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.


Tuesday 25 January 2022

The Iron Works Inverness 27th February 2014

 


To mark the much awaited and long overdue tour, starting in Lincoln tonight before the laong haul upto Aberdeen on Thursday, here is a Scottish date from The Ruby Tour. many thanks as always to Chatts and MeAnIe.

This was a mammoth set in keeping with the anniversary occasion... more like a Ramones set than The Stranglers!

WAV:  https://we.tl/t-suvTfjLzqj

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-yXzSIhJMQB

01. Intro-London Lady
02. No More Heroes
03. Coup De Grace
04. Was It You?
05. Threatened
06. Summat Outanowt
07. Peasant In The Big Shitty
08. 5 Minutes
09. Still Life
10. Midnight Summer Dream
11. Thrown Away
12. Never To Look Back
13. Tramp
14. Skin Deep
15. Time To Die
16. Lowlands
17. Valley Of The Birds
18. Nice ‘N’ Sleazy
19. North Winds
20. Freedom Is Insane
21. Peaches
22. Norfolk Coast
23. Hanging Around
24. Baroque Bordello
25. Golden Brown
26. Strange Little Girl
27. Always The Sun
28. Genetix
29. Tank

Gen X Kiss Me Deadly Demos

 


It is rare for me to take against a first wave British punk band, but for some reason Generation X are my exception. I dunno what to put it down to. It couldn't have been Billy Idol's cod Elvis sneer... all the punk bands were sneering in a similar manner at the time. It's not as though Billy Idol was the only one to decamp to the US to become a 'metal' star.... Steve Jones grew his hair and did the very same thing. The singles conformed to expectations I guess.... whatever the reason they leave me cold. Nevertheless, I cannot claim to be in the majority so this post is in.

So late stage Generation X, then abbreviated to Gen X, January 1981. See what you think.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-gZEVTPztPC

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-xVZr66q9Fa

01. Triumph
02. Dancing With Myself
03. Cathy Go Home
04. Girls
05. Anna Smiles
06. Stars Look Down
07. Flash As Hell
08. Psych Beat
09. Modern Girls
10. Revenge
11. What Do You Want?
12. Triumph
13. Happy People
14. Listen
15. Gimme Some Truth

Monday 24 January 2022

Cabot Hall Canary Wharf London 3rd October 2003

 

Many thanks to Yesican for coming up with the goods and replacing my knackered copy of this strange gig. As I have mentioned previously, I was working within a stone's throw of Canary Wharf at the time. I even picked up flyers for the gig but couldn't bring myself to go. The return to form 'Norfolk Coast' was still a little bit beyond the horizon so my interest remained low.

Nevertheless, this is a great recording and who can poo-poo the inclusion of 'Don't Bring Harry'!

WAV: https://we.tl/t-EDcxCQeVJ3

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-Lu05LWLyyf

01. Instead Of This
02. Let Me Down Easy
03. Strange Little Girl
04. Walk On By
05. English Towns
06. European Female
07. Southern Mountains
08. Face
09. Tuckers Grave
10. Cruel Garden
11. Always The Sun
12. Don’t Bring Harry

01. Sanfte Kuss
02. Sinister
03. In The End
04. Mine All Mine
05. Still Life
06. Princess Of The Streets
07. Golden Brown
08. Old Codger
09. No More Heroes

Sunday 23 January 2022

Ruts DC Corn Exchange Cambridge 25th March 2017

 


And here's the support. So happy to see Ruts DC back on the road with the band this time around!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-JjIrXZ6w2M

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-lr17fPxkOL

01. Vox Teardrop
02. Surprise
03. West One (Shine On Me\0
04. Mighty Soldier
05. Music Must Destroy
06. Staring At The Rude Boys
07. Jah War
08. Kill The Pain
09. In A Rut
10. Babylon’s  Burning
11. Psychic Attack
12. Society

Corn Exchange Cambridge 25th March 2017

 


On the eve of the much awaited UK tour, here's one from a few years back in Cambridge. This was a bit of a combined effort. As recall Chatts was the man on the mike whilst MeAnIe took charge of the graphics. As Mainwaring would say.... 'Well done men!'.

WAV: https://we.tl/t-SGnqolVXkw

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-q5UnUOmqnF

01. Intro
02. The Raven
03. Was It You?
04. Sometimes
05. (Get A) Grip (On Yourself)
06. 15 Steps
07. Nice ‘N’ Sleazy
08. Never To Look Back
09. Always The Sun
10. Strange Little Girl
11. Golden Brown
12. Bear Age
13. Who Wants The World?
14. Walk On By
15. Dagenham Dave
16. Freedom Is Insane
17. Peaches
18. Genetix
19. Hanging Around
20. 5 Minutes
21. Down In The Sewer
22. Go Buddy Go
23. No More Heroes

Tuesday 18 January 2022

Request - Cabot Hall Canary Wharf 3rd October 2003

 


I have this but my recording is wrecked (disc deterioration). I was down the road working in Becton when this happened but didn't attend as I was in my wilderness years with the band at the time.

Does anyone have a lossless version that they would be prepared to send over to me?

Cheers,

Adrian.

Monday 17 January 2022

West London Calling ‘No Justice’ by The Price

 


I cannot pinpoint the exact date when I first became acquainted with Leigh Heggarty, it really is lost in the mists of time. It was about 33 years ago, that much I can stand by and I am fairly confident that it would have been at The Angler’s Retreat pub in West Drayton. It could have been at one of his own gigs with The Price or maybe on the first occasion that I saw TV Smith’s forgotten outfit ‘Cheap’.

At that time, I sported a leather jacket on the back of which I had painted one of Steve Beaumont’s caricatures of JJ Burnel. Clearly this had earlier been spied at a gig somewhere in London as one morning in the centre of Uxbridge, a chap called Tony Clarke called me over for a chat having remembered the jacket. Tony was one of a group of Uxbridge area music fans that coalesced around this band called The Price. It is funny to think that 30 plus years down the line I have retained good friendships with as many people from the Uxbridge music scene, such as it was, as fellow students from Brunel University (the reason that I landed in Uxbridge for four years).

Since their original incarnation they have come back together on a number of occasions. I went back to The Angler’s Retreat to see them many years later as well as seeing them play a few times at the sorely missed Square in Harlow.

Now, all of these years later they are about to release their debut album. Entitled ‘No Justice’ it is a fine collection of 19 studio recordings from 1988 to 1993.

I do not think that I am doing the band a disservice when I say that whilst they came close they missed the break that several of their contemporaries such as The Senseless Things and Mega City Four enjoyed in the early 1990’s. This, as they would probably admit themselves, was in part an unwillingless to bow to record company expectations of how they should sound… an admirable stance I think for a guitar band to take in the musical climate of the day.

It is great to see that this material that meant so much to people in those miserable days of the late Thatcher era is finally getting a formal release.

And with that, here is more detail from the album’s press release:

‘THE PRICE - 'NO JUSTICE?' album press release


33 1/3 years after they released their first single THE PRICE release their debut album ‘NO JUSTICE?’ on Cadiz Records cat. no. CADIZCD221 - nineteen studio recordings from 1988-1993.

The Price played hundreds of shows during this time, including support slots to Transvision Vamp, Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine, The Lords Of The New Church, Wilko Johnson, Mega City Four, Senseless Things, John Otway and many more, as well as sharing the stage with contemporaries like Red Letter Day, The Newtown Neurotics, The Chairs, Action Pact, TV Smith’s Cheap, Who Moved The Ground?, The Shout and Porky The Poet (now better known as Phill Jupitus) among others.

They also toured the UK with The Lurkers and were one of the few bands to play in East Germany (including gigging in Leipzig and East Berlin and a recording session in Halle as well as supporting Half Japanese in Magdeburg and Cottbus) before The Wall came down.

The band appeared on a compilation album with The Manic Street Preachers (who they were booked to support but who got too big for the gig!) and their two 7” singles 'The Price You Pay' / 'The Man With The Smile' and 'So What About Love?' / Between The Lies' were both Single Of The Week in The NME and Sounds magazines.

BBC radio presenter Steve Lamacq was an early champion of the band, and ex-Ruts guitarist Paul Fox produced their second single ‘So What About Love?’ They also went on to work with famed and fabled producer Pip Williams who also produced Status Quo, Dr. Feelgood and more.

Although the band released a six-track mini-album ‘The Table Of Uncles’ in 1990 they were never able to release a full-length LP at the time, so this release collects together many of their best-loved songs in a long overdue overview of their career.

Price guitarist Leigh Heggarty now plays in Ruts D.C., and has also worked with Henry Rollins, Alvin Gibbs & The Disobedient Servants, Wayne Kramer, T. V. Smith, Department S and many more.’

The album features the following tracks:

1. No Justice
2. So Sure
3. Marching On
4. Matter Of Time
5. It Hurts
6. Crazy Times
7. So Cold
8. Wonderland
9. Slip Away
10. Close The Curtains
11. Jodie
12. Standing In Your Way
13. Between The Lines
14. So What About Love?
15. Shattered Land
16. The Cover Up
17. On The Ice
18. The Man With The Smile
19. The Price You Pay

And the album is available to buy here:

https://www.viveleshop.com/products/the-price-no-justice-cd?_pos=1&_sid=19e6ed00d&_ss=r


Tuesday 11 January 2022

Brixton Academy 24th March 2017

 


It was nearly five years ago that the band made a triumphant return to the beloved Brixton Academy on the 'Classic Collection' tour. Thanks to the original donor of the files.

Wav from mp3 (as recieved): https://we.tl/t-F1xiNcDs84

Artwork sleeve: https://we.tl/t-sY98Wul1cK

01. Intro
02. The Raven
03. Was It You?
04. Sometimes
05. (Get A) Grip (On Yourself)
06. 15 Steps
07. Nice ‘N’ Sleazy
08. Never To Look Back
09. Always The Sun
10. Strange Little Girl
11. Golden Brown
12. Bear Cage
13. Who Wants The World?
14. Walk On By
15. Dagenham Dave
16. Relentless
17. Peaches
18. Genetix
19. Hanging Around

01. 5 Minutes
02. Down In The Sewer
03. Duchess
04. Something Better Change
05. Go Buddy Go
06. No More Heroes