Hugh Cornwell, SToP! @ The Gov, Adelaide 9/8/2024

Hugh Cornwell, the original singer, songwriter and guitarist with The Stranglers is back in Australia to display his musical wares on the stage again. Hugh was leader of The Stranglers for ten stellar albums and since his departure from the band in 1990, Hugh has released a further ten solo albums.

First up was the band SToP! Using a cover band as a support was an interesting move. SToP played a mixture of punk/new wave classics from the likes of The Clash, Buzzcocks and Elvis Costello. The Sex Pistols Pretty Vacant was ferocious and who would have thought this song would one day become a “Golden Oldie” when it was released back in 1977. The Rats 1979 song Jah War was an interesting inclusion that worked fine and “One for the ladies” bought out Joe Jackson’s Is She Really Going Out With Him. Yes, an interesting move using a cover band as support, but they played well and it was appreciated by the building audience.

Hugh Cornwell’s backing band, consisting of Pat Hughes on bass and Windsor McGilvray, have been with Hugh for a long time, gelling the three-piece into a formidable band. Hugh though is caught between a rock and a hard place. He knows the majority of the audience are there for The Stranglers songs, but he wants to present them with songs from his solo albums as well.

The show commenced with Coming Out of the Wilderness from his latest album Moments of Madness but was plagued by sound issues from the start. The volume of instruments and vocals was extremely low, but by the second verse someone had found the right button to press and full sound was restored. Too Much Trash from the same album followed.

Hugh stopped the show at this stage to complain about the fans blowing on him. “Is this a hair salon as well” he quipped. “It would have been good if I had washed my hair before coming out. It’s a rock and roll show, it is meant to be hot and sweaty”. A flurry of activity from staff soon had the fans turned off.

The Stranglers Skin Deep followed to a loud cheer from the audience. At the conclusion Hugh started up again. “Another thing that is putting me off is all the camera’s down here at the front. Turn them off and actually enjoy the show. This is not a press conference” he said. A loud cheer from those behind these people erupted. Yes, it is annoying standing behind people holding up screens, filming.

Hugh continued with “The order of the night is a couple tracks from my albums and then a Stranglers nugget” and true to his word we got Wrong Side of the Tracks and Delightful Nightmare from the 2008 album Hooverdam, followed by The Stranglers Strange Little Girl.

Totem and Taboo from the 2012 album of the same name came next with Bad Vibrations, with its many false endings, from the same album. The 1980 Stranglers single, Who Wants the World rolled out, a song apparently about alien visitation to Earth.

A “bit of reggae” followed with the title track from Moments of Madness, coupled with the heavier sound of When I was a Yong Man also from that album.

Hugh continued to be true to his word. Two songs from 2018’s Monster album bought us Pure Evel, a tribute to Evel Knievel, the stunt motorcycle rider from the 1960/70’s and then a tribute to Lou Reed in Mr Leather. However, Hugh told us “The younger people in the audience often think I am saying loo read, as in toilet book. They have no idea who Lou Reed is”.

With no keyboards it was a stripped back Always the Sun that followed, and yes, a few phones came out again for this Stranglers classic. The run home was Another Kind of Love, Out of My Mind and Live it Breathe It.

If it was Stranglers songs the crowd wanted, the encore didn’t disappoint. 1977’s Nice and Sleazy opened the five-song finale. A fiery Big Bug followed and the final three songs in Golden Brown, Duchess and Nuclear Device, with its references to Australia, were pure Stranglers heaven.

Hugh set “the rules” early in regard to Stranglers songs being played and it worked. However, the solo songs were excellent and stand up for themselves alongside the Strangler classics. Overall, just a great night of rock ‘n roll.

I saw The Stranglers back in 1979 at The Apollo Stadium and at the time Hugh blasted local radio stations for being so straight with their music especially picking on 5KA. I wonder now what Hugh thinks of radio stations these days, especially those just playing “classic rock and roll’, which does include a few Strangers songs.

Live Review Geoff Jenke