Are We Not Pious?

Hee Hee!

Barry Spooner's goin' to Hell!

Hugh Cornwell Guilfest Stoke Park Guilford 15th July 2006

As a companion recording to the recently shared Stranglers set from the Sunday of Guilfest 2006 (here), here's an incomplete set from Hugh from the Saturday as broadcast on BBC Radio 2. Also included are a couple of interviews from the day.

FLAC: http://rapidshare.com/files/2836305830/HUGHGUILFEST06FLAC.zip

MP3: http://rapidshare.com/files/3418058408/HUGHGUILFEST06MP3.zip

Artwork: http://rapidshare.com/files/3598561778/HUGHGUILFEST06AW.zip

01. No More Heroes
02. Peaches
03. Always The Sun
04. Goodbye Toulouse
05. Interview With Janice Long
06. Interview With Stuart Maconie

 

Caz Campbell

Guilfest 2006

Rainbow Theatre 4th December 1981

Here's one that would have been posted on it's anniversary were it not for arriving back late from Ireland last night. However, no matter it is here now.

The band haven't played too many December gigs over the years. So, from the first leg of the La Folie tour.....

FLAC:
NEW LINK: https://we.tl/es5pxma6EU

Artwork:
NEW LINK: https://we.tl/0tkRvUzqes

1. Non Stop
2. Threatened
3. Just Like Nothing On Earth
4. Second Coming
5. The Man They Love To Hate
6. Meninblack
7. Who Wants The World
8. Baroque Bordello
9. Golden Brown
10. Tramp
11. Thrown Away

1. Bring On The Nubiles
2. Tank
3. Let Me Introduce You To The Family
4. Nuclear Device
5. How To Find True Love And Happiness In The Present Day
6. Duchess
7. The Raven

Guilfest, Guildford 16th July 2006

JJ & Baz

Guilfest, Stoke Park, Guildford

16th July 2006

I am very pleased now to be able to share this recent acquisition of mine. The reason is simple, this was one of the most significant gigs that I have been to in that it kick started the whole Stranglers thing off again after several (13 I think) years of disinterest on my part.

I have previously written about this gig here, but I don't mind repeating myslf on this one. On the day, the entire Andrews family were in attendance and what a fine day it was too. Blisteringly hot it took my best efforts to keep myself 'hydrated' with beer! Amongst the Stranglers fans present (most of whom were unknown to me by that time) spirits were high. There was a sense of celebration in the air for indeed for some, a celebration this was..... we had heard the recording of the Weston-Super-Mare gig a few weeks before and could not wait to hear the band as a four-piece once more. Paul Cooklin was smoking a cigar at the bar that was worthy of Churchill to mark the event! Paul and I were about to go full circle with this band.

'Dr Cooklin I Presume?'

Adrian after years in the wilderness with Paul Cooklin

Guilfest 16th July 2006

And so it was that with the shrill falsetto of Russel Mael of the brilliant Sparks out of the way and the strains of Donovan's Jennifer Juniper had evaporated in the heat of this most atypical of British summer afternoons, I was faced with the acid test (sulphuric acid of course). Would it be as good as I wanted (make that needed) it to be?

Any doubts on the matter disolved rapidly as Dave stroked his first keys in the intro to '5 minutes'..... then the bass kicked in... and then.... oh Jesus, the bass player's vocal. At that point in a sweltering Surrey field, I must have made the Cheshire Cat look like Jack Dee..... with a bellyful of beer and good company to boot, this surely was my very own Battersea Park!

Judge for yourself.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-O3FH3LyG8n

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-VwJyfaSIkc

1. Intro
2. 5 Minutes
3. Big Thing Coming
4. All Day And All Of The Night
5. Peaches
6. Long Black Veil
7. Strange Little Girl
8. Golden Brown
9. Always The Sun
10. Never To Look Back
11. Summat Outanowt
12. I've Been Wild
13. Lost Control
14. Duchess
15. Burning Up Time
16. London Lady
17. Dagenham Dave
18. No More Heroes

Interestingly, Hugh appeared on the bill, playing on the Saturday night. Headlining on the Sunday night was Billy Idol, and I'm pleased to say that whilst some punk feuds have bee laid to rest in the intervening years, the antagonism between The Stranglers and Idol still seems to have some heat left in it. I heard a story that after the Stranglers had come off stage and relaxing in the backstage area, one of Billy Idol's entourage entered and announced that 'Mr Idol would now like this area cleared!', to which JJ responded with something along the lines of 'Tell Mr Idol that if he wants us out of here he'll have to fuckin' do it himself!'

Idol went on to have some digs about hits from the stage during his set, but I didn't stick around.

Castel St Angelo Rome 2nd July 1980

Hugh in Rome

Here's another one from the lads. First time playing in Rome and the first gig the band played after the kristallnacht in Nice two weeks earlier. A good solid set and some great pictures from the soundcheck on what appeared to be a beautiful afternoon in The Eternal City.

Dave in Rome

Jet in Rome

JJ in Rome

The Stranglers Soundcheck

Castel St Angelo, 2nd July 1980

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-l3fHArICFc

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-1qNhDoLCP1

1. Shah Shah A Go Go
2. Ice
3. Toiler On The Sea
4. Duchess
5. Hanging Around
6. Baroque Bordello
7. Waiting For The Meninblack
8. Down In The Sewer
9. Who Wants The World?
10. Thrown Away
11. I Feel Like A Wog
12. Tank
13. Nuclear Device
14. Genetix
15. Hallow to Our Men
16. The Raven
17. Threatened
18. Peaches

Record Mirror's Barry Cain and The Stranglers

Barry Cain accompanied the band to Rome after breaking the story of the Nice riot and band incarceration to the UK press. His account of the trip is to be told in his forthcoming book 'Tell Me When' (2013 publication), the sequel to the excellent '77 Sulphate Strip', which was one of the rarest books that I have read.... a Stranglers friendly account of the UK punk scene as seen by a music journo!!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/77-Sulphate-Strip-Eyewitness-Everything/dp/0954867491/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354385391&sr=8-1#_

'Save A Thought For the Maninwhite'

JJ in St Peter's Square, Rome, July 1980

And here is Barry Cain's review of the gig that appeared in Record Mirror on 12th July 1980.

As that is quite difficult to read, here's the transcript.

"FRIENDS, ROMANS, Countrymen - Lend us your ears." A creditable Cornwellian preface to The Stranglers' first gig since their not -so -Nice within these walls residency.  

An unlikely setting - a far 'from verdant park in the middle of the babbling metropolis overlooked by a towering Castilla where popes of old sought refuge from irate parishioners by nipping along an underground pass connected to the Vatican nearby.

By 10 pm, -the park is overflowing with 8,000 roaring radis raring to root, toot and generally get down to the band whose pasta exploits have made them a household word In every prison in Europe.

The Stranglers have reached a spaghetti junction in their career. Unaided by airplay their last few singles have plopped in and rippled out again. Their credentials as first division rock maestros have taken a battering from the press and cryptic observers of the "scene".

But under the stars in cornetto land they proved once more - after a shakey start - that live they not only still cut it they disembody it, skewer it and burn It over red hot coals.

The set on the night contained numbers from most of the previous albums - 'Hanging Around' and 'Down In The Sewer" the TV theme personified, '.Tank', 'Duchess', 'Genetix', 'Raven' - you name it. 

Plus the single 'Who Wants The World' which shocked everyone associated with the band when it never made the 10, and two new songs from the next album 'Meninblack' - 'Thrown Away' and 'Hail To Our Men a long, languid lament which at times sounds like a theme from a Fellini movie and an interstellar Lord's Prayer. Get the drift?

Previous alfresco Stranglers' gigs have been dismal affairs. They found it difficult to breeze with the sleaze amongst the birds, bees and smell of burning grass. But in the cold light of day in Rome they slaughtered the Eyties who in the end refused to leave after the stipulated one encore. They bombarded the stage with cans of Peroni beer and empty Chianti bottles until the band returned with a barechested Jean causing a few macaroni madonnas to actually scream. If a spell in the nick does this I hope they get solitary next time ...

BARRY CAIN

Captain Sensible Octopus (Syd Barrett Cover)

The Good Captain

Here's an interesting little song. It's a cover of Syd Barrett's 'Octopus' which appeared on his first solo album, 'The Madcap Laughs', released in November 1969 after departing from Pink Floyd.

This version is by self-proclaimed Syd nut, Captain Sensible, here ably assisted by The Damned Monty on keyboards and some time Damned drummer Dave Berk. It appeared on a Mojo cover compilation entitled 'The Madcap Laughs Again'.

Here.

20 From '79 (3) Crass John Peel Session 28th March 1979

Steve Ignorant & Eve Libertine of Crass

I don't know how best to describe Crass, it's probably impossible if you haven't heard them before. I remember being a Crass fan in the mid '80's (from about '84 when they disbanded... the story of my punk life!). A few years later I recall being hated for playing Crass in the 6th Form common room. Access to the tape recorder was on some sort of rota basis and some pretty diverse tastes were tolerated, Lone Justice, Depeche Mode, The Smiths, even the Alan Parsons Project..... but not Crass! With hindsight, my fellow students may have had a point.

Out of the school environment I was wearing the Crass uniform, with a black bondage jacket having the Crass logo and 'Fight War Not Wars' painted on the back. A banner of the same logo hung behind my bed about 6 foot in diameter (a rather large sheet banner with the Raven covered most of the opposite wall..... I used to get through a lot of black paint in those days!).

Image-wise I thought they were great, although I'm sure I'd get no thanks from former Crass members for saying that (like the Stranglers, the black look was an effort to shun the concept of 'image' and in neither case did this work out).

The early albums were great too, 'Stations Of The Crass' and the 12" 'The Feeding Of The 5,000', the later albums became a little left-field for me. The singles stood out too from 'Bloody Revolutions' and 'Big A Little A' to the more controversial 'Sheep Farming In The Falklands'. I suppose a major appeal of Crass to a budding vinyl junkie was the affordability of it all. Vinyl was expensive then, but anarcho-punk records invariably carried a 'Pay No More Than...' print on the sleeve, which imposed a low price on the retailer.

As a scene the anarcho scene was iconic, with Crass establishing the visual aspects early on from the Exit Stencil artwork to the banner bedecked gigs.

Pistols 'inspired' Crass Artwork

'Oi! Don't go putting pins in my walls!'

Crass get the message across live

With a strong anarchist message Crass on record and in interviews railed against he establishment, government and Margret Thatcher in particular. Their opposition to the Falklands conflict of 1982 got them into some serious hot water, not experienced by a mere band since the Pistols came to the public's attention a few years before. The release of the single 'How Does It Feel (To Be The Mother Of A Thousand Dead?)' saw the band debated in the House Of Commons.

Crass Melody Maker 1982

Crass In The Courts

So this then is Crass recorded for a John Peel session in March 1979 (only Peel could manage to get this lot into the BBC!). Actually that last statement is not strictly true since this recording has an additional BBC Radio 1 interview from 1980 with founder members Steve Ignorant and Penny Rimbaud.

FLAC: http://rapidshare.com/files/1350706545/CRASSJPS280379FLAC.zip

MP3: http://rapidshare.com/files/422441386/CRASSJPS280379MP3.zip