There's a lot of punk rock about at the moment don't you think? In my world this is of course a good thing though I guess not every one would agree... anyway since I'm going to see 3 'original' punk bands this week you can expect much pondering on the impact they've had on my little life, and no doubt the usual shamelessly romantic nonsense that I normally come out with given half a chance.
Last night saw The Stranglers return to The Roundhouse in London '30 years to the day' after their last appearance there. (I think- Burnel just said it was '30 years to the day' so I'm assuming that's what he was referring to; no doubt Big Andy can give me the full story?) I travelled up on the tube alone then met up with 'Fast' Tony Clarke (one for you Motorhead fans there!) and his mates in The Dublin Castle before meeting his brother Darrin and going to pick their tickets up from a rather shadowy figure called Marcus outside the venue- they'd bought them from 'an Internet ticket agency' which Tony rather worryingly referred to as 'Canvey Island Tickets' amid much talk of 'The Sweeney' and, astonishingly, revealing that when he paid for the tickets his money was converted to Hungarian currency...
Support came from the ever-wonderful John Cooper Clarke (I wonder if Tony and Darrin are related to him?!?) who, in my not-so-humble opinion, should be Poet Laureate. Kicking off with 'Hire Car', ('what's the difference between a Lada and a sheep? It's marginally less embarrassing being caught getting out of the back of a sheep') he tried in vain to rhyme 'Limerick' with 'turmeric', produced a haiku, which as I'm sure you all know is a 17-syllable oriental stanza, ('to-ex-press-your-self-in-sev-en-teen-syll-a-bles-is-ver-y-diff-ic') and finished with 'Crossing the Floor', a new poem about, you've guessed it, going on Breakfast T.V. to discuss your sex change operation. He encored with 'Twat'. Words like 'genius' don't cover it- the man should be made available on the National Health.
The first time I saw The Stranglers was pretty much exactly 30 years ago, in The Sports Hall at Brunel University in Uxbridge and they were terrific. Nowadays they've got Baz Warne on guitar and vocals- but close your eyes and they sound exactly as I remember them sounding all those years ago. The first song was 'No More Heroes'- Burnel's bass intro as mad as ever, Greenfield sipping his pint as he soloed- and almost total mayhem ensued immediately. It was all a bit much for Tony (clearly not as 'fast' as he might be!) who skulked off to the bar with the words 'too many men drinking and burping'.
Then, a problem- the keyboards were not behaving as they should. They carried on, but stopped 'Hanging Around' near the end, J.J. saying something like 'we're going off for 5 minutes while this gets sorted out'. They returned with the words 'this is a democracy- do you want us to start from the top of from where we got to?' Incredibly they started the set again- and, incredibly, the keyboards malfunctioned again. 'Don't worry' said J.J. who was clearly amused by the whole affair, 'it took us 5 hours to fix Dave's Hammond in New York once so this is nothing'. They went off, they returned- J.J. started 'No More Heroes again- but this time it was back to the set-list, with an audible sigh of relief from the tube passengers in the audience who were no doubt beginning to wonder just how late trains run on a Sunday... a devastating last section of the show ('Straighten Out', 'Something Better Change', 'Peaches' 'Go Buddy Go' etc) reminded me just how good a band they were, and indeed how good a band they still are. They were, as I say, terrific then- and they're terrific now. Let's hope it all comes out on DVD...
It's not always a good idea to re-visit the past- but is that what's really going here? I don't think so; both The Stranglers and J.C.C. have continued performing in one form or another for the last 30 years- so why do people always go on about 'nostalgia', or make fun of the fact that they're old, or say they should have stopped ages ago? It all sounded pretty good to me- and, as we all know, the customer is always right...
http://www.stranglers.net/
http://www.johncooperclarke.com/
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