Back in the day, bands used to play in Cornwall! St Austell on the county's south coast played host to the Stranglers on several occasions over the years. Here's a show from the first leg of the Dreamtime tour, when bowler hats and headless basses were briefly in vogue.
At this stage in their career the enfants terrible of the consistently hostile weekly music press had become terrible old men in the eyes of the hacks. It is true to an extent, by the time that Dreamtime was released, much of what made The Stranglers such a potent live force on stage had dissipated . On record, they along with many other bands with a past suffered at the hands of no doubt well meaning producers who aspired to that punchy and polished mid-'80's sound. In that respect the bands corner wasn't strengthened by JJ's temporary ditching of the Fender Precision in favour of his new toy, the headless Steinberger bass.
On stage they were tight and professional..... and perhaps a little predictable.... to the extent that to many they appeared to be going through the motions. Nevertheless, to my 17 year old ears they sounded great and besides La Folie was in the set, which was and remains to be a favourite of mine.
If some of the shows from the first leg of the Dreamtime tour were a little pedestrian, for the second leg in March, I think the tempo was upped and culminated in the UK at least with three consecutive nights at the Hammersmith Odeon before the band took the tour Stateside.
FLAC: https://we.tl/t-yLRuIOyZlY
Artwork: https://we.tl/t-1ajJ3dQa2C
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. La Folie
9. Strange Little Girl
10. Nice N Sleazy
11. Who Wants The World
12. Big In America
13. Bring On The Nubiles
14. Shakin Like A Leaf
15. Uptown
16. Toiler On The Sea
17. Spain
18. Peaches
19. Tank
Thank you so much for this! It's always nice to get a recording of a gig I was at.
ReplyDelete