CJ Wildheart - Plymouth Review

After a relatively quiet couple of months on the gigging front, despite a little spurt during August, the next few months are going to get quite busy again. September is not going to be the busiest, despite three shows coming up over the next couple of weeks, but October and November are going to be hectic - and there are lots of excellent things filling my calendar which I am looking forward to. June, July, and August always feel like the summer months and they are generally on the quiet side when it comes to live shows - with bands instead tending to play festivals rather than their own shows. I have been to a few great shows over the past couple of months - but now that September has rolled around it feels like autumn is here and it is time to get back out on the road. September will be my busiest month on the road since May, with a weekend away for a friend's wedding planned alongside some gigging trips, and it kicked off last night with a five minute walk up the road to The Junction on Mutley Plain in Plymouth. As far as local pub venues go, The Junction is one of the best. Since living in Plymouth I have had quite a few memorable nights there - and the venue tends to keep busy despite Plymouth not being an attractive proposition for many bands. Those who do make the effort are generally greeted warmly - and The Junction has hosted a fair few bands over the years who would generally play larger rooms. I have seen bands like Diamond Head, Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons, and Inglorious there over the years - all of whom could have played somewhere bigger - but there is something exciting about seeing bands in venues which are too small for them. I am not sure that last night quite falls into that category - but The Junction certainly seems like a venue made for the attitude and music of someone like CJ Wildheart. Known as one of the founding members of the dysfunctional yet powerful The Wildhearts, alongside his membership of bands like Honeycrack and The Jellys, CJ has been really pushing himself as a solo artist since his involvement with The Wildhearts ended in 2022 - when what is likely the band's 'classic' line-up broke up following a chaotic 2021 tour. I caught that tour in Exeter and the show was a bit of a shambles sadly, with frontman Ginger Wildheart clearly not wanting to be there. I had previously seen the band deliver a barnstorming set at the 2019 iteration of Bloodstock Open Air, so the Exeter show was a sad thing to see - and they played their last show together a few months later following lots of negativity throughout the tour. Drama is nothing new for The Wildhearts, but CJ seems to have made the best of a bad situation - pushing himself again as a solo artist following a few previous solo releases. He has been relatively busy of late with new releases and shows here and there - and seeing him live locally seemed like a no-brainer. I checked out some of his recent releases in the weeks leading up to the show, so I was prepared for the night despite not having an in-depth knowledge of CJ's solo work.

I did not exactly rush up to the venue, so the opening act Misled were already part-way through their set when I arrived. Given that I did not catch all of their set it would be unfair to review them properly - but what I heard did not really grab me. Their sound was quite a generic brand of gritty pop punk that was all the rage with young local bands when I was a teenager - and they looked like a real relic of the late 2000s in that regard. During Misled's set, though, the place started to fill up nicely. It was not as busy as it had been for those aforementioned shows which were packed out, but CJ certainly drew a healthy and enthusiastic crowd - which is always good to see. The place also filled up further whilst the second support act, The Experimental, were playing. The relatively local three-piece had a very distinct and heavy punk rock sound which was quite different from anything I had heard before. Despite only being a three-piece, the band had a pretty intricate and interesting sound which differed from most punk thrashing - with the bass being used like a guitar thanks to a very clear and precise tone, whilst the guitar added riffs and colour elsewhere. As such, the band sounded much larger than a three-piece, with interesting vocal arrangements which saw the drummer adding plenty of harmonies and counter-point lines which, again, were out of the ordinary. As such, I found The Experimental's set very interesting. They essentially played a posh brand of punk, which is not really my thing, but they had a great stage presence and their sound was so interesting and different from the norm that it was hard not be impressed. The bass playing in particularly was impressive, with some lead playing at times which rivalled some guitar players, whilst the band overall were tight - with a powerful sound that jumped out of the venue's recently upgraded sound system with ease. They received a fairly strong reaction, but sadly the show was plagued somewhat by incessant talkers. The Junction's size does tend to give these sort of people a platform to really be heard - and I remember a Blaze Bayley show there in 2021 being particularly bad for those wanting to shout to their friends, particularly between songs. CJ's set was marred somewhat by this, too, but The Experimental battled through it - which is always sad to see. That being said, they did receive a warm reception - and I imagine that some others were similarly impressed by the band's off-kilter sound and unusual use of instruments to create music which was a lot more interesting than your average three chord punk.

CJ and his band then took to the stage to set up for their show - and when they were done CJ, without any fanfare, announced that they were going to just crack on, and what followed was an hour or so of poppy, punky rock music. Joined by Dean McCreadie (guitar/vocals), Lee Wray (bass guitar/vocals), and Craig Mackay (drums), CJ powered through a 15-song set with ease - which largely pulled from his solo albums, whilst a few older songs from his other various bands were thrown in. CJ's solo material is pretty similar to The Wildhearts' classic sound, which shows that he probably had more of an influence on the band than the writing credits likely suggest, and the night got off to an excellent start with the barnstorming Kick Down the Walls - with McCreadie laying down some tasteful guitar leads whilst CJ belted out the anthemic chorus with ease. Despite the talkers sometimes making it hard to hear what CJ was saying between the songs, something which he actually remarked on at one point, the band were thankfully loud enough to drown them out - and those down at the front were certainly into the show, and plenty of singing from the crowd could be heard throughout. CJ filled the frontman role naturally, laughing and joking with the crowd throughout, and there were a few times that he encouraged the crowd to sing along. The anthemic Butterfingers early on was one which the crowd really latched onto and it was the first big sing-a-long of the night, before CJ dipped back into his past and pulled out Lemonade Girl from his time with The Jellys - as was Milk 'n' Honey earlier in the set. Despite CJ generally chatting between each song, the set flew by. Most of his songs are on the short side - so the night was one which was full of energy. Fast-paced punk numbers like F.U.B.A.R packed an almost metallic punch, whilst the more mid-paced power pop of The Wildhearts' b-side Hit It on the Head allowed for a more melodic sound. This sound was continued later on with two Honeycrack tracks, Go Away and Sitting at Home - but in between all of these poppier pieces were more cuts from CJ's more recent albums, which were much tougher. S.D.E. in particular was pretty potent, as was the chanting punk of All You Rude Boys. These newer songs represent some of CJ's heaviest material to date and it is great to see that he does not seem to want to slow down. Rather than head off and come back for an encore, the band just pushed through - with two more The Wildhearts songs bringing the night to a close. The newer Little Flower prompted quite a lot of singing before another older deep cut O.C.D brought the night to a rousing close. The setlist was:

Kick Down the Walls

Milk 'n' Honey [The Jellys material]

State of Us

Butterfingers

Lemonade Girl [The Jellys material]

All the Dough

F.U.B.A.R

Hit It on the Head [The Wildhearts material]

Give the Dog a Bone

Go Away [Honeycrack material]

S.D.E.

All You Rude Boys

Sitting at Home [Honeycrack material]

Little Flower [The Wildhearts material]

O.C.D [The Wildhearts material]

As much I enjoy a lot of progressive and more complex music, there is something about seeing a live band crash through an hour or so of punky rock and roll - and that is exactly what CJ and his band brought to The Junction last night. The four musicians on the stage were tight and they seemed to be enjoying themselves despite CJ admitting that it was hard for him to return to tiny venues again following years of playing bigger stages with The Wildhearts. I am sure that he felt the love in Plymouth last night, though, and I hope that he decides to return one day - as I would definitely be up for seeing him live again.