it up! The quartet band fused their greatest hits along with their newer tracks to great effect with new addictive singalongs ‘Remember The Days’ and the hard-hitter ‘Splitter’. Situating nicely which included the classics ‘The Jackson White’, ‘Caffeine Bomb’ and ‘Mazel Tov Cocktail’, it was refreshing to see the quartet mixing up their set.

The final moments made the room switch into a riot with the raging closers ‘Inglorious’, ‘Suckerpunk’ and ‘I Wanna Go Where The People Go’ blowing the room off in the Manchester Academy in the process. Ginger Wildheart recently tweeted “Manchester is a fucking great city to play. That is all.” For this evening, it goes to show that despite expressing such nerves on stage, their indoor performance solidified that The Wildhearts are undeniably British Rock greatness and that still need to be heard!

 

Words: Phillip Krawiec

Photos: Sabrina Ramdoyal