Hugh Cornwell The Cluny Newcastle November 13th 2018
Into his 70th year Ex Strangler Hugh Cornwell is touring with new band and album Monster, the album is all about heroes and Villains as such, Cornwell rolls back the years, and sounds nothing like his advancing years unlike many of his peers.
Well much to his credit Hugh has managed to sell out The Cluny on a cold Tuesday night, For the last few years Hugh has came on and done his Solo set and followed it up with Stranglers Classics tonight he sticks with this formula, And surprises a lot of people with the Quality of his Solo work, This Trio is a Very tight unit, from Windsor McGilvray at the back pounding away and adding flare power and finesse in his playing, to Pat Hughes on Bass who effortlessly goes through the set with his Growling Bass and neat Bass runs.
The night kicks off with Pure Evel a song about American 70s Superstar Evel Knievel, played 5 songs from his new album that and a good mix from his back catalogue, And Boy were this trio in good form tonight, His Vocals were as good as they ever were, he even included Mothra from the Nosferatu album interwining it with Duce Coochie Man to great effect, He then went off before announcing that the Second half was Death By Strangulation.
The second half started with the Menacing Bass of Nice N Sleazy, Which Stirred the crowd up a bit, lots more classics to follow Peaches, No More Heroes, Strange Little Girl, Duchess, No Mercy, Always the sun, He even done Thrown Away which was a JJ Burnel song, And Guess What it worked ! Hugh has had to restyle some of these songs as there is no Keyboards there but it doesn’t matter as they all still work, And he still sings them as good as he did way back then, The Encore of Hanging Around sent everyone home happy, and on the way out everyone was enthusing about how good it all was. 8.8/10
Words and Photos: Mol Holland