20 From '80 (6) The Undertones Iring Plaza, New York, 18th June 1980

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.

Monday, 27 August 2012

20 From '80 (6) The Undertones Iring Plaza, New York, 18th June 1980

Fergal Sharkey

The Undertones

Ah, The Undertones, an affable five piece from Derry, arguably Ireland's finest musical export. In stark contrast to musical contemporaries Stiff Little Fingers who's material very much focused on 'The Troubles', The Undertones wrote about anything but! The first two albums are perfectly summed up by one song 'More Songs About Chocolate And Girls'!

What teenager could fail to identify with this band in their parkas and school jumpers. They were extremely self-effacing at a time when bands had a tendency to take themselves a little too seriously (The Clash, PiL, Dexys... the list is a long one). 'I wanna, wanna be a male model' howled Fergal on the first album... the irony being that later in the decade he did become a male model... t'was a funny decade indeed! Let's not forget the The Undertones in this period delivered some of the best pop punk singles that have ever been made and importantly gave us one of the best lines ever with 'his mother bought him a synthesizer, got The Human League into advise her'... genius!

So here's one that appeared on Dime some time ago (thanks to the original uploader (butterfield).

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-t2gUEgC3Ym

Artwork is included in each download file.