20 From '82 (15) Pete Shelley Ripley's Music Hall Philadelphia 26th May 1982

 

Out of the burnt out wreckage of Buzzcocks, Pete Shelley donned a white whistle, neatly parted his hair and reinvented himself as an early pioneer of dance music. Despite the audible change in direction, many of the central themes of Shelley's writing stayed on track. 

I saw a Buzzcock-less Pete once (supporting The Damned at their 10th Anniversary bash) when he was briefly in an outfit called Zip who had recently released a great album called 'Heaven & The Sea', another electro-pop effort but rather less stark than his first album. 'Homosapien', material from which makes up much of this Philadelphia set.

What did the critics make of this new direction? I found one review that was less than favourable. Strangely, the review makes no reference to the title track 'Homosapien', a late Buzzcocks' demo, polished up and released as Shelley's first solo single. The single was a hit in Australia, Canada and New Zealand, but was banned by the BBC as a result of its overt gay sexual message, something that Shelley denied.

Record Mirror

16th January 1982

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-HXMJa832eq

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-WIvcOluRhx

01. Homosapien
02. Pusher Man
03. Guess I Must’ve Been In Love With Myself
04. I Generate A Feeling
05. Qu’est-Ce Que C’est Que Ça
06. Yesterday’s Not Here
07. I Don’t Know What It Is
08. Witness The Change
09. Hollow Inside
10. Something’s Gone Wrong Again

Parc De Exposition Lille France 30th September 1983

 

Happy birthday to this black limbed beast of a gig. Cheers as ever to my partner in crime, Dom P, for these FLAC files.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-E7wlhmoA9E

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-VVBFjVTDDK

Hastings Pavilion 29th October 1977

 Ok so here's one, again from the south east, from the tail end of the tour.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-4Q5YeS2ShZ

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-3iBPwOVnpS

01. Sometimes
02. Dagenham Dave
03. Dead Ringer
04. Hanging Around
05. 5 Minures
06. Burning Up Time
07. I Feel Like A Wog
08. Straighten Out
09. Something Better Change
10. London Lady

Another Tedious Subscription Appeal

 

'If you do it well, a pound, my dear. One pound,’ said Fagin.

It has come around rapidly again. The site maintains two WeTransfer accounts to put material up on this site (total cost is €240 per annum and one of them has just renewed). The site has been active since mid 2011, not a bad run for a site centered around one band. I guess WeTransfer is a relatively expensive file hosting site but that said I have been very happy with them over many years now. The service is excellent, I have plenty of scope to post whatever I wish to (including more recently DVD material).

As always, I will continue to run this site regardless, for the next couple of years at least I think. Any donation is entirely voluntary.... not extracted with menace. Those who know me will appreciate that I am not particularly menacing to start with..... although if I don't get to a gig within the next 12 months.....

My thanks as always goes to those people who have selflessly shared their own recordings, those that have responded to a half pissed, late night text/email for assistance with a particular recording when I have an idea for a themed post. As old Mr Grace would say 'You've all done very well'. 

Should you feel so inclined there is a donation PayPal link on the right hand panel of the site. Donations should be marked as gift rather than goods as I recall.

Thank you for your continued support of the site and the band that mean so much to each and every one of us. The coming months will be hard indeed for many reasons, not least to likely demise of the band, but there is no reason why the sharing of recordings, articles, reviews etc should not continue.

Stay safe and wear a black mask!

Adrian.

'It wasn't me what done the job officer, I swear, it was that Nick Cash from 999!'

Brunel University 29th September 1977

 

43 years ago The Stranglers played Brunel University, sadly 11 years prior to my arrival when I chose to while away four years of my life amidst some of the most brutal of Brutalist architecture to be found in Britain. The band had played the Student Union in May of that year, but this time the runaway success of 'Rattus' had propelled them into the premier division of the new wave such that they could fill out the much larger Sports Centre.

Leigh Heggarty, guitarist of Uxbridge band The Price and now guitarist with Ruts DC was there. When asked for his recollections of the gig Leigh gave me the following:

"No More Heroes? Oh I don’t know - I was 16 years old, and (I now realise) a very young 16 years old at that. 

Wire supported - I know I should be saying how brilliant they were (probably while using words like ‘stark’ and ‘minimal’) but I can’t remember too much about them, other than a school mate (not much of a mate really) of mine didn’t like them. Mind you, he was a pillock then, and is no doubt a pillock now. 

The Stranglers had looked pretty scary on Top Of The Pops, but that didn’t prepare me for four gangland henchmen banging on about ice picks, barley fever (whatever that was) and crimes against the soul while looking as though they’d all just been in a riot. There was a fight (obviously) so the bass player offered them all out (obviously) and the whole thing was both utterly terrifying and absolutely brilliant - which, if you think about it, is what rock ‘n’ roll is all about. Well, what it should be all about anyway." 

The closest I got to this particular gig was to locate the back copy of the student newspaper 'Le Nurb' (Brunel backwards.... zany students eh?), that advertised the gig.

Gig ad in 'Le Nurb' September 1977

Canterbury Odeon 25th September 1977 Upgrade - ARTWORK CORRECTED

 

Ah Damn! Just missed this ones birthday, but never mind. Here is an upgrade to the FLAC version that has previously been posted on this site in that this version completes the set with 'London Lady',  'No More Heroes' and a brilliant 'Down in the Sewer'. This gig was only the third date on the 'No More Heroes' tour from way back when bands used to play places like Canterbury!

Many thanks Dom P!

MP3: https://we.tl/t-aeG34KKlnE

24 bit: https://we.tl/t-pGRRvrg9s2

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-QxKxQU5ZEJ

01. Ugly 
02. Straighten Out
03. Bring On The Nubiles
04. Sometimes
05. Dagenham Dave
06. Dead Ringer
07. Hanging Around
08. Something Better Change
09. Bitching
10. I Feel Like A Wog
11. Five Minutes
12. Burning Up Time
13. London Lady
14. No More Heroes
15. Encore Break
16. (Get A) Grip (On Yourself)

17. Down In The Sewer

'No More Heroes' - Strangulation The Tour

 

As far as UK tours go, this one was ambitious! A 35 date tour no less taking in the whole of the UK and Ireland. Principle support was to come from New York's Dictators with regional variations that would see The Only Ones, Steel Pulse, Wire, Penetration and The Rezillos stepping in across the country.

This was a tour, that took the band forever out of the clubs. If anything it saw the band transition from a punk band of the London scene to a traditional rock band, albeit one rather rough around the edges. Of course as the music industry picked up on the commercial potential of these snotty bands who personified the new wave and the scene changed very rapidly such that bands that were playing to 400 punks in a night club were entertaining 2000 in the Top Rank Suites up and down the country.

The Stranglers never looked back.