Heart of a Punk Soul of a Rasta

The Stranglers / O2 Academy Birmingham
13th March 2010

As far as The Stranglers are concerned they've openly invited retro comparisons in recent times, back in November 2007 they did the "Rattus at the Roundhouse" gig, and revisited the set of '77. For me that night was a massive improvement on just sitting at home listening to my copy of the "London Ladies" bootleg for the umpteenth time, and hey John Cooper Clarke was f***in excellent that night as well. And now we have the latest "Decades Apart" release which just about covers every twist and turn of The Stranglers past, with a little bit of present by way of "Retro Rockets" too.

On the other side of the tracks Mr Cornwell has not shied away from comparisons between old & new either, by playing all of "Rattus Norvegicus" and his latest solo album "Hoover Dam" back to back. But should each new endeavour be measured against what has been, or should each new page be judged afresh? Well some clever bastards are always going to draw comparisons between the past and present even if the artists don't do it themselves. "Hoover Dam" is without question Cornwall's best work since leaving The Stranglers twenty years ago (yes TWENTY years ago, get over it!). But is Rattus Norvegicus The Stranglers finest hour? Or was it "Black and White" or "The Raven"? Once I met a girl in love with "The Meninblack" LP and nothing I could do would change her mind. Perhaps The Stranglers finest hour was really between 1992 and 2004 just keeping, keeping on.

Anyway it's the O2 Academy Birmingham again and the question is: who is that guy? You know the one, stocky bloke; thick set geezer; bleached spiky hair; black leather jacket with UK SUBS emblazoned on the back. Said "excuse me mate" as he pushed by me at the UK SUBS gig; he did the same at the BABYSHAMBLES gig; and now he's at it again. Well one things for sure he isn't a monotheist, he's obviously a chap with a varied and impeccable taste - in fact "he's not a monotheistaaa he still an anarchistaaaa, he knows what he likes and he knows where to gets it"..............and so on!

But let's be honest here people, there are a lot of Stranglers fans who are most definitely monotheists. They know what they like and...........it's The Stranglers! - and they aren't much fussed about anything else. Here's a photo I took at the gig of some guys denim jacket.

Oi wait a minute, that's your denim jacket Ed, and those are your badges! (John)
That might well be the case but shut your yap I'm trying to make a point.

I'm not criticising monotheism or anything, I'm just making you aware that tonight at the O2, as at all the other venues on The Stranglers tour, you're not likely to be amongst the uninitiated or the disinterested, these folk have been coming year in year out to see the band they love - it's more a case of "Decades Together" than "Decades Apart".

Due to the Saturday curfew bullshit Baz Burnel Black and Dave took up positions at 8.15 and kicked off with the first track from the "Stranglers in the Night" - "Time to Die". They then played relentlessly for an hour and twenty minutes bashing out all of the bands first 9 singles - Grip/Peaches & Go Buddy Go/Something Better Change/No More Heroes/5 Minutes/Nice N Sleazy/Walk on By/Duchess/Nuclear Device. Mid stream some dick next to me thought about punching some other dick next to him. But both decided a scowl, a jostle and exchange a few pissed up incoherent phrases would suffice - shame really. Some wee laddie got on stage for the briefest of moments and robbed one of JJ's picks (its probably on eBay now). He escaped being captured or slapped by The Stranglers handler. (Dino would have had him! - Good old Dino where is he now - probably bare knuckle fighting in the OTHER PLACE). And Baz Warne said the old Birmingham Academy was "a f**cking dump". Actually Baz the old TopRankHummingbirdAcademy was a huge fuc*ing toilet - but it was the huge fuc*ing toilet we loved.

Anyway also we got Curfew/Down in the Sewer/Skin Deep/Norfolk Coast/Spectre of Love, yeah there was a lot of material. And Genetix; Jet Black rippling around the kit, Dave Greenfield regulating those genes and Burnel providing the bass line fireworks. For the final hurrah Burnel provided a pre "No More Heroes" torture session by thraping his bass as hard as he could - Geiger counters were produced, tissues were applied to wipe the blood away from runny ears. Yes it hurt, but not as much as the DUB sound system at The Buttermarket on the previous Thursday night. Torture over, "No More Heroes" was dispatched and everyone f**ked off home happy.

With Burnel back singing live, and with Baz spearheading the attack, the menace that The Stranglers sorely lacked for too many years is well and truly restored. Long may it last!

Now here's a little something from back in the day courtesy of ZigZag Mag. From a time when people knew something about something………….cough!