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, 13 January 2024

Xmal Deutschland Cardiff University 21st October 1986

 

Here is one of those rare occasions where a taper goes the extra mile and records a support band for posterity. As you know, The Stranglers had this thing going for sometime in the 1980's where their support acts seemed to be selected solely on their potential to confound and more often than not rile the audience, but that stopped in 1986 (if you side step Keith Allen's Wembley slot when he appeared as Jerry Arkwright, the Northern Industrial Gay!) when serious support came in the form of Hamburg's Xmal Deutschland. Here's their set from Cardiff on the Dreamtour. 

The following is definitely from back in the day, courtesy of Chatts's 'Box of Tapes', cassette bootlegs acquired at great cost on Camden High Street, record fairs and the like. Cheers.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-zmigiwH64n

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-E7hsD33rjP


I was prompted to put this up when someone sent me a link concerning a planned album of new material from lead singer, Anja Huwe. I listened to a snippet and it sounded great!

'Invited by her long-time friend Mona Mur, Huwe reconsidered her decades-long hiatus from music and decided to join Mur in her studio in Berlin. Together, they worked for a year and a half, composing, performing and producing the tracks from scratch, which would eventually become the album 'Codes'.


As a footnote, The Stranglers did briefly decide to take a band on tour with them that most definitely belonged in the 'WTF' section of your local record shop.... 'Starbase 109' (2008?). Anyone capture one of their support slots?

2 comments:

  1. Xmas very kindly put me on their Guestlist for the whole tour and also remember having a very nice cup of tea with Anna and Co at a motorway services somewhere North of Watford...that's rock and roll for you.....

    ReplyDelete
  2. Xmal not Xmas....

    ReplyDelete