Aural Sculptors - The Stranglers Live

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.

Sunday, 13 August 2017

Oxegen Festival 13th August 2008

Okay, here's another anniversary gig from nine years ago, a short but great quality (soundboard) recording of the band at the Oxegen Festival in Ireland.

FLAC: https://we.tl/LvkrEkzTFF

01. Always The Sun
02. Peaches
03. Strange Little Girl
04. Golden Brown
05. Walk On By
06. All Day And All Of The Night
07. Something Better Change
08. Duchess
09. No More Heroes

Eastfield Victoria Inn Derby 13th August 2004

Here's an anniversary gig from Eastfield. This would have been around the time when my mate Chris was playing drums with them.

FLAC: https://we.tl/hR5uYHzyCO

01. Mannion
02. Fare Dodging
03. Broad Street Trash
04. Aspartame
05. Drive On Henry
06. Vic Bury
07. Revolution
08. Swayze
09. Pepper
10. Beast Of Bratislava
11. 47002
12. Henry Jackson
13. Bevland

Sunday, 6 August 2017

David Bowie Milton Keynes Bowl 5th August 1990

Here's another anniversary gig (well almost) from the late, great David Bowie. This was taken from his 1990 'Sound & Vision' tour. If I recall correctly this was the tour where he came up with the idea of the fans voting for what songs appeared in the tour set. 'The Laughing Gnome' was the runaway winner, but this was too much for Dave and the song never made it into the set!

Without Bowie and his undoubted musical genius, 90% of the bands who appear on these pages just would not exist.

FLAC: https://we.tl/S7xzUjkZIv

Artwork: https://we.tl/VIxaPBpxct

01. Intro
02. Space Oddity
03. Rebel Rebel
04. Ashes To Ashes
05. Fashion
06. Life On Mars
07. Blue Jean
08. Let's Dance
09. Stay
10. Ziggy Stardust
11. Station To Station

01. Station To Station (Continued)
02. Young Americans
03. China Girl
04. Suffragette City
05. Fame
06. Heroes
07. Jean Genie/Gloria
08. White Light/White Heat
09. Modern Love

Friday, 21 July 2017

RESTORED LINK - Summercase Festival Barcelona 19th July 2008

And a birthday one to boot!

Here.

Sunday, 16 July 2017

Adam and the Ants Cleopatra's Huddersfield 6th June 1980

Here's a gig from the revamped Ants. Here they played at Cleopatra's in Huddersfield, a date on Summer's 'Ants Invasion' tour. For some reason trouble had a habot of following the Ants from gig to gig. A friend in Hayes spoke of older acquaintances in the area who followed the band and they said that a fight was guaranteed. I recall talking to Tony Barber (ex-Buzzcocks) about our appreciation of early Ants stuff and he said the same thing about the violence that their gigs attracted. This gig is no exception, a fight breaks out in the crowd during 'Fall-in'. It must have been a significant punch-up as the police were called and the gig was abandoned.

Was anyone on here, there?

WAV: https://we.tl/BE6VkVsi2n

Artwork: https://we.tl/DTwNHArHgw

01. Physical (You're So)
02. Kings Of The Wild Frontier
03. Ants Invasion
04. Beat My Guest
05. Fall-In
06. Cleopatra
07. Kick!
08. Killer In The Home
09. Press Darlings
10. Tabletalk

The Robin 2 Bilston 15th July 2007

I meant to post this yesterday, but beer got in the way! Here is an almost anniversary gig from the Midland, would you believe it, 10 years ago!

FLAC: https://we.tl/uRlRHqPE5u

Artwork: https://we.tl/iCDjP2Oxja

01. Intro
02. Toiler On The Sea
03. (Get A) Grip (On Yourself)
04. Spectre Of Love
05. Strange Little Girl
06. Unbroken
07. Peaches
08. Always The Sun
09. Golden Brown
10. I Hate You
11. Peasant In The Big Shitty

01. Lost Control
02. Thrown Away
03. Walk On By
04. Relentless
05. Burning Up Time
06. Straighten Out
07. All Day And All Of The Night
08. Duchess
09. London Lady
10. Nuclear Device
11. No More Heroes

The Stranglers at the Robin 2, Bilston

15th July 2007.

Saturday, 15 July 2017

20 From '84 (10) The Dickies Fender's Ballroom Long Beach CA 31st October 1984

And another from 1984....... Oh no! It's The Dickies! Run for your lives children.

FLAC: https://we.tl/FcKWhPAReb

Artwork: https://we.tl/YGVrDf06rh

01. Nobody But Me
02. Nights In White Satin
03. You Drive Me Ape (You Big Gorilla)
04. Pretty Please Me Walk Like An Egg
05. Doggy Doo
06. Tricia Toyota
07. Fan Mail
08. She’s A Hunchback
09. Saga Of Jim Bowie
10. Curb Job
11. Manny, Moe And Jack
12. Paranoid
13. Munster’s Theme/Monster Mash
14. Banana Splits

Running Cost Contributions

Hi there all!

Today, I have renewed the subscription for one of the two We Transfer accounts that support the Aural Sculptors site. In order to ensure that the links to the files that are posted on the site remain live and accessible it is necessary to maintain two We Transfer accounts, meaning that the total running costs of the Aural Sculptors blog totals £210 per year.

We Transfer is not the cheapest file sharing service available, nor does it offer the greatest storage capacity (hence the practical need for two accounts), but it is a reliable platform that does meet the needs of the site. Having been bitten hard on the arse before in years gone by with disastrous reliance on both megaupload and Rapidshare, I am reluctant to move away from the current arrangements to a cheaper option.

Since the site was launched (the catharsis of the birth perhaps) in July 2011, the site has featured 900+ posts (most with associated music files) of which over 450 have been directly associated with The Stranglers, in keeping with the whole rationale of the site.

Those of us of a certain vintage will recall the day when bootlegs recordings were difficult to come by and a tape with a poorly photocopied pastel paper cover would set you back a fiver (the equivalent of 6 or so pints in the mid 80’s!). Now however, it is a doddle for people to obtain a good quality recording of a gig, perhaps the first one that they saw by a given band, I dunno. The point is that it is free, shared in good faith by fans for fans.

Aural Sculptors, with its 800,000+ hits to date is not a massive site but it has a reasonable presence in the hierarchy of Stranglers related websites and that is enough for me to keep it going.

Therefore, I would kindly point out that it is possible to make a small contribution towards the running costs of the site. A donation button is located on the right hand panel of the site. In return I will continue in my efforts to keep the site relevant and interesting to likeminded people such as the regular visitors to the site. Additionally, I will do my best to continue to accommodate requests for specific recordings and/or updates of dead links (as best as I can in the time available to me).

It just remains for me to say, again, a big thank to you for your continued support, to those who have donated, commented or shared with me something that you think will be of interest to others.

Best Wishes for 2017.

Adrian.