¡Chutzpah!

After releasing the covers album ''Stop Us If You've Heard This One Before, Vol 1. in May 2008, the Wildhearts began writing and rehearsing material for an eighth studio album before the end of the year. In February 2009, the band recorded demo versions of several new songs at Seawolf Studios in Helsinki, Finland with their manager and engineer Virpi Immonen. The recordings from these sessions were later remastered by Dave Draper and released under the title The Virpi Demos as part of the 10th anniversary reissue of ¡Chutzpah!''. Recording for the album proper took place in April at Hansen Studios in Ribe, Denmark with producer Jacob Hansen. Like on 2007's The Wildhearts, the tracks on ¡Chutzpah! were co-written by all four members of the band: Ginger Wildheart, CJ Wildheart, Scott Sorry and Ritch Battersby. As part of this new way of working, the band decided "to make something more commercial than usual"; Ginger claimed that he "wanted to make something far less commercial" but was "happy to have been shot down on that idea". It also led to the other band members performing vocals, as they had done for the first time on ''Stop Us If You've Heard This One Before, Vol 1.'' ==Promotion and release==

Ahead of the album's release, the Wildhearts released "The Only One" as the sole single on digital download from ¡Chutzpah! on 3 August 2009. The song features lead vocals from Sorry, rather than Ginger. A couple of weeks later, non-album track "The Snake, the Lion, the Monkey and the Spider" was also released online. Following the release of ¡Chutzpah! on 31 August, the band embarked on a UK tour between mid-September and early October. More shows in the UK and Europe were added in December. In October, Japanese bonus track "Zeen Requiem" was released as a free download. During the December tour, the Wildhearts released the mini-album ¡Chutzpah! Jnr., which was initially made available only to attendees at select shows. The next month, the collection – consisting of the Japanese bonus tracks, "The Snake, the Lion, the Monkey and the Spider" and three previously unreleased songs – was released on the band's official online store. In 2019, the Wildhearts released an expanded version of ¡Chutzpah! remastered by Dave Draper, featuring all 18 tracks of each release, alongside bonus discs containing the Seawolf demos and rehearsal recordings. ==Reception==

Commercial ¡Chutzpah! debuted at number 53 on the UK Albums Chart. It was the band's first release since Endless, Nameless in 1997 to top the UK Rock & Metal Albums Chart, as well as reaching number 7 on the UK Independent Albums, number 52 on the UK Album Downloads Chart, number 62 on the UK Physical Albums Chart, and number 65 on the Scottish Albums Chart. ==Track listings==

Original version Remastered version ==Personnel==

The Wildhearts • Ginger – lead vocals, guitar • CJ – guitar, backing vocals • Scott – bass, backing vocals, lead vocals on "The Only One" • Ritch – drums Additional personnel • Kim Olesen – keyboards, programming • Jacob Hansen – production, engineering, mixing, mastering • Jeppe Andersson – engineering assistance • Martin Wolf Pagaard – engineering assistance • Virpi Immonen – engineering on The Virpi Demos • Dave Draper – remastering on the 2019 reissue • Rich Jones – artwork ==Charts==

}} ¡Chutzpah! Jnr. is an extended play (EP) by British rock band the Wildhearts. Released on 2 December 2009 by Backstage Alliance, the album features extra recordings from the sessions for the band's 2009 eighth studio album ¡Chutzpah!, recorded in April 2009 at Hansen Studios in Ribe, Denmark with producer Jacob Hansen. After originally being made available only to attendees on a European tour, ¡Chutzpah! Jnr. was released online in January 2010. All eight tracks were later featured as part of the 2019 remastered version of ¡Chutzpah!, which also included two discs of rehearsals from prior to the album's recording. Track listing ==References==