V.A. No More Heroes: A Tribute to The Stranglers

Hey, Stranglers fans - come check out Ten MORE Great Stranglers videos (1978-1981) over at THE BIG TAKEOVER - please come take a look and leave a COMMENT to keep The Silence at bay!

Unlike, say, The Ramones, where doing a Xeroxed knock-off cover version is always an option, covering The Stranglers can be a daunting task. So, therefore, a lot of the bands on this 1998 Elevator Music Records collection of (mostly) American bands gives The Stranglers' catalog a more guitar-heavy, straight-up punk sound - like, say, The Ramones! Of course there's still variety of sounds here from oi!, to ska, to garage-rock and beyond, so check out some possible highlights below:



Comments on these (or others) Stranglers covers are most welcome!

Speaking of comments, that is the section wherein you will find the No More Heroes link.




(Waaaaaay more Stranglers stuff on MRML can be found here!)


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The Stranglers: BBC Live (Hammersmith Odeon, 1982)

By 1982 things were changing in Strangler-land. 1981's La Folie represents kind of a dividing line between the Stranglers (more here) we'd loved to hate (and vice versa) and The Stranglers we'd have to settle for a long, long time. One the one hand, the album has catchy but still snarky tunes like "Duchess":



But then of course the album has the lovely-but-let's-still-call-it-an-ominous sign, "Golden Brown".



I'm done a volte face and am now a proud owner of La Folie (despite the CD re-issues' criminal neglect of "Who Wants the World") but it marks the last Stranglers album of the 20th century in my collection. That said, this never-aired BBC concert, which includes punchier takes on lots of the band's early 80's material, would be a welcome addition to a well-curated Stranglers collection.


Comments on the La Folie-era Stranglers are encouraged!

Speaking of comments, that is the section wherein you will find the BBC Live link.


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The Stranglers: Live in Toronto (1980)

Hey, Stranglers fans. I've posted Ten Great Stranglers videos (1976-1978) over at THE BIG TAKEOVER - please come visit, take a look and leave a COMMENT over there before I get spooked by the silence.

As a Canadian adolescent, you couldn't find The Stranglers' (more here) 1980 album The Raven domestically, instead we followed band's progress via an I.R.S. Records' North American hodge-podge entitled The Stranglers IV (see below):


The album was a chronological mess but it did offer some early rarities and a cherry-picking of the hits from The Raven as well as few killer then-new tracks like "Who Wants the World (more cool stuff on this subject can be found here).



This particular bootleg, a great-sounding FM broadcast, captures the taut, aggressive show from 1980 tour, the era between The Raven and the indulgently-disappointing The Meninblack.


Comments on The Raven-era Stranglers are most welcome!

Speaking of comments, that is the section wherein you will find Live in Toronto link.


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The Stranglers: Who Wants the World?

And speaking of the Stranglers (more here), why would their label re-issue their awe-inducing early albums (I bought the first six) without putting the brilliant "Who Wants the World" on any of them?


The Stranglers - Who Wants The World

Dave | MySpace Video

I first heard this song in the early eighties on the North American-only album IV, which was I.R.S.' bowdlerized version the Raven padded out with singles. I loved it then and now because it's got all of what made them such a devastating listen: Burnel's concussion bass, Greenfield's Manzarek-ian keyboards, Black's relentlessness and Corwell's gruff vocals and slashing guitar. As the Stranglers softened over time*, it would get harder to understand why they didn't change their band name to something more fitting but here, they still sound like a gang intent on strangling the pop charts.

* The latest version of the band has been on a roll, though Suite XVI is no match for Norfolk Coast, which was what set me back to the band's mid-period catalog in the first place.




And for more live Stranglers visit Punk Friction!

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The Stranglers: All Twelve Inches

The Epic years of The Stranglers (more here) represent a not-so-gradual subsuming of all the musical elements that made the band wholly original. The music is still fine by eighties standards but it's really not The Stranglers as we knew them.



This long out-of-print collection ($129.00 on Amazon!) collects up the extended versions of their eighties hits.


Comments on the Epic years (1983-1990) and their place in Stranglers' history are invited!

Speaking of comments, that is the section wherein you will find All Twelve Inches link.


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The Stranglers: Eastern Front (Cleavland, 1978)

So, like so many bands that flushed to fame in the late seventies, The Stranglers (more here) would have to grow up in public. Unlike The Jam, The Damned and The Clash, there would be no sophomore slump (No More Heroes being an indisputable classic) but then there would be no need of a third album comeback on the scale of All Mod Cons, Machine Gun Etiquette or London Calling either. Instead, The Strangler began a wildly unpredictable career trajectory that held some fearsome works and some yawn-inducing ones.



By 1978's Black and White, The Stranglers had grown more belligerent and less tuneful, though the album is still a fan fave. Live, the '78 version of the band sounded like a cross between The Doors and The Ramones as they rammed through their catalog with incredible velocity and veracity. To hear the band at their most bludgeoning stage, don't miss this bloody-sounding bootleg of a show at The Agora Ballroom in Cleveland, Ohio in 1978.



1. Threatened.
2. Burning up time.
3. Straighten out.
4. London lady.
5. Down in the sewer.
6. Five minutes.
7. Toiler on the sea.
8. Grip.
9. Dagenham Dave.
10. Bring on the nubiles.
11. Dead ringer.
12. Hanging around.
13. Nice 'n sleazy.
14. No more heroes.
15. Tank.

So what do you think of Black and White era Stranglers? Let us know in the comments!

Speaking of comments, that is the section wherein you will find Eastern Front link (though you have to scroll down to the second comment).


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The Stranglers: The Sessions, 1977-1982 @ 192 kbps

So this March MRML posted over a DOZEN out-of-print (or officially unreleased) works by The Stranglers. We started HERE (come by and read the write-up and watch the documentary), as is out wont with such series, with a collection of radio sessions (two John Peel ones from 1977 and a Kid Jensen one from 1982). Unfortunately, because this release is quite hard-to-find, we had originally settled for a 56 kbps version, we are now happy to upgrade it 192 kbps (and if anyone has an even better rip let me know...)

And we are also happy to direct your attention towards this massive Stranglers series HERE!

Not to mention, the four Hugh Cornwell (the Stranglers former lead singer/guitarist) posts that we did HERE!




Don't let free expression get Strangled - leave a comment!

Speaking of comments, that is the section wherein you will find NEW and IMPROVED Sessions link


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The Stranglers: The Sessions (1977-1982)

Early accusations of The Stranglers being merely old, bearded, Doors-loving band-wagon-jumpers have, in the 35 years since their debut single, come to sound ridiculous. Okay the old, bearded and Doors-loving part wasn't entirely unfair. But the accusations of band-wagon jumping missed the point. After all, The Stranglers had been hiding away up in Guildford breeding an ugly, scuzzy mutation of mid-sixties rock n' roll since the early part of the decade. The rise of punk just allowed them to unleash their creation on an unsuspecting world.



Since I've been on a historical video kick of late (especially after getting reproached for mentioning said videos on blog aggregator Totally Fuzzy), here's a fabulous BBC doc on the band:



Parts 2, 3, 4

The Sessions is an out-of-print collection that covers The Stranglers (more here) two Peel sessions from 1977 and a Kid Jensen session from 1982.



Don't let free expression get Strangled - leave a comment!

Speaking of comments, that is the section wherein you will find The Sessions link


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The Stranglers: Live at the Roundhouse (1977)

(Images from the semi-inactive-but still-missed Punks on Postcards)

For all my Stranglers commenters (there's nothing like the hum of feedback!) here's two sets from fabled venue The Roundhouse, in the year 1977. That's the calendar year in which the band put out BOTH Rattus Norevegicus and No More Heroes, leading to the inevitable question, was 1977 the year we hit peak Stranglers? Let us know, down below...



Was '77 the best year in Stranglers' history? Let us know in the comments!

Speaking of comments, that is the section wherein you will find the Live at the Roundhouse link.


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The Stranglers: Sheffield, 2010

When my friend CallPastorJekface told me back in 2004 that I had to listen to the new Stranglers album, my response was likely both incredulous and dismissive. After all, at that point, I hadn't listened to a new Stranglers album since I mistakenly picked up Dream Time on L.P. back in the 80's. But low, behold and HOLY HELL Norfolk Coast was one of the mightiest comebacks I'd ever heard. With a new lead singer (or two) the band had bludgeoned together aspects from all over it's career (and not just my beloved '77). Witness, the amazing "Big Thing Coming" from that album as proof:



or check out "Specter of Love" this from their 2006 follow-up, Suite XIV



Or even their latest single from 2010:



This Sheffield show is an audience recording but a good-sounding one and there's only enough audience noise to remind you that you made it though the door and get to take in the show from right up close. It's well worth a listen, especially as it offers hard proof of how much bottle this band has left at this late stage of the game.



Comments on The Stranglers of the 21st century are most welcome!

Speaking of comments, that is the section wherein you will find the Sheffield, 2010 (parts one and two) link.


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The Stranglers: Hope & Anchor

This is the entire Stranglers' (more here) set from the opening night at the Hope & Anchor's Front Row Festival (the compilation album is here) back in 1977 .



This loud, raw, gritty, ugly and foul-mouthed recording wasn't released till 1992 but then fell out-of-print and now fetches Peachy money on eBay, Amazon et al.


Comments on this rare Stranglers bonanza, are most welcome!



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V.A. Hope & Anchor Front Row Festival (1978)

Hats off to whoever did the bookings for the Hope & Anchor, a pub in Islington that championed first pub rock in the mid-seventies, then later punk rock as the decade wore on. Judging from the line-up for the pub's Front Line Festival that took place in late 1977, that booker had a deep sense of music's past and its future. Early sixties survivors like The Pirates and Steve Gibbons (and facsimiles of the same like the Pleasers) sit beside their pub rock disciples like Wilko Johnson, Tyla Gang and the Dire Straits, alongside older vets gone punk like the Stranglers, The Only Ones and 999 all of whom jostle with young punk upstarts like XTC, the Saints, X-Ray Spex (and don't forget reggae greats Steel Pulse!)



01 Wilko Johnson Band - Dr Feelgood
02 The Stranglers - Straighten Out
03 Tyla Gang - Styrofoam
04 The Pirates - Don't Munchen It
05 Steve Gibbons Band - Speed Kills
06 XTC - I'm Bugged
07 Suburban Studs - I Hate School
08 The Pleasers - Billy
09 XTC - Science Friction
10 Dire Straits - Eastbound Train
11 X Ray Spex - Let's Submerge
12 999 - Crazy
13 The Saints - Demolition Girl
14 999 - Quite Disappointing
15 The Only Ones - Creatures Of Doom
16 The Pirates - Gibson Martin Fender
17 Steel Pulse - Sound Check
18 Roogalator - Zero Hero
19 Philip Rambow - Underground Romance
20 The Pleasers - Rock & Roll Radio
21 Tyla Gang - On The Street
22 Steve Gibbons Band - Johnny Cool
23 Wilko Johnson Band - Twenty Yards Behind
24 The Stranglers - Hanging Around



Hope & Anchor Front Row Festival double L.P.

Hugh Cornwell: Radio Sessions

Most bands would be dominated by a strong lead singer/guitarist/song-writer but The Stranglers are not most bands. To be fair, the leaving of Hugh Cornwell, lead singer/guitarist extraordinaire knocked all concerned for a loop back in 1990. I'm not conversant enough in either Cornwell's or The Strangler's nineties work to pronounce who came out on top but based on the last two Stranglers' albums and Hugh's recent work (like 2008's Hooverdam) I'd say both camps have gained in strength. (Waaaaaay more Stranglers can be found here!)



Today's offering is a bootleg of some of Mr. Cornwell's radio sessions over the years. And just to remind you that Hugh first went solo (in 1979 with Captain Beefheart's Magic Band's drummer in tow) here's a video from Nosferatu:




What do you make of the Hugh Cornwell Experience? Let us know in the comments?

Speaking of comments, that is the section wherein you will find the Radio Sessions link.


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The Stranglers: Live in London

A live hodge-podge culled from various dates in the 80's, that proves that The Stranglers (more here) could still show their mettle on stage if not always in the studio.





Comments on The Stranglers live work in the 80's are strongly encouraged!

Speaking of comments, that is the section wherein you will find the Live in London link.




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The Stranglers: Capital Radio Session (1977)

A hard-hitting Stranglers (more here) radio session from 1977, featuring:
Dageham Dave
Goodbye Toulouse
Hanging Around
I Feel Like a Wog
No More Heroes





Comments on all this Stranglers business, are most welcome!


Speaking of comments, that is the section wherein you will find The Sessions link


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The Stranglers: Live in Paris, 2004 (FM)

Here's what I was hoping to find yesterday, the 21st century version of the band (the earlier in the decade, five-man version) belting it out in all their glory in fantastic-sounding FM broadcast quality sound - enjoy!! (Waaaaaay more Stranglers can be found here!)



Paris, 2004 link is in the COMMENTS!! section...


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The Stranglers: BBC Concert (1977)

Another fine bit of rare Stranglers (more here) and we're still in '77!





Comments on all this Strangler-osity, are most welcome!


Speaking of comments, that is the section wherein you will find The Sessions link


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The Stranglers - Live at the Hope & Anchor

This is the entire Stranglers set from the opening night at the Hope & Anchor's Front Row Festival (more here) back in 1977 . This loud, raw, gritty, ugly and foul-mouthed recording wasn't released till 1992 but then fell out-of-print and now fetches peachy money on eBay.





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The Stranglers: 3 Early Demos (1976)

Supposedly the three tracks that secured The Stranglers (more here) deal with United Artists.




Comments?
Yes, Comments!

Speaking of comments, that is the section wherein you will find Early Demos link


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The Rezillos: I Can't Stand My Baby 7" (1977)

Clearly my obsession with bands from 1976-1981 is an unkillable mania. At the age of sixteen my brain must have been nothing but wet cement. Every punk album I dug out my local record stores by The Clash, The Dickies, The Jam, The Sex Pistols, The Rezillos, Ramones, Buzzcocks, The Skids, The Stranglers, Generation X seems to have vandalized my psyche forevermore. Yes I was listening to lots of hardcore (D.O.A. Descendants, SNFU) and new wave (Devo, The Police, Elvis Costello) glam rock (David Bowie, The Sweet, Mott the Hoople - and Queen - yes all Canadian adolescents of this time did listen to "Bohemian Rhapsody" while in transit, it was not just a figment of Mike Meyers demented imagination) but surely The Rezillos stomped both their novelty-sized clown shoes right into the most pliable spot in my teenage brain, right besides the Ramones' Converse hi-top imprint.



It's kinda like The Rezillos decided to out-do the Ramones on multiple fronts. Not only did they layer in more early-sixties pop influences (Motown, the Joe Meek sound) and steal even more from seventies glam-pop (not only the giant hooks but also the outrageous visual overkill of the genre) but they also decided to take lyrical cues from almost every B-movie genre known to man (not just from horror and war films). Maybe, just maybe, J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. was right when he said Can't Stand the Rezillos was "the best album Sire ever put out."



Here's the band's first 7" put out on Sensible Records in June of 1977. While a very different version of "I Can't Stand My Baby" made it onto the album, neither this take, or the whip-buzzin' version of The Beatles "I Wanna Be Your Man" on the flip-side, have ever been re-issued in the digital age.



If you love The Rezillos and want MRML to draw deeper from the well of obscurity, then you need only leave an encouraging comment behind.

Speaking of those oh-so-encouraging comments, that is the place wherein you will find the I Can't Stand My Baby 7" link.

Update: Scroll down the comments for proper link or just go to the next post's comments


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