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HUGH CORNWELL
(ex The Stranglers)
+ 1978
@ Mary’s Underground,
Circular Quay, Sydney,
31st July 2024
(Live Review)

Review and photos by Alec Smart (@alecsmart_fotos)

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Hugh Cornwell, MaryÕs Underground, Circular Quay, Sydney. Photo: Alec Smart

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Hugh Cornwell, former singer-songwriter with pioneering punk legends The Stranglers, performed at Mary’s Underground in Circular Quay, Sydney. He was accompanied by a 2-part rhythm section featuring Pat Hughes (bass) and Windsor McGilvray (drums).

The event was opened by Sydney punk covers band 1978, a veteran four-piece that perform classic songs from that heyday of punk rock – 1978 – ranging from Ramones to Sex Pistols to The Damned. They’re an enjoyable party-starter and got the (predominantly senior) crowd warmed up for the headliner.

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1978, MaryÕs Underground, Circular Quay, Sydney. Photo: Alec Smart

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The concert in the city-centre bar, the first of two Hugh Cornwell shows in Sydney, launched his Australian national tour performing in eight venues across five states.

The 74-year-old music veteran played a low-key set in the dimly-lit subterranean venue, packed with older fans long-familiar with the black-clad troubadour and his signature black Fender Telecaster guitar.

As a performer, he’s quiet and introverted, generally focusing on his guitar (he’s a talented player but keeps it simple) and cracking the occasional droll quip between songs.

No keyboards feature in Cornwell’s live band, because, as he said in a Nov 2022 interview with Norfolk Rocks magazine, “I don’t carry keyboards. I haven’t carried keyboards on the road for a long time. I’m glad I don’t, because it is a point of distinction between me and The Stranglers, as they’re still playing and they still have keyboards.”

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Hugh Cornwell, MaryÕs Underground, Circular Quay, Sydney. Photo: Alec Smart

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Cornwall is renowned for memorable songs Golden Brown, Always The Sun, Strange Little Girl (popularised by Tori Amos on her 2001 concept album Strange Little Girls), No More Heroes and the cheeky Peaches, from his 16-year tenure with The Stranglers, which all received international acclaim.

Since his departure from the still-active band, which formed in 1974 as the Guildford Stranglers due to their residing in close proximity to the Surrey town in southern England, Cornwell has released 10 solo albums. Cornwall also recorded ten studio albums with The Stranglers, and left after the aptly-named ‘10’.

Unlike his May 2019 Australian tour, when he divided his concert into two sets – the first featuring solo material written since his 1990 departure from The Stranglers, the second entirely Stranglers’ songs – at Mary’s Underground he performed a mixture from his long (over five-decades!) career.

This included: Another Kind of Love (from his 1999 debut solo album Wolf); Delightful Nightmare and Wrong Side of the Tracks (from 2008 release Hooverdam); Bad Vibrations and Totem And Taboo (from 2012 album Totem and Taboo); Pure Evel and Mr Leather (from 2018’s Monster); and four tracks from his most recent album (Moments Of Madness, released Oct 2022), Coming Out of the Wilderness, Too Much Trash, When I Was a Young Man and the title track Moments of Madness.

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Hugh Cornwell, MaryÕs Underground, Circular Quay, Sydney. Photo: Alec Smart

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The three-song encore included Big Bug from his 1979 album Nosferatu (an historic collaboration with Captain Beefheart drummer Robert Williams, released when The Stranglers had transitioned from underground cult favourites to international post-punk icons).

He also previewed a new song, Live It And Breathe It (released 9 August 2024).

Cornwell described the eight Stranglers’ songs interspersed throughout the set and encore as “nuggets from the corner gem store.”  These were: Skin Deep, Strange Little Girl, Who Wants the World?, Tramp, Always The Sun – which elicited an enthusiastic audience singalong on the ascending chorus – Out of My Mind, Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, and the night’s grand finale, Hanging Around.

Afterwards, Hugh met with fans and signed memorabilia and albums at the merchandise stall.

A new 20-track live compilation album, All The Fun Of The Fair, will be released on 4 October 2024, and can be ordered online here.

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Hugh Cornwell, MaryÕs Underground, Circular Quay, Sydney. Photo: Alec Smart

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Set List

Coming Out of the Wilderness
Too Much Trash
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 *
Another Kind of Love
Out of My Mind *
Live it and Breathe it

Encore:

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy *
Big Bug (Hugh Cornwell & Robert Williams cover)
Hanging Around *

* The Stranglers songs

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Hugh Cornwell, MaryÕs Underground, Circular Quay, Sydney. Photo: Alec Smart

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Check out Alec Smart’s (@alecsmart_fotos) full gallery of this event HERE

Check out Dave Bruce’s interview with Hugh in February 2024 HERE

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Hugh Cornwell, MaryÕs Underground, Circular Quay, Sydney. Photo: Alec Smart

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Follow HUGH CORNWELL
Website – Facebook – Twitter – YouTube

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Hugh Cornwell, MaryÕs Underground, Circular Quay, Sydney. Photo: Alec Smart

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Press Release 12th February 2024 (below) HERE

A METROPOLIS TOURING Presentation

HUGH CORNWELL
The Original Singer, Songwriter
and Guitarist with
THE STRANGLERS

HUGH CORNWELL
Australian Tour

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AMNPLIFY – DB