The Stranglers Live :: Wessex Scene Online

The Stranglers Live

13th November 2008
Alexander Payne

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Oct 08 - Subhumans Live
Nov 08 - Foals Live
Nov 08 - Cyndi Lauper, Southampton Guildhall
Nov 08 - Sonic Boom Six Live
Nov 08 - The Streets Live

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Southampton Guildhall plays host to the classic goodness of the Stranglers on the 20th October 2008

So I arrived inside Southampton Guildhall, which doesn’t look like it was the right setting for an ageing punk band to be playing, and as the venue slowly filled up I found myself in a sea on middle aged punks with balding Mohicans and a few even brought their children along. It seemed a far cry from the nihilistic and anarchic attitude of the punk era of the late 70’s and early 80’s.

To make things worse the support act, Starbase 109, were very hard to take seriously. Imagine an English version of Kraftwerk singing songs about road safety and a broken Vacuum Cleaner and you get the idea – industrial, avant-garde electro music should be left to the Germans. Nevertheless, I managed to withstand the support act and anticipated seeing a band that I have grown up listening to thanks to the efforts of my dad.

The problem I always had with The Stranglers was understanding their punkness; to me they never seemed very punk other than lyrically. However, my confusion was washed away as soon as they hit the stage to the infectious keyboard introduction to ‘five minutes’ and bashed out the awesome ‘Grip’. Suddenly, all these middle-aged punks around me bounced into life and were dancing, jumping and just getting into the music. Then I realised, to fully understand their punkness, they have to be seen live.

They continued as they meant to go on with excellent performances of ’Peaches’, ‘Nice N Sleazy’, ‘Skin Deep’ and ‘No Mercy’. The back catalogue that they are able to access is extensive and this greatest hits tour is full of classics. ‘Always the Sun’ was about as slow as it got and even that felt punky with the crowd shouting the chorus as loud as they could to their hearts content.

I was originally sceptical as to the whether the vocals would be up-to-scratch with their earlier material as Hugh Cornwell, who sang most of the classics if not all, left the band in 1990 being replaced with Paul Roberts until he left in 2006. However, I couldn’t fault the vocals at all. Baz Warne (guitar and lead vocals) seems to fit perfectly and has exactly the right voice and Jean-Jacques Burnel (bass guitar and lead vocals) was on the same par but wasn’t as audible but this could be down to the PA and sound man.

Overall, the sound was great. You could hear every chord, key, cymbal and bass rumble, which enabled ‘Golden Brown’s’ epic melody cut through the music to fill the venue. I thought this would be the song I would most want to see as it was one of their most famous and one of my favourites but it seemed a little flat and lifeless compared to the rest of the set. Don’t get me wrong, there was nothing wrong with the performance, it just left me a little disappointed. Maybe due to the raucousness of the other songs around it, especially ‘Thrown Away’ and the superb cover of ‘All Day and All of the Night’ which sent the crowd into a frenzy.

As they finished their 19 song setlist with ‘Tank’, the crowd ordered for more and that’s what they got. You would have thought that with the greats of ‘Duchess’ and ‘Something Better Change’ as an encore, the audience would be satisfied but we were all waiting for that other great song that a Stranglers gig needs in order to be a Stranglers gig. So as they left the stage again, the crowd beckoned for a second encore and this time they gave them exactly what they wanted, ‘No More Heroes’, as well as a topless Burnel. The crowd, including myself went wild.

By this time I had found myself rocking out and moshing with men that could well be my dad, to a punk classic and to be honest I didn’t want to be anywhere else. I felt the vibe and electricity of what it was like to be a true punk at last and my only regret of the night was not joining in sooner. I strongly recommend seeing The Stranglers who put on a great show and are still giving us the punk spirit, the ‘Nice N Sleazy’ way.