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.
An interesting interview conducted with Hugh in Los Angeles on a promotional visit ahead of the first US tour of the following year (rescheduled from November '77 it seems). Hugh's disdain for L.A. was evident even on his first visit.
To me this recording sounds like the raw interview tape prior to editing for radio. A good quality early insight into the band's stormy relationship with the US.
The Pistols and The Clash get discussed along with the state of Bitish politics.... Hugh describes the Callagham government of 1977 as being very right wing...... what did he make of New Labour I wonder!
Please note that the speed increases a little beyond 20 minutes, but it's still highly listenable despite Hugh morphing into one of the meninblack!.
A short interview with Jet from Newsweek FM (US radio) from 1983 (presumably conducted in May on the American leg of the Feline tour) in which our drummer expounds on the band's philosophy and the futility of love songs!
To complement the recent interview with JJ (here) discussing the upcoming and previous tours of the US, here's a remastering of one of the best recordings of the band from this period. I seem to recall reading an interview with The Police in an old music paper, when they were on their first tour of the US, also in 1978 and they were complaining that the attitude that The Stranglers had brought with the in April and May had made life very difficult for UK new wave bands following in their wake..... poor old Sting!
Previously uploaded onto the excellent 'Rat Zone', a French Stranglers forum, it is again uploaded here with permission (thanks Eric) for your easy listening pleasure.
So here it is then, the Stranglers at their brutal and belligerent best in America.
Here's another slice of British social history served up by the BBC in the form of popular music.
'Are 'Friends' Electric?'
This particular song and the album that it appeared on is perhaps the most evocative musical memory of my pre- and very early teenage years. In certain circumstances I only have to hear this song and any of the other tracks that made up Tubeway Army's 'Replicas' and I am instantly transported back in time to 1980 (when I first got this album).
I am sure that I have dedicated quite a few column inches on this site to the profound affect that Gary Numan and Tubeway Army had on me, but I must say it again that 'Are 'Friends' Electric' was at the time a million miles away from anything else... anywhere that I had ever heard. Cold and impersonal and running to an immense 5 minutes 23 seconds this was not standard fayre for a chart single, let alone a debut No. 1 single. It struck a chord with many looking for the next big thing.
However, Numan and his music had few people, critics and punters alike, sitting on the fence. For the music press, still in lust with Strummer and Jones, Numan was the ultimate opportunist turncoat, casting off as he did the punk shackles of the first incarnation of Tubeway Army (a great punk outfit in themselves) in favour of a return to big venues and elaborate stage settings.... the very raison d'etre of punk! This honesty of Gary Numan's ambitions set him at odds with the press and it has only been since the late '90's that he has received any positive media attention for what he achieved in the 1979-1980 period.
Looking at my own musical education, I would consider myself to have been very fortunate to have collided with the music of Gary Numan at this time. Bollocks to the NME, 'Replicas', 'The Pleasure Principle' and 'Telekon' sound pretty damn good to me 30 years down the line.
Here's the radio broadcast about exactly what 'Are 'Friends' Electric?' meant to British youth back then.
Right, so the connection is obvious and pretty well known within these circles and I am sure that some visitors to these pages will loath this particular post. For my part, I quite liked this band back in the day. Another scouse band (it seems that they all were in the late '70's, early '80's i the aftermath of punk), A Flock Of Seagulls stood out on account of front man, Mike Score's rather elaborate and let's not pull punches, ridiculous barnet! Having said that the music (at least their eponymous first album) was OK. See what you make of it.
01. The Fall
02. Space Age Love Song
03. DNA
04. Electrics
05. Messages
06. Standing In The Doorway
07. The Traveller
08. Committed
09. Man Made
10. You Can Run
11. Wishing
12. I Ran
Here's another tape conversion (tape courtesy of Paul N, once again a big thanks).
This was the almost the last time I saw the Mk II line up (there was the Tower Records 'About Time' launch appearance in 1995 and one gig in 1998). As I recall, this was the gig that metaphorically broke the camel's back. It wasn't the set..... 'Burning Up Time', 'English Towns', 'Ugly', ..... can't really beef about that, no, it was the treatment that they received that I couldn't handle so I walked away for a while.
Still, this is quite a reasonable sounding recording of one of two nights the band played here and irrespective of my feelings the capacity crowd seemed to enjoy it so fair play to them!
01. Time To Die
02. Toiler On The Sea
03. Something Better Change
04. Five Minutes
05. Someone Like You
06. Never See
07. Southern Mountains
08. Northwinds
09. Thrown Away
10. Threatened
11. 96 Tears
12. Mr Big
01. Burning Up Time
02. English Towns
03. Ugly
04. Brainbox
05. London Lady
06. All Day And All Of The Night
07. Sugar Bullets
08. Tank
09. Always The Sun
10. Hanging Around
11. Duchess
12. Golden Brown
13. Uptown
14. No More Heroes
By the way, does anyone have a scan available of a ticket from the previous night's gig at the T & C?
Ok, sorry for the short intermission, work travel interrupted things a little. Here's one from the European leg of the 'In The Night' tour. Many thanks to Paul N for this one. Enjoy!
1. Time To Die
2. Toiler On The Sea
3. Sometimes
4. I Feel Like A Wog
5. Golden Brown
6. Strange Little Girl
7. 96 Tears
8. Someone Like You
9. Always The Sun
10. Heaven Or Hell
11. Laughing At The Rain
12. Never See
13. Hanging Around
14. Brainbox
15. London Lady
16. All Day And All Of The Night
17. Sugar Bullets
18. Tank
19. Duchess
20. No More Heroes
21. Go Buddy Go
