Heart of a Punk Soul of a Rasta

Hugh Alan Cornwell,
02 Academy Birmingham 28th November.

As John Peel once famously said about The Fall "always different always the same" and I think the same is TRUE of HUGH. He's been like the proverbial "Non Stop Nun" since 1990, constantly in flux, constantly active, constantly running, running, running…………............but where to, and from what, only he could say, dedicated, emancipated? Probably!

I've tried to pop my head round the door whenever he's been close at hand whether he's been solo, with a band or flogging a book, through different line ups, different arrangements, tiny cellars, bars, civic halls, jazz clubs, tents, playing new stuff, playing old stuff "always different but always the same". Well most of the time it's been a case of "always different but always the same" cos there have been gigs amongst the many when it's been a case of "sometimes different sometimes very, very, very, strange".

Following the mightily bizarre beaten track taken by Hugh Cornwell started for me at Ronnie Scott's on 20th January 1992. Was it his first post Stranglers foray? I think it probably was, but shit my memory card got corrupted long ago, so if I'm wrong sue me. However I can remember it was mightily bizarre performance by Hugh who actually did a couple of tracks totally unaccompanied that night - yes I do mean songs for voice only - somehow he pulled it off, just, but it was slightly toe cringing all the same. Luckily I'd been to Ronnie Scott's before so I knew the pack drill - you see once you're sat down round the tables at Scott's you ain't going anywhere, you're packed in like bleedin' sardines, totally unable to get out, drinks are by waiter(ess) service only. But as I said I knew the pack drill so I got there early and drunk my own body weight in bottled lager excavated from the bottom of a plastic dustbin of ice. Ahh the good old days of ice cold lager served in British Wintertime, those halcyon days of alcohol, gone, but not forgotten, I had my bag attached that night too, cos you couldn't even squeeze out from underneath those tables to have a piss.

It wasn't just Hugh Cornwell's choice of venue and the strange cocktail of a performance with CCW that had my brain jangling though. I'd travelled down that evening to Euston Station and caught the tube to Tottenham Court Road and then walked the rest of the way to Ronnie Scott's. In the course of my 5 minute Sunday evening ramble I passed by 34 people sleeping rough in doorways, and was completely cleared out of change after being asked for a contribution and donating on six separate occasions. I felt like John Huston in "The Treasure of Sierra Madre". If you don't know what all this was about, this was John Major's Britain for you. The original man from C&A, the original man in grey, honest John the shagger Major, he was looking after the LITTLE MAN - was he fuck. Weren't there? Can't google it? Just chosen to forget? I felt sick to be in London that night; sick to be English and if I hadn't been such I hopeless wreck of a human being I might have actually done something about it rather than just pour another drink down my neck. Someone did something, BIG ISSUE - Madness are on the front of the present issue GO AND BUY IT.

http://www.bigissue.com/

Here's the SHELTER link, go donate.........

http://www.shelter.org.uk/

Where were we? Oh yeah. From that night at Ronnie Scott's to this at the Birmingham O2, Hugh has played an incalculable number of gigs "sometimes different sometimes very, very, very strange". The next bizarre one that sticks in my mind was at The Buttermarket in Shrewsbury sometime between Guilty and HiFi, the band was a five piece set up then and it was almost a physical impossibility getting them all on the tiny cellar stage. The smallest stage and the smallest crowd I've ever been amongst to see Hugh - I remember trying to count the assembled - it was definitely less than fifty cos I always difficulty counting any higher. After the third track had finished to be greeted by a brief burst of plodding applause Hugh asked "Is it raining outside? No? Oh, I thought I heard rain falling on the roof" I don't think anyone got the joke; well no one laughed anyway except me (and they're usually quite big on irony in Shrewsbury, they have to be).

Forza, forza, forza, on the strange trail of the Hugh to one afternoon at the Hay Literary Festival, June 2002, this sure was another bizarre one. Hugh was there to chew the fat with a BBC Radio Wales interviewer, to talk about the "Song by Song" book and in-between play a few tracks Stranglers tracks, solo - all this was then to be abbreviated and shoved out on BBC Wales for a few sheep and myself to hear later in the day.

[This was couple of years before The Guardian and Sky took over the Hay Festival and turned it from something quintessentially English and wonderfully held together with string into the massive corporate celebrity fest it is today. It's still closer to what a music festival used to be like than any music festivals are today but it's slowly and surely having the charm and idiosyncrasies surgically removed, for no good reason, other than money of course. ]

Back to Hugh, the whole thing was as Donald Pleasence once said "odd", Hugh in Black inside a huge brilliant white humid strength sapping tent. He seemed ill at ease. Whilst queuing to get in he could be heard playing and re-playing the chords of "Prisons Going Down" over and over again. He never actually played that track that day though. The big moment of bizarreness came when the chatter reached "The Raven" and Hugh stepped up to do "Duchess", he had three attempts but never even got half way through it, eventually giving the whole thing up saying he couldn't remember the chords - the frustration and embarrassment was palpable. Hugh carried on and finished the show, and the recording went out, he came across well and the solo stuff was top. But what the "Duchess" thing was about only Hugh would know.

So what do we know? Well people go to gigs for many reasons, to interact with other like minded souls, to get pissed, to get stoned, to dance, to worship at the feet of their idols, to see the yellow dog that everyone's being yapping about. Me I'm no different, tick all of the later but also tick SHIT HAPPENS 'cause that for me is the undeniable attraction of the live performance, when SHIT HAPPENS it could be bad, beautiful or bizarre but whichever it's not going to be bland. Give me a stage invasion, a fight in the crowd, an inexplicable chord change by the bass player mid chorus, the drummer falling off his stool and belligerent band friction any day over polished precision, when the fat is in the fire and the studio recording is unceremoniously ripped up that's when you know you're seeing something worth seeing.

Tonight we have not one but two studio recordings to be unceremoniously ripped up and played live by the Hugh Cornwell threesome of Cornwell, Caroline Campbell and Chris Bell. First off "Hooverdam" which I told you about in March when I took in Hugh at the Robin in Bilston so go and read it, I'm sure it made no sense then and I'm confident it still makes little sense now. But for the idle minded let me reiterate: "Hooverdam" is Cornwell's strongest album song wise and production wise since his departure from The Stranglers, OK! Then to follow the new(ish) Hoover "Rattus Norvegicus" The Stranglers IV debut (And if you didn't know that Hugh Cornball used to be in The Shanglers I don't know how you've got this far).

No support band, 7.30pm start, "Hooverdam" began, Hugh made the assembled aware mid set that "if anyone else takes another fucking flash photo I'll be walking", nuff said, it did the trick. "Slow boat to Trowbridge" wagged the tail, interval. Throat lozenge, Indian head massage, large Tequila then Rattus was dusted off and blasted out in sequential order. It was good to see again the black eyebrows of Cornwall rise in synch with the lyrics of GOOD - BYE - TOU - LOUSE. Good to hear Hugh blast out JJ's "London Lady" with a mighty ferocity and also Caroline Campbell's sexual twist on "Princess of the Streets". There was the compressed vocal of "Peaches" which seems to be the norm recently - can't say I like it - it just doesn't quite scan somehow. "Ugly" was impressive though, and full of the most necessary amount of menace. "Down in the Sewer" meandered along nicely, and so done. Except for the encores "Lay Back on Me Pal" from "HiFi"; "24/7" from "Elysian Fields" and "No More Heroes" from (oh I can't remember, let me scratch me doughnut, oh yes) "No More Heroes". The all new Birmingham O2 Academy 2 was pretty well packed, I like the way they've kept the door at the back of the stage just like at the old dirty Dale End venue. The ménage et trios had a lot of material to get through and they bashed it out without fear or fuss. They're coming round again next year so click on the link to see what you've missed. "Always different always the same" yes I think that's HUGH constantly in flux, constantly active, constantly running, running, running. Long may it last!

Now if you read my "Delightful Nightmare" in March you'd know that personally I would like to see an all night Stranglers fest at the Roundhouse, with Hugh playing solo stuff, JJ playing solo stuff, JJ & Dave playing a track or two, the present Stranglers playing some stuff and then finally the original line up playing a set. Is it so far fetched? Is it too unbelievable? Is it just totally impossible? Well I'm a positive bod and I look at it this way, they said The Specials would never reform, that Magazine would never reunite and that Copeland and Sting could never bury the hatchet, well they did. And I believe it is still possible for The Stranglers to do it as long as there are other reunifications that are less likely - does that make sense - no? Well here goes anyway. Here's a list of lest likely reunifications:

5/ Jerry Dammers rejoining The Specials.
4/ Jones, Headon & Simonon reforming The Clash with Jimmy Pursey on vocals.
3/ Marc Riley & Brix Smith teaming up with Mark E for The Fall all stars.
2/ Morrissey & Marr reforming The Smiths
1/ Paul Weller reforming The Jam with Foxton & Butler.

In the face of this lot The Stranglers reunion seems a formality.

Finally for all things "Hooverdam" related, Chris Wade has published a 110 page companion.

I shouldn't really say anything good this publication because before writing this rather entertaining book Chris emailed HOAP SOAR asking if we knew a way of getting hold of Hugh for an interview. We emailed Chris back saying unfortunately we didn't have a contact for Hugh but instead begged him to use our live review of the Robin Hood Bilston gig in his book. This is what he emailed back "I've read your review Ed and unfortunately falls well below the lowest criteria I could possibly set for any contribution to my book. I suggest you stop writing your sad, parochial and tediously boring Fanzine and take up a much more useful pastime like train spotting. Please don't contact me again you're just embarrassing yourself" Well fair play, apparently he'd got me banged to rights. Anyway click the link it's a bloody good read!

The Tour: http://www.hooverdamdownload.com/
The Book: http://wisdomtwinsbooks.weebly.com/hugh-cornwell-the-hoover-dam-companion.html