Hugh Cornwell

4-19-10 Hugh Cornwell

I had the good fortune to see Hugh Cornwell play live in my home town at the end of last month, at Alex’s Bar on Anaheim Street. It was the 2^nd time I got to see Hugh Cornwell play a solo show, and my first visit to Alex’s Bar.

Hugh Cornwell – Guitar, vocals; Caroline Campbell – Bass, vocals; Chris Bell – Drums

They played almost all of the “Hooverdam” CD, maybe 9 of 10 songs (if not all 10). Also, they played many Stranglers songs: Sometimes, Life Shows No Mercy, Tank, Peaches, Walk On By, No More Heroes, Golden Brown, Hanging Around, Duchess, Nice ‘N Sleazy, (Get A) Grip (On Yourself), Down In The Sewer etc. All without keyboards!

I bought an LP version of “Hooverdam” from them for $10. Looks to be a nice European pressing. I had never seen an LP of it before! According to the booklet in the “Hooverdam” CD, Mr. Cornwell’s solo titles are:

1. Nosferatu (with Robert Williams)(1979); 2. Wolf (1988); 3. C.C.W. (1992); 4. Wired (aka First Bus To Babylon)(1993); 5. Guilty (1997) (aka Black Hair, Black Eyes, Black Suit); 6. Hifi (2000); 7. Footprints In The Desert (2002); 8. Sons Of Shiva (2002); 9. Beyond Elysian Fields (2004); 10. People Places Pieces (3CD set) (2006) which distills down to “Dirty Dozen” (2006); 11. Hooverdam (2008). And he only did 10 albums with The Stranglers! (Looks like they are no longer offering his live albums “Mayday” and “In The Dock” on Invisible Hands Records – they were in the booklet for “Beyond Elysian Fields”, but not in “Hooverdam”).

So, looks like I still need to find CD’s of “Footprints in the Desert” and “Sons Of Shiva”, his pair of 2002 albums. I only recently found an inexpensive copy of the “People Places Pieces” 3CD live set (I have had the “Dirty Dozen” live collection CD for a while, no longer necessary as I now have the full boxed set).

I did go to the trouble of getting all the UK Epic label Stranglers re-mastered CD’s – they did a good job, and all the B-sides (except for a few) are there. I have yet to do all of the EMI re-mastered CD’s. I got Japanese paper sleeve CD’s for the first 2 x Stranglers albums. I would like to find more of them!

I really appreciate the fact that he would do a US tour in 2010. His last few albums have not been released here, but he realizes that he has a decent fan base here. I thought that both Chris Bell and Caroline Campbell were great musicians – no doubt about it, she really has the Jean Jacques Burnel bass sound going on!

So, thank you for coming to Long Beach, Mr. Cornwell. I hope my friends in Portland and Seattle got the chance to see his shows there. I feel sorry for my friends down south – they only got as far East as Chicago this time.