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.


Thursday, 12 September 2024

Anarchy In Manchester DVD

Still coming down from our recent long weekend in Manchester and the magnificence of the Southern Cemetery, and following on from my Joy Division cemetery trail, I have one more Manchester related post to make for now.

This post also acknowledges the sad demise of the punktorrents site, a source of some great audio and visual unofficial material. 

It was now 38 years ago that ITV (I think it was) put together a TV programme to mark the 10th anniversary of punk. In the summer of 1986 I was 17 and very receptive to this music, some of which I was familiar with, some of which I was hearing for the first time. Certainly I had heard of all of the bands as a lot of them were still active in 1986 and still enjoying a degree of popularity (Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Stranglers  and Elvis Costello), other bands such as The Jam has called it a day within the last few years. The Clash whilst split were still very active individually (Joe Strummer was playing as were Big Audio Dynamite and Havana 3AM). What was new to me was some of the footage.

The footage that featured in this new anniversary compilation drew together live footage and interview clips from the Granada TV arts and entertainment magazine show, 'So It Goes' that ran for two series between July 1976 and December 1977. As such it spanned the full lifetime of the first wave of British punk. The music part of the programming was presented by Tony Wilson, who used his influence at the station to get the 'new music' on to television and into young people's homes, whether the parents liked it or not. The Granada cameras couldn't have been better placed to capture the energy and exuberance of that first wave, warts and all (or should that be gob and all).

The programme that I saw (and subsequent rehashes) featured some of my favourite punk footage of all time, The Clash performing 'What's My Name' under a monsoon of phegm (always one of my favourite Clash songs), Buzzcocks with 'What Do I Get? ('Don't gob at me!') and of course the first TV exposure for the Pistols with a blistering studio rendition of 'Anarchy'.

In the intervening years since 1986, the footage has appeared in various forms, both officially and unofficially. An official VHS video entitled 'Punk' was released in 1992 featured The Stranglers performing 'Something Better Change' and 'No More Heroes' at the Hope & Anchor, as well as alternative tracks from Siouxsie and The Jam for example.

The two disc version included here was obtained from Punktorrents and has been brilliantly authoured with menus by Bandit999. The set features all six episodes that formed the 'Anarchy In Manchester' series. This series was newly compiled with narration from John Cooper Clarke and broadcast in 2014 on Sky Arts.

It cannot be considered to be the definitive collection because quite a few additional performances appear on different DVD/VHS variants, but it is pretty damn good and the quality is excellent. 

The big surprise here, given that it is all about Manchester and 'So It Goes' was Tony Wilson's baby is that the compilers of this latest collection omitted to include the Joy Division appearance on the show where they performed 'Shadowplay'.

See what you think.

Disc 1 image: https://we.tl/t-yyR5LMFbsq

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-sHb0QguhC4


Disc 2 image:https://we.tl/t-eSUFy0VpZl

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-P2qCHTrIu8

So It Goes (1977)
Rebroadcast On Sky Arts (2014)

Episode One

John Cooper Clarke Intro
Sex Pistols – Anarchy In The Uk
John Cooper Clarke – Majorca
Buzzcocks – What Do I Get?
Malcolm Mclaren – Interview
Penetration – Don’t Dictate
The Jam – Slow Down

Episode Two

John Cooper Clarke Intro
The Stranglers – Something Better Change
John Cooper Clarke – You’ll Never See A Nipple In The Daily Express
Nick Lowe – Shake An Pop
The Clash – Capital Radio
The Clash – Janie Jones
Ian Dury – A Bus Driver’s Prayer
Elvis Costello – Lip Service

Episode Three

John Cooper Clarke Intro
Elvis Costello & The Attractions – I Don’t Want To Go To Chelsea
Magazine – Motorcade
Siouxsie & The Banshees – Make Up To Break Up
Mink Deville – Little Girl
Magazine – Shot By Both Sides

Episode Four

John Cooper Clarke Intro
The Pirates – I Can Tell
Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers – Interview
Tom Robinson Band – 2-4-6-8 Motorway
Iggy Pop- Interview
Iggy Pop – The Passenger
Iggy Pop – Lust For Life

Episode Five

John Cooper Clarke Intro
Elvis Costello & The Attractions – No Dancing
Poly Styrene – Interview
The Jam – In The City
The Jam – All Around The World
Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Watching The Detectives
Tom Robinson Band – Glad To Be Gay

Episode Six

John Cooper Clarke Intro
Steel Pulse – Macka Splaff
Xtc – Neon Shuffle
Muddy Waters – The Blues Had A Baby
The Clash – What’s My Name
The Clash - Garageland


2 comments:

  1. Many thanks for the share.
    punktorrents will be sadly missed.
    Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete