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, 25 April 2015

The Damned 'The Captain's Last Stand' Brockwell Park 4th August 1984


I had this gig on tape for many years, but sadly it wore out. Luckily some kindly soul replaced it with a lossless copy that was also an upgrade on my old version.

The Greater London Council (G.L.C.) were the former administrative organisation in London. Led by Ken Livingstone, throughout the 1980's they were a constant thorn in the side of the Government of the day headed by one Margaret Thatcher. The two politicians were ideologically poles apart and there was certainly no love lost between them. Eventually, under Thatcher, the G.L.C. was abolished in March 2006.

During the 1980's under Livingstone, the Council hosted a series of free festivals that featured those bands of the day that sympathized with the Council's left wing policies.

This was just one such event.


Incidentally it was in 1984 that I along with two school friends won a public speaking competition on the topic of the arguments against the proposed abolition of the G.L.C. It was an inter-schools competition organised by The Rotary Club of Lewes. Little did we anticipate that the adjudicating rather conservative Rotarians would pick us above the others for the prize.

Back to the gig then, this was to be Captain Sensible's last gig with the band for a number of years, hence the 'Last Stand' reference in the bootleg LP's title.

A great set from a great band.

FLAC: http://we.tl/l9tPX7fHdQ

Artwork: http://we.tl/5QGmIkrHqO

01. Introduction
02. Love Song
03. Wait For The Blackout
04. Thanks For The Night
05. Rat Rants
06. Disco Man
07. Stranger On The Town
08. Limit Club
09. Neat Neat Neat
10. Noise Noise Noise
11. Smash It Up
12. Looking At You
13. New Rose
14. Hippy Hippy Shake
15. Band Thanks
16. Anarchy In The UK
17. Love Song
18. Nasty

The Damned at Brockwell Park
4th August 1984

4 comments:

  1. Ta Adrian, and a very recent Damned gig can be found here:

    http://darkcircleroom4.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-damned-sala-arena-madrid-spain.html

    Cheers, Dave Sez.

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  2. It was a really boring day with lots of crap bands. Rain-sun-rain-sun. Off-license was raided. Weird site of a punk riding a city farm (zoo?) horse bare back. Most of us didn't five a damn (excuse the pun) about the GLC - although they gave us some free gigs that summer. Jubilee gardens was good fun but crap music also - good fun for other reasons. There was lots of boozng, speed and weed which saw us through to The Damned - other bands were 'canned' because they were crap and just didn't fit the gig. The rain came down really heavy - fake punks and mohicans were dripping hair colour and many students left. It was worth waiting for when the Damned came on though - The Captain was brilliant but Vanian was just Goth and boring. Never bought anything from The Damned after this gig.

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    Replies
    1. Remember that day lot of punks of the disorderly Lps there .me and my mate pus ended up on Dr Martin t shirt I'm the one necking a bottle of wine. Pus was wearing my jack boots stripped of and somebody stole his clothes walked through Brixton high street back to Paulette road squat with wearing just jack boots.great day. And if u enjoy the music your not fake you life just hasn't been that fucked up that makes u need to find a new one.brixton punks were youths from all over the world forming different tribes within a cracking town and community

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  3. I was 16 years old, I am writing this 40 years to the day later, it was a fantastic gig, and free, The Damned were brilliant so were NMA, one of the most memorable days in my life,

    ReplyDelete