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, 20 September 2025

Sex Pistols Phoenix Festival 21st July 1996 + TV Appearances 1996

 


Not that I feel the need to redress any balance, but having posted a couple of new Pistols bits I thought that I would put this up from a time when the four original members could bear to stand together on the same stage. The real reason for the post is that in one of my fairly frequent space saving exercises I have unearthed some more DVDs. This one authored, as so many great punk DVDs are, by Bandit999 a proshot film of the band's appearance at the short lived Phoenix Festival on Long Marston Airfield in Stratford-Upon-Avon. The disc is supplemented by a two track appearance on UK's Top of the Pops along with a couple of US TV appearances, all from that first reformation year of 1996.

Phoenix was a great festival. but in 1996 it ran into organisational trouble. I had a one day ticket for the Thursday as I really wanted to see Bowie. In an attempt to make the weekend easier, we stayed the night before at Gunta's parents who were then still living in Coventry. The plan was to leave at around mid-day on the day of the gig to travel the short 8 mile distance to Stratford. Eight hours later (!) we were finally parking up on the site. It was traffic chaos (luckily I did get to see Frank Black, The Prodigy and Bowie). The problems encountered that day sounded the death knell for this annual event.

As was the case with the Finsbury Park gig a month before, the Phoenix gig was a solid performance. Lydon's delivery was good... I have heard quite a few moans that  at gigs that followed in the years upto 2008 Lydon's vocal took on more Public Image theatrics.

Thanks to Bandit999 and the much missed Punktorrents.

Disc image: https://we.tl/t-XP40uUhfbT

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-5TGa090M5r



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