The Stranglers - On Stage, On Screen (2012)

The Stranglers, it’s now been almost 38 years since this band came into being. Formed by drummer Jet Black in ’74, the line-up has gone through a few changes throughout the years, finally culminating (at the time of this recording) in Jet, JJ Burnel, Dave Greenfield, Paul Roberts on vocals and ex Toy Doll Baz Warne on guitar, the latter two replacing Hugh Cornwell’s role in the band since 1990. This performance was filmed at the end of 2005 at the Shepherds Bush Empire, and although I wasn’t at this particular gig (mainly due to the terrible visibility for short-arses like me at the venue) I did spot my brother in the audience at the beginning – thoroughly enjoying himself with the plethora of other 40+ year old males that have always made up The Stranglers fan-base. The DVD is split into 2 performances, the first being the usual electric set featuring a mix of old faves – Duchess, Always The Sun and No More Heroes being the obvious choices, all performed with the energy that Roberts brought to the table when he joined, which had been seriously lacking for a while (re: the dreaded horn section years), and some more slightly obscure choices such as Death And Night And Blood, Toiler on the Sea and Burning Up Time. Roberts performs all of these with the slightly sneering vocal style that made these songs great back in 1977, yet on Walk On By this was sadly lacking I felt ,as that was always my favourite aspect of their version of the song, making it more sarcastic than sickly sweet to my ears. The band really came alive during Peaches, the huge grins on both band and audience speaking volumes there.
The “newer” songs mainly taken from 2004s release Norfolk Coast are incredibly well received by the audience especially I’ve Been Wild and Lost Control, the latter in particular very reminiscent of tracks such as Down In The Sewer, my only complaint being that there are an awful lot of them in comparison to older classics. But hey, they had an album to promote, so who can blame them? This brings us on to the shorter acoustic set, primarily made up ofNorfolkCoasttracks with the notable addition of Strange Little Girl thrown in. Nice to see Dave Greenfield emerge from the keyboards to play acoustic guitar on Sanfte Cruz (who knew he had legs?) also interesting to note the song is partly in French, and yet it wasn’t Jean Jaques who supplied the vocals.
This DVD also comes with a short film, also entitled Norfolk Coast inspired by the album of the same name, starring JJ as Warner, a man with a difficult past, and features Nicholas Ball as his father and Susannah York in her final feature performance. This is an everyday tale of Satanic Ritual Abuse and its consequences for all those involved. Hate to say it but the main performances by JJ and Lynsey Baxter who plays his wife are a tad unconvincing and a little wooden. The film itself is nicely shot however and I can think of worse ways to pass the time than watch this again, so all in all a nice little extra for any die-hard Stranglers fans.
Overall this is a nice piece of concert footage that documents well Paul Roberts stint as lead vocalist (he left a year after the filming) Having seen the band live myself several times throughout the years, I feel this DVD captures their inimitable sound perfectly, although one wonders why it took 7 years to be released, especially as the bands line-up has changed yet again since it was filmed.

Tracklist:
- Live set
01. "Waltzinblack" (intro)
02. "Norfolk Coast"
03. "All Day And All Of The Night"
04. "Big Thing Coming"
05. "Peaches"
06. "Skin Deep"
07. "Always The Sun"
08. "Long Black Veil"
09. "I've Been Wild"
10. "Lost Control"
11. "Goodbye Toulouse"
12. "Summat Outanowt"
13. "Walk On By"
14. "Duchess"
15. "Burning Up Time"
16. "Toiler On the Sea"
17. "Time To Die"
18. "Tank"
19. "Mine All Mine"
20. "No More Heroes"

- Acoustic set
01. "Instead Of This"
02. "Southern Mountains"
03. "Dutch Moon"
04. "Tucker's Grave"
05. "Strange Little Girl"
06. "Santfe Kuss"
07. "Still Life"


Features:
- Interactive Menu
- Direct Scene Access