In the summer of 2015 you told us: “Writing another Wildhearts album? Forget about it.” But now it’s possible.
If it were to happen, it would need to feature Danny [McCormack, co-founding bassist], along with CJ [guitarist] and Ritch [Battersby, drums], and also Jon Poole. Which would mean we’d have two bass players, though we could get around that. But now I’ve reconnected with Danny it’s a possibility. Both of us held grudges for so long, when we made up we couldn’t even remember the reason why we’d fallen out.
When did you reconnect?
Quite recently. Danny’s been going through some health problems, and coming out of hospital for this December tour should give him something to look forward to.
Danny’s band the Main Grains are among the opening acts, and he’ll also play with The Wildhearts on each encore.
He did that a couple of times on my last solo tour and the audience went ballistic. It’s something I never thought I’d see – both of us should be dead by now. But for the fans it was like The Beatles getting back together… though obviously on a far smaller scale [laughs].
The six other acts performing at your birthday bash at the Forum in London on December 17 include the Dowling Poole, featuring the aforementioned Jon Poole and Willie Dowling, also once of The Wildhearts.
Willie has a reputation for putting a song or two together. But for all his genius, Jon Poole is still a fairly untapped commodity, so the more people that get the chance to see him the better.
What does 2017 hold for you?
Loads of cool shit. There’s the Wildhearts album. We’ll be promoting a new Hey! Hello! album and I’m going to make a roots-meets-folk solo album. You can call it country but with a Geordie accent. There’s also going to be a third album from Mutation, plus a first-ever tour for that band.
