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 adrianandrews1@sky.com.
Artwork: Located in the main download the main folder.
01. No More Heroes
02. Was It You?/Down in the Sewer
03. Nice in Nice/Punch and Judy
04. Souls
05. Always the Sun
06. Strange Little Girl
07. Golden Brown
08. Northwinds
09. Big in America
10. Nice 'N' Sleazy
11. Who Wants the World
01. Bring on the Nubiles
02. Shakin Like a Leaf
03. Uptown
04. Tank
05. Toiler on the Sea
06. Spain
07. All Day And All Of the Night
08. London Lady
09. Peaches
10. Duchess
Great night out at The Square in Harlow last week to see Attila's book launch and a glittering heaven of stars on stage including Brighton's own Piranhas.
I first saw Attila 30 years ago at The Zap Club in Brighton. I new little of what he did as I went along to see The Newtown Neurotics (or The Neurotics as they were known at that point in time) only they didn't play on account of Steve Drewett having his wisdom teeth extracted that week. Attila played the gig on his own and this was really something new. During the set I recall he played the great 'Green Fields of France', a real tear jerker of a song about the death of a Scottish soldier in the trenches of the Western Front. Subsequently I wrote to him and he very kindly sent me a cassette containing said song and invited me to bootleg away.
The next time he played was at The Basement in Brighton in January 1986 and I took him up on his offer, this gig being one of only two gigs that I have ever bootlegged (on an early '80's dictaphone - no mini discs then!). I'll dig it out and upload sometime soon.
Since the date at the Zap Club I had armed myself with a copy of 'Ranting At The Nation' so I now understood the style.
So when Attila played at The Square last week marking his 35th year as a ranting poet and musician, it was strange to thing that I had shared 30 of those years!
In a night of celebration of the Harlow and Brighton music scenes of the late '70's and '80's the bill was wonderful as can be seen from the flyer at the top of this post.
A real highlight for me and an absolute live first came when Steve Drewett joined Attila on stage for a version of 'Mindless Violence/Andy Is A Corporatist', one of the most rousing anti-fascist messages that I know of.
Mindless Violence/Andy Is A Corporatist
The Square Harlow
11th September 2015
The night worked its way through Attila's long career, and 'Tyler Smiles' was another highlight, coming as it did on the eve of the announcement of the new era for the Labour Party.
The Piranhas headlined and although being the proud owner of the 'Tom Hark' single, one of the first ten singles I purchased I am sure, and coming from Brighton way, I had never seen them live. They were great and very funny, especially when Boring Bob shared his issues with Space Invaders machines!
Boring Bob Grover of The Piranhas
The Square Harlow
11th September 2015
'Space Invaders' by The Piranhas
All in all a great nights entertainment in my favourite of all venues The Square which will sadly close down..... a real loss for Harlow and live music generally!
Here's a near anniversary upload of a much circulated recording of The Clash's support slot to Southend's Kursaal Flyers. Interesting set with a few songs that didn't really make the grade when the band really took off a few months later.
01. Decide
02. Evacuate
03. No One's Coming Outside
04. All The Downs
05. How Do You Know?
06. War Across The Nation
07. Only Thinking
08. I Fought The Law
09. You Really Got Me
10. Urban Kids
11. Right To Work
And also on a Chelsea theme, I came across this little piece on Youtube recently. A punk tour of London (at least central London) made by James Stevenson Chelsea's former guitarist.
Here's one from TV Smith's Cheap..... a hugely underrated and much missed combo. They were a band railing against music mediocrity at a time when the British music scene was perhaps at its lowest ebb. Stock, Aitken and Waterman ruled the airwaves and guitars were definitely not the flavour of the month. Just a rubbish time which Cheap lightened a little when they played!
Here they are at a relatively early gig at The Square in Harlow.
01. Third Term
02. The Newshound
03. My String Will Snap
04. Free World
05. Luxury In Exile
06. Silicon Valley Holiday
07. Ghosts
08. Ready For The Axe To Drop
09. Buried By The Machine
10. Lies
Thanks to Ronnie for this one. Stranglers radio sessions are few and far between and this one completely passed me by at the time.
It is included here both as a complete file as broadcast and with the session tracks singled out. Your choice. Actually, the interview is quite interesting, being broadcast at the time of the 'In The Night' release.
