Bristol

[Jimmerbee]

I don't want to talk badly about Ginger as he clearly had something on his mind and wasn't having the best evening but I feel it necessary to defend the guy who stage dived. It's a rock gig, he was doing exactly what Ginger had asked of the crowd and was having a bloody good time! For those who have always stood at the back with their hands in their pockets and not got evolved at the front, once you have been lifted up by a crowd, you have NO control over where they send you and how you land. If you must blame anyone, blame whoever duumped him on the monitor speaker and bruised his back. For those who were watching carefully, it was not actually the crowd surfer who hurt the roadie (hope you're ok man) but other reasons. The crowd surfer helped right the stand and handed the mike back to Ginger and the song continued, he left the stage as quickly as he could having appologised to Ginger. The song was stopped after the equipment issue was rectified and I believe on a different occasion Ginger would have considered an incident like this to be rock and roll and a good gig. Anyway, hope you're feeling better today Ginger and that you have a better time next gig. I hope we weren't the worst crowd. I for one was having a great time until it all went pear-shaped. J

No No No. It wasn't you and you're trying to justify it are you? It was solely the irresponsible actions of the so called crowd surfer. It was his choice to do it and he fucked up the end of the gig for everyone there, on and off the stage. It wasn't him who hit the roadie in the face but it was a direct result of his actions that caused it to happen. Ginger and Dunc have been doing this gig for long enough to know where each other is on stage. That is unless there is a prick standing in front of you waving wildly and trampling on your gear. Yes, I thought some of Gingers comments were a little ott during the set but they are his opinion and I respect him for his truthfulness even if they were laid on a bit thick, and his responses on Twitter possibly aren't the most politic. However I'd probably be pissed off if people were demanding their money back off me when I'd played a full gig bar one minute of mostly crowd participation. They should possibly grow the fuck up.

Ha ha, no it wasn't me but it could well have been on a different night! I was having a quiet sober boogie near the middle (school night and all that). James, can you honestly say you've never been drunk at a rock gig? If I can't crowd surf at a Wildhearts/Ginger gig anymore I might try my luck at the Little Mix concerts in the new year! I just feel for the crowd surfer. He was a fan as much as anyone else there and doesn't deserve to be blamed as he wasn't responsible for the injury as you confirmed, neither did the gig have to finish then, it was a decision made some moments later by Ginger. You could tell from the crowd reaction that (most) people didn't blame the crowd surfer. I have every respect for how hard Ginger works and haven't asked for my money back. I just wish he hadn't taken it out on his fans

[Jimmerbee]

It should also be mentioned that in the face of adversity how awesome all the other band members were at geeing the fans up, convincing Ginger to come back on and still playing on through the surfer incident. Thanks guys, sounded ace! Particularly amazed at. How Mr Random got the whole crowd to sit down! That's gotta be a gig first!

[James S]

Ha ha, no it wasn't me but it could well have been on a different night! I was having a quiet sober boogie near the middle (school night and all that). James, can you honestly say you've never been drunk at a rock gig? If I can't crowd surf at a Wildhearts/Ginger gig anymore I might try my luck at the Little Mix concerts in the new year! I just feel for the crowd surfer. He was a fan as much as anyone else there and doesn't deserve to be blamed as he wasn't responsible for the injury as you confirmed, neither did the gig have to finish then, it was a decision made some moments later by Ginger. You could tell from the crowd reaction that (most) people didn't blame the crowd surfer. I have every respect for how hard Ginger works and haven't asked for my money back. I just wish he hadn't taken it out on his fans

Fair enough. No I tend not to drink at gigs (festivals is a different matter). We'll have to agree to disagree on the crowd surfer though. Im pretty sure Dunc's injury was caused by the tuning pegs on Gingers guitar but he was responsible for it happening. Cause and effect. Oddly the only trouble I've ever seen with crowd surfers, has always been in Bristol. Maybe its a local thing

Yes Ginger should have probably addressed the crowd at the end. He actually did say on stage his gear was busted so he couldn't continue but a 'thanks for coming everyone else and sorry' might have gone a long way to preventing the shitstorm on twitter. I assume, as indicated by him headbutting the mic he was very angry and not entirely rational at that point though. Shit happens and we are none of us perfect, it's just a pity this will most likely become a negative reinforcement for Ginger if he considers going on the road again whereas it was only a minute or two away from being a great advert for it.

[iddsy]

u only posted gingers replies to people on twitter!! u didnt post what shite they were sprouting at him to get that kind of response from him!!

[shadow]

I can't comment on the bad karma of the Bristol gig ,but I can say that for people to start to suggest that the setlist is not being well received is way off the mark..... I only decided to catch this tour because of the incredible amount of footage being posted from the tour and that in itself suggests people are in awe of the performances.....at the gig I attended in Newcastle the crowd was well up for every song and loving every minute, and to be honest seemed more " up for it " than for rolling out the old standards..... this reaction seems to mirror the gigs in Manchester, Glasgow and Leeds at the minimum..... and the performance of the band also displayed an incredible energy borne out of untried material.... so ,no, I don't think the setlist is in any way to blame for any bad vibes....... anybody?????

[benwalton]

Having read what happened and the fall out from it on here and on Twitter, I have a few points to bring to this melting pot of festering resentment.

1. I have seen Ginger gigs where he hasn't been in the best of moods, and yes, they can be tough to watch when you have nothing but admiration for the man, but quite simply, this board here is full of hardcore Ginger fans and apologists. I think I speak for most of us when I say that if Ginger used our 'asses as his girlfriend' we'd probably wear it as a badge of pride, there'd be multiple threads on here offering a blow by blow account of it. It seems like coming in here saying how much of a penny pinching bastard you think Ginger is was never going to be a good idea. Go away.

2. Sure, the things Ginger has been saying on Twitter haven't been the most pleasant, but as has been proven in this thread, people say things they will go on to regret in the heat of the moment. Deal with it. Like the news editor of NME is going to write a piece about Ginger having a strop - when was the last time Ginger was even in NME? Gimme a break...

3. I will never, never, never be able to condone or side with someone who defends crowd surfing. In my every day life I don't have to put up with people's grubby fucking trainers kicking me in the face, or having some grubby cunt's rub over the top of my head. Don't crowd surf. It's just common courtesy. If you want to enjoy something that involves taking your feet off the ground buy a motherfucking trampoline.

Bristol: from what I gather, you were cheated out of the final moments of one single song. Quite how anyone would dare ask for their money back after seeing essentially a full gig is beyond me. It's like: you're trying to say that seeing 3 bands wasn't worth £12? you realise that's £4 per band right? What can you get for £4 these days anyway?

eeuuurgggghhhhh...back into my dark cavern I go....

[vickyp]

u only posted gingers replies to people on twitter!! u didnt post what shite they were sprouting at him to get that kind of response from him!!

Good point, in the interests of balance I belive you should hear both sides if you're going to go judging people. Shall we add the other tweets?

Also, here's another point of view - from Chris Catalyst's Formspring:

Q: What happened in Bristol?
A: An over-exuberant fan misread a situation, crowd surfed onto the stage and (I'm sure accidentally) knocked over Ginger's mic and stand and wiped out all of his pedals, and our intrepid guitar tech Dunc was left injured and bleeding in the ensuing melee. (He's alright today.) It was two minutes before the end of the final song and it seemed inappropriate to continue.

[Trudi]

Changing the subject entirely for a moment, I've been at Butch Walker gigs where the whole crowd has sat down upon request

[andy_b]

Changing the subject entirely for a moment, I've been at Butch Walker gigs where the whole crowd has sat down upon request

Jesse Malin's good at doing that as well. As were the Answer a couple of months back. The proportion of time I've been sat on the floor of the Rescue Rooms recently is alarmingly high.

[vickyp]

Jesse Malin's good at doing that as well. As were the Answer a couple of months back. The proportion of time I've been sat on the floor of the Rescue Rooms recently is alarmingly high.

Jesse Malin sat in a puddle of beer I'd spilt in Leeds (true fact)
Then on Saturday Random made me sit down in someone else's beer so I guess that's karma for you.

[GarethMSP]

An apology for this mornings twitter comments has gone up on twitter. Hopefully calms things down a bit! There's always some drama, but that's rock n roll! I'm gonna start warming the vocal chords ready for wolves tomorrow. I predict a triumphant weekend!

[Gladney]

I remember seeing slipknot in 2004 and they got about 40,000 people to sit down and jump up at the same time! pretty sweet if you ask me!

[vickyp]

There is a lot of love on Twitter right now. Seriously, do a search with the @ sign on Ginger's username (@gingernyc) and you'll see all the lovely supportive messages, totally burying any negative ones in sheer volume of responses.
Aw, brings a tear to the eye.

[EAN: can we have a happy sentimental old fool smilie please, with santa hat?]

[Damian]

I'm glad people are getting a sense of rationality about all of this now. I won't lie - one thing that people who weren't there won't appreciate is that the way the gig ended was upsetting to watch at the time, and I'm sure all six members of the band would agree with that... but it was preceded by over an hour and a half of musical aceness (plus support acts too), and after all was said and done that was my abiding memory of the night. I did cringe when I saw someone crowd-surfing - if you had seen the way the stage was laid out (just enough room at the front to get five microphones across it), there was no chance of that ending well. There was plenty of good humour in the show too - the wine recommendations, the special song made up for the monitor guy, the shoe-horning of Wurzel-speak into Vernix, the whole crowd sitting down (as with other dates of the tour) and so on. While I don't necessarily blame anyone for forgetting some of this given how it ended, I hope it's what everyone will remember over time.

The local listings magazine Venue has written a relatively even-handed review of the gig (largely positive), and the Fleece tweeted Ginger to tell him how great they thought the show was, and took his side over the crowd surfer incident. I'd like to ask one thing of people, which is really the main reason I'm entering another post, and it's this... those of you tweeting Ginger to say "screw Bristol"/ "don't play Bristol again", please stop. I love my city and I want him to come back, if/when he decides to play live again.

Now then, I hope to see as many of you as possible on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

[siobhan_h]

Chap above me, hear hear!