British Music Legend Hugh Cornwell To Perform Iconic Stranglers Hits & Classic Solo Songs

When future historians of music draw up a list of the movers and shakers who changed the modern musical landscape, there will be no doubt that Hugh Cornwell’s name will be prominent amongst them. As a pioneering musician, songwriter, and performer his pervasive influence persists in the record collections of music aficionados, across the globe’s radio waves and on stages around the world, Hugh’s presence is unquestionable.

As leader of The Stranglers, Hugh was the main songwriter of all the band’s most memorable songs across ten stellar albums all of whom consolidated Cornwell’s stature as a unique songwriter and musician. His lyrics to Golden Brown, from the La Folie album, and their multiple meanings, is a songwriting masterclass. Widely regarded as the poet laureate of punk, Hugh Cornwell has also built a substantial and singular body of impressive solo albums. Don’t miss this British music legend as he performs iconic Stranglers hits and classic solo Songs with a full band. Hugh talks to Hi Fi Way about the tour.

Another Australian tour, you must be excited about coming back?
Yes. Um, now where did we plan Adelaide last time? I can’t remember [The Gov]. The Gov, that’s right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, about four, five years ago.

With the events of the last few years, which have slowed a lot of people down, do you feel like you’re finally starting to get back on track and back to, and almost caught up to where you need to be?
Well, I hope so. I mean the period where we were all locked down all over the world, it got on a lot of people’s nerves, but it, it played right into my hands because I was able to focus on writing and recording the Moments of Madness album.

Does Australia have a hold a lot of fond sort of memories over the years for you?
Absolutely. From the very first visit, I remember when I was in The Strangles in the eighties, we were offered Japan, and we all got excited and then we said, oh, then you’re going to Australia afterwards. I was more excited about going to Australia than I was going to Japan. I thought it was going to be a more interesting thing actually and it was because we had all that furore around the song with the Wizard Of Aus that we had written. I’ve always enjoyed coming over. I love it.

Do you notice much difference between Australian fans compared to other fans around the world?
Not really, they’re fans and they love the music, they get excited about it, occasionally you can play in a town where the audience is a little bit more gentile or introverted. If I sense anything like that, I just make a comment and they soon snap out of it. The Japanese can be very reserved, it’s just their nature. Australian fans, they’re great and I’ll tell you what, because people don’t come over regularly, like every year, they’ve got an extra amount of anticipation and excitement about it. In Europe, it’s easy to visit quite regularly, but it’s the other side of the world for us. So, we can’t come every six months.

Moments of Madness is a fantastic album, have you been really over the moon with how fans have embraced it and really got into the album?
Sure, I hope it’s going to create interest amongst the people that don’t listen to my music regularly. That’s the hope and the results so far are very promising. It’s gone down very well in the UK and we’ve got some markets opening up in Europe now. We just did a UK tour in January, and a lot of people coming up saying, well, I haven’t followed your stuff before, but I will now because this latest one is really good, so I’m going to check the others out now. That’s always good to hear because Moments Of Moments is just the next album in the list that I’m going to make. There’s not much between that and say, one I made ten years ago Totem & Taboo or Hooverdam before that, it, it is just another one of the albums. So, anything that’s gratifying to know that one of them has suggested to people, well, I should investigate the older stuff as well, that that’s good.

The album artwork is quite striking. Was that one of your creative concepts?
I don’t know if it came across perfectly well, but on the back on the back of the sleeve is a picture of the giant squid, with one of his tentacles or her tentacles thrown over the shoulder, and so my picture on the front was an attempt to be a giant squid, basically my impression of a giant squid in the hat and my arm going over my shoulder. I’m not sure if many people got it.

Do you feel like this is one of the most satisfying albums that you’ve created?
Well, in the sense that I had total control over it, but that was very satisfying, and it’s turned out well. I like the way it sounds, so that’s a good point. I’m trying to make things more and more simple as they go down the line and a lot of people have come back and said, it’s very simple, which is great and uncomplicated. I was working with producers for many years. Liam Watson, Laurie Latham, Gary Langan, Tony Visconti, Steve Albini and of course, working with all these greatly talented producers I learned a lot about making records and about how to record things. The last two, Monster and this one are the first ones I’ve done completely without an outside producer. It happened totally by a chance that it happened. On this one, I played all the bass on it. It it’s all played live, I started out off as a bass player, so, that’s not really something awkward for me and I really enjoyed playing bass on it.

Did you play a lot of the other instruments as well?
Yeah, they’re all me. The drums I program with the help of my long time engineer Phil Andrews, who used to play keyboards for me after I left The Stranglers for a while, for a couple of albums, and then he left, but we stayed in touch and he’s got a great pair of ears and he is very, very good at drum programming. I basically helped him put the drums together. I’d really just outline that I’d like it to go a little bit like this. He’d understand what I mean, and then he’d translate that into what a drummer would do and I’d go, yeah, yeah, that’s like it, yeah, yeah, or no, not quite like that. So with a bit of direction, and it’s great working with people like that where they’ve got a forte for something and you’ve just got a vague idea of something and you can try to, it’s all about communication, trying to communicate what your idea is, and if they pick up on it, and then they put their input into it, which is a great process. I really enjoy recording now.

Did the songs, from a creative perspective, come quickly to you?
I don’t have any problem writing at the moment, God forbid, touch wood. At some stage, I guess the creative juice will stop flowing and I won’t be able to write anymore. It seems to be holding up well. The songs just come together, all you’ve got to have is an idea or a title or a little bit of music or a lyric or phrase or something. That’s all I need. Then I’m up and running.

Are you looking to play a lot of these new songs on the Australian tour?
When the album first came out into Europe, we were playing five of the songs, which is half of the new album. The last few dates we went out, we did four. We’re working our way through all the songs on the record as live versions. So, by the time we get to Australia we might find we’ve got another one.

Do you still get that sort warm inner glow when you still see the reaction of the fans?
Well, it’s a buzz, playing live it’s a buzz. I really enjoy it and I’m really enjoying playing with Windsor and Pat, my drum and bass player who came to Australia with me last time. It really doesn’t matter what the song is, if it goes down well then a great reaction is a bonus. Especially if you played it well, if you haven’t played a very good version, you made some mistakes or something, then you feel like you’ve been cheating. But if you played a good verse and it goes down well then you get that glow.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Hugh Cornwell on he following dates, tickets from Metropolis Touring…