This show was more of a double headline show than headline and support, most of the people I saw and knew at this gig were there for the support act The Courettes and the Hugh Cornwell fans seemed to almost be in a minority. Whoever in Hugh's team chose The Courettes as support for the Come And Get Some Tour, where Hugh plays all of his 1979 collaboration with Captain Beefheart drummer Robert Williams the Nosferatu album was a brave person.
The Courettes came on and burst into You Woo Me with it's 60's garage girl group sound and Flavia whipping up a storm at the front of the stage all in red. The Boy I Love was great fun with Flavia singing it to Martin whose drumming was full on, while he also sang backing vocals. California was full of sunshine and Flavia's garage guitar riffs and intense solo, by this point some of the Hugh Cornwell fans were already being converted.
The tight intensity of Until You're Mine was crackling with sexual energy and Martin crying out the band's name, making sure everyone knew who they are. they then told us that we are all Trash Can Honey which had suitably trashy guitar lines and garage drums. Flavia got all seductive telling us I Want You (Like A Cigarette) some of the Hugh Cornwell fans were trying to work out if that was a good or a bad thing, either way it rocked like hell and Flavia was bouncing all over the stage.
They proved they are total night owls on Night Time (The Boy Of Mine) who is of course a dirty stop out, they were having a blast and had everyone cheering for them. Tough Like That had super hard drumming and lots of shouts about them being the fabulous Courettes and Martin introducing them to us, before at the end they said goodnight. The crowd then erupted and while they stood on stage this huge roar went up and they were assured everyone wanted more.
The first encore opened with Boom! Dynamite! that was as explosive as the name suggests, the cracks from the drums were perfect and the long call and response section went down well. From the opening line of "let's have a party at the end of the world" Misfits & Freaks was a barnstorming garage rock party anthem. They then closed with a brilliant version of the bands old single Hop The Twig that had a couple of false endings that were followed by an instrumental freak out that saw Flavia crowd surfing on her back while playing a super dirty guitar solo to say goodnight.
They left the stage, but the Assembly Hall was having none of it, the whole pace erupted in cheers, enough to make them the first support band I've seen in over 20 years to get 2 encores! They came back on bowed and thanked us all and launched into Keep Dancing and a good few people did just that, before they brought this astonishing set to a close with Shake! That was exactly what they did all over the stage. At the end of the song they stood onstage for about three minutes, the crowd kept shouting and cheering for more, they had totally stolen the show.
After the break Hugh Cornwell had the unenviable task of following The Courettes a battle he seemed to know he was going to lose, from the moment the lights went down 10 minutes before his trio ambled onstage and spent another 5 minutes tuning up before drummer Windsor McGilvray signalled the soundman to play the bands walk on music to Nosferatu, after which they eased into Losers In A Lost Land sounding like they had already lost some of the crowd, this was splintered sounding, almost like Hugh and Pat Hughes on bass were totally out of sync with each other.
The song I put down in my notes as The Sun Never Shines In the Shadows was apparently a cover of Cream's White Room, if it was, it was totally obliterated and re-worked into a post punk brawl, Irate Caterpillar was rather angular and slightly off kilter. Rhythmic Itch had Hugh repeatedly declaiming take the blame over and over with growing intensity, if only our politicians could learn that lesson.
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For the B-side of the album they all put on Leather caps in time for Wired while Hugh asked what are you on, while playing a super intense and great guitar solo. Big Bug had just the right amount of spidery guitar lines and a heavy bass thump. The instrumental Mothra was dour dark goth punk. Wrong Way Round saw Pat Hughes change from his leather cap into a bowler hat that obviously helped him sing his backing vocals that were mainly shouts of she's the one, without sounding at all like Robbie Williams.
For the last song on Nosferatu the immense Puppets two puppets appeared on the backdrop behind the band to emphasize the lyrics, this was the first song of the set where I could see large amounts of fans singing along. At the end of the song the trio left the stage and a tune came on the PA at which point half the audience dashed to the loo's, not all of whom were back in time for the start of the hatless greatest hits set, that opened with the first Stranglers song of the night Sweden (All Quiet On the Eastern Front) that was dark brooding and seemed like it had more energy.
I don't know what happened in the break but from here on Hugh was happy and chatty between songs, where he hadn't spoken to us once in the first half, Black Hair, Black Eyes, Black Suit had a great velveteen guitar solo and Windsor's drums seemed to up the intensity. Hugh introduced Dead Loss Angeles and they did everything they could to spark life into it. Beauty On The Beach thankfully wasn't shaking her peaches before they took us back to The Stranglers for a taut version of Who Wants the World.
Moments Of Madness stood out as it was the only tune in the set that had any skank to it, this was the one tune you could easily dance too. Souls was played like it was almost a love song. I Want One Of Those sounded dark and ominous like you weren't really sure if they did want One Of Those. The high spot of the second set was Duchess that sounded like Hugh really enjoys singing this Stranglers hit. When I Was A Young Man was almost dewy eyed for his late fifties childhood.
These days The Stranglers Bring On The Nubiles sounds either rather hopeful or downright sleazy and this thankfully didn't go all Epstein on us, just reminding us what the 70's were like, before they closed with The Most Beautiful Girl In Hollywood who may or may not have given a look in Hugh's direction. They left the stage to a smattering of sporadic applause that was not really enough to justify an encore.
Of course they did come back for an encore that opened with a slow deliberate version of Golden Brown that still doesn't make Hugh or his band frown. Coming Out Of The Wilderness felt like a comedown from the Golden Brown, but many of the fans seemed really happy to hear it. Before they closed the night with Tank that was in keeping with the pace they had played, at slow and deliberate. This was a good set but after The Courettes it lacked excitement.
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