B y the time Earth Vs The Wildhearts was released in August 1993, the title of The Wildhearts’ debut album was also a fair summary of the battle lines the band had drawn. Between their militant contempt for record-label authority, an ever-splintering line-up, drug abuse and a tendency to blow shop-window support slots (they lasted one night with Izzy Stradlin), dealing with the band was, they admit in retrospect, a monumental head-fuck.
“I was just a really angry kid, full of spit and venom,” reflects frontman Ginger. “We weren’t afraid to turn around to figures of authority and say, ‘Fuck yourself.’ And record companies were just an extension of that. I had no problem calling people cunts. In fact, I used to like it.”
