HUGH CORNWELL @ ELECTRIC BALLROOM, LONDON

Back playing live again after a rather long time, Hugh Cornwell supported The Undertones with a short early set supported by his band, playing from his recent solo albums as well as a large amount of material from The Stranglers catalogue ahead of an upcoming new album release.

He started on his 1979 collaboration album ‘Nosferatu’ with what he termed a creepy song, ‘Big Bug’, and then performed a Stranglers’ favourite, ‘Duchess’. Playing from his last album ‘Monster’, Cornwell dedicated ‘Mr Leather’ to an aborted meeting with the late singer Lou Reed after they both contracted flu after a blizzard in New York and thereafter never managed to reschedule.

Ahead of some more Stranglers material Cornwell played another track from his album of the same name with the single ‘Monster’, returning to past band material with ‘Strange Little Girl’ and ‘Always The Sun’ – both showcased his unique softer melodic voice tones that still outdo the current band’s own performances of these to this day.

Cornwell closed his set on his Beach Boys inversion ‘Bad Vibrations’ from his album ‘Totem and Taboo’ and further Stranglers material with ‘London Lady’ and ‘Five Minutes’.

12/03/22: Hugh Cornwell @ Electric Ballroom, London.