He seriously is big in Japan

He's led pop-punk-metalists The Wildhearts to both glory and glorious infamy, put out half a dozen side projects and 20 albums, penned half the last Michael Monroe (Hanoi Rocks) record, and right now's finishing up his pledge-driven Triple Album Project, which is exactly what it sounds like. He's Ginger, and he is not a Spice Girl. This isn't everything you need to know, but it's a start:

Personal History: He joined his first band because he'd just moved to London and Guns N' Roses were playing the Astoria, and he couldn't afford a ticket. So he tracked down opening act The Quireboys in a pub, and convinced them that they needed a second guitarist, just so he could see GnR.

One time he met a guy who told him he'd been on a bridge and about to jump off it, but Ginger's song "This Is Only a Problem" came up on his iPod and made him change his mind.

Another time he filled in for Motorhead's sick guitarist. He also spent a week in a Thai prison, but hey, who hasn't?

Notable Tunes: The anthemic "I Wanna Go Where the People Go". The earnest love song "My Baby is a Headf**k". The earnest entreaty to his girlfriend to let him have a three-way "Paramour". And "Geordie in Wonderland", whose chart success led him to offer it to Kevin Keegan as a Newcastle fan-pleaser, an offer the man "graciously turned down", much like the help of so many hairdressers.

Wise Words He Has Sung: "Since it all began/Within the hearts of men/There was a natural need to feel oblivion/And the right to decide your medicine" (from "Drinking in the Daytime") "Well I can’t drink you pretty" (from..."Can't Drink You Pretty")

Wise Words He Has Said: "Cheer if you like us, clap if you don't." "I'm calling this hangover 'Fenton'. Jesus Christ." In response to a fan writing in to tell him he was seeing dead people: "You live in London? It's not 'dead', it's 'cool'."

About that Triple Album Project: It's 30 songs. Pledge £15 or more and it's all yours, plus you get to help choose which songs make it to the streamlined retail release, and maybe even get a shout-out in the liner notes, which would be totally Mel swell.