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.


Thursday, 31 July 2025

Five Nights in the English Towns (November 1975)

Anyone fancy a few nights out... take a look at this listing taken from the 22nd November 1975. Things are starting to stir, also out and about this week are Squeeze, the 101ers, Kilburn & The High Roads... Nazareth and Uriah Heep.

I'll be with you as soon as Basil Brush is finished!

Just out of interest I tried looking up these venues. The Cart & Horses in Stratford is still running as a music venue and sells itself quite significantly as the birthplace of Iron Maiden.

The Cart & Horses, Stratford

According to responses on Facebook, the site of Sundowners in Folkestone is now occupied by the F51 Skate Park.

F51 Skate Park, Folkestone

The Goodwill To All in Wealdstone was closed and demolished in 2011. From some of the reports and comments about the pub, goodwill was not always extended to all!

Goodwill To All, Wealdstone

Ockley in Surrey is quite close to the Sussex towns of Crawley and Horsham. The once Red Lion now goes by the name of the Inn on the Green and is still a functioning pub.

Inn on the Green, formerly the Red Lion, Ockley.

Of the Gaiety Bar in Aldershot I can find no information, other than the fact that The Jam played there back in late '74.




Wednesday, 30 July 2025

Mit Den Jungs Aus Der Gang With 999 Germany 2025 Part 1

 

I had been looking forward to this weekend for months now. A three city trip over a long weekend, taking in Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Copenhagen. I am familiar with all three cities, but the draw on this occasion was 999 who were on a European tour with four dates/5 gigs lined up in Germany. Mine and Gunta's schedule was such that we could only do two of the dates but that suited too.

The outbound travelling was always going to be a little tense since we were flying out on Thursday afternoon from Stansted on Ryanair into Cologne. From the airport, two train connections were required to get us to Dusseldorf Hauptbahnhof and our hotel and then to the gig venue. All this was perfectly managable, but the timelines were tight. The one hour flight delay was not the best of starts. Then came news that the gig was an early one with doors at 6pm.

The good news was that the flight was the only delayed leg and we made it to the venue as planned, on time to meet Peter, a friend from Dusseldorf and great supporter of this site. Sitting in the sun outside the venue, he was in conversation with Arturo and Gunta and I joined them for talk of touring, 999 and punk in general. Talk turned to The Stranglers and Arturo spoke of his early following of the band upto April '77. That's one thing about 999, they have multiple and varied connections with the band over a near 50 year period. The Stranglers, along with the Pistols, supported Kilburn & The High Roads at their last ever gig at Walthamstow Assembly Hall on 17th June 1976. The Kilburns had one Keith Lucas (Nick Cash) on guitar. After following The Stranglers in 1976/1977, Arturo Bassick's post-Lurkers band, Pinpoint, provided support for the band's 'secret' London club date at the Red Cow in Hammersmith in September 1978, whilst 999 supported The Stranglers across Europe in 1978. And the two bands have periodically shared the stage on numerous occasions since those early days. 999 will celebrate their 50th anniversary throughout 2026!

Even before a note was played, the club was stiffling to the extent that peope remained outside for as long as possible, with both Guy Days and Stuart Meadows joining in the conversation at different times. In no time, the 8.30 stage time was upon us and band and punters squeezed into the narrow confines of the club. The support band 'Clox' had raised the temperature in the room by about 10 degrees and 999 were set to raise the mercury by another 10 degrees over the next hour.

999 at the Pitcher, Dusseldorf
24th July 2025
(complete with obscuring wall!)

Our position in the venue wasn't the greatest, kind of round a corner with a limited view of the stage. Nevertheless, despite the odd layout of the room, the sound was very good. The band opened with 'Black Flowers for the Bride', a long favourite of hours, the song being on the 'You Us It' album that was released shortly before we got married (romantic eh!?). Classic 999 followed, 'Hit Me'. 'Let's Face It', 'Boys In The Gang' and 'Inside Out' along with the 'new', 'Shoot' from 'Bish Bash Bosh'. In perhaps what was a 'Don't mention the war' moment, 'Don't You Know I Need You' was back in the set in favour of 'My Dad Trashed My Submarine'. From the crowd reaction it was evident that Germany loves 999 and in turn 999 loves Germany. Audience and band have a certain chemistry, the bonds of which formed way back in 1978 and have been strengthened by regular visits ever since. 

As the band entered the final straight with the evergreen 'Emergency', 'Nasty Nasty'and 'Homicide' the temperature in the room was very uncomfortable. Of course there was an encore, but at the Pitcher exiting the stage only to return was an imposibility so in no time the band launched into 'My Street Stinks' and 'I'm Alive'. And then it was done, 60 minutes of high octane punk rock at high heat and I am left in no doubt that these small venue, full on European gigs are the best way to see a band. 

Wednesday, 23 July 2025

999 Dirt Club Bloomfield New Jersey 14th June 1981

 

Exited tonight about the prospect of seeing our old friends 999 in Dusseldorf and Hamburg in the coming days. It will be the first time back in Dusseldorf for Gunta since her aunt died in 2007 I think it was, so no doubt we will visit some old haunts and I dare say we may have a beer in the Uerige.... ufortunately an alcohol-free one these days. And we are due to meet with another old friend, Peter, on the night.

So that seems to be as good an excuse as any to post a great sounding (soundboard) recoording off 999 in New Jersey at the time of the 'Concrete' LP. Many thanks to Phil Singleton for the share.

WAV: https://we.tl/t-qLI8PXp11n

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-v94HAf2lUN



Monday, 21 July 2025

The Wickerman Festival Dundrennan 22nd July 2005

 

On the eve of its 20th anniversary, here is the gig that the band played at the Wickerman Festival in Scotland in 2005. This I believe was the full set audience shot recording. Quite watchable and a nice snapshot of Mk III Stranglers. The disc has one extra, a TV promo appearance with 'Big Thing Coming' on GMTV in 2004.

DVD image: https://we.tl/t-58U2EzYrVW

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-Ke1ZKY5lHD



Friday, 18 July 2025

Badge of the Week #9

So I am listening to Dave going through his paces yesterday on the Classic Collection Southend gig prior to uploding it. He was having a bit of an off day, but that notwithstanding I had a bit of a Dave moment. So without further ado... (25mm).



Thursday, 17 July 2025

Annual WeTransfer Subscription

 


I cannot believe that Aural Sculptors has been up and running for 14 years now. In that time I have tried to provide a site with content that is of interest to people with my kind of taste in music, such as it is, with an obvious emphasis on the music and activities of The Stranglers. In these endeavours, my time comes free, but unfortunately, the storage space for the gig files, which are the raison d'être for the site in the first place, comes at a price, specifically €228 per year (due for payment on 18th July 2025). So those people who have followed the site for 12 months or more will know the score. Anyone who wishes to make a contribution towards covering the cost of this annual WeTransfer subscription is welcome to do so via the PayPal button on the right side bar on the site home page. As has always been the case there is no pressure from my side, as per my current intentions the site will continue for as long as I have relevant material to share and for as long as the project continues to hold my interest (and here my commitment to old punk bands is pretty long-standing!)

As ever, thanks is due to those of you  who have once again contributed to the site, be that monetarily or through sharing files. It is and always will be highly appreciated.

In the coming year, I will continue to post material from the best era of British music ever (a personal opinion of course). The recent 'Top 30' posts will I hope continue to be engaging, my intention being that the incorporation of contemporary music press articles (of which I have amassed a considerable collection) will provide some additional context that sits beside the audio content. I am at least enjoying reading (if not typing!) the interviews of the day - there is always some new insight to be gleaned from such articles even after the passage of 45 years or more.

It is still my intention to run the site as a Stranglers related blog first and foremost, that being the area in which I am least likely to be found out to be talking shit! However, inevitably 14 years in, the well is starting to run a little dry. As such, contributions to the site of missing Stranglers gigs that may be lurking in your own collections are also most welcome. If you are willing to share files that can be uploaded on here, please drop me an email (address under the site banner at the top of the page). Gaps in my collection can be seen on the 'Live Recordings 1976 to Date' pages, again on the right side bar. As can be seen from this list, there are some substantial gaps between 1991 and 2005 and after about 2007 when my trading dried up.

Thanks for your attention and I hope that you continue to enjoy the site for the rest of the year and into 2026.

Cheers!

Adrian.

Cliffs Pavilion Southend 23rd March 2017

 


Southend plays host to The Stranglers back in 2017. Nice sounding recording... I think from Chatts (looking at the track labelling style). Cheers!

WAV: https://we.tl/t-ZDgjof7m4b

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-Q9ugVksveD



Saturday, 12 July 2025

Dead Kennedys Interview (Record Mirror 27th September 1980)

Here's an interview from the time of the album release and supporting UK dates that Jello did with Record Mirror. In it he sets out the band's plan to shake America out of its torpor and 'Me' mentality.

 Record Mirror 27th September 1980


IN the early, hours of the morning the packed dance floor of San Francisco's Fab Mab is a sweaty mess of jerking flesh. It's time for Jello Biafra's finest gesture and before you can say 'Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad', the Dead Kennedys' lead singer and strategist has taken a ' flying dive into the audience. Dirk Dirksen, the club's owner, strolls on stage and reels Biafra 'back by his mike cord. Before you know it, Jello's up again, gesturing manically to illustrate a lyric, singing in a punk whine that threatens to become a shriek.

This has been going on for two years. The Dead Kennedys have perfected their act 6,000 miles and four years away from the English punk explosion. Is San Francisco a cultural backwater or just a different battlefield? How come an American punk band are zooming up the charts in a land supposedly taken with 2 Tone and the new psychedelia, with an album recorded on a British label and unreleased in the States? Questions, questions.

A few nights after the Kennedys' farewell gig at the Mab and three days before he leaves for Britain , Biafra meditates on such topics before and after dancing his head off to Texan punkband Really Red. Biafra is an ex-hippie, something of an anarchist and ex-Mayoral candidate for San Francisco. He got over 7,000 votes because he's a good tactician and because he's got a sense of humour. When the Dead Kennedys toured in the sticks of California they called their visit to redheck territory the 'Turd Town' tour. Biafra's tactics are to be as tactless as possible.

When he explains why, Biafra sounds like he's issuing an official statement, pre-written and composed. He talks like an emphatic newsreader, laying emphasis on every other word: "Americans are governed by fads. They are kept together like rodents by their fear of failing to keep up with the Joneses. They are constantly on the watch for new products to be fed - but only ones that everybody else is buying too. They're very afraid of being weird which is what we've got to convince them is the best thing they can be in these circumstances.

"A lot of the people in this country are basically zombies. You must attack them, annoy them, get under their skin, make them as uncomfortable as possible. Our live shows are basically ways of torturing the audience so that they enjoy it but also go home.feeling different. Unglue the minds of the zombies. We re trying to combat the obedience training."

Now this is all very well, but does a band that specialises in head banging punk really liberate its audience or just create a bunch of media-mirror zombie punks? Punk . still has d very different status in the US however, still remaining firmly underground and thus retaining a vital part to play.

Biafra explains: "Americans are so conservative . They don't have the same access to the media. People in England are primed to be . interested in what's going on; America's a much larger country. News travels slowly and people are conditioned to stick with the old bands."

Biafra contends that "America's behind but it's very much alive. " He swears his allegiance to punk rock while saying the Kennedys are gradually moving from buzzsaw to more morbid, diseases rock, "a further descent into hell.

"Punk rock and garage rock never die, People are always going to like getting hit in the guts with rock and roll . I have since I was seven. Every time bands like SLF, Crass, Cockney Rejects or the Ruts come out they immediately catch on . because people don't care if they're dated, they like it. We' ll keep the . punk base but build on it. We don't want to wimp out and go pop or get so arty that you're basically playing to yourself in the mirror."

'Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables' was the statement of the Kennedy's a year to six months ago. While musically and sometimes thematically derivative of the Pistols and Co. it has manic tinny tranny quality of its own, particularly on such speedy little operas as 'Kill The Poor', which dances as merrily and hysterically as a drowning rat towards the apocalypse. Satire has always been the strength of Californians like the Tubes and Zappa,and Biafra's commitment and love of psychosis takes the satire one step further, towards the mania of Napoleon V's ‘They're Coming ToTake Me Away'.

Jello's favourite scenario, one that is repeated in such songs as 'Chemical Warfare', 'I Kill Children', and 'Stealing People's Mail', is the trashing of the normal, fat, complacent white consumer by a psychotic on the loose. Biafra takes as much delight in portraying psychotics, red-neck and otherwise, as does John Cale, whose 'Sabotage' Jello admires. Don’t you get a little carried away there Jello? Are you criticising the culture that produces such warpoes or becoming one yourself? And why don't you go out and literally eat the rich if it fascinates you so much?

"In a sense it's more effective to put these things across in a song than do them in real life. Son of Sam never got to make a record, he got put away instead. I think it helps people who are stuck in ruts but have violence bubbling inside them in their daydreams, to find that/there are people who think the same as they do."

Somehow I don't feel Jello's real interest is in comforting the psychotic in everyone. As America boringly drifts towards a neo-fascist President like Reagan, Jello is more concerned to see the slumbering anger released. In any form.

"A vacant stranger is someone who may seem perfectly quiet and normal for decades on end and then suddenly breaks out and performs some violent act that forever brands his name in the history books. Vacant strangers are the creative criminals, there's one in all of us, and it's about time he came out.

"Vacant strangers' do good things as well as bad things," Jello adds as an unconvincing afterthought, fact is, like any decent satarist or home loving boy, Jello is half in love with the monsters that his country produces and thus the diseased state of the country itself: "I think in order to expose something completely you have to immerse yourself in it. I learned, as a method actor, to immerse myself in other characters. Some of the characters in the songs are characters, some are parts of me."

There's a part of 'Jello that wants revenge, that wants the blood of his complacent compatriates. It's a nasty, giggling, bullying side and Biafra indulges it - in his songs at least: "Evil fascinates me. In order to expose situations rather than just say 'I hate it' I prefer to immerse myself in it and expose it from within. "

Yes sir, there's a vacant stranger in all of us and as far as Jello is concerned it takes a band as tactless and tasteless as the Dead K's to put us in touch with him: "Americans have very thick sugarcoated skulls and they have to be beaten over the head." Jello admits the dangers of being misunderstood by his audience as encouraging the monsters the band's attacking through immersion and, for once, is stumped: "The irony worries me and I haven't really thought of a solution to it yet."

There probably isn't one. Because Jello belongs in that great old American tradition, the trash syndrome. He loves and hates the trash, the sheer godawful tastelessness that is so much a part of America. So he attacks it in his songs, particularly the normal white middle-class version that eats polyester and wears popcorn (spot the deliberate mistake!) while championing it in the band's name and elsewhere.

Oh yes, about that name which still works a lot more powerfully than, your average mega-chord: "The Kennedy assassinations torpedoed the American dream. In the fifties there was nothing but talk of big cars and better this, life here was supposedly getting better everyday. Nobody believes that any more. The assassinations were the end of the American Dream and the beginning of the 'Me' generation.

Jello Blafra lives-in a melodramatic world of B Movie . scenarios .. America is a lot sicker than he is and he's a dab hand at diagnosing it, even if, as he perhaps worries, he's a part of that sickness. He's part patient, part doctor, part mutant, part moralist. He hates the 'ME' spirit of America most of all.

"We're coming from a tradition that is no tradition, a culture that has no soul unless you count lust and greed. That's the Protestant work ethic, 'God helps those who help themselves' Americans have twisted this so they believe, 'I must help myself above all so I don't care whose back I stab'. I want everything right now for free. The American empire is crumbling right now due to the same sort of mental laziness and corruption that brought down the Romans and the English.”

I enjoy it when Biafra says these things. Shock and confrontation are not in fashion right now, probably never are in California. Serious as he sounds, the Dead Kennedys are above all humourists with trash comics as an inspiration, B Movie camp and garageland .They are second generation punks putting out the first San Francisco punk album because only England would put up the money. There's still no one doing that here, though maybe the arrival of.Rough Trade will change that.

The Kennedys are proud of their San Franciso scene roots: "We come out of a scene that's been thriving for three years and we' re very thankful to finally get an album out when so few bands have been able to do so. It's kind of a sick joke when you think of the people over here like the Dils or the Avengers who didn't get an album out when they deserved to and were slagged off in the European press for being clones of bands that had started off with influences from American bands. There's a lot more where we come from."

Well , there you have it, the arrival of another spokesman and another band from San Francisco with 'Dead' in their name. There's not much that's grateful about this lot however. Thank God someone's treading on a few toes in America today.

Sure the Kennedys are dated, headbangers in style and music, trash anarchists in Iyrics. Sure there's a nasty adolescent bully in Jello's lyrics just bursting to get out and get violent with a few innocent bystanders (innocent bystanders and vacant strangers, what a . combination!) but Jello's right, punk is here to stay and the Kennedys . are saying the unsaid, being loud and obnoxious, in California at least.

Maybe Jello, East Bay Ray, Klaus Flouride and Ted will upset a few city councils on the English tour. About time too. California Uber Alles.



Dead Kennedys Music Machine London 8th October 1980

 


On their first UK tour, promoting the debut album, 'Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables', here are the Dead Kennedys in London on 8th October 1980. The set on this night features ten of the fourteen tracks that appear on the album.











Top 30 Punk Albums #3 Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables - Dead Kennedys

 


Thinking now of an album from beyond our island shores. For sheer balls, this album released in September 1980 can lay a reasonable claim to be America's answer to 'Never Mind The Bollocks'. Jello Biafra and Co. set out their stall in 1978 in a way that conservative America was not ready for. Without even considering the music the very name, 'Dead Kennedys' was incendiary! Remember this was just a short 15 years after a sniper's bullet took out the nation's presidential golden boy and ten years after JFK's brother, Robert, shared a similar fate in 1968.

Biafra's stage presence during DKs gigs balanced the role of lead singer with that of performance artist. Like Rotten before him, Biafra would provoke a reaction from his audience. Moreover, the band's antagonistic relationship with local law enforcement was such that the members of the San Francisco Police Department often attended their home turf gigs and not with a view to enjoyment.

With their debut album, 'Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables', Dead Kennedys declared war on the American Dream, systematically attacking corruption and hypocracy observed both internally and in US foreign policies being followed by the US Government at that time. These attacks set Jello Biafra's razor sharp lyrics to East Bay Ray's killer surf guitar riffs and Klaus Fluoride's pounding bass. And all this was achieved with a large dose of vicious humour... surely the element that would have enraged the targets of the band's songs the most!

It's funny that I read a BBC review of the album when thinking whether to use this album in the list. The point of that review was that like 'pre-distressed Ramones T-shirts' now avalable in Next that effectively lay waste to a band's legacy, Dead Kennedy's have suffered the same fate and the potency of this first album has been lost. On this point, I think that it is important to consider those reviews that were contemporary to the album's release, such reviews suggest the opposite of the BBC position. The two that I have found are not full of superlatives at all. The music press were very critical of such music at the time, as they were tired of punk and to them 'Fresh Fruit' was more of the same 'punk by numbers'. In contrast, more recent reviews associated with various rereleased formats of the album cannot get away from the fact that Dead Kennedy's were the band around which a whole new punk rock scene coalesced, namely US hardcore. Nor can they escape the fact that the band subsequently influenced some of the US bands that formed in their wake that have gone on to be some of the biggeest bands in the world. In short, Dead Kennedy's have attained a status within punk that they never really enjoyed whilst they were together (with Jello).

The thing that keeps this album so vibrant is that the subject matter of the songs is (sadly) as relevant now as it was in 1980... even more so I would say. Ronald Reagan was a worthy adversary... but up against Trump he was a pussy cat (or should that be a chimpanzee?)

Here's a couple of UK reviews:

New Musical Express 27th September 1980


Record Mirror 27th September 1980





Monday, 7 July 2025

O2 Academy Glasgow 29th January 2022

 

Apologies, I have no idea how I came into posession of this one from 2022. It would appear that it originated from a sale on eBay. The notes with it indicates that on this, the second of two nights in Glasgow, 'Sometimes' was played but is missing from this recording for some reason. Anyway, other than a missing track this is quite a good recording of the night's proceedings.


FLAC: https://we.tl/t-ro19RkX478

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-0uJ38FOzB2



Sunday, 6 July 2025

Penetration Interview (New Musical Express 11th November 1978)

 

"Every night before I go to sleep/Find a ticket, win a lottery/Scoop the pearls up from the sea/Cash them in and…”

The Meek Shall Inherit... Gobbing fans, coloured vinyl, having their gear ripped off, etc, etc. IAN PENMAN admires the soundchecks.

Camera Eye: PENNIE SMITH

A SINGING comes across the stage, and collides with its echo. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to-now.

The soundcheck constructions and interruptions Still interfere but they're merely making up the theatre for the night. Now, the coloured confidence of the lighting is unnecessary. The singing finds its place regardless, without the accustomed relief of the stage's rainbow.

This is another. One slightly familiar, massively closer. A hypnotic, fragile motif, somewhere over gift wrapping and labels, complaint and retaliation, pointless spite and the steep boredom of movement through a leisure industry.

To feel this feel you have to un-listen, for the gesture and angle lack extravagances. It is hard to tell whether there is 'mystery' at work, but there is definitely an unknown quality, the one usually referred to as a mystery.

And then there are three voices:

the First: "this is boring..."

the Second: "this is Heavy Metal…”

the Third: "this 'rock music' is dead…”

PAULINE cuddles into the front passenger seat, eating her favourite sweeties. Her bitter black hair is cellotaped into a spiky arrangement of plaits, and people don't pretend they're not looking at her (maybe she's a punk rock star!)

Robert Blamire, Penetration's bassist, is driving the car, one of two moving the band from London to Huddersfield for the opening date of a British tour; the second in Liverpool, the third back in London, the Roundhouse. Neale Floyd, one of the band's two guitarists, sits in the,back reading George Melly's Rum, Bum, and Concertina. I'm in the back, but I'm just a journalist, intrigued by the myth behind and upfront: life on the road!

The two cars stop at the inevitable (mythical) motorway services station; drummer Gary Smallman and new-ish guitarist Fred Purser vacate the other car with record company PR and Penetration's tour manager.

Everybody uh uhs the food - it's hard to tell whether it exists as anything beyond a projection of what you imagine it'll taste like, based on what you know it looks like.

We ha ha at certain rock bands, press articles; Penetration's debut album "Moving Targets" is faring a degree better than the second album of a certain other Virgin act, favourites though this other act reputedly are with the company. Relatives in the leisure industry.

That Second voice is mentioned, in passing.

HUDDERSFIELD is a fish 'n' chip shop town, a grey town. We arrive in the early evening, and the population looks grey as well, Friday-returning-home. A voice without a number says that developments suggest that for certain people the line between fish 'n' chip and rock 'n' roll isn't very clear.

In Huddersfield this seems appropriate, but doesn't really make much sense. Later, Penetration, waking up ,finally meet for the soundcheck in the night's venue, Huddersfield's Polytechnic - one of those late '60s institutions that make a brave attempt to appear bright and current and don't succeed, Penetration are greeted by two plain chaps from the Poly Entertainments Committee: sensible, 'punk' badges on sensible sweaters:clutching dinky cans.of pale ale like identity cards, chit chat of ho ho and yeah I know and so forth -they too make a brave attempt to appear bright and current.

Penetration seem slightly underwhelmed by their soundcheck, but I love it, and fell them so.

What? It's an integral part of it all! The soundchecks gradually improve over the weekend, stretching and shading to reach an incomparable point on Sunday afternoon.

The space operating between soundcheck and performance is something to wonder at , trace the clipping into place, the tidyng, timing, toughening. Falling into projection, the flecks of influence and successive levels, the piecing together of these, and sometimes the improvisation - this the most remarkable aspect: a stray noise suddenly seized on and stabbed, scratched , twisted into something other than 'self-indulgence' or 'communication' – it finds its place without the accustomed relief of a song's limited structure.

Penetration are good at this and sometimes, surprised, almost reluctant to admit to it. Pauline perfectly still, diminutive, hands slung in pockets, singing out of rainbow fatigues, her chill, piercing, mischievous voice cooing and snapping, often much lower than in performance, then raw and uninhibited into a curling, crashing lash of noise, still 'rock', not lapsing into endgame.

And left as a blunt echo in the emptiness, no-applause to justify its existence.

Within Penetration there is a potential and desire for experiment, a definite commitment, don't worry at the moment about any 'innocence'.

There's always the wiring and acoustic positioning as well- always the background, beforehand, rushing, rig. Tonight Neale's amp has burst somewhere inside, and obstinately resists repair.

The band's road crew have always been friends; it works. On top of this (always) are the 'Hounslow Mob' - six Penetration devotees from London who early on wiped out the line between 'follower' and 'friend'. They seem to lose jobs and the trivial like to pursue Penetration - they get a name check on the "Moving Targets" sleeve - shifting gear, flogging ephemera, forging autographs, dodging skinheads :They try to sell me a Tshirt. I try to resist.

Outside the Poly and into the car, descended upon by local fans, all of who look to be aged between 12 and 15; Pauline is bemused. Back to the hotel and some fish 'n' chips?

PAULINE isn 't feeling too good, her cold is worsening, and she's sick on the Poly gymnasium left wing before going on stage.

The band aren't wholly satisfied with the night's show (and the next one at Liverpool will bear them out) - but it is still v. good, good to be back, a homely chemistry between band and audience, a very pure reaction, romantic, begging, and it isn't distorted or manipulated.

After the encores, there's the dressing room ritual siege spearheaded by the eternal local-extrovert-fan - the one whose line between 'sycophant' and 'psycopath' is very suspect. Tonight's is a dumpling skinhead, whose reminiscences and nonsense loop and loop (the things Pauline has to put up with). The previous evening he'd been to see Buzzcocks, and got up on stage in "joost a fookin' Gee string! - gorrit in British 'Ome Stores like, walked in there, they thorr I were fookin' mad! 'D joost finished work 'tabattoir like…"

The psycopath asks Pauline three times how it feels being a sex symbol, and four times how he thought "present single were fookin' shit at first".

I ask Pauline how it feels being asked how it feels being a sex symbol- she is a married woman, after all ...

"I can't take it seriously, really…”

By the end ofthe night even the plain chaps from the Poly are drunk, asking for autographs on filthy pulp, leaving with the chorus of "Hurry Up Harry". Pauline's amused. I look for Huddersfield's street life but can't see it.

We leave in the morning with two parking tickets.

LIVERPOOL is a betting office city, a dull brown city. We arrive in the late afternoon and things look sadly shabby in the autumn sunshine, Saturday and deserted – Liverpool vs. Everton. There's a substitute voice.

Eric's Club is cramping and pleasant, a good rock club, Penetration are scheduled to play twice, the normal night time to be supplemented by an afternoon matinee for under-eighteens, an

Eric's tradition, even for the unlikeliest (Magazine?).

Penetration's soundcheck is even more absorbing than the last, but the afternoon performance is off-key, ill-balanced, unconfident. I slouch against a wall, out of range of pogo-spilt lemonade, picture Howard Devoto as Mr Punch, think about role diffusion and cheese rolls.

Somewhere between not being able to get a meal at the hotel and the second show one of the band's cars is stolen, the other broken into and left.

Into another place. Spurred on by the relative failure of the afternoon (Pauline: "We went down well, but to me it didn't mean anything, because I knew we weren't really involved, I want to get personal satisfaction out of it as well as the audience liking it…") the evening is faultless, exhilarating, unselfish and unselfconscious, fast, bouyant, joyous – when was the last time I thought I had to use that word?

I don't need to tell you how irresistible and irrepressible Penetration are on record but .at their live best the concealed and perfectly cautious undercurrents of the songs are cut open, charged, fully enjoyed. Confidence rises, Pauline especially thriving off the increasing momentum of the mood, more and more aggressively happy, improvising- in and out the vocal lines, stopping and laughing into the rhythm, texture, the band responding - shiver and smash.

The lovely thing with their music is its internal movement, in particular the emphatically judged, held back, launched drumming - hear the gathering introduction in "Nostalgia ". You  have to un-listen to the power they present - it's nothing to do with bombastic, spewing, gorging Heavy Metal: this is a new, hard modern rock machine, perhaps unique…

Penetration don't mistake their position, don't merely transpose old treats and screen , them with a superfluous sense of the heroic or violent or perverse, some wet artifice or sentiment; the use of conventional tension and tone (and time) is responsive to an untainted attitude - a lineage between means and end, not mileage. They_keep their balance, and it smiles.

The darkening and crossing outline of "Too Many Friends", the lJevation and dizzy sensuality of "Vision", the judicious guitar in "Movement", all breathless, dangerous, and still undeniably… There's no guilt. The two versions are so appropriate - Smith's "Free Money" and Shelley's "Nostalgia" (what kind of co-incidence that the authors have the same initials?) - the dreaming, wish, and tender, curious unknowing of both; Shelley and Smith were aiming for that romantic, fully empty effect - money isn't free , nostalgia isn't promising.

But Penetration play those songs, Pauline sings them as though they had been written for no-one else. Echo is now used on Pauline's voice for that quiet, glittering "Free Money" beginning, and the combination of image, that tantalising voice , and a ringing, lonely reverberation  there's nothing to compare it to now - a penetration which makes the word seem like it meant to whisper, or to sleep, ,then this snapped into the speed of the latter stage of the song, sharp and cold and sad.

In their own songs there's more often than not a plea or avowal; when disillusionment is present there's a feeling that the person has learnt rather than lost from the experience. Is this necessarily 'innocent'? - and is this the Penetration innocence so many have been at odds to convey? They certainly don't seem calculating in their actions... are they ‘innocent’?

Pauline: "I don't know. I think, well we can't notice what other people notice, but I think there is a certain innocence about us.

"I don't know why, but some of them (songs) sound sort of fresh, as though... it's something exciting for us, and we're not just going through the motions. We can't really tell like…”

At a high point in the Liverpool show Robert had fallen over - all six foot plus - but far from this throwing everyone off, they actually seemed to rejoice in it- all grinning healthily. (Falling over gets you accepted - Ed).

"We haven't created an image. Say, for instance, it.had been The Clash, and Mick Jones had fallen over, it would have been… well, he did fall over at the Music Machine - and had to kick Strummer when he got up. We just made a joke out of it."

Other things aren't so lightly taken... "Oh, at the moment there's one thing that's really annoying me - and that's this 'Heavy Metal' thing. Everybody's absolutely fed up with it; it seems to be the in term to use to slag off…"

The guitarists have their say on this. Not suprisingly, Purser more than Floyd, easy, 'cos he plays more lead breaks… "People say 'Oh, he's too flash, he uses technique too much' but I don't, I just play what I think fits.

"Yet people automatically think 'How shall we class him? Metal- because he uses a little bit of distortion and bends his notes.' They should have seen me about two years ago when I first started - then they would have seen a HM guitarist. HM is about self-indulgence, non-progression. When they do 'progress' the guitar or bass progress in speed or pose and the drummer in his solo.

"HM is some people's taste, what they like, but why should it be aimed at us and used as a slander?"

Neale: ''Probably just trying to annoy us…" And when I asked why they should want to do that, Pauline replied , "To corrupt our innocence.”

ARE they -pleased with "Moving Targets"? Pauline: "One thing we're not happy with is the luminous vinyl."

Did you have any say in that?

"Well, they did ask us, but when it was put to us, they said it wouldn't affect the sound quality.

We didn’t ' want 'THIS RECORD GLOWS IN THE DARK', And when we heard how bad it was we went mad…”

Who's working against whose interests?

Virgin gave Penetration a choice of (four) producers (yes, by jove, some companies give you no choice at all) and that aspect of "Moving Targets" did turn out well- if you can actually hear the Howlett/Glossop production under the fizz and grind luminous vinyl surface noise.

Pauline asserts that any act who claim to have 'complete artistic control' are telling fibs, and this is true. Penetration have never made a fuss, or name, out of it but it turns out that…

"We didn't have a contract until the Marquee gig, three and a half months ago. We had the one-off single, "Don't Dictate" with Virgin and we thought they'd sign us up after that, and they didn't. Then they released "Firing Squad" and we were still waiting…”

Robert: "They waited until like almost a week before the option ran out before they told us.

The Marquee gig was when they told us they wanted the album."

Pauline: "When we think about it, at the time (after "Don't Dictate") I don't think we were ready to be signed up - there's been a lot of changes in the band, Gary Chaplin left, and Neale came in, about February…”

"In the beginning we tended to be ignored by the rock press, and it used to get a bit annoying, like there were lots of other bands who we knew we were better than and who were getting more coverage. But in the long road it's worked out well, because a lot of bands who got coverage very early on in their career have burned themselves out straight afterwards."

SUNDAY, and back into London for the Roundhouse show. Camden is a whole-food restaurant town, a colourless town. Everybody has to hang about in the empty, draughty Roundhouse. Pauline plays drums; the soundcheck shrugs, balances. They play that incomparable version of "Free Money” but I seem to be the only person listening. Two reggae bands are on the bill, and  plump, beatific Rastas in pumpkin hats and immaculate clothes potter about like characters from a Noddy story, pre-set to permanent go-slow.

Pauline goes off to Camden Lock market to buy clothes, new clothes. The audience begin to arrive; there have been suggestions that a crypto-NF skinhead pack - the 'British Movement' are intent on gaining entrance and experimenting with the creative possibilities of concussion.

The fish 'n' chips begin to fall in place, (Surely the rainbow doesn't end in the past?)

The audience is pure 1976; there is a lot of spitting - but only, funnily enough, at Penetration - why is it that no one ever seems to spit at reggae acts? (Man cool- Ed).

The audience react well although certain portions do seem to be intimidated by the presence of skinheads.

When I'm not watching some of the awful people at the front of the stage - waiting for Pauline and then spitting - I observe the crop-haired sector, methodically planning out how and who to disturb. Modern times.

PAULINE says she didn't understand the audience. There's absolutely no malice in her voice.

After the encores and the dressing room ritual tonight, it's on to an oppressively pleasant restaurant in Knightsbridge, Virgin have ordered a set meal for 42 persons, ostensibly in Penetration's honour. Pauline still seems distracted by the grubby, pessimistic feedback from the audience.

At one end of one of the long tables reserved for the Virgin party,-Messrs Steve Jones, Paul Cook, and cronies congregate. Jones runs through his public image variations - throwing food, throwing the table over, crawling under the table, broadcasting the wishes of his libido in a loud, childish manner. He also demands fish 'n' chips.

If only you could see your alternative street heroes! I remember Pauline's comment about people who've burnt themselves out , Glancing around at the general excess and veneer, I turn to Pauline and ask her what she thinks of the occasion, held in her honour.

She says that she doesn't really know, she can't taste the food very well because of her cold.

Now everybody - aaahhh!


Saturday, 5 July 2025

Penetration The Underworld Camden London 20th September 2009

 

Unfortunately, live recordings of Penetration of a 1978 vintage are prety rare, so the best that I can do here is offer up this one from London back in 2009. This is a great full set recording that in fact includes most of the tracks from the 'Moving Targets' era and associated tracks of that time.

Pauline and Penetration are still going strong in 2025.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-535ifkTnGg

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-pqj582BCH1



Top 30 Punk Albums #2 Moving Targets Penetration

 


Most of the music scenes that we have witnessed in this country over the last sixty years or so have been city centric and this of course makes some sense. Our major cities have the inrastructure to support bands coming through, venues, rehearsal spaces and certainly since punk, the wherewith all to record and release records independently. In the UK, London and Manchester can quite reasonably lay claim to punk central status, but there were a few bands who somehow managed to muscle into the scene early doors, despite a considerable distance from those two epicentres of punk cool. Penetration were one such band, they came from Ferryhill, a small County Durham town with coal mining heritage. Approximately equidistant from and to the north of Middlesborough and Darlington, Ferryhill had an established colliery brass band, but as of March 1976 the town also had its own embryonic punk rock band. This new band, taking the name of The Points at the last minute first stepped onto a stage. The event occured in mid-January 1977 when Pauline and Co. were offered a support slot for Slaughter & The Dogs' gig at the Rock Garden in Middlesborough.

The punk rock grapevine served the band, now Penetration, well as within just four months of that first gig they had played the punk Mecca's in London (The Roxy on 9th April 1977 with Generation X) and Manchester (Electric Circus on 29th May 1977 with Buzzcocks, Warsaw, John Cooper Clarke and Jon the Postman - not a bad line up that!). This step tradjectory to becoming a lauded band of the punk genre meant that musical proficiency came to the band relatvely quickly and that is reflected in the meterial that was to form their first album, 'Moving Targets'.


Penetration promo (1978)

As a quick aside, some of the most memorable footage of the punk era, came courtesy of Granada TV and Tony Wilson with 'So It Goes'. This programme featured a number of iconic performances of bands playing in the Manchester area. On 16th August '77, Penetration returned to the Electric Circus (along with The Jam) to be filmed for the show. Penetration's performance of 'Don't Dictate' provided some great television as recalled by Pauline in here book 'Life's a Gamble', 'As we launched into 'Don't Dictate', giving it our all, some moron in the crowd started to flick beer from a bottle aimed right at my face. It was disconcerting and annoying and I tried to dodge the spray. He carried on with more intensity and now I was getting really angry. I tried to grab the bottle from him but couldn't quite reach, so the crowd piled on top of him and he was never seen again. It made for great and exiting footage and Tony reckoned that the Pistols and Penetration were his favourite film clips from the 'So It Goes' series'.

'Don't Dictate'
Electric Circus, Manchester
16th August 1977

Penetration's stock remained high throughout 1977, with high profile headline and support gigs regularly coming their way, including support to The Stranglers at Newcastle's City Hall on 12th October, as part of their Autumn tour promoting 'No More Heroes'.


Penetration's debut album moved ever closer with news of a release date and UK tour.

New Musical Express 20th September 1978


'Moving Targets' was released on Virgin Records on Friday 13th October 1978. The good news for Penetration was that no Friday 13th illfortune followed the album which was universally well received. Here's what the critics had to say.

New Musical Express 14th October 1978



Paul Morley was a fan as was Jon Savage who wrote the review that appeared in Sounds on 14th October 1978.

Sounds 14th October 1978


Record Mirror 14th October 1978

PENETRATION SCORE A BULLSEYE

PENETRATION: ‘Moving Targets’ (Virgin V2109)

Pre-destined to review this album thanks to someone’s astute (if negative) observations that a) my hair is shorter than anyone here at RM and b) I too, come from Newcastle. Thank God for circumstance, it does carry platinum linings…

Hmm, blink back one previous eye to stage witnessing of Penetration, many, many months ago at Newcastle Mayfair (when they supported a band that they have since overshadowed) left a strong taste of non-anticipation for the album. Still, events, voices, beliefs DO change.

Penetration, the album, the beginnings of conversation and the death of all hackneyed first impressions of the band. ‘Moving Targets’, a movement of excellence.

A mosaic of Pauline sounding like Patti, Pauline sounding like Poly Styrene, Pauline sounding like Nico, and more exact than any, Pauline being Pauline. A deft collection of voice and instrument, blood and mercury, sand and soil.

Tracks reach crescendos in preference to premature wash-outs, consumer endurables of self-penned numbers, a generously donated Peter Shelley song (‘Nostalgia’), and a superbly performed Smith Kaye composition ‘Free Money’.

‘Too Many  Friends’ reeks of eeriness, a hushed waxworks feel, a tuning down. An overall beauty of more than skin deep melancholia throughout the whole album, and a few sharpened hooks to skewer the party converted.

Penetration coming on in style – a superior album from a convincing band. Like I say, excellent… and thanks Pauline for letting me leave on a high +++++

BEV BRIGGS











Musique En Stock Festival Cluses 8th July 2006 DVD

 


I've said it on here before, but when Baz took to the stage at Weston-Super-Mare on 3rd June 2006 and announced 'And then there were four' the game completely changed again for me. But this was summer, a time for far flung festival appearances, so it was several weeks before I went along to Guilfest on 10th July in the company of Paul Cooklin for my first fix of The Stranglers Revitalised. A few days prior to that the band were in Cluses on the French/Swiss border for the 'Music En Stock' Festival. This is an incomplete audience shot record of that gig. It's not the greatest, but it is a record of a gig from a band on the verge of great change, if not in fortune, in credibility. The audio of the full set can be found here.

DVD image: https://we.tl/t-9ubWhIeCsN

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-u3RnH7YK2Q



Friday, 4 July 2025

Badge of the Week #8

 Back in the second half of the '80's if you wrote a letter to JJ he would reply and for a while his responses included a diecut vinyl sticker or two from the French leg of the Feline tour. I had a couple of these, one was stuck on my bass and that cat eventually lost its tail. I cannot recall what happened to the other. This was the image of the sticker with the 'en tournee' wording (25mm).


It's funny to think from the perspetive of the current digital age that there was a time when you could commune of sorts with the people in your favourite bands. Inclusion of an S.A.E. improved your chances of a response. S.I.S. managed this very well... although back then I had Burnel's Somersham address from where he would reply direct. The Stranglers were always really attentive when it came to that kind of contact with the fanbase.... maybe not as verbose in their replies as Paul Weller, but it was always much appreciated and in my book stood The Stranglers aprt from many of their contemporaries.

Tuesday, 1 July 2025

The March Violets Oslo Hackney London 28th June 2025 - A Review (Of Sorts)

 


I first heard The March Violets 41 one years ago in my mate Matt's bedroom. This was a time when we were both discovering music away from the mainstream. To the extent that finances allowed you would go and see who ever it was that was playing locally (locally in our case was Brighton). For Matt, whose finances were in better shape that mine, that meant that one week it could be the Subhumans at the Richmond, and The Sisters of Mercy at the Top Rank the next. One band that he latched on to was Leeds's March Violets... for a time he was seeing them in London too. I suspect that at that time the then singer Cleo was part of the draw. Thus it was that I was listening to the likes of 'Grooving In Green' and 'Snake Dance' on a mid week evening when I probably should have been studying for my mock 'O' levels or something.

The thing was that despite his enthusiam for the band and the fact that musically I liked them too, I never went along with him to see them back then. It has only been in the last 12 months or so that I went back and started listening to that old material again and better still there was an album of new material to get to grips with too, the excellent 'Crocodile Promises'. My plans to see them for the first time in London last year were derailed by an unexpected stint in hospital, so when further dates were were announced for this summer I got in quick and vowed to stay healthy!

Saturday was the start of a heatwave across the UK that culminated in yet more record breaking temperatures, but whilst the close knit streets of Hackney were generating steam heat, the dark confines of the venue space at Oslo were delightfully air-conditioned. Our arrival was delayed by the need to find a parking space (always a challenge in Hackney), so there was just time to purchase a shirt from Rosie, and watch the final two tracks from the support before the March Violets took to the stage. Opening with 'Made Glorious' and 'Long Pig', these two tracks being the only ones in the set that I was not familiar with was a great start. 'Crow Baby' brought me back into familair territory and from then on it was joyous. The old was quickly followed by a venture into the new with the brilliant 'Hammer the Last Nail', a highlight from the all round excellent 'Crocodile Promises' album. There is a distinct difference between the old and new material, whilst being unmistakably the work of The March Violets, the new material is more melodic than before. Tom Ashton's guitar shimmers over all and provides a strong counterpoint to Rosie Garland's great vocals.

The good news is that the Violets are still an angry band. Rosie mentioned that 28th June (the night of the gig) was the 56th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York when the gay community started to fight back, but it is a fight that continues into the present day. It is enough to say that Rosie Garland is not a supporter of the new US administration! Let's not forget that as a Leeds band, The March Violets came into being against a backdrop of industrial decline (felt most keenly in our northern towns and cities) and let's not forget that the streets of Leeds and Bradford had until recently been stalked by a derranged serial killer who took the lives of 13 women. Gritty times... that spawned Goth bands all around the city!

Tonight though, anger was turned into a celebration of their songs, each played loud and played purple!

The 'new' 'Kraken Awakes' separated old favourites 'Grooving In Green', 'Steam' and 'Walk Into The Sun'. The latter track really did transport me back to evenings whiled away in Matt's third floor bedroom playing snooker and listening to the band on his crappy old record player!

'Walk Into The Sun'
Oslo, Hackney
28th June 2025

In what seemed to be next to no time, the words 'Goodnight' came from the stage the main set was done. The encore offered up 'Fodder' (well received by an audience with an appetite for more!) and of course 'Snake Dance'.... and then they were gone and we were  turned out into the fading light (it was not quite 10pm) and high humidity of Mare Street.

So that was it, 41 years later than I would have liked I got to see The March Violets. I loved it and I think even Gunta was quite impressed.