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.


Monday 1 April 2024

Derngate Theatre Northampton 27th October 1999 DVD

 


This one is interesting from the perspective of gaining some insight into where the band were at at this point in what was already then a long career. Changes were afoot again with John Ellis soon to leave the band. This is an audience film recorded from the balcony so there is a clear view of the stage throughout. The sound however is not the best.


I did not enjoy this period at all. Seeing them in Cambridge the year before was thoroughly disheartening for me... as I recall JJ provided vocals on 'The Raven' and nothing more. This is similar, Paul is very animated and happily hitting various percussion instruments. JJ looks very much removed from the proceedings... really going through the motions at this stage. What I found interesting as I put together some artwork for this DVD was that the set, consisting of 23 songs featured only two songs recorded by the current incarnation of the band. I find that a little surprising even whilst acknowledging that this 'Hits and Heroes' tour was promoting another greatest hits release. That said they were not adverse to throwing in some live obscurities into the set, notably 'Pin Up', 'Ice Queen' and 'Two Sunspots'. See what you make of it.

DVD image: https://we.tl/t-fVWZ1QOrWN

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-KVmTHkS8to

01. Duchess
02. (Get A) Grip (On Yourself)
03. Coup De Grace
04. Pin Up
05. Just Like Nothing On Earth
06. Skin Deep
07. Ice Queen
08. Princess Of The Streets
09. The Raven
10. Genetix
11. Always The Sun
12. Goodbye Toulouse
13. Nuclear Device
14. Two Sunspots
15. Burning Up Time
16. Tank
17. Something Better Change
18. 5 Minutes
19. Golden Brown
20. Valley Of The Birds
21. Thrown Away
22. Hanging Around
23. No More Heroes

3 comments:

  1. Hi, can't seem to get this to work, on mobile and everything I've downloaded doesn't support the format.

    ReplyDelete