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.
Sunday 19 November 2023
The Damned Hammersmith Odeon London 11th October 1982
Friday 17 November 2023
Sunday 12 November 2023
Jean Jacques Burnel 'Strangler In The Light'
I like the fact that the book is structured in terms of themes rather than having a chronological presentation, this breaks up what is ultimately a very well known story for a great many readers. Early in the book, JJ elaborates on his sense of being different. It cannot have have been easy growing up with French heritage 10 years or so after the Second World War. My family have first hand experience of this. My wife is half German and half Latvian. Born in '65 and raised in Coventry, 25 years after Goebbels boasted of the city being 'Coventrated'. The fact that my in-laws dressed her up in a Heidi outfit didn't really help matters. Roll the calendar forward some 30 years and we find ourselves sitting in the Junior School headmasters office as he apologised for the nazi taunts that our kids had been subjected to in the playground. Kids are very cruel, so just like the narrator in Johnny Cash's 'A Boy Named Sue', our JJ had to learn to give it out.
And it seems that there were parallels with Mr Burnel Snr and Sue's old man.... both were good in a fight as indeed was Grand-père Burnel too! Forget the Biffa Bacon family of Newcastle, enter the Biffa Burnels of Normandy!
Friday 10 November 2023
Taxi Girl Seppuku Demo Versions 1981
So I am a few pages shy of finishing JJ's book and read the chapter where he took it upon himself to be a champion, promoter and producer of French bands and French music. This lead me to dig out The Rat Zone presentation of the Seppuku demos from 1981.
m4a: https://we.tl/t-hEBdMPLz5n
Thursday 9 November 2023
Listen To The Sirens Blog Site
Ok, before I get roundly abused, there is some cross over for at least some people who visit this site with the music of Tubeway Army and Gary Numan. In an attempt not to ruffle your raven feathers I have another blog that is focused on Numan. Should you be interested, there is a quite a few recordings here as well as a new thread planned to span the man's long career.
Link to the 'Listen to the Sirens' blog..... see 1978 Tubeway Army... John Lydon loved 'em and I'm told on good authority that Pete Shelley wanted to join them!
Rattus Inheritus Cask Bar Loughborough 18th June 2022
Here's an established tribute band, Rattus Inheritus, with a focus on Mk. 1 material.... although 'Skin Deep' and 'Always The Sun' sneak into the set. Thanks to the original Dime uploader,
FLAC: https://we.tl/t-DCl5S1Axwg
Artwork: https://we.tl/t-FCfgRSj73a
999 The Swan Fulham London Summer 1992
As discussed last week on the 999 Facebook page there is a recording that features a song called 'People Who Died', that by all accounts is quite an obscure track. It did appear o a bootleg tape, one of a series of tapes of punk bands in London in the late 80's (?)/early '90's. As I recall they had something to do with Dave Ferguson (who I did buy this recording (as a tape) from back then in Fulham).
As mentioned by Nick in the recording, Pablo was local and The Swan was his local, which was probably the reason that 999 played there a few times in the early '90's. Here's a flyer from 1992 that also features some outfit called The Lurkers.
5th June 1992 is probably the date of this recording.
Of course the following year the band released 'You Us It' (the successor to 'Separates' in my opinion) and there were another handful of gig's at The Swan... those were happy times for me!
The sleeve artwork also makes reference to an interview conducted upstairs at The Swan on 20th November 1993. Whilst at a gig that both The Stranglers and 999 played at Fontwell Racecourse in '93, I was asked to interview the band for an article in Strangled, the fan publication published by The Stranglers Information Service (the interview transcript can be found here).
WAV: https://we.tl/t-bNqgmW8TpA
Artwork: https://we.tl/t-QgZUsh9hpi