All Roads Lead To Roman St Albans

For those folk who were starting to experience the pains of withdrawal after the Ruby dates, those kindly Stranger chaps organised a mini-tour across the land to provide those in need a booster.

For me, this gig nearly didn't come off. Family illness meant that Gunta and the kids could not come which left me with logistical issue of making my way across county to the lovely town of St Albans. There is a bus service from Harlow to St Albans, but better still I cadged a lift with a work colleague (thanks Diane!) and so got to a pub near the venue in good time to sell the spares, after which I could relax and wait for showtime.

The Alban Arena was larger than I expected, but a good venue, perhaps more used to staging 'Jack and the Beanstalk' and the likes of Derek Acorah than such gnarly old punks like The Stranglers.

At nine prompt, the band were on with 'Toiler on the Sea' as opener thundering through the P.A. Happily, the set was rejigged, with 'Time Was Once On My Side' well received early on and 'Death And Night And Blood' bringing in a bit of menace mid-set. The biggest thrill for me was to hear 'Go Buddy Go' in the encore.... surely a contender for an opener next time around.

JJ, once again, was on the receiving end of a beer shower as someone behind us launched a pint in his direction. He made a joke of it on stage as he laboured on hands and knees mopping the stage, but he was not at all happy about the incident. When he came down to challenge the miscreant, someone suggested that it was a bloke standing next to me that was responsible. This person looked quite taken aback when JJ said 'Was it you old man!'. In fairness accused and accuser were probably of a similar age!

'Who spilled their beer?'

I was pleased to get back briefly afterwards and the atmosphere in the dressing room was relaxed. We spoke to Baz for a few minutes about the virtues of the 'Profanisurus' - high brow indeed.

Anyway, a recording of the evening has appeared on Dime and the uploader is happy for it to be shared here. Thanks to cra4269 and also to Big Andy for the photos for the artwork.

FLAC: http://we.tl/hN8kHFtnE3

Artwork: http://we.tl/l0Ro84qDoW

01. Intro

02. Toiler On The Sea

03. (Get A) Grip (On Yourself)

04. Skin Deep

05. Time Was Once On My Side

06. Nice 'N' Sleazy

07. Peaches

08. Relentless

09. Duchess

10. The Raven

11. Golden Brown

12. (Angie's Photo Call)

13. Always The Sun

14. Freedom Is Insane

01. Death And Night And Blood (Yukio)

02. Nuclear Device

03. Walk On By

04. Hanging Around

05. (Jean-Jaques Burnel's Beer Break)

06. Curfew

07. Norfolk Coast

08. 5 Minutes

09. Something Better Change

10. Tank

11. Go Buddy Go

12. No More Heroes