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, 23 August 2014

10 From '87 (2) The Damned Draken Stockholm 21st January 1987

Roman Jugg
Draken Cinema, Stockholm
21st January 1987

Sorry for the repetition, but here's another from The Damned, only this time not incognito. In the introduction to this series of posts I said that British music was entering into a nose dive that it would not pull out of for several years. In such sonically challenged times at least The Damned were consistent. By the time of this early '87 recording The Damned were still riding high in what was the most commercially successful period of their career. Starting with the incredible 'Phantasmagoria' album of 1985, they troubled the charts consistently for the next two years, not least with their reworking of the 1968 Barry Ryan song 'Eloise' (their biggest hit, reaching a UK chart high of number 3).

At this time the line up was enjoying a rare period of stability (in Damned terms at least) and the band had transformed into a quartet of Regency dandies! Nevertheless, despite their outlandish appearance (nothing new for The Damned there), between 1985 and 1987 they produced some of their finest material.



With chart success came renewed television exposure starting with what was one of their finest moments, a rip-roaring version of 'Nasty' on The Young Ones'.

'Nasty' by The Damned
The Young Ones BBC TV 1984

Also of note was their stint on the classic Tube.

'Eloise' by The Damned
The Tube Channel 4 1986

Funnily enough, this week The Damned have again played in Stockholm, but here's a 27 year old vintage performance.



01. Sanctum Santorum
02. Wait For The Blackout
03. Psychomania
04. Anything
05. Shadow Of Love
06. In Dulce Decorum
07. Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
08. Is It A Dream
09. A Girl Goes Down
10. L.A. Woman
11. Smash It Up pt 1&2
12. Street Of Dreams
13. Eloise

01. Plan 9 Channel 7
02. Tonight
03. Lust For Life
04. Love Song
05. Backdoor Man
06. Neat Neat Neat
07. We Love You

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3 comments:

  1. Anonymous31 August 2014 at 19:08

    just shows how bad the damned were in 87 much much better now they are actually worth seeing so glad I had the sense not to bother in this period of the bands history

    ReplyDelete
  2. sydfloyd8 December 2014 at 12:06

    Personally, I've always loved this period of The Damned. I think Roman and Bryn are great musicians and 'Anything' is a ridiculously under-rated album. I'd love to see Rat, Roman and Bryn put together a new band actually.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous5 November 2017 at 11:26

    FANX a Million, man !

    ReplyDelete

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