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.


Friday 7 December 2018

Buzzcocks Manchester Polytechnic 22nd May 1980


OK last one for today. Here the lads are back in their home town playing for BBC Radio 1 at the Polytechnic. This is the full set that was broadcast and may be the complete set for the gig, I don't know for sure. Notable in this is Pete's dedication of 'Strange Thing' to Ian Curtis who had hanged himself in the early hours of the previous Sunday.

This short set includes three tracks from a trio of singles released that year that went under the name of Parts 1-3. To my mind as brilliant as the hormone drenched, teen angst earlier singles are, these three releases (Parts 1-3) are about as good as Buzzcocks get, completely left field stuff, dark and experimental. Some of it should not work but it does. As constant touring wore the band down and the use of ever heavier drugs started to take their toll, the frustrations, tensions and paranoias colluded to produce some of the bands most creative and innovative music. In The Stranglers world similar internal and external pressures gave rise to 'The Raven' and 'The  Gospel According to the Meninblack'. Not immediately accessible to the fan base, especially the latter, these albums are now highly thought of and the same is true of the last released Buzzcocks material.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-JLNPKc7jBp

01. I Don’t Mind
02. Ever Fallen In Love
03. What Do I Get?
04. Strange Thing
05. Why She’s A Girl From The Chainstore
06. What Do You Know?
07. Autonomy

1 comment:

  1. I was there. I was right at the front just by Mike Reads record deck. I have pictures from the night and somewhere I still have the concert on tape (my sister was on strict orders to press record!). Unfortunately it’s only in medium wave. They definitely did noise annoys. Is it true it was their only live appearance of 1980. Was Morrissey there that night. It was his 21st birthday that day and rumour has it he was.

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