HUGH CORNWELL + DAVID GEDGE – CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON 24.1.24
Former Stranglers frontman and poet laureate of the punk era, Hugh Cornwell made a welcome return to Brighton this evening where he headlined the Concorde 2.
Although Hugh has been a solo artist for over thirty years, and despite having an extensive solo back catalogue, he has never quite escaped the shadow of The Stranglers. I don’t think Hugh has a problem with this, as there is certainly much within The Stranglers’ back catalogue for him to be proud of, and he liberally peppers his sets with Stranglers’ songs. However, don’t come along to a Hugh Cornwell show expecting to hear Stranglers’ hits. You might get one or two, but mostly Hugh makes relatively deep dives into the Stranglers’ canon.
Hugh’s current band (he is joined by Pat Hughes on bass and backing vocals, and Windsor McGilvray on drums and backing vocals) provide plenty of space for all three musicians to do interesting things, an opportunity which they all grab with both hands. I always felt that when The Stranglers’ played live, Hugh’s guitar playing was overshadowed somewhat by Dave Greenfield’s keyboards. There were relatively few songs where he got to shine. ‘Down In The Sewer’ was a prime example. There is no such problem with this band. Hugh plays a mixture of rhythm and lead, effortlessly switching between the two modes. Indeed, it has to be said, all three musicians are very well musically suited to each other.
Tonight’s set is a guided tour through Hugh’s solo catalogue, commencing with two tracks from the latest album ‘Moments Of Madness’. Hugh tells us that tonight’s gig is “a mining expedition.” Mining amongst his solo material “with the odd diamond of a Stranglers song”. However, there are real diamond-like highlights amongst the solo material. ‘Delightful Nightmare’ from the 2008 album ‘Hooverdam’ has a marvellous understated guitar solo. Also ‘Bad Vibrations’ from the ‘Totem And Taboo’ album of 2012 is one of the best songs of the night. The Stranglers’ ‘Strange Little Girl’ has a wonderful bass intro which sounds like it’s been put through a chorus pedal. Hugh actually plays the guitar solo this time. When I saw him a few weeks ago he had to sing the solo due to a guitar fault! Pat Hughes’ bass playing is really impressive throughout. It’s very sympathetic to the material, and he’s a very versatile player. He even occasionally plays chords. Pat is very much a lead bassist, with a clean, punchy, powerful sound.
It’s inevitable that some of Hugh’s music is going to sound like The Stranglers, as he wrote so much of their material. However, we have the somewhat ironic situation towards the end of the set where ‘Another Kind Of Love’ from Hugh’s album ‘Wolf’, is followed by ‘Out Of My Mind’ from The Stranglers’ album ‘10’, and the preceding song sounds more like The Stranglers than ‘Out Of My Mind’ does!
After ‘Live It And Breathe It’ the band retire from the stage for a few minutes before returning for a four song encore. On ‘Nice ‘n’ Sleazy’ Pat Hughes manipulates his bass pedals to fill the space where the keyboard solo would be. A very deep dive is Big Bug from Hugh and Robert Williams’ 1979 album Nosferatu. This album was partially conceived as a soundtrack for the 1922 silent film of the same name. Pat steps on a fuzz pedal and the band go straight into the classic ‘(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)’. This has been a superb set. If you’re a Stranglers fan you’re equally well served by the current lineup of the band and Hugh Cornwell’s band. One Jean-Jacques Burnel may be less than delighted to read this.
Hugh Cornwell:
Hugh Cornwell – vocals, guitar
Windsor McGilvray – drums, drum pads, keys, laptop, backing vocals
Pat Hughes – bass, backing vocals
Hugh Cornwell setlist:
‘I Wannahideinsideaya’ (from 2022 ‘Moments Of Madness’ album)
‘Too Much Trash’ (from 2022 ‘Moments Of Madness’ album)
‘Skin Deep’ (from The Stranglers 1984 ‘Aural Sculpture’ album)
‘Wrong Side Of The Tracks’ (from 2008 ‘Hooverdam’ album)
‘Delightful Nightmare’ (from 2008 ‘Hooverdam’ album)
‘Strange Little Girl’ (from The Stranglers 1982 ‘Strange Little Girl’ single)
‘Totem And Taboo’ (from 2012 ‘Totem And Taboo’ album)
‘Bad Vibrations’ (from 2012 ‘Totem And Taboo’ album)
‘Who Wants The World?’ (from The Stranglers ‘The Collection 1977–1982’ compilation album)
‘Moments Of Madness’ (from 2022 ‘Moments Of Madness’ album)
‘When I Was A Young Man’ (from 2022 ‘Moments Of Madness’ album)
‘Tramp’ (from The Stranglers 1981 ‘La Folie’ album)
‘Pure Evel’ (from 2018 ‘Monster’ album)
‘Mr. Leather’ (from 2018 ‘Monster’ album)
‘Always The Sun’ (from The Stranglers 1986 ‘Dreamtime’ album)
‘Duce Coochie Man’ (from 2018 ‘Monster’ album)
‘Goodbye Toulouse’ (from The Stranglers 1977 ‘Rattus Norvegicus’ album)
‘Another Kind Of Love’ (from 1988 ‘Wolf’ album)
‘Out Of My Mind’ (from The Stranglers 1990 ‘10’ album)
‘Live It And Breathe It’ (from 2015 ‘The Fall And Rise Of Hugh Cornwell’ compilation album)
(encore)
‘First Bus To Babylon’ (from 2015 ‘The Fall And Rise Of Hugh Cornwell’ compilation album)
‘Nice ‘n’ Sleazy’ (from The Stranglers 1978 ’Black And White’ album)
‘Big Bug’ (Hugh Cornwell and Robert Williams song from 1979 ‘Nosferatu’ album)
‘(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)’ (from The Stranglers 1977 ‘Rattus Norvegicus’ album)
Unfortunately the booked support for this tour, The Primitives, are unable to play tonight as their vocalist Tracy Tracy has lost her voice. Instead, at three hours’ notice, we get local boy David Gedge from The Wedding Present playing a solo acoustic set. This is indeed a rare treat as I have never seen David play solo or acoustic before. Interestingly his acoustic playing style is almost identical to his electric style. It also emphasises the influence that Pete Townshend has had on his playing. This is something that I hadn’t noticed before, but now that I have, I can confidently say that David Gedge plays like Pete Townshend on steroids, whether he’s playing electric or acoustic. I do hope that David isn’t influenced by this statement though. He’ll be windmilling next…..
What we get tonight is half an hour of Wedding Present songs that David thinks sound good on acoustic guitar. To be honest, I think that they all would, but David is insistent that some songs are quite dependent on their lead guitar part. An early highlight is ‘You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends’, a 1986 single which David tells us will be the oldest thing that he’s going to play tonight. He tells us not to sing along with ‘Brassneck’ due to the Brighton crowd’s southern accents, and their pronunciation of the song title as ‘Brarssneck’. “There is only one ‘r’ in brass” David tells us. However, during the song he gets lost and has to consult the lyrics on his tablet. Maybe if we’d been singing along he would have known where he was…..
Next up is ‘Rotterdam’ from ‘Seamonsters’, which is tonight’s most authentic rendition as it was acoustic on the album. After ‘California’, someone asks when David’s going to play ‘Crash’ by The Primitives. David chuckles. After ‘Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft’ and the superlative ‘My Favourite Dress’, David’s half hour is up. It’s been much too short. I’m sure that there are more Weddoes songs that the acoustic treatment would suit. A Wedding Present acoustic tour: now there’s a thought…..
Brilliant and informed review
I was at the gig and hugh and the band was on top form .