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.


Sunday 28 February 2016

The Members Warfield Theater San Fransisco 15th August 1980

The Members

Not sure whether the full band supported The Stranglers at any time, but frontman Nicky Tesco certainly helped out in April 1980 at the pair of gigs that the band played at The Rainbow, In Hugh's absence Nicky contributed vocals to Nice 'n' Sleazy.

Here's a great quality recording of the band stateside. Many thanks to the contributor!


01. Intro
02. Muzak Machine
03. Flying Again
04. Offshore Banking Business
05. Stand Up And Spit
06. Romance
07. Gang War
08. Don’t Push
09. Police Car
10. Sound Of The Suburbs
11. Soho A-Go-Go
12. Solitary Confinement
13. At A Chelsea Nightclub
14. G.L.C.

The Members are still active (in fact I saw them play a couple of weeks ago at the 100 Club) and they have a new album out.




4 comments:

  1. Nice one, Adrian. I guess this one must have come via me from collector/engineer Terry Hammer, who recorded a series of classic acts (Dead Kennedys, Jam, XTC, Magazine, Ultravox, Gang of Four, as well as this Members gig) for broadcast over the UC Berkeley station KALX and several others from the 1979 - 1981 period. "Anyone who spent a night at one of these clubs knows how chaotic the atmosphere was. That he was able to, not only get a decent feed from the sound mixing board, but was also able to get clean recordings was something of a miracle. And the fact this guy did it over and over again is pure dedication to the cause of preserving history for decades to come. Fortunately for everyone, he’s been making these gems of history available and their value as historic documents is inestimable. This is really exciting stuff and I am grateful for Terry’s foresight and deft skill" - from the great pastdaily, which has put up an archive of Hammer recordings not to be missed over here:

    http://pastdaily.com/?s=Terry+Hammer

    Cheers, Dave Sez.

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  2. My bad, just spotted it's in WAV; the pastdailys are @320, so ta for the upgrade, Adrian! Terry comments:

    "From the HAMMER ARCHIVES. This is an audio recording of my live radio broadcast of Bill Graham's URGH #1 featuring The MEMBERS @ the Fox Warfield 8/15/80.
    Like all of my live recordings this was mixed direct to 2-Track Reel To Reel using headphones.
    Sitting in the club with the loud P.A. sound trying to drive the amp in my mixing board loud enough to hear what I was mixing.
    If you've ever been to a live concert,then,you know how loud it can be.
    Mixed on a cheap Peavey MkII 12 channel mixing board to Technics RS-1500 2-Track Reel To Reel."

    Cheers, Dave Sez.

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  3. Good stuff Dave. Thanks for all the background. Actually I received another SB Members recording in the same trade - from The Old Waldorf, SF 25th October 1979. A job for the weekend methinks.

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  4. Indeed, Adrian, just getting it now. And your suspicion is right: another one from the great Terry Hammer, and in October not November - see his post of it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGCle3kQv8M

    Cheers, Dave Sez.

    ReplyDelete