Five Nights in the English Towns (November 1975)

Anyone fancy a few nights out... take a look at this listing taken from the 22nd November 1975. Things are starting to stir, also out and about this week are Squeeze, the 101ers, Kilburn & The High Roads... Nazareth and Uriah Heep.

I'll be with you as soon as Basil Brush is finished!

Just out of interest I tried looking up these venues. The Cart & Horses in Stratford is still running as a music venue and sells itself quite significantly as the birthplace of Iron Maiden.

The Cart & Horses, Stratford

According to responses on Facebook, the site of Sundowners in Folkestone is now occupied by the F51 Skate Park.

F51 Skate Park, Folkestone

The Goodwill To All in Wealdstone was closed and demolished in 2011. From some of the reports and comments about the pub, goodwill was not always extended to all!

Goodwill To All, Wealdstone

Ockley in Surrey is quite close to the Sussex towns of Crawley and Horsham. The once Red Lion now goes by the name of the Inn on the Green and is still a functioning pub.

Inn on the Green, formerly the Red Lion, Ockley.

Of the Gaiety Bar in Aldershot I can find no information, other than the fact that The Jam played there back in late '74.

Dr Feelgood Bataclan Paris 7th March 1975

Dr Feelgood at their most potent in Paris in '75!

MP3: https://we.tl/t-6QHeyEkHQx

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-dvj818gesC

01. I Can Tell
02. Twenty Yards Behind
03. One Weekend
04. Route 66
05. Boom Boom
06. I Don't Mind
07. I'm A Hog For You
08. All Through The City
09. Riot In Cell Block No.9
10. Roxette
11. Oh Yeah
12. Talk To Me Baby
13. Keep It Out Of Sight
14. Rock Me Baby
15. She Does It Right
16. Bonie Moronie / Tequila
17. 'Crowd'
18. Bye Bye Johnny B Goode

35th Anniversary of the Hope & Anchor's Front Row Festival

Following on from the excellent piece on the Strangler's participation in the Front Row Festival, hosted by the Hope & Anchor pub in Islington, there is really very little that I can add.

Sadly, the audiovisual record of the band's many appearances at the famous venue are limited to that one night of 22nd November 1977.

All that I can offer is a couple of bits that bracket the band's critical association with this venue.

Firstly an add in one of the UK weekly music papers from December 1975 announcing the start of a '25 year residency'. The add is notable as just above the Stranglers, the end of a residency of one Kilburn & The High Roads is announced.... something of a baton change in many respects.

Next is an add for the event (prior to The Stranglers being announced):

..... and a band shot outside with a good few recognisable faces

.... and finally that cheeky shot with the bands and their mums

As I said,  until someone finds an old box of tapes gathering dust in an attic somewhere in London and in amongst the Duck Deluxe, Tyla Gang and Bees Make Honey bootlegs there is one of those residency dates, the 22nd November recording is all we have.

Until such time arrives, please content yourselves with an account of the band's time at the Hope, here.

The Fulham Transworld Sessions 1974/75 – The Start of Something Special

Back when I started acquiring unofficial recordings of the band, the tracks detailed here represented the Holy Grail to new and seasoned bootleg enthusiasts alike.

At the time that these recordings entered into a limited circulation there was quite some controversy as to how they had been acquired. I first heard two tracks, namely ‘Wasted’ and ‘Strange Little Girl’ on what I believe to have been a recording of a Dutch radio broadcast.

These versions of the tracks, appeared on a link posted on the Burning Up Time Forum (thanks Eric2Vini), but now lost with the clampdown on Megaupload.  They had undergone some degree of processing to clean up the sound. As such these are the best versions that I have heard to date. Other tracks are included on this recording, but I have left the download intact for the sake of the artwork that is included in the folder.

As songs, they are well constructed compositions (although I am no musician), but they do lack something of the signature sound that the band were to develop later in the same year (listen to ‘Princess of the Streets’ from the NOB gig of late ’75). Perhaps ‘Wasted’ has elements of what was on the musical horizon for the band, a sound that placed them well in position for ‘Year Zero’. Nevertheless, whilst this little collection may not trigger the ‘pogo reflex’, they are priceless to a Stranglers nerd like myself in that they allow an insight into the development of the band as they scaled the ladder within the London-based pub rock circuit. By the way, listen to the harmonica on 'Make You Mine' and tell me you can't hear Dr Feelgood!

Notable tracks here, as well as ‘Wasted’ are 'Charlie Boy' (written about our friend Garry Coward-Williams), ‘Strange Little Girl’ (always a personal favourite of mine) and ‘My Young Dreams’ which Jet resurrected in 1985.

I did suggest in the run up to last year’s Convention that a short set of these songs would have been the perfect accompaniment to Garry’s unique photographic and anecdotal presentation on the band in those formative years. Alas, it was not to be, I suppose as some of the material is unreleased, licencing would become a barrier to live performance. A shame though as I think that each of these songs deserve at least one more airing on the stage. Old warhorses like these deserve a good send off!

NEW LINK

MP3: http://we.tl/rTRJpSJmJK

1-Charlie Boy
2-I Know It
3-Appreciate (Make You Mine)
4-Chinatown (Instrumental)
demos recorded on a 8 tracks at Transworld Studios, Fulham, London, Autumn 1974.

5-Strange Little Girl (Take 1)
6-Wasted
7-My Young Dreams
8-My Young Dreams (New Mix)
9-Strange Little Girl (Take 2)
10-Strange Little Girl (Take 3)
demos recorded on a 16 tracks at Transworld Studios, Fulham,London, October 1975.

11-Cruel Garden
12-Midnight Summer Dream
13-Paradise
14-Strange Little Girl
rehearsals at Jet's house, 1982.

15-Shaking Like A Leaf
16-Punch & Judy
17-Down In A Sewer
rehearsals sessions for Aural Sculpture Tour 1985, England.

Artwork is included in the download folder.