Ricky Warwick is, basically, where the encore to a normal set would be. He doesn’t do them at a show like this, but if he did, then he’d close with Black Star Riders’ “Kingdom Of The Lost” and come back out to say, “this is an old Scottish/Irish folk song,” before launching into The Almighty’s “Free N Easy.”
That’s the level we’re at tonight. Arguably the best rock band of the last 20 years, and then—let’s get it said early—your humble scribe’s favourite band ever.
For a gig like this, you’d best have royalty opening, and C.J. Wildheart is exactly that for many of us (and for the record, the band that gives him his surname is your humble scribe’s other favourite band).
Here, though, he’s rawer, more punk, but still unmistakably CJ.
On his longest tour in ages, he’s pulling from across his career: from “Kick Down The Walls” to The Jellys’ (criminally underrated) fizzbomb power-pop classic “Lemonade Girl,” plus a couple of Honeycrack tunes.
“Go Away” and “Sitting At Home” from that much-loved album still stand tall, as does his solo “All You Rude Boys”—a song he’s uniquely qualified to write, having escaped London for North Yorkshire.
Then there are songs from that other band—the one he formed (“history has been altered a little,” he notes, rather acerbically). “Stormy In The North, Karma In The South” and “O.C.D.” close the set, though perhaps leave you wishing the brilliance of the music had led to lifelong friendships.
No matter. As someone who has never met CJ but feels like you know him through the music you love, it’s both brilliant to see him look so content and play so wonderfully.
Ricky Warwick, though, is probably the hardest working man in rock ’n’ roll. In the last 10 months, I’ve seen him live four times with two different bands, and now a fifth with his solo outfit The Fighting Hearts.
Oh, and he’s found time to release an album too—giving him all the excuse needed to tour.
The long and varied set opens with another solo tune, “You’re My Rock ’n’ Roll,” and it feels like a celebration of those three words throughout.
“Wishing Your Life Away” and Thin Lizzy’s “Are You Ready?” fly by in a blur (has there ever been a better hard rock band than Philip’s mob?). Warwick follows that with BSR’s “When The Night Comes In” and The Almighty’s “Do You Understand.”
“…Ties,” “Angels Of Desolation”—the most-played track on Planet Rock this week—and a delighted “Don’t Leave Me In The Dark,” his duet with Lita Ford, all shine. MV is equally thrilled to hear “Three Sides To Every Story.”
“Rise And Grind” (“heavy metal Northern Soul,” as Warwick calls it) gives way to “Jonestown Mind” and “Jailbreak,” before a cover of “Born To Lose” by The Heartbreakers—the only song in the set from a band Warwick wasn’t actually in.
The Fighting Hearts themselves—Richard Vernon and Jack Taylor on bass and drums, plus Leigh Hegarty of the brilliant Ruts D.C.—sound invigorated. Hegarty, especially, never stops smiling.
As much as this show is a celebration of a life and career, Warwick’s solo material must not be underestimated. “The Crickets Stayed In Clovis” is wonderful, as is the folk-tinged “Schwaben Redoubt.” And although Warwick is slightly older than MV, the imagery of being at grandparents’ houses—“When Dickie Davis tells them Lester’s horse had won,” as in “When Patsy Cline Was Crazy (And Guy Mitchell Sang The Blues)”—resonates deeply.
That’s roughly where the review began, save for “Finest Hour” coming after, proving he doesn’t look better in black and white and still has plenty more to give, before “Fighting Heart” wraps things up.
The hook:
“My fighting heart won’t be denied /
My fighting heart will never die”
—rings out like a clarion call.
If you know his history, you know what happened in the late ’90s and early 2000s, but that fighting heart always beat with rock ’n’ roll. And my goodness, it was all here tonight.
