{"id":6038,"date":"2025-10-18T11:36:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T11:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/buzzcocks-and-the-stranglers-live-in-leeds-punk-veterans-in-fine-fettle-151783\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T11:36:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T11:36:20","slug":"buzzcocks-and-the-stranglers-live-in-leeds-punk-veterans-in-fine-fettle-151783","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/buzzcocks-and-the-stranglers-live-in-leeds-punk-veterans-in-fine-fettle-151783\/","title":{"rendered":"Buzzcocks and The Stranglers live in Leeds: punk veterans in fine fettle"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cAre you ready to rock, Leeds?\u201d yells Steve Diggle, somewhere in Buzzzcocks’ 45-minute sonic blitzkrieg. The silver-haired guitarist turned 70 this year, but his schoolboy grins and excitable demeanour have been unchanged for decades, and he retains the curious mannerism of breaking off mid-solo to point at (a possibly imaginary) someone in the crowd. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cAre you ready to rock, Leeds?\u201d yells Steve Diggle, somewhere in Buzzzcocks\u2019 45-minute sonic blitzkrieg. The silver-haired guitarist turned 70 this year, but his schoolboy grins and excitable demeanour have been unchanged for decades, and he retains the curious mannerism of breaking off mid-solo to point at (a possibly imaginary) someone in the crowd. <\/p>\n

Following lead singer\/main songwriter Pete Shelley\u2019s death in 2018, Diggle is now the sole remaining founder member of the Manchester punks whose stellar singles and albums lit up the charts in the late \u201970s, influencing the likes of REM, The Smiths and Nirvana. Accordingly, he makes sure his guitar-playing is centre-stage: delivered at ear-tingling volume with wails of feedback. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Do I Get?\u201d and \u201cI Don\u2019t Mind\u201d survive with distinctly ragged glory, although a slower \u201cOrgasm Addict\u201d is barely recognisable without Shelley\u2019s inimitable nasal whine. Diggle\u2019s voice is closer to Francis Rossi\u2019s than his late bandmate\u2019s, but although \u201cEver Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn\u2019t Have?)\u201d still sounds wonderful, these current Buzzcocks fare best when not judged against superior earlier versions. The jangling \u201cManchester Rain\u201d is the best song Diggle\u2019s penned in decades, and a hurtling, slightly overly-extended \u201cHarmony In My Head\u201d reminds everyone it wasn\u2019t always Shelley who wrote those glorious hit singles.<\/p>\n

Similarly, only bassist Jean-Jacques Burnel, 73, remains from the days when The Stranglers set out from Guildford touring in drummer Jet Black\u2019s ice cream van, prior to their emergence during punk. However, Sunderland singer-guitarist Baz Warne has now been a Strangler for 25 years, his tenure going on double that of original singer Hugh Cornwell, who went solo in 1990. <\/p>\n

Together, Warne and Burnel have navigated the ship through all kinds of troubled waters including declining chart fortunes, line-up changes and more recently the deaths of Black and keyboard player Dave Greenfield. However, 2021\u2019s Dark Matters<\/em> was their best album in decades and returned them to the Top 5. It\u2019s impressive that they are celebrating their 51st year in bigger venues than in their chart-conquering heyday, and with young faces in the crowd.<\/p>\n

As their numerous punk-era brushes with authority signposted, The Stranglers have always ploughed their own furrow. Here, an intriguing, masterfully restrained setlist showcases how effectively the \u201cMeninblack\u201d have ceaselessly reinvented themselves yet always sounded inimitably, incorrigibly like The Stranglers. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s playful electro-pop (\u201cThrown Away\u201d, \u201cPin-Up\u201d), gorgeously gentle balladry (\u201cStrange Little Girl\u201d), and the evergreen \u201cGolden Brown\u201d, which patented the unlikely Top 3 formula of a song reputedly about heroin, performed in waltz time. <\/p>\n

\u201cWas It You?\u201d and \u201cAlways The Sun\u201d\u2019s ruminations on authoritarianism and division are arguably even more relevant now. On the evening that the Duke Of York relinquishes his titles, Warne pointedly updates \u201cPeaches\u201d to observe: \u201cI can think of worse places to be\u2026 like in Prince Andrews\u2019s head.\u201d <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the newest stuff sounds fabulous: brooding dark epics laced with reggae, chamber pop or orchestral-type sections, which show their inventiveness is ongoing. Although their catalogue is rich enough for them to ignore big hitters including \u201cWalk On By\u201d and \u201cNice \u2019N\u2019 Sleazy\u201d in favour of 1977\u2019s \u201cMean To Me\u201d \u2013 a Feelgoods-y romp performed for only the third time in their career \u2013 the last 25 minutes include a quartet of copper-bottomed classics. <\/p>\n

Throughout, former punk \u2018enfant terrible\u2019 Burnel seems unusually wistful, as if realising that now, this late in the day, each moment must be savoured. Warne is obviously joking when he quips \u201cSee you in another 51 years\u201d, but with over half a century on the clock, The Stranglers are in formidably fine fettle.<\/p>\n

THE STRANGLERS SET LIST:
Goodbye Toulouse
Straighten Out
Was It You?
Skin Deep
15 Steps
5 Minutes
Tramp
Instead Of This
Strange Little Girl
Golden Brown
Thrown Away
Pin Up
Peaches
Mercury Rising
White Stallion
Dead Ringer
Breathe
Something Better Change
Duchess
Hanging Around
ENCORE
Always The Sun
Mean To Me
No More Heroes<\/p>\n

BUZZCOCKS SET LIST
What Do I Get?
I Don\u2019t Mind
Promises
Senses Out Of Control
Sick City Sometimes
Why Can\u2019t I Touch It?
Destination Zero
Orgasm Addict
Manchester Rain
Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn\u2019t Have?)
Harmony In My Head<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The post Buzzcocks and The Stranglers live in Leeds: punk veterans in fine fettle<\/a> appeared first on UNCUT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cAre you ready to rock, Leeds?\u201d yells Steve Diggle, somewhere in Buzzzcocks’ 45-minute sonic blitzkrieg. The silver-haired guitarist turned 70 this year, but his schoolboy grins and excitable demeanour have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1550,548,88,4159],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buzzcocks","category-live","category-reviews","category-the-stranglers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6038\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}