Always loved this track Spurf but the Linda Ronstadt version stirred the loins of a certain A Conn back in the day
I'm pretty sure I've already bored you good people on here with how the first single I ever bought was Nice 'n' Sleazy, purchased with my first week's paper round wage and followed up a couple of months later by my first LP, Black and White. I loved The Jam, The Clash and The Damned but The Stranglers will always have a special place in my heart because they were the first. In fact I can still recall their appearance on TOTP for Something Better Change and the "stick my fingers right up your nose" it was really something for the 12 year old me! Anyway I've just been thinking having seen these videos if I could only take one Stranglers song with me to my desert island what would it be as they've written so many amazing songs but I settled on this one. I don't know how many times I've listened to this beauty, hundreds certainly and quite possibly past the thousand mark as Rattus was permanently on my turntable back in the day and I know it's really Dave that shines through this track more than Jet but with them both now gone it still strikes me as appropriate. Thanks to Jet, or should I say Brian without whom the Stranglers would've probably never happened!
It's impossible to overstate the importance of those first singles and albums in '77 from the punk groups. Okay, there were bands like The Stooges and Ramones, who were massive influences on those British groups, but John Peel apart, actual product was thin on the ground. Those early albums/singles were bought, taped a million times and played to death. I had an older brother and he and his mates were particularly sniffy about The Clash, The Pistols, etc. but The Stranglers and 'Rattus' passed their 'proper music' test and got a load of play at top volume during those great early days. It's ingrained on my mind, along with the places it got played in and the people I was listening with. When I hear that album, I'm 15 again...and that's a joy that I'll take to my grave. I'm not sure that too many kids feel the same way about today's music...I hope that they do.
Car boot sale yesterday and I found a near perfect copy of Deep Purple Made in Japan , one of those albums long lost or borrowed and not returned This took me back and the track Mule reminded me that I do not like drum solos , great memories for £5
A very enjoyable afternoon/evening spent in Greenwich yesterday. Had a few beers with Yid Andy and our better halves and then on to the album launch for The Wingmen album. :lots of familiar faces together with the odd new one. I got to chat with my hero, Paul Gray...and like a complete fanboy, I got him to sign my copy of 'There Ain't No Sanity Clause'. Later in the evening, I was chatting to a lovely lady, to whom I was recalling the extent of my fandom for The Damned bassist...at which point, Mrs B arrives and say..."Oh great, you've met Paul's Mrs". It's always ****ing me....ALWAYS. Mrs Gray's a truly lovely lady and said that she recognised Mrs B and I from the launch of 'A Night Of A Thousand Vampires'...and earlier, she'd helped Mrs B to blag her way into the VIP area with the wives of Baz Warne and Martin Parrott whilst I slugged it out in the tiniest venue in the western world. Paul and Rob Coombes (now confirmed as a permanent member of the band) left early whilst the others repaired to the local Wetherspoons - no limos or record company advances here! We passed as the snow was really falling by then and decided to scarper before the trains and buses ground to a halt.
I forgot to comment on the performance and album... It's pretty good stuff. Half of the songs have recognisably Stranglers roots and for me, there's too little of Leigh Hegarty's guitar playing on what I heard...but it'll need a few listens. Somewhat strangely, Paul played on the left and Leigh Hegarty played on the right. That's the complete opposite of where they always for Ruts/The Damned...then I got to thinking, maybe Paul doesn't play on the left through choice, but because Captain insists on playing on the right? This was given a lot of weight, in my mind, when someone in the crowd asked what the group's colleagues from their 'day jobs' thought of the new project? Baz Warne said Stranglers members were fine with it and Leigh Hegarty said Seggs and Ruffy were very supportive. Notably, Martin Parrott went on the attack, saying that as non-original members that don't get royalties on the big hits, they are reliant on live performances and Covid lockdowns had hit them particularly hard. Paul refused to address the issue at all but I know that he and Monty were particularly upset by the way that The Damned reunion gigs were organised, with them left completely in the dark. One final memory...when I told Paul that he was the first (and probably only) autograph that I'd ever requested, he said that he'd only ever got one autograph..... ...David Bowie.
Well I can put names to a few of those faces and I think the connection may be Robert Elms? To the left of Weller is Robert Elms himself and to the right of Weller is the actor Johnny Harris and to the right of him is the author Mark Baxter. Both Harris and Baxter are good friends of Robert Elms as is Suggs and Weller and I do know Robert Elms has recently released a new book all about the live gigs he's been to over the years so maybe it was to celebrate that possibly?