Halifax Piece Hall
Aug 2024
Live RevieW
Pictures by Big Clive
Sixteen again? Not quite, but Buzzcocks opening for the Stranglers could well have been my dream gig when I was that age. Most of the songs both bands played were older than that, but since they’re all so great that’s not a problem. Buzzcocks instantly wrongfooted me.
The drummer went on first and started a familiar beat, and when the bassist and guitarist joined him it seemed to me as if they were going to start with Nothing Left, but the only original band member Steve Diggle came on last rattling a tambourine which he threw into the air before picking up his CND stickered guitar and started singing What Do I Get?
Most of their set was the classic A side of Singles Going Steady with a couple of B Sides Autonomy and Why Can’t I Touch It? andthree newer songs including Sick City Sometimes. Steve seemed quite at home with the late Pete Shelley’s vocal parts, but there was no way he was going to reach the falsetto highs of the chorus of Everybody’s Happy Nowadays, however lots of people were joining in to help!
Strangely perhaps he seemed to take the most liberties with vocal phrasing on a song he always sang, Harmony in My Head. As the set closer it turned into a bit of a jam which might have actually gone on longer than Why Can’t I Touch It? Throwing his plectrum into the crowd Steve waved goodbye to a thoroughly warmed up crowd.
Piece Hall is an outdoor venue so it’s lucky the weather was fine. The auditorium seems well designed with raised areas nearer the back and a good selection of drinks which whilst expensive are not as over– priced as many other larger venues. Both Steve Diggle and Baz Warne, the Stranglers singer and guitarist, praised the venue.
When the intro music Waltzinblack starts it always brings a sense of anticipation like few other gigs, and the Stranglers always deliver a great set. Opening with a sped up twangy Toiler on the Sea they had better sound than Buzzcocks. Their set included most of their top 20 singles, but they surprised me by playing the first Stranglers song I heard Duchess second as they usually play it near the end of the set. The Raven is always a highlight so I was pleased they kept it in the set and in some ways it could be the ultimate Stranglers song.
Perhaps the best song lyrically to celebrate fifty years of the Stranglers is Relentless, a song about aging but carrying on. Nice’n’Sleazy gave Baz and the only original Strangler bassist JJ Burnel a chance to prowl around the front of the stage.
It might be a cover, but This Song sounds like a Stranglers original and shows how good their recent music is. It’s a shame there wasn’t a little more of it, but they have so many great old songs it didn’t really matter. I’d especially like to hear them play Water again. Another newer song Breathe sounded appropriately epic for an arena gig. A song I’m glad they kept in the set was Ships That Pass in the Night from Feline. which hadn’t been played live for over three decades before this year. It segued neatly into a fiery rendition of their first single Grip.
It’s a credit to drummer Jim Macaulay and keyboard player Toby Hounsham that they can pull off a song as complex as Genetix perfectly, although Toby’s vocals were less eccentric than the late Dave Greenfield’s. Another of the newer songs White Stallion, from their most recent album Dark Matters, also had an epic stadium feel. It was back to the seventies for the closing run of classics Walk On By, Hanging Around,Something Better Change and the always explosive Tank.
Back for an encore, JJ told us Go Buddy Go was the first song they wrote. It’s almost certainly the closest song to classic rock’n’roll they’ve written, almost a fifties pastiche.
There was no doubt what they were going to finish on, a lean mean No More Heroes. Anyone with any doubts as to whether the Stranglers should carry on after the death of Dave Greenfield should be assuaged that they are still one of the best live bands in the world, and if anything seem re-energised. It was a great gig for my first in Halifax.
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