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 adrianandrews@myyahoo.com.


Saturday 16 July 2011

Reading Festival 30th August 1987

Early 1987 saw a second leg of last autumn’s Dreamtour, including three excellent nights at the Hammersmith Odeon (two of which were recorded and will in time find there way onto this blog).

But it was the band’s appearance at the 1987 Reading Festival that was perhaps the live highlight of the year. The Reading Festival had for years been primarily a ‘metal’ festival, which accounts for Hugh’s introduction to ‘Golden Brown’. However, the festival was in transition at this point, in the early ‘90s it could be considered to be more of an indie festival.

The Stranglers played a great set ahead of the appearance of Alice Cooper (Cooper’s drum soundcheck on the adjacent stage, part way through the Stranglers’ set, caused some needle on the day. It is worth noting that this was the first airing of another cover, this time the Kinks ‘All Day and All of the Night’ which was to be the band’s next single. Without doubt ADAAOTN is a great song, but one I would like to see dropped from the set….. in favour of La Folie perhaps!

It was at this gig that I met one Steve Tyas. Later after placing an add in Strangled we got back in touch and I am pleased to say that we are still in touch and perhaps more importantly still seeing the Stranglers 24 years later!



So, here are two edits of the gig. The first is the full set, the second a 1 hour BBC Radio 1 ‘In Concert’ broadcast. The last song on the radio broadcast version, ‘Toiler on the Sea’ was also broadcast by the BBC, same gig but with this song added in place of another.


FLAC: https://we.tl/t-tfzQz06BXz

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-YBezJiucN0

Full set bootleg

1. No More Heroes
2. Was It You?
3. Down In The Sewer
4. Nice In Nice
5. Punch And Judy
6. Souls
7. Always The Sun
8. Strange Little Girl
9. Golden Brown
10. North Winds
11. Big In America
12. Nice N Sleazy
13. Who Wants The World
14. Bring On The Nubiles
15. Shakin Like A Leaf
16. Uptown
17. Tank
18. Toiler On The Sea
19. Spain
20. All Day And All Of The Night
21. London Lady

BBC Radio 1 'In Concert' Broadcast

1. No More Heroes
2. Was It You?
3. Down In The Sewer
4. Nice In Nice
5. Punch And Judy
6. Souls
7. Always The Sun
8. Strange Little Girl
9. Golden Brown
10. North Winds
11. Big In America
12. Nice N Sleazy
13. Who Wants The World
14. Bring On The Nubiles
15. Spain
16. All Day And All Of The Night
17. Toiler On The Sea (Alt Broadcast)


8 comments:

  1. Fantastic Blog!
    This blog and Two Sunspots blog are the motherload of The Stranglers live!
    Cheers!
    Best wishes,
    Dead Metheny.

    PS
    I'm the geezer from D&P bootlegtunzworld community area who asked "are there any good Stranglers boots out there?" I think you answered that request better than I could have ever imagined!!!

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  2. I have been after this for ages. I once had a copy on DAT but it unfortunately got lost. Many many thanks for posting this gem

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  3. Awesome thank you for this. I was there in 1987, first time I ever saw the stranglers I travelled from South Africa, what a treat to see one of my favorite bands at the time. The urine in the bottle was really funny...I will never forget it. great blog by the way.

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  4. Adrian is it possible to give this gig a new link please. I was at this gig many years ago and it would be good to hear the whole gig again

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  5. any chance of a new link please?

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  6. any chance of a new link please?

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  7. Any chance of a new link please. Thanks

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  8. Just discovering this 1987 recording from the BBC. Great sound from one of the greatest bands ever, if not the greatest... but well, there are some other bands worth giving a listen too... Kinks, the Sweet, Nazareth, etc.

    Thanks for sharing,

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