The first of two Scottish dates on their '51 Tour', The Stranglers, with The Buzzcocks as support, celebrated over half a decade of punk potency.
With both bands forming during the seminal 70s movement in Surrey and Bolton, respectively, The Stranglers and The Buzzcocks have managed to transcend the short-lived era, with last night being evidence of such.
After Pete Shelley’s passing in 2018, The Buzzcocks assumed original guitarist Steve Diggle as the band’s frontman. A Shelley-shaped shadow could have loomed above Diggle, yet last night proved that, in spite of a lineup reshuffle, the band’s fervence remains. An ample opener came in the form of the blistering ‘What Do I Get?’, with the band declaring their tight musicality from the outset. A bumper setlist followed, with tracks ‘I Don’t Mind’ and ‘Promises’ evidencing the band’s unique and uncanny ability to marry the love song to punk rock’s riot. The set’s midpoint was found in the reverberating ‘Why Can’t I Touch It?’. Featuring chugging bass lines and a formidable percussive spine, the track gained added grittiness when played live, in turn further demonstrating the band’s continuing synergy.
Naturally, The Buzzcocks could not have closed their set without playing two of the most celebrated tracks in their discography: ‘Ever Fallen in Love’ and ‘Harmony in My Head’. The former, perhaps one of the greatest musical exports to emerge from the punk era, elicited euphoric choral contributions from the audience and was undoubtedly a high point of the band’s set. On balance, ‘Harmony In My Head’, with its longer, live guitar solos, was a fitting stage send-off for one of punk’s most iconic bands.
With the gig’s punters being whipped into a suitable punk style frenzy by The Buzzcocks, the shadow-shrouded stage was set for The Stranglers. Arriving on stage in a black shirted uniform, the band kicked off with the biting ‘Toulouse’, only to be followed by ‘Straighten Out’, which sent Hammond Organ notes ricocheting off the ceiling of Edinburgh’s Corn Exchange.
An early highlight of the set came in the form of ‘Skin Deep’. Featuring a vibrant piano and shimmering instrumentation, the melody was readily lapped up by the evening’s attendees, yet this was only to be outdone by a double billing of ‘Strange Little Girl’ and the hauntingly fabulous ‘Golden Brown’. The haunting piano notes of ‘Strange Little Girl’ intertwined with Warne’s warm vocals, whilst the eerily delicate waltz of ‘Golden Brown’ appeared to be savoured by all those who were listening.
A similar phenomenon occurred with the explosion of the lasciviously sneering ‘Peaches’. Despite Warne heralding from Sunderland, a long way off from original Strangers’ frontman Hugh Cornwell’s home city of London, Warne nevertheless mastered the lewd tone that gave the studio version its raw edge. This, when combined with Jean-Jacque Burnel’s pulsating bass lines, could also be christened as a set highlight.
As the set began to reach its tail end, the audience revelled in the repeating narrative of ‘Duchess’, before a hoard of anticipatory cheers ushered in the driving bassline and bouncing organ of ‘Hanging Around’. Initially released in 1977 on the band’s debut album ‘Rattus Norvegicus’, ‘Hanging Around’ has clearly maintained its initial allure.
The Stranglers’ parting gift came in the form of a three-song encore: ‘Always The Sun’, ‘Mean To Me’ and ‘No More Heroes’. ‘Always The Sun’, perhaps one of the most sincere stalwarts in the band’s otherwise snarky discography, proved to be a soft, sweet send-off. In comparison, the acclaimed ‘No More Heroes’ positively brimmed with dark exuberance and punk charisma as Warne repeated “No more heroes anymore...”
However, last night in Edinburgh proved that maybe heroes do still walk amongst us, in the form of both The Buzzcocks and The Stranglers. The Buzzcocks, in spite of their supporting slot, duly proved themselves as ever enduring and captivating rockers, whilst The Stranglers crafted a set that was not only representative of their extensive discography, but was cleverly punctuated by their most cherished hits. The night was explicit evidence that curtains do not appear to have drawn on the punk era, even five decades on.