Badge of the Week #4

 

A little larger this one at 38mm (no bin lid though). From the A&M US promotion campaign.

The Clash Le Palace 27th February 1980 Pro-Shot Video

Filling a bit of the huge hole left upon the demise of Punk Torrents perhaps. I was listening to some vinyl the other day... I don't get the opportunity to play records much as my turntable is in the living room and it is more usual for the TV or radio to be on... I haven't got a man-cave as yet! Anyway, I played 'London Calling' - the second best album by The Clash, the first winning by a country mile. I was then reminded that I had this on a shelf. A pro-shot TV broadcast of 'London Calling' era Clash in Paris. It was part of the wonderful Chorus series presented by Antoine Caunes, a presenter who later made it onto British screens with 'Eurotrash'. This French date was tacked onto the UK leg of the '16 Tons' tour immediately prior to their departure for the US.

DVD Image: https://we.tl/t-d89wqG5niC

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-3oJWLAWgbg

Ruts DC Stone Valley South Ware 2nd June 2022

 

Of all the bands that I have missed in the last year I have missed the most the noise that these three chaps make (I have seen them only the once (with Misty in Roots) since July of last year). Gig consumption has decreased somewhat in thath time but I hope to bring the tally back up in the not too distant future. 

Here are Ruts DC frim a couple of years ago playing in deepest, darkest Hertfordshire, specifically at the two-day Stone Valley South Festival. As their dates with From The Jam come to an end I hope they had a ball and can enjoy some R&R soon.

Thanks to Chatts for this one.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-iD6b929JMI

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-GLA1iJ2zwY

Patinoire de Meriadek Bordeaux 25th April 1985

 

This one is a bit muddy in places but quite listenable. The band are in good spirits and Hugh takes great pleasure in winding up the Bordeaux audience about football and wine. He attempts to start 'Nubiles' several times, only succeeding on the fourth as Burnel joins in with the crowd bating in the native tongue. Another one celebrating it's 40th tonight.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-RYgO0kWqlS

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-OTVrcqXfsT

Badge of the Week #3

 

Another from the MIB period, from the Music Week trade magazine 14th February 1981.

Aural Sculptors Passes the 3,000,000 Mark

 

Just noticed that the site's counter has just rolled over the 3 million hit milestone, seemingly helped along the way today by 10,000 hits from Vietnam. I wonder if Sil is aware that the band have such a strong, as yet untapped following in old Hanoi?

My thanks to every one who has visited and/or contributed to the site ober the last 14 years now.

As ever, my hard drive is open to contributions. With 1031+ Stranglers and Stranglers related gigs and topics posted, the pile has thinned out a lot, but I acknowledge that whilst the collection is considerable there are sizable gaps. Please take a look under the 'Pages' section and help out if you can.... remember there are folk in Vietnam depending on you!

Cheers,

Adrian.

Siouxsie And The Banshees Clouds Edinburgh 18th August 1978

 

So, you may have read what the critics said now decide for yourself. Siouxsie, an Eva Braun for the 1970's or the future of rock 'n' roll (are you with Julie or Chris)?

Here's an early recording of the band from Clouds in Edinburgh when they played as part of the 3rd Edinburgh Rock Festival. Shortly after this they embarked on the tour promoting 'The Scream' album which is unsurprisingly well represented in this set. Support came from Spizz Oil.

Thanks to Sewer Rat for this one!

MP3: https://we.tl/t-LsviHtpYnC

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-mgLlmORIRc

The Scream Siouxsie And The Banshees Reviewed

Whilst digging out some music press pieces on the build up to the Battersea Park gig, I ventured into November 1978 and noted that two pivotal albums were released at about the same time (NME reviewed them in the same issue). I am talking about 'The Scream' by Siouxsie and the Banshees and 'Germ Free Adolescence' by X-Ray Spex. Not only were these groundbreaking albums, they are two albums that perfectly carried the punk clarion call that this band thing was for everyone. If punk achieved anything, it broke down the stereotypes of women in rock and those two albums are two of the greatest examples of punk's achievements.

Focussing on one, 'The Scream' here, just because I fancied hearing it again on a Easter Monday (well it beats sitting through Jason & The Argonauts' again!).

Here are two contemporary reviews of a greatly anticipated album. Whilst Sioux was belting out 'The Lord's Prayer' at the 100 Club Punk Festival back in September '76, it took them an inordinate period of time to get signed and release and album i.e. until November 1978. 

I challenge you to find two more diametrically opposed reviews as those that appeared in NME (Julie Burchill) and Record Mirror (Chris Westwood). I don't think Miss Burchill and Sioux were on each others Christmas card lists in December 1978!

Please excuse any typos!

New Musical Express (18th November 1978)

Good-day, second-class of '78!

And now for the last goddam time in my life-I ask you, who wants to be David Bowie when they graduate? Hands up!

Kate - dear, you're too maudlin and pretty and healthy, and the fathers fancy you more than the, daughters do. Is that any way for a teen queen to be? Besides, you cover too many markets.

Howard - you don't cover any, and anyhow you're bald and "the kids" can't "dance to

it".

Japan and Ultravox! -I will NOT tolerate over-made-up, non-starter gangs in my classroom!

Adam - you have the mark of the loser - sorry, kid, not of exotic Cain - on you, and besides, you're podgy.

Cherie - Cherie, how many times do I have to tell you, you should be in your cabaret class by now. Out, go on, take your twin with you and don't ever let me see you outside of Las Vegas again!

Siouxsie-ah, Siouxsie, come up the front here and show the boys and girls how it should be done.

One: must be skinny, wear a mass of make-up and look asexual enough to accommodate every closet's ambivalent fantasies. Two: blind the critics with words and silence and all but a few ungrateful hack swine with long memories - who don't understand and are NEVER gonna understand - will lick your soles for the privilege of sitting through an interview's worth of verbal contempt from you. Three: flirt with the  all-time contraband coquette that is Fascism, however lightly (an armband, a salute, a  sentence) and it will still get that ridiculously uncool yet controversial minority going. Four: get out of your depth.

And I have come to hate glamour hangover (Bowie, Eno and Pop). They hang on and on. How I wish they would drop dead and take Miss Banshee with them, just to spare me this task. But what do I care? Because like all mod muse these days, Siouxsie and her Banshees'll only end up being walked down a fashion-catwalk to be Marie Helvin Bailey. You're all just making music for models to walk to, just reward and desserts for all you self-inflated pop stars.

So I don't need my hatchet. Let's bury it and get objective.

Factoid: since the Second World War- retreated comfortably back into the realms of imagery, Germanic girls (or otherwise descended girls whom the liberated sicko. mind can twist into being Teutonic) singing songs about death, doom and decay are very artistically credible.

Things I like -about Siouxsie. "Hong Kong Garden"; the way she treats her audience like muck, knowing why the gross majority of them come to gape at her; I even kind of liked the way she danced on Top Of The Pops.

Fact: until recently, Siouxsie And The Banshees included in their stage set a song they had written called "Love In A Void". This song featured,the line "Too many Jews for my liking". This, says Siouxsie, was a metaphor for too many fat businessmen waiting to pounce, suck the youth from and cast aside new talent.

I do not see the connection. I, self-righteous square that I am, consider "Too many Jews for my liking "to be the most disgusting and unforgivable lyric-line ever written, though God knows there has been more appalling filth written within rockanroll than in every other branch of entertainment taken together.

None of it comes anywhere in sight of Siouxsie, though. She is well into her twenties; so ignorant youth is no excuse, however lame. Therefore she must be either evil or retarded - well, can YOU think of any other way out? To shock? No the pain and dreadful implications of this sentence could only be justified into a means of outrage by aforementioned retard.

Though I know that for a critic to tell the Banshees where to go is as de trop as liking, say, The Runways' I am still particularly disgusted by the way Jewish writers (Viv Goldman) and otherwise extremely moral writers (Chris Brazier) l;Iave drooled over the silly cow, letting her getaway with that line as long as she promises "Oh, it was an I unwise choice, I'll change it as soon as I can think of something better!"

Well, take your shocking song and stick it up your rude white ass, Sioux, because here's a review that don't believe in running with the pack:

Oh daddy please, pretty please.-won't you beat up that nasty girl and make her fade away? She hurts my ears and she-bores me and the only reason she hasn't been written off yet as a corny 'art-rock' act is that she once used to hang around some, ah, punk band.

Standing alone, the Banshee sound is a self-important threshing machine thrashing all stringed intruments down onto the same jow level alongside that draggy sub-voice as it  attempts futile eagle and dove swoops around the mono-beat. Their sound is certainly different from the normal guitar-bass-drums-voice consequence. But it's radically stodgy as opposed to that light-fantastic ,Public Image trip on their single (bass-thump almost out of earshot, felt more as a vibration than heard as a sound, guitar getting as high and light as it takes to sound as little like a guitar hero as possible). Imagine that great

sound then think of the exact opposite and you have Siouxsie And The Banshees: loud, heavy and levelling, the sound of suet pudding. 

Start with an instrumental circa "Warsawza".

Instrumentals are pretentious as shit, I don't care who does them. Chuck Berry never felt the need to, so screw you, Sioux. Follow it with moody modern black-and-white ear-horror-films to impress the impressionable. The . Banshees unite sub-glam flowering poesie ("Amorphus jigsaw pieces tra la la”) with unpleasant but true sociology topics (going mental, self-mutilation, Fascism, cancer): subjects which have only been dealt with in any number by "punk". I am bored by and abhor the way the Banshees mess around with the two greatest genres of the decade and make both forms emerge bloodied, limping and sorely in need of a G.C.E.Eng Lang frame of reference.

I quite enjoyed singing along to "HeIter Skelter" (least awful effort here, and even that was written elsewhere), and "Carcass" got me a bjt jittery until l saw the joke, giggled and yawned. The rest (barely) struck me as endless plain noise totally bereft of melody.

I just jeard Sioux on Hullabaloo, whining away in that horrid Chislehurst-climber accent about how "Summer Nights" being Number One for seven weeks was actually brain-washing. Never mind dear, you can always sleep guilt-free and tight at night in the sound knowledge that none of your recordings are ever going to put people in that loathsome position, huh?

I wish they were showing clips from that capitalist, corporation-made, youth-exploitation film Grease on the TV right now. I could do with some send-up, affectionate, overground food for thought after sitting through all this "So I just sit•in reverie/Getting on my nerves" wood-worm brain-rot hen-type-brooding from Siouxsie's boys. I'll tell you what. I said I would be as objective as ’tis possible for an intelligent person to be. So, against all odds (I hate her voice, her band, her image), I do think that Siouxsie could be quite a smart girl if only she didn't work so hard at being marvellous for fools.

Her words for "Switch" and "Nicotine Stain" (she.should write more lyrics alone) contain a certain germ which is rendered totally ineffectual via drone, pretension and conceit. Her words for the stunning "Suburban Relapse" are flawed only in the tune that John McKay sets it to and, natural19, by the singularly awful Banshee sound.

Ah well, kid, take it to yourself and examine your subconscious. Maybe you'll love it. Me, I keep seeing Siouxsie up there in her swastika armband making nothing but a fashion accessory out of the death of millions of people.

And I honestly don't think that a rilly sensitive person like myself can ever see beyond that.

Julie Burchill

Record Mirror (14th October 1978)

SIOUXSIE'S STAMPEDE

SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES: ‘The Scream’ (Polydor)

And after the misdirected swastika flaunts, the sign Siouxsie jaunts, the periods of ‘apparent’ record company disinterest after the sign-up hassles. Polydor’s victory after the single… The Album.

The Banshees album.

The months have not diluted the energy and the vitality of this music.; nor have they blunted the obvious enthusiasm. All that has been retained and the band have been allowed to develop as musicians; they are now a finely honed unit, they could stand ground with ANYONE.

And Siouxsie. One of the more individual girl singers of the new age, she establishes herself as the premier female vocalist this decade, no trouble.

The material. Probably the tip of a gargantuan creative iceburg, there are 10 porky-prime cuts from an irrepressible S and ‘s repertoire, landed with perfect production. The overall feel is clean, lively, electric, professional.

So: Siouxsie and the Banshees and the songs and the sound. Insuperable formula, great album. For a debut – a murderer. A trendsetter – maybe not, but it attains new standards. It is an important record, of that there’s little doubt.

Of the goods, there’s at least one fully-fledged mater stroke, plus a whole troupe of fine and vital rock and roll moments, all delivered within the highly distinctive and stylistic framework that IS Siouxsie and The Banshees.

Into the maelstrom: ‘Pure’ is the curtain raiser, a succinct bow to the world of the instrumental atmospherics, Siouxsie’s considerable voice is utilized not as a lyrical mouthpiece but as part of the musical subsoil. Also it tends to reflect the downer overtones present elsewhere on the album, as evidenced by ‘Suburban Relapse’, the mock sadism of ‘Carcass’ and the always ominous ‘Helter Skelter’.

This opening cut gives way to a chugging and insistent bass and drum rumble, and as McKay’s guitar joins in the action, the Banshees lurch full tilt into a desperate, holocaustic ‘Jigsaw Feeling’… and proceedings are underway.

‘One day I'm feeling total / The next I'm split in two / My eyes are doing somersaults / Staring at my shoe’.

Lyrically, this is a scene seller, and the whole album’s preoccupation with spiritual, mental and physical breakdown is so intence, it could well be viewed as a loose concept or project album.

The theme is developed by ‘Nicotine Stain’ which views the dreaded weed from two contrasting and thoughtfully conceived angles; as an aid to mental stability (never soother) and as a procurer of health disease.

‘It’s just a habit / When I reach to the packet for my last cigarette / Till the day breaks / Then my hand shakes…’

The violent repercussions of this downer concept are examined in ‘Carcass’ (which, I suspect, is tongue in cheek) and ‘Helter Skelter’. The later clambers from a discordant axe slash intro to a rampant, stampeding creature which recaptures the frenzied essence of the original Beatles; memories of the Manson campaign are still painfully vivid.

He final excesses of claustrophobic depression are on ‘Suburban Releapse’ and then to the album’s meisterwork ‘Switch’.

Unlike so many of her contemporaries, Sioux has a voice which she USES. On ‘The Scream’ she excels herself… and she wipes the floor with all competitors.

Also, The Banshees are working to the hilt: the arrangement on this finale is, at the very least breathtaking, as it drifts through a legion of phases and tempos without ever sounding fragmented. The album’s frame of mind is perfectly reflected in the work of McKay, Severin and Morris; constantly shifting, restless, controlled aggression, they are as essential as Siouxsie.

‘Switch’ is an accurate and bitter observation of the final process.

This is side-swiping, poignant social comment. Even taken at its most basic level, ‘The Scream’ is stirring rock and roll which draws from the past but points to the future, REAL music for the new age. It’s a mature and polished work. It is vital, it’s moving, it’s a landmark.

But – hell – for a while it seemed The banshees were never gonna hit vinyl, and suddenly, hey ho, the album.

Vinyl salvation. So buy it, nick it, borrow it, tape it. HEAR it. Christ, what else could you do with that four quid? Save it for a rainy day?

Don’t make me laugh.

+++++ CHRIS WESTWOOD.

Battersea Park - The Evolution Of A Gig

At this point in time it is difficult to comprehend that as even in the late summer of 1978, punk or at least the contribution of The Stranglers to punk rock was still a thing to be feared. It does seem to be ludicrous that the Greater London Council (GLC), the capital's administrative body with the responsibility of licencing major events in London, deemed it necessary to apply a blanket ban to any gig at which the band were due to play. That at the time The Stranglers were shifting more units than any of their contemporaries must have been a thorn in the side of venues and promoters alike as well as the band.

This unacceptable situation was eventually overcome, after several aborted attempts at staging an outdoor 'new wave' event featuring the band, when an afternoon gig in London's Battersea Park finally was granted a licence to go ahead. From the following cuttings it can be seen how the gig came about as reported by New Musical Express over the summer of 1978.

15th July 1978

S.O.T.S. (Stranglers On Tour Secretly)

22nd July 1978

'at least a 50-50 chance'.

29th July 1978

'It was Hobson's choice really. It would have cost a fortune, and Virgin wanted cash on the nail...'

19th August 1978

'I can't comment at all about that at this moment. But there is a plan to put a show on at Battersea, but I don't know about The Stranglers'.

Harvey Goldsmith

26th August 1978

2nd September 1978

Looking good!

9th September 1978

16th September 1978

'I can thinnk of a lot worse places to be

Like waiting around in London

Hoping to get permission for just an afternoon'.

Hugh Cornwell 16th September 1978.

Theatre Verdure Nice 20th April 1985

 

A happier return to Nice on this night forty years ago, with another solid set from the 'Aural Sculpture' tour.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-lHeufvYg0W

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-Ym16gSaWVA

Pete Shelley 70 - Buzzcocks GLR Session 13th April 1994

 

My Facebook feed informed me that yesterday would have been Pete Shelley's 70th birthday. Yesterday, I also received my copy of 'Yesterday Is Not Here: Radio Sessions 1979-1983'. A nice coincidence. I do not usually bother so much with Record Store Day. I struggle to see the relevance of a rerelease of an album for £30 just to have it on luminous vinyl. Such releases, if offering nothing new musically, seem to be of interest only from a monitary perspective... something to be held on to as an investment or to be touted on eBay at twice the price a week after RSD. That it helps independent Record outlets I would of course applaud though. This radio sessions album does however offer something new... to my ears at least and hearing Pete's Mancunian tones that has put me in a Buzzcocks mood. 

Here's a GLR (BBC Greater London Radio) session from 13th April 1994.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-iXEhaeIKcj

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-gqn2Huqm6j

TV Smith And The Bored Teenagers Don't Panic Essen 26th March 2025

These are busy days indeed for the One Chord Troubadour, TV Smith, as he criss-crosses continents (yes, continents!) to bring the message of The Adverts to the people. It is a message that is undiminished in its potency in the 38 years that have elapsed since the release of 'Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts'. The set comprises material from that album as well as the highy underated follow up, 'Cast Of Thousands' along with solo material and a couple of songs from the repertoire of the short lived but brilliant Cheap.  Tim enjoys particularly strong support in Germany and here he is playing to an enthusiastic audience in Essen at the tail end of last month. Sincere thanks as always to Peter for sharing the files. Cheers!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-5Y6t0aESN5

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-2662KN9VXt

Badge of the Week #2

Always liked the MIB image that appeared on the 'Gospel' CD reissue. For me, in the 1979/1980 period the bad were at their visual peak. The Meninblack and Raven imagery were so strong.

Archive Interviews 1980 - 1981

 

Here is another interview compilation, this one covering 1980 to 1981. Quality varies, the backstage Crawley interview appears to be competing for microphone access with a game of table tennis! Lots of talk about the 'Gospel' album. These interviews are alsways nice to have in the collection as they offer a comtemporary snapshot from within the Stranglers' camp, direct from the horse's mouths as it were.

WAV: https://we.tl/t-5qbjYIwNnm

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-VBIJh8BMHH

Buzzcocks Band On The Wall Manchester 8th November 1976

 

This choice was prompted by a visit made by Gunta and I into London yesterday. The reason for the trip was two fold, to see 'The Face' exhibition currently on at the National Portrait Gallery followed by 'Leigh Bowery' hosted by the Tate Modern on the Southbank. We crossed back over (under) the river on the Northern Line from London Bridge to Angel for something to eat. Later in the evening I was meeting a couple of old school mates in Highbury so we took a slow walk up Upper Street that took us past the 'Screen On The Green', the location of the a pivotal early punk gig that featured the Pistols, The Clash and Buzzcocks. It always thrills me to see one of the venues with a key link to the scene still standing and functioning as a working cinema.

This gig is another of those very early gigs that cemented Buzzcocks as punks leading lights (northern branch). Here at The Band on The Wall in Manchester. The sound is pretty good for it's age and the equipment that was available at the time.

MP3: https://we.tl/t-LSyPsOpgi5

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-4GMgiHgv0N

Blondie VH1 Uncut February 1999 (TFTLTYTD #19)

 

Jesus, another gone, Clem Burke, one of the greatest drummers of the punk/new wave scene. I never got to meet him (he was it seems an all round good chap!). I did however get to see him playing with Blondie, both here in the UK and thrillingly in Manhatten (surely the best place to see Blondie). I did also get to see him play with others too. The last time I saw him was when he guested, along with Glen Matlock, with The Small Fakers at the 100 Club for a storming version of 'All Or Nothing'.

'All Or Nothing' The Small Fakers with Clem Burke

It's easy to forget what a big deal Blondie were. Looking beyond the adolescent appeal that Debbie undoutedly had, the music was something else, that melding together of new wave and disco in a way that worked perfectly. Their music has stood the test of time and it was the immaculate drumming of Clem Burke that held it all together. My first memory of Blondie was hearing them at the under 14 youth discos that occured on Saturday mornings at the Martlets Hall in Burgess Hill down in Sussex, this would have been in 1979/1980 and I was just 10. Up to that point I had only really been exposed to Radio 2 on a school morning or the music of my parents (Roy Orbison, The Carpenters, Jim Reeves and the like) so to hear something like 'Atomic' at volume was quite an experience. Later we would be able to get into the under 18 disco (as my mates Dad was the DJ!) and hear that stuff all over again.

Here is a short compilation DVD that I did recently of promotional stuff that the band did at the time of the release of 'No Exit', an album that against all odds saw Blondie back in the charts 20 years after their heyday. 

DVD image: https://we.tl/t-NDknvFqXMi

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-BIlPHUW6ON

Adam Ant Roadmender Northampton 25th April 2015

 

A few posts back and in connection with the '51' I was beoaning the fact that The Stranglers have been slow and inconsistent on the uptake when it comes to retro album themed tours whilst many of their contemporaries have fully embraced the concept. One former punk to do so has been Adam Ant. For him I would say the approach makes particular sense. A look at the back catalogue of Adam & The Ants and its easy to see that his/their albums were so different. I can think of no other artist/band that underwent such a huge transformation in their short existance.

1978 saw the Antz as a band with a hardcore cult following within the punk scene, a band with a penchant for fetishism and a willingness to flirt with fascist themes.When a mentoring scheme with Malcolm McLaren went awry and resulted in the departure of his band to form Bow Wow Wow, the direction of the band changed radically. In came Native American and pirate themes backed by driving Burundi rhythms. At some point in 1980, 'Kings Of The Wild Frontier' entered the mainstream and 'Ant Music ' was everywhere. 

In just four years, Adam and the Ants had 'graduated' from the pages of New Musical Express to the front page of 'Look-In'. You could even get Adam and the Ants school stationary sets in Superdrug! For this reason I would go and see Adam do the 'Dirk' album (and I did) but would side step a tour that focus on 'Prince Charming'.... actually I saw that back in 1981!

Here then is a recording from one of those Dirk Wears White Sox dates, which couples the album with other very early Ants material, one of which has only ever surfaced on bootleg albums of unreleased demos (Madame Stan, Decca Demos etc) and others as rerecorded B-sides of the big hits.

I appreciate that Adam and the Ants (the punk or the panto versions) are not everyones cup of tea, but me the '78/'79 version was highly original and completely out there.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-bcOHc0KlxO

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-HlDV1mUYK9

Intxaurrondo San Sebastian 5th April 2014

 

What fun we had at this gig 11 years ago... the European leg of the Ruby tour. An account of our trip to Spain can be found here.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-cV0fXrx8dM

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-0lLO4VXMfA

Badge of the Week #1

 A couple of weeks ago Ombudsmen, the band that my daughter sings/shouts for had their album launch with a gig in Manchester. I thought it might be a good idea to produce some old school pin badges that they could sell/give away whatever on the night, so I bought myself a badge maker. And its great!! Here I am at 56 making button badges. Many moons ago, the badges that you wore told someone else pretty much everything they needed to know about you... your taste in music and/or your political stance especially. 

At the school I went to there were strict rules about badges, they weren't to appear on blazers, so we wore them behind the lapel. To flip someone's lapel was to reveal an array of bands. From about the age of 10 or 11 it was a bit of a treat to visit the Sunday Market in Haywards Heath where there was a stall that only sold band badges. I would spend ages peering at the offerings whilst my parents went of in search of what ever it was thet they were after. My problem was one of limited funds so I had a choice of one or two per week.

I still have them, and looking across Facebook, so do a lot of people, old punk badges are coveted items in the collection. Some are highly sought after and command a high price, others are just crap, poorly produced (yet still of significant monitary value). What I have is of little value, run of the mill S.I.S. stuff, but I always liked the idea of being able to produce my own. I still sport band badges on my jacket now, but just the one at a time these days.

The badges that I will post on here will not be for sale. Nothing on this site makes any money on the back of The Stranglers or any other band that I post about. At some point though I may give a few away I dunno.

The first one I fancied was a Celia badge. I have a very vivid memory of seeing a chap at the Reading Festival in '87 sporting a T shirt with the cover of 'You Better Believe Me' on it and I was green with envy. It is still the only 'Celia and the Mutations' T shirt I have ever seen... I am assuming that it was self printed.

I love two singles on which The Stranglers/JJ collaborated with the mysterious Celia Gollin.

Archive Interviews 1978 - 1980

 

Here's a great little collection of radio interviews conducted in the 1978 to 1980 period which covers the most interesting period of the Mk I career. Skipping through it prior to posting I noted two notable interviews were both conducted for Tommy Vance's 'Rock On' Radio 1 show. Hugh talks about Nosferatu, how Devo got involved and Robert's unique percussive contribution to the album. There is also an interview with Hugh and Jet on their Raven 'rebirth' prior to the Wembley gig, in which they also discuss the 'Rock Goes to College' incident. Seems to cast some doubt on the idea of a BBC blackout of the band post Top Of The Pops and RGTC.

WAV: https://we.tl/t-cC9tMolwqM

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-eeTevN6NbI

Hugh Cornwell Kulturzentrum Schlachtof Kassel 28th March 2024

 

Here's one that I intended to post yesterday (on its birthday) but unfortunately work intervened. Hugh returned to this venue in this central German town to play the 'Totem & Taboo' almost on its entirity (9 of 11 tracks) along with a similar number of Stranglers' tracks (I wonder whether he s contractually obliged by promoters to include Stranglers' songs in the set these days?).

Anyway this one sounds great and Hugh enjoys a good report with the audience. An all round good gig I think.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-af91WpHmQE

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-jHhJMpyacy