The Low Budget Men are a local band, but no ordinary local band - their mission, saving lives, no less! Claude >>
Pogo in the Palais – it’s The Stranglers
BY David Stoyle FOR FR2DAY.COM Aug 30, 2011
The Stranglers are playing at Cannes' Palais des Festivals on September 9th: it's possibly the least likely venue for a band since Lou Reed played at Monaco's Forum Grimaldi. The Stranglers burst onto the music scene in 1977, in the vanguard of the punk movement. Leeringly suggestive, menacingly aggressive, they were accused of being sexist, racist, and violent. They sang songs about eyeing up the girls on the beaches, about the inner city, and about the death of heroes. But with pedigrees ranging from classical guitar symphony playing, jazz bands, and belonging to Richard Thompson's band, there was always more to these guys than just ugly faces.
Those early years saw hits like "Peaches", "Something Better Change", and "No More Heroes". They were classics for the punk era, and they sold massively. At the end of the Punk era the band had a change in step with the commercial flop of "Meninblack".
But in 1981 their biggest seller was released - "Golden Brown" - it's an amazingly chilled-out sound for this band that thrived on aggression to kick-start its career. They followed that with a few more FM classics, including "Always the Sun", and "Skin Deep". In 1990 mainstay Hugh Cornwell left them and they entered a decade of relative obscurity.
And so to their recent revival - in 2004 they released the great "Norfolk Coast" album, then a compilation, and some very successful tours. They have mentioned several times that they need to retire soon - drummer Jet Black is well into his seventies, and yet the audience response these days is a mixture of cultish fanaticism and genuine respect for a band that's managed to survive and produce intense concerts across five decades. This just might be one of THE great shows this year.
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