Aural Sculptors - The Stranglers Live

Aural Sculptors - The Stranglers Live 1976 to the Present

Welcome to Aural Sculptors, a blog aimed at bringing the music of The Stranglers to as wide an audience as possible. Whilst all of the various members of the band that have passed through the ranks since 1974 are accomplished studio musicians, it is on stage where the band have for me had their biggest impact.

As a collector of their live recordings for many years I want to share some of the better quality material with other fans. By selecting the higher quality recordings I hope to present The Stranglers in the best possible light for the benefit of those less familiar with their material than the hardcore fan.

Needless to say, this site will steer well clear of any officially released material. As well as live gigs, I will post demos, radio interviews and anything else that I feel may be of interest.

In addition, occasionally I will post material by other bands, related or otherwise, that mean a lot to me.

Your comments and/or contributions are most welcome. Please email me at adrianandrews1@sky.com.

Thursday, 13 September 2018

'Well I'm Be Strangled!'

Big Jet meets Lil’ Jet by Ramona Andrews.

Sculpture in clay and paint.

20 From '86 (14) La Louviere Eurorock Festival 13th September 1986

Another from 1986.... and on it's birthday too! Thanks as ever to Eric and The Rat Zone for this one!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-rxZjfpwyGh

Killing Joke Shibuya Duo Music Exchange Tokyo 12th September 2008

And here's the following night's performance.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-9sXZvpadzv

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-HrGeG8VlCA

01. Intro
02. Communion
03. Change
04. We Have Joy
05. Sun Goes Down
06. Whiteout
07. Exorcism
08. Kings And Queens

01. Millenium
02. Black Moon
03. Labyrinth
04. Turn To Red
05. Are You Receiving
06. Mathematics Of The Flesh
07. Money Is Not Our God
08. Asteroid
09. Pandemonium
10. Pssyche
11. Wardance

Tuesday, 11 September 2018

Killing Joke Shibuya Duo Music Exchange Tokyo 11th September 2008

Tonight I am posting Killing Joke's album themed gig at the Shibuya Duo Music Exchange in Tokyo for this is a tenth anniversary gig, the first of two nights at the venue (the following night will be duly posted tomorrow evening). It is also a gleeful acknowledgement of Gunta's declaration that it is about time that she challenged herself and came to a Killing Joke with me. Admittedly she was full of wine and bravado, but nevertheless it is now out there in the public domain.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-ub9MRGvPhG

Artwork (big box format): https://we.tl/t-HrGeG8VlCA

01. Intro
02. Requiem
03. Wardance
04. Tomorrow’s World
05. Bloodsport
06. Complications
07. S.O.36
08. Primitive
09. The Fall Of Because

01. Tension
02. Unspeakable
03. Who Told You How ?
04. Butcher
05. Madness
06. Exit
07. Follow The Leaders
08. The Wait
09. Pssyche
10. Change
11. Love Like Blood

Saturday, 8 September 2018

'He Said... 'Captain'.... I Said... 'Wot!''

Captain Sensible (The Damned)

15cm x 20cm linoprint

Black ink on cream.

Wednesday, 5 September 2018

Jet Black hits 80!

No-one can have missed that last week saw a mile stone in any person's life. It was Jet Black's 80th birthday no less. Mo was thrilled to receive a commission from Ava to do something for the man so she molded and pummeled his features in clay to create a little Jet.

Happy birthday Jet!

Sunday, 2 September 2018

20 From '86 (13) The Damned Hammersmith Odeon 12th November 1986

Here's another from the year 1986 with The Damned recorded at London's Hammersmith Odeon. Interestingly, last night I have my first viewing of The Damned's documentary 'Don't You Wish That We Were Dead'. In it a rather bitter Rat Scabies gave some insight into the feelings within the band at this time. For a band who had by necessity to survive on its wits for the 10 years of its existence, after the success of the 'Phantasmagoria' album and the massive hit they had had with 'Eloise' the band were riding the crest of a wave commercially. This allowed them for the first time to record in huge, plush studios using state of the art equipment and the best gear that money could buy. According to Rat however, creatively the band were running on empty having entered the studio without much new material at all. As such the resulting album 'Anything' is not viewed with great affection by those that recorded it. Personally I feel that it has some good material on it but it comes no where near the aforementioned 'Phantasmagoria' in terms of quality and in being a consistent body of work. However, looking at the entry for the 'Anything' album on Wikipedia I had to smile when I read the following! "The Vancouver Sun also praised the album, stating that the Damned "have made the switch to mood music quite well, almost rising to the level of the mighty Stranglers"".

Many thanks for sharing this gig!

MP3 (as received): https://we.tl/t-6M8gVOl3cP

01. Sanctum Sanctorum
02. Wait For The Blackout
03. Psychomania
04. Anything
05. Shadow Of Love
06. In Dulce Decorum
07. Lovely Money/Is It A Dream?
08. The Girl Goes Down
09. Restless
10. LA Woman
11. Smash It Up
12. Eloise
13. Street Of Dreams
14. Plan 9 Channel 7
15. Neat Neat Neat
16. Love Song
17. Born To Kill
18. We Love You

Running Cost Contributions

Hi there all!

Today, I have renewed the subscription for one of the two We Transfer accounts that support the Aural Sculptors site. In order to ensure that the links to the files that are posted on the site remain live and accessible it is necessary to maintain two We Transfer accounts, meaning that the total running costs of the Aural Sculptors blog totals £210 per year.

We Transfer is not the cheapest file sharing service available, nor does it offer the greatest storage capacity (hence the practical need for two accounts), but it is a reliable platform that does meet the needs of the site. Having been bitten hard on the arse before in years gone by with disastrous reliance on both megaupload and Rapidshare, I am reluctant to move away from the current arrangements to a cheaper option.

Since the site was launched (the catharsis of the birth perhaps) in July 2011, the site has featured 900+ posts (most with associated music files) of which over 450 have been directly associated with The Stranglers, in keeping with the whole rationale of the site.

Those of us of a certain vintage will recall the day when bootlegs recordings were difficult to come by and a tape with a poorly photocopied pastel paper cover would set you back a fiver (the equivalent of 6 or so pints in the mid 80’s!). Now however, it is a doddle for people to obtain a good quality recording of a gig, perhaps the first one that they saw by a given band, I dunno. The point is that it is free, shared in good faith by fans for fans.

Aural Sculptors, with its 800,000+ hits to date is not a massive site but it has a reasonable presence in the hierarchy of Stranglers related websites and that is enough for me to keep it going.

Therefore, I would kindly point out that it is possible to make a small contribution towards the running costs of the site. A donation button is located on the right hand panel of the site. In return I will continue in my efforts to keep the site relevant and interesting to likeminded people such as the regular visitors to the site. Additionally, I will do my best to continue to accommodate requests for specific recordings and/or updates of dead links (as best as I can in the time available to me).

It just remains for me to say, again, a big thank to you for your continued support, to those who have donated, commented or shared with me something that you think will be of interest to others.

Best Wishes for 2017.

Adrian.