'The one you've all been waiting for! I'm gaspin' now'. For one night only in London.... 'Nosferatu'! My favourite solo effort for the band and some 45 years on from its release Hugh Cornwell finally took the plunge and announced that he would tour the album.
On this occasion he has taken flavour of the month Danish/Brazilian duo. 'The Courettes' on the road with him as support. Looking them up today, I can see that they have been described as making the sound that you would get if the Ronettes met the Ramones (they kind of did actually). For me they came across as the bastard offspring of The Revillos and The Cramps, yes with Phil Spector sitting behind the desk. They were great fun actually, great to watch with some good songs.
In the wake of The Courettes, Hugh and his band were wasting no time in taking to the stage to fine tune their instruments with 'Nosferatu' played on a backing track.
Hearing the album played live in its entirity with the same running order as the original LP really brought it home to me just how experimental the album was/is... brave you could say. Whilst I think that the material advertising the tour was quite clear that something a little out of the ordinary was on the cards for this tour, there must be a proportion of the audience that would still be turning up for the big hits. What they would have made of their subjugation to 40 minutes worth of avant garde, rather dischordant music about as far removed from 'Golden Brown' and 'Always The Sun' that you could possibly get! Even I, who has loved the album for many years, had a few flashbacks to The Fast Show's 'Jazz Club'! But of course there was a sizable contingent of the crowd who were very familiar with Hugh and Robert's dark masterpiece and loved every minute of it.
I don't know whether Hugh has any further 'Nosferatu' plans in store, a recording of the album set would be wonderful. A final acknowledgement of the part that this most quirky of album's has had in Hugh's and The Stranglers' history and the high regard in which fans hold the album.
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