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 14 November 2020

The Jam The Great British Music Festival Wembley Arena 29th November 1978


What a mixed bag this event was. It looks like the promoter has made some effort somewhere to present some logic to the programme, the more rabble rousing bands appearing on the opening night..... but the Rich Kids opening for David Essex!?

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-VtqS22hKt6

Artwork (by Manu Gomez): https://we.tl/t-KKcK9olfUx

01. Mr Clean
02. All Mod Cons
03. To Be Someone
04. Billy Hunt
05. Away From The Numbers
06. Sounds From The Street
07. I Need You
08. The Modern World
09. Tube Station
10. Here Comes The Weekend
11. A Bomb In Wardour Street
12. David Watts

Paul Weller at Wembley Arena
29th November 1978

The Festival was reviewed in the 9th December 1978 issue of Sounds. The gig sounds like hell on Earth in the massive aircraft hanger that is Wembley Arena. Bored kids, up for a fight, crap, overpriced beer and bad sound (for all bar The Jam it would appear). The Jam it seems dragged the night up by its boot straps in the opinion of the reviewer, turning in a blistering, tight and angry set.

Sounds 9th December 1978







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5 comments:

  1. Leigh Heggarty15 November 2020 at 11:18

    I went to the first night of this, principally to see The Jam and The Pirates, although I liked Slade too - from what I remember it was pretty much as the review says. And I'd actually forgotten that Generation X played. Oops!

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  2. Musky0315 November 2020 at 13:11

    Oh well never mind. Poor old Billy. I never got to see The Jam and as such I would have been content to see them anywhere, but there are a thousand places that would come before Wembley Arena.

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  3. Leigh Heggarty16 November 2020 at 07:39

    I went with a couple of mates from school, we were hopelessly out of our depth!

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  4. Rockula Bacchus2 December 2021 at 15:03

    I went to this. On my own 'cause the guys who I was supposed to go with chickened out. I thought the sound was excellent and enjoyed all of the bands. I obviously went for The Jam. My ticket was right at the back upstairs but I just walked through and down to the very front of the stage. Weller announced that somebody had been stabbed and skinheads were outside waiting to beat people up. I phoned my Dad to come pick me up and he did the 15 mile journey in under half an hour expecting to find me in a pool of blood. There was no blood. There were no skinheads. Weller made it up for dramatic effect. He did stuff like that back then. Great night.

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