Stranglers Legend Hugh Cornwell Delivers a Spellbinding Performance at Concorde 2, Brighton! Photos and Review by Louise Phillips

Stranglers Legend Hugh Cornwell Delivers a Spellbinding Performance at Concorde 2, Brighton!

Stranglers legend Hugh Cornwell took to the stage at a packed Concorde 2 in Brighton with a beautiful rendition of ‘I Wannahideinsideaya’ from his latest and tenth solo album since leaving ‘The Stranglers’, the 2022 ‘Moments of Madness’. This track with its 60’s hedonistic vibe and funky drum sound is all about escapism from the crazy world that we’re living in right now and the justification of sexual attraction. It was beautifully crafted with intricate lyrics and haunting guitars and was one hell of an opener to phenomenally good set!

Concorde 2, despite being  one of the larger venues in Brighton, had an intimate feel to it, there was no light show or theatrics, in fact at the start of Cornwell’s set there was barely no light at all because tonight it was all about the music! From the onset, the audience were captivated as the charismatic Cornwell delivered a stunning 24 song set, a magnificent combination of his solo material as well as many of his most loved Stranglers tracks. Cornwell’s earlier solo gigs have been far more focused on performing the Stranglers songs for which he is so well known, but due to the success of ‘Moments of Madness’, tonight’s’ set was much more focused on his critically acclaimed solo material.

Support was from David Gedge, the singer songwriter from indie rock band ‘The Wedding Present’, who gallantly stepped in at the last minute after ‘The Primitives’, who were billed to perform, had to pull out after singer Tracy Tracy lost her voice. The down to earth Gedge played a great set despite his last minute appearance.

Whilst it’s over thirty years since Cornwell left ‘The Stranglers’, he delivered tracks like ‘Here Comes the Sun’ and ‘Nice and Sleazy’ with all the passion and vibrancy you’d expect of something he’d just written, his voice absolutely timeless! ‘Here Comes the Sun’, laterally made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, Cornwell’s voice was mesmerizing, ageless and haunting!

Cornwell’s tracks are all about the vocals, he is first and foremost a poet laureate, a wordsmith and a story teller who only started playing guitar to accompany his words. This was demonstrated beautifully when he took the audience on a musical journey into his past as he played the introspective track, ‘When I Was a Young Man’ all about his younger years and the tempestuous relationship that he had with his parents. His superb vocals had a much rawer sound on this track, allowing the audience to really feel the emotion of his lyrics.

‘Moments of Madness’, the title track on Cornwell’s latest album, after which this tour is named was reggae through and through and had a far rocker sound than some of Cornwell’s earlier material and it went down an absolute storm! This track was full of swagger and just goes to show that Cornwell’s work is anything but prescriptive! Despite his decades of songwriting, he’s not slipped into the habit that so many others adopt of sticking to the tried and tested musical framework that their fans expect, on the contrary Cornwell seems very comfortable pushing musical boundaries and shaking it up!

Tonight’s performance can only be described as an absolute masterpiece, a heady combination of Stranglers classics, 60’s swagger, edgy vocals, thought provoking and clever lyrics and undeniably great songs! Cornwell is hotter and hipper than ever!

Hughcornwell.com

Words and photos by Louise Phillips

Photos of Hugh Cornwell

Photos of David Gedge

Setlist:

I Wannahideinsideaya
Skin Deep
Wrong Side of the Tracks
Delightful Nightmare
Strange Little Girl
Totem and Taboo
Bad Vibrations
Who Wants the World?
Moments of Madness
When I Was a Young Man
Tramp
Pure Evel
Mr. Leather
Always the Sun
Duce Coochie Man
Goodbye Toulouse
Another Kind of Love
Out of My Mind
Live it and Breathe it
First Bus to Babylon
Nice ‘n’ Sleazy
Big Bug (Hugh Cornwell and Robert Williams cover)
(Get a) Grip (on Yourself)