Tag Archives: The Stranglers

Interview with Baz Warne, The Stranglers.

Originally published by L.S. Media and Liverpool Live. March 1st 2012.

March 5th sees the highly anticipated return of The Stranglers to the o2 Academy, Liverpool. In recent years the band have had nights on stage in the city that have been talked about for weeks afterwards. This though will see the punk rock legends do a national tour on the back of a new album release for the first time in six years. Not since Suite XVIwas released in 2006 have the band come out on the road armed to the teeth with a trunk full of new songs.

Interview with Baz Warne, The Stranglers. full post

(1285 words, estimated 5:08 mins reading time)

The Stranglers, Dark Matters. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There are times when history, when events that rock the world, overtakes us and puts loss into meaning. The listener finds the moment of a new release perhaps by a group, a much-loved entertainer, both a thrill, a moment of seismic beauty, and one that is shrouded by the memory of what was once giant built of granite, now reduced to serve as a signpost that instructs the audiophile and the fan that childhood and forever teenage rebellion has reached its end.

The Stranglers, Dark Matters. Album Review. full post

(543 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

The Stranglers, Gig Review. First Direct Arena, Leeds.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It is possible to let the music-driven mind deliver itself to a conclusion that nothing can ever truly stop The Stranglers, not even silence.

The sound of the stirring anthem, the call to arms that resides in the heart of the band’s much loved intro, Waltz In Black, came to pass with anticipation and delight; it was palpable, the arena in Leeds matching the expectant buzz to come from the main performance of Alice Cooper and arguably the same sense of passion that older fans of the city’s football team once wrapped themselves in as they pushed on their support to the eventual top flight league title at the start of the 1990s.

The Stranglers, Gig Review. First Direct Arena, Leeds. full post

(430 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

The Stranglers, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. (2018).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The Stranglers at the Liverpool Academy, March 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

The next time the Beast from the East decides to make an appearance on Britain’s shores, the best form of defence against this cyclonic severe cold and snow would be to tap the resources of a room full of Stranglers fans and then allow the heat to pour out onto the streets in the surrounding areas; the cold of the last few weeks would not have stood a chance as they took in the sounds of a band still rightly considered, the definitive article.

The Stranglers, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. (2018). full post

(476 words, 1 image, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

The Stranglers, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Newcastle.

Baz Warne of The Stranglers at the Newcastle o2 Academy, March 2016. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Baz Warne of The Stranglers at the Newcastle o2 Academy, March 2016. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Not everything in life is Black and White but it must be safe to say that for many who have grown up, grown alongside and grown older disgracefully with The Stranglers, you either love them or you haven’t had your electricity switched on for the past forty years; for how else can you explain not having a soul in which to celebrate one of Britain’s finest bands, the longevity and the love that comes out of the Punk Rock wash whenever the Stranglers come to town.

The Stranglers, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Newcastle. full post

(558 words, 1 image, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

The Stranglers, Gig Review. Hydro, Glasgow.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It is the pull of the hero, the wanting to be in the same room as those lauded and respected that brings an audience back time and time again. Even after 40 years or so, countless gigs, the music never gets old, the stance of the conqueror never betraying time or allowing rust to set in to the mighty engine built frame, you can never truly escape the feel of fire that grows in the stomach, you can never turn your back on the hero.

The Stranglers, Gig Review. Hydro, Glasgow. full post

(489 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

The Stranglers, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. (2014).

The Stranglers at the o2 Academy, Liverpool. 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

The Stranglers at the o2 Academy, Liverpool. 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

This is the Gospel according to the Men In Black, to the musicians who have shaped more than one generation’s musical taste; the men who stuck two fingers up to the doubters, the unbelievers, the down-right miserable and doom laden and who have had the final incredible laugh for the last 40 years. The sermon to the already converted and to those who have come along in the intervening years, the thank you to all who gave The Stranglers room in the heart and who filled the room at The Academy in Liverpool to bursting. The Gospel surely reads, “Thank You.”

The Stranglers, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. (2014). full post

(639 words, 1 image, estimated 2:33 mins reading time)

The Stranglers, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The sweat and perspiration was still dripping off the audience’s clothes as they filed out of the Academy, Liverpool after yet another feast of relentless and pulsating music by one of the most potent and loved bands to come out of Britain in the last 40 years. For the Stranglers, nights such as they experience in Liverpool, are amongst the finest they can surely experience and for the fans that bounce and rock with them, the admiration is mutual. The tour is called Feel It Live and by the end of the night everyone had certainly felt that request.

The Stranglers, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(571 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

The Stranglers, Feline. 30th Anniversary Retrospective.

The Stranglers are arguably one of the finest bands to have come out Britain. The four men in black boast a huge dedicated following that turn up in their droves to gigs in this country and abroad and with albums and singles that have sold beyond measure. However even the most dedicated of Stranglers fans must have been surprised the direction the seventh studio album, Feline, took when released in the New Year of 1983.

The Stranglers, Feline. 30th Anniversary Retrospective. full post

(966 words, 1 image, estimated 3:52 mins reading time)

Ray Davies, Gig Review. Liverpool Philharmonic Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

There are some musicians who can just stand on the stage and their very presence is enough to send a venue into rapture and unreserved ecstasy. The former lead man of the superb London band The Kinks is one such man and as Ray Davies came on stage to thunderous applause it really felt as though time had been wound backwards to the days when they were one of the most talked of and much loved groups.

Ray Davies, Gig Review. Liverpool Philharmonic Hall full post

(504 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)