Regular appearances on Top of the Pops followed before a well publicized row with their then-label East West saw the band lose their momentum. But perhaps that was for the best reveals Ginger during an exclusive chat with Eric Mackinnon of the New Rock Times. He says: "I kind of know what would have happened if we'd got big as a band, at least one of us would have died. No doubt about it. Probably two of us.

"If we'd had the money that success would have given us we'd have killed ourselves with overuse of drugs and alcohol. I'm not bragging about up being debauched or anything, we were just that way. We'd have kept doing drugs until they killed us. Fortunately we used to run out of money quite regularly."

Ginger is the man of a thousand bands where, in addition to the Wildhearts, the multi-talented musician regular performs with other artists and has roles in other projects.