Colston Hall Bristol 29th September 1992

 

One of the few recordings that I have from the 'In The Night' tour. This one from Bristol is quite good quality and showcases the album pretty well.

WAV: https://we.tl/t-n5zykjYKgZ

MP3: https://we.tl/t-XK4akhgRo3

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-71q4tb0DkY

Various TV Appearances 1985 - 1995

 

Here's another DVD compilation pulled out from the obscurity of the box of unloved/unfiled discs. A mix of Mk I and II here. Highlights are reasonable quality (i.e. transfers from contemporary VHS recordings rather than pristine digital repeats) appearances on the Kids TV programme No.73 ('Let Me Down Easy'/'Uptown') and Cheggars Plays Pop with the band appearing with 'Nice In Nice'. Nice to see Supergran giving it some in the former clip!

DVD disc image: https://we.tl/t-rzemr1YEkP

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-yhTZYJbTIQ

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

Rosengarten Musensaal Mannheim Germany 18th October 1992

 

Here's a decent sounding recording from the continuation of the 'In The Night' tour, this time from Mannheim in October 1992.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-9ET1y8Dh1I

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-0ARZPINznF

01. Waltzinblack
02. Time To Die
03. Toiler In The Sea
04. Sometimes
05. I Feel Like A Wog
06. Golden Brown
07. Strange Little Girl
08. 96 Tears
09. Someone Like You
10. Always The Sun
11. Heaven Or Hell
12. Laughing At The Rain
13. Never See
14. Hanging Around
15. Brainbox
16. London Lady
17. All Day And All Of The Night
18. Sugar Bullets
19. Tank
20. Duchess
21. No More Heroes
22. Go Buddy Go

Barrowlands Glasgow 4th October 1992

Here's an anniversary gig from the second leg of the 'In The Night' tour. From The Barrowlands in Glasgow.

MP3 (as received): https://we.tl/t-1Z8cF7PrKf

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-SnzZ6uFlzC

01. Time To Die
02. Toiler On The Sea
03. Sometimes
04. I Feel Like A Wog
05. The Raven
06. Strange Little Girl
07. 96 Tears
08. Someone Like You
09. Always The Sun
10. Heaven Or Hell
11. Laughing At The Rain
12. Never See
13. Hanging Around
14. Brainbox
15. London Lady
16. All Day And All Of The Night
17. Sugar Bullets
18. Tank
19. JJ/Paul
20. No More Heroes
21. Duchess
22. 5 Minutes
23. Go Buddy Go

Nicky Campbell BBC Radio 1 Session 10th August 1992

Here is a BBC Radio 1 session from 1992 that I stumbled upon whilst trying (in vain) to bring some order to my junk yard hard drives! The files are arranged as separated music tracks and a file of the whole show as broadcast with band interviews. Thanks to the sharer as always!

MP3 (as received): https://we.tl/t-NdqUQm7ssj

01. Brainbox
02. Sugar Bullets
03. Strange Little Girl
04. Never See
05. Full Show with Interview.

The 1st S.I.S. Convention Swallow Hotel Peterborough 14th March 1992

John Ellis at the 1st S.I.S. Convention

Here's at 'In The Night' period set from the band's performance at the first S.I.S. Convention. Many thanks to Damian for sharing!

MP3 (as received): https://we.tl/Sa2AgZDFIt

01. Time To Die
02. Laughing At The Rain
03. Wet Afternoon
04. Heaven Or Hell
05. Mr. Big
06. Never See
07. Brainbox
08. Mumble Jumble
09. Sugar Bullets

Nicky Campbell Radio Session BBC Radio 1 10th August 1992

Thanks to Ronnie for this one. Stranglers radio sessions are few and far between and this one completely passed me by at the time.

It is included here both as a complete file as broadcast and with the session tracks singled out. Your choice. Actually, the interview is quite interesting, being broadcast at the time of the 'In The Night' release.

MPEG-4: http://we.tl/UEgA6iPTlh

01. Brainbox
02. Sugar Bullets
03. Strange Little Girl
04. Never See
05. Full broadcast

CCW Ronnie Scotts London 12th April 1992

Here is a pretty rare recording of CCW, Hugh's first post-Stranglers project. The recording starts a little muffled but then the quality picks up to make a nice sounding bootleg. My thanks go to Simonr for sending this one on.

WAV: http://we.tl/W9Yq5hMNW1

01. More Or Less
02. She’s Gone
03. Sweet Sister
04. Invisible
05. You Make Me Unlonely
06. Dance Me To The Edge Of The World
07. Double The Dose
08. Love In Your Eyes
09. Psycho
10. Ee Oh Eleven
11. Heaven And Hell
12. Holes
13. Wasted Tears
14. Do Nothin’

Blur Mr. Albarn's Combo

What with Blur being hot news once again on the back of the new album, 'The Magic Whip', here's some vintage Blur primarily from the 'Parklife' era back when Brit Pop was king.

FLAC: http://we.tl/WTxwCIx6Ew

Artwork: http://we.tl/Alficgom2H

01. She's So High
02. Popscene
03. Chemical World
04. Parklife
05. To The End
06. Bank Holiday
07. Jubilee
08. Girls & Boys
09. Badhead
10. Tracy Jacks
11. For Tomorrow (Extended)
12. Parklife
13. Top Man
14. Mr. Robinson's Quango
15. Charmless Man
16. It Could Be You
17. Stereotypes
18. Country House
19. The Universal

Tracks 1 & 2 are from Blur-ti-go promo CD
Track 3 live on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, 1993
Track 4 live on Simon Mayo, Aug 1994
Track 5 live at Glastonbury Festival, 1994
Tracks 6 & 12 live on Jools Holland Hootenanny, Dec 1994
Track 7 live on Top of the Pops, Feb 1995
Track 8 live on Nulle Part Ailleurs, 29 Aug 1994
Tracks 9-11 live at National Bowl, Milton Keynes, 29 Jul 1995
Tracks 13-19 live at BBC Radio Theatre, London, 7 Sep 1995

Club Quattro, Lagova, Japan 20th December 1992

Apparently, it's all kicking off in the little niche of cyberspace occupied by The Stranglers. Not surprisingly, and with depressing predictability, it's the aged who's better, who's best 'debate' that is behind it all.

Like any football team, there are going to be starting line ups that don't meet your approval, but then again within any single line up the performance is not always consistent!

Best to be inclusive, regardless of personal preference.... it's all Stranglers music by definition.

So, from the 'In The Night' Tour in Japan......

FLAC: http://we.tl/0Rmd5atamZ

01. Intro
02. Time To Die
03. Toiler On The Sea
04. Sometimes
05. I Feel Like A Wog
06. Golden Brown
07. Strange Little Girl
08. 96 Tears
09. Someone Like You
10. Always The Sun
11. Heaven Or Hell
12. Laughing At The Rain
13. Never See

01. Hanging Around
02. Brainbox
03. London Lady

Sadly, this is not the full set recording. The following songs are missing.

All Day And All Of The Night
Sugar Bullets
Tank
Duchess
No More Heroes
Five Minutes

Elysee Montmartre Paris 16th November 1992

Ok, sorry for the short intermission, work travel interrupted things a little. Here's one from the European leg of the 'In The Night' tour. Many thanks to Paul N for this one. Enjoy!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-xzZwMLCaqv

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-D1tDjC76jd

1.  Time To Die
2.  Toiler On The Sea
3.  Sometimes
4.  I Feel Like A Wog
5.  Golden Brown
6.  Strange Little Girl
7.  96 Tears
8.  Someone Like You
9.  Always The Sun
10. Heaven Or Hell
11. Laughing At The Rain
12. Never See
13. Hanging Around
14. Brainbox
15. London Lady
16. All Day And All Of The Night
17. Sugar Bullets
18. Tank
19. Duchess
20. No More Heroes
21. Go Buddy Go

A Student Room - Brunel University 1992

Looking through some old photos at the weekend, I came across two that made me smile. I took a couple of pictures of my 4th year hall of residence room that I had in my time at Brunel in Uxbridge. This would have been in 1992. I was still seeing the band at this point, but less frequently as my interest was seriously on the wane.

I must have tidied up before the picture, I know it's still a mess, but I'm embarrassingly untidy!!

The Raven was painted on an old sheet. For the Bear Cage painting I may have run out of inspiration or more likely paint! Willian L. Shirer's 'Rise and Fall of the Third Reich' is on the book shelf, which remains to this day the best book that I have ever read.

More Stranglers, The Jam, the mighty Kraftwerk from the Man Machine period and a gig poster from an early gig by the reformed X-Ray Spex (1990?). From the albums on the bed, it's clear that the Madchester/baggie scene of the day passed me by completely!

These days I still have some gig posters on the wall, but now they are framed... a concession to middle age.

National Ballroom Kilburn London 11th October 1992

This is one of about a dozen of the MkII gigs that I did attend. Earlier in the year, Gunta and I had moved into a flat just off Kilburn High Road, literally a two minute walk from the National. The novelty of seeing the Stranglers so close to home overcame my misgivings about where the band were heading at that time and we went along. I do not think that I made it through to the end of this gig, bailing out at the encore!

See what you think. Any comments should be constructive, the who is better, who is best debate ran it's course many years ago! For my part, at this point the entire dynamic of the band had changed in a much more dramatic way than the shift from a 4 piece to a 5 piece outfit (remember the band had gone out on the 10 tour as a 5 piece).... something else was happening here.

Dom P's remastered version!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-F4s4MEbXpc

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-jFRfLc3Beu

1. Time To Die
2. Toiler On The Sea
3. Sometimes
4. I Feel Like A Wog
5. The Raven
6. Strange Little Girl
7. 96 Tears
8. Someone Like You
9. Always The Sun
10. Heaven Or Hell
11. Laughing At The Rain

1. Never See
2. Hanging Around
3. London Lady
4. All Day And All Of The Night
5. Sugar Bullets
6. Tank
7. Something Better Change
8. No More Heroes
9. Duchess
10. Go Buddy Go