Reading Festival 30th August 1987

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.

Saturday, 16 July 2011

Reading Festival 30th August 1987

Early 1987 saw a second leg of last autumn’s Dreamtour, including three excellent nights at the Hammersmith Odeon (two of which were recorded and will in time find there way onto this blog).

But it was the band’s appearance at the 1987 Reading Festival that was perhaps the live highlight of the year. The Reading Festival had for years been primarily a ‘metal’ festival, which accounts for Hugh’s introduction to ‘Golden Brown’. However, the festival was in transition at this point, in the early ‘90s it could be considered to be more of an indie festival.

The Stranglers played a great set ahead of the appearance of Alice Cooper (Cooper’s drum soundcheck on the adjacent stage, part way through the Stranglers’ set, caused some needle on the day. It is worth noting that this was the first airing of another cover, this time the Kinks ‘All Day and All of the Night’ which was to be the band’s next single. Without doubt ADAAOTN is a great song, but one I would like to see dropped from the set….. in favour of La Folie perhaps!

It was at this gig that I met one Steve Tyas. Later after placing an add in Strangled we got back in touch and I am pleased to say that we are still in touch and perhaps more importantly still seeing the Stranglers 24 years later!

So, here are two edits of the gig. The first is the full set, the second a 1 hour BBC Radio 1 ‘In Concert’ broadcast. The last song on the radio broadcast version, ‘Toiler on the Sea’ was also broadcast by the BBC, same gig but with this song added in place of another.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-tfzQz06BXz

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-YBezJiucN0

Full set bootleg

1. No More Heroes

2. Was It You?

3. Down In The Sewer

4. Nice In Nice

5. Punch And Judy

6. Souls

7. Always The Sun

8. Strange Little Girl

9. Golden Brown

10. North Winds

11. Big In America

12. Nice N Sleazy

13. Who Wants The World

14. Bring On The Nubiles

15. Shakin Like A Leaf

16. Uptown

17. Tank

18. Toiler On The Sea

19. Spain

20. All Day And All Of The Night

21. London Lady

BBC Radio 1 'In Concert' Broadcast