July 18, 2024 • 9 mins
Tracey caught up with Stranglers' frontman Hugh Cornwell ahead of NZ Tour
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Gold Asides podcast The Stories behind Just Great Rock.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
My special guest this afternoon from the Stranglers, singers, songwriter
guitarist You Cormlly here in the country next week for
two shows Auckland and Wellington. Five years since you were
last here. HU didn't and the pandemic just eat up time, it.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Did, indeed, But all that lockdown served me to good
purpose because I was able to concentrate on writing and
recording a new album, which there is that one, Moments
of Madness, that will be coming over to promote.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
And I've been having to listen to it. That's some
quite humorous at time, doesn't it, Moments of Madness? Red
Rose love that you have always had that gift though,
haven't you. I mean you think of nice and sleazy peatures.
It's a very unique trait of your songwriting, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
I guess?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
So?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I mean I tried to look at life with the
tongue in cheek attitude, because she can't really take it
anything seriously these days. You know, it's getting more and
more ludicrous as time goes on, so you've got to
look on the brighter side things. And it's a presan
technique that I use to survive and I've always used that.
I'm glad it's still there on this album. I'm glad
(01:14):
you can still see it.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I feel like it's something that only British artists can
pull off successfully. I don't know if it's the vccenes
or just the delivery that you guys just seem to
nail it.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I don't know about that because I'm within the bubble
so right, I don't know how it's perceived on the outside.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Really very well down here, that's for sure. Well, we
appreciate you coming all the way down because I know
it as a long flight and aside from your love
of our cricket team. In fact, I think last time
I spoke to you you could name all of the
black Caps. What else, though, do you enjoy about touring
down Under?
Speaker 3 (01:46):
The whole experience? Actually, I can't really put my finger
on anything in particular. It's just an all round good experience.
The only drawback sometimes is a schedule. You know that
you can't spend more time like I really like Auckland
and I fact, when I came over to do an
acoustic tour about twenty years ago, I had the pleasure
to be able to spend a few days in Auckland
(02:09):
and it was fabulous. And that's the thing that you
miss sometimes on hectic schedules that you don't have the time. Yeah,
you go to place and go, oh yeah, I like
this hotel. Yeah, it's a great atmosphere in this town
and all I'd like to hang on, but you can't.
You've got to get up the next day and leave.
So it's quite frustrating, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Do you find when you come here as well, that
you've got such a built in fan base. I mean
New Zealand is full of English people.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Well, yeah, that's the case. I remember playing in christ
Church and the Cure people afterwards to have some ex
signed old stuff. It was full of English people and
they were all most of them were cabins. Ah, in
christ Church, most of the cabins are English. That's funny.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I love it. I just want to touch again. On
Moments of madness. Your voice sounds so good, which you
say even surprises you because, as you say, yourself admittedly
still smoke a few fags a day, but well, the
jeans really work for you, don't they.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Well I'm fortunate really, yeah, I mean I've only ever
canceled the two or three shows. In the whole of
my career, you know, I had to stop. I lost
my voice once about three years ago on a tour
for the first time ever, and it took about two
weeks to come back, and we had to reschedule some shows.
But on the whole it served me well, and long
may it continue.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
And you wrote, Hugh, what I considered to be one
of the greatest songs of all time, always the Sun.
You're always writing though you sit. At the end of
this tour, you'll probably even be ready to go back
and start working on the next album.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well the thing is that,
you know, it's people look at the schedule and they go, well,
there's four years in between each album's release. But as
soon as you finish recording and the album is released,
you've already got in your head things that you've learned
from that experience. So they're sitting there, brewing away, you know,
in the back of your mind. And then about eighteen
(04:01):
months before the four years circle is up, I start
getting itchy, you know, to record something again, and I've
already you know, I started sure enough, those pangs have
started again. So towards the end of this year. I'd
like to get in the studio and see what comes
out of it.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
And good for fans to know as well. Who whind
and saw you last time in twenty nineteen, I'd say
good amount of them and be coming back again. Good
for them to know that the show is going to
be quite different in that you're mixing up the sets more.
You said list of you know, a show of two halves,
more of a festival setlist as how you're kind of
describing it.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
That's absolutely right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it seems to work
quite well. You know, we do like about our thirty
percent of Strangler's content now and the reason is because
there's more focus on my solo material now, especially after
the success of this and the last album Monster, People
are more interested in that side of me that than
they have been before. So with that in mind, we've
(04:56):
rejigged the proportions.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Oh that's so good. I know last time we spoke,
you'd see that it took a while to sort of
get to that point where you wanted to play Stranglers,
because you said, why would I leave the band to
just play these songs that you wanted to do? New stuff.
But you know your fan base better than anyone and
you sort of see how people react on a nightly basis.
So it's good to know what sort of proportion isn't
it to put into each show.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yeah, and I couldn't do a whole show not playing
a Strangler song. I think it would be weird. I mean,
I would feel really uncomfortable doing that, and people will go, well,
why it's not in the band anymore. Well, I mean
the thing is, those songs are part of me, you know,
and I wrote or co wrote all of them. They're
part of my makeup. To not play any of them
would be a ridiculous gesture, you know. And I wouldn't
(05:39):
feel comfortable at all.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
And of course you got the fiftieth anniversary of the
Stranglers this see congratulations. There's not a heap of artists
that were doing this in seventy four that are still
out there smashing and it must be a really good feeling.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Well, I'm not sure if seventy four is the exact
fiftieth anniversary of the band, because I went from Sweden
back to England in nineteen seventy four and it was
a while before the Stranglers took shape. There was a
band from Sweden called Johnny Socks in early seventy four,
So yeah, late seventy four was when John Burnelk joined
(06:14):
to play bass, but Dave Greenfield didn't actually come in
until a bit later. The lineup you're U used to
started a little bit later.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I think, of course, you know you and me have
something in common, Hue, in that your first album and
my first album was Cliff Richard album.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Oh which one would did? It was yours?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Mine was called rock and Roll Juvenile, which I think
would have been about seventy eight or seventy nine. Which
one was yours?
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Line it that's a bit late for me, late late phase.
Cliff Mine was just called Cliff Sings. There were eight
songs on each side, the sixteen altogether, and the first
four on each side were rock songs, and then the
last four were ballads. So it's really weird, and I
couldn't get used to it, you know. I went out
and bought it without knowing what was on it, and
I got it home and played it, and then there
(07:01):
was this weird transition between this rock and roll side
of Cliff to this really smoochy ballad singer, and it
was very odd because I got into and appreciated what
he did when he was wearing a leather jacket and
singing Living Love and doll and all that. Then move It,
you know, which was a fabulous song, the first single,
move It. I Love It, Love It. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Oh look, I'd have to admit to being a super
fan of Cliff I think I've seen him in concert
about thirty times over the years. Big fan. Wow, Who
would you be a super fan of? Who would you
fly to the other side of the world of to
see in concert? Living Ordeed, if you could.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Wow, fly to the other side of the world, cool,
that could be Hendrix. Maybe, you know, if for suddenly
someone said you've got this one opportunity to go and
see it because he's been brought back to life, that
would be a funny experience. Actually, I remember when I
was at school, I was invited to a party on
a Saturday night in Golders Green where a lot of
(07:56):
the kids that I knew at school lived. And I
remember getting the bus up there and I got off
the bus and I was walking to this address of
this friend of mine because he was having a parents
were away, you know, and they were going to be
some girls. So I got off this bus and walked
past this pub and there was this incredible din coming
out and it set outside on a board standing outside
it said one night only Jimi Hendrix, and I didn't
(08:19):
go in. I thought, well, I've got a party to
go to, you know, because I wasn't aware of who
he was at the time. Isn't that funny? I want
to pass the gig with Jim Hendrix on it and
there's probably only about thirty or forty people in there
watching him.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Oh God, isn't that amazing? That is the kind of
story that needs to go in your memoir.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Well, I've did an autobiography about two thousand and six.
I think it was called A Multitude of Sins. It's
so long ago that I wrote it and I haven't
really referenced it for a while, so it may be
in there. Yeah. If not, I'll have to do a
second edition and that in the reprint.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Oh Hugh, we are so excited to see you. You're
touring New Zealand, playing Auckland and Wellington this July. Tickets
are on sale now. Moments of Madness is out now
as well. Thank you so much for taking the time
to talk to your fans down here in New Zealand.
And we'll see you in a months.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Absolutely, I look forward to it. Tracy, thank you very
much for the time.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Cannot wait.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Okay, we'll have a beer, definitely, Hugh all right, okay.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Okay, thank you too.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Bye.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Gold Asides Podcast The Stories behind Just Great Rock. If
you enjoyed this podcast, click to share with family or friends.
For Just Great Rock, listen to gold FM anytime anywhere
on iHeartRadio.
Gold Asides podcast The Stories behind Just Great Rock.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
My special guest this afternoon from the Stranglers, singers, songwriter
guitarist You Cormlly here in the country next week for
two shows Auckland and Wellington. Five years since you were
last here. HU didn't and the pandemic just eat up time, it.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Did, indeed, But all that lockdown served me to good
purpose because I was able to concentrate on writing and
recording a new album, which there is that one, Moments
of Madness, that will be coming over to promote.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
And I've been having to listen to it. That's some
quite humorous at time, doesn't it, Moments of Madness? Red
Rose love that you have always had that gift though,
haven't you. I mean you think of nice and sleazy peatures.
It's a very unique trait of your songwriting, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
I guess?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
So?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I mean I tried to look at life with the
tongue in cheek attitude, because she can't really take it
anything seriously these days. You know, it's getting more and
more ludicrous as time goes on, so you've got to
look on the brighter side things. And it's a presan
technique that I use to survive and I've always used that.
I'm glad it's still there on this album. I'm glad
(01:14):
you can still see it.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I feel like it's something that only British artists can
pull off successfully. I don't know if it's the vccenes
or just the delivery that you guys just seem to
nail it.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I don't know about that because I'm within the bubble
so right, I don't know how it's perceived on the outside.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Really very well down here, that's for sure. Well, we
appreciate you coming all the way down because I know
it as a long flight and aside from your love
of our cricket team. In fact, I think last time
I spoke to you you could name all of the
black Caps. What else, though, do you enjoy about touring
down Under?
Speaker 3 (01:46):
The whole experience? Actually, I can't really put my finger
on anything in particular. It's just an all round good experience.
The only drawback sometimes is a schedule. You know that
you can't spend more time like I really like Auckland
and I fact, when I came over to do an
acoustic tour about twenty years ago, I had the pleasure
to be able to spend a few days in Auckland
(02:09):
and it was fabulous. And that's the thing that you
miss sometimes on hectic schedules that you don't have the time. Yeah,
you go to place and go, oh yeah, I like
this hotel. Yeah, it's a great atmosphere in this town
and all I'd like to hang on, but you can't.
You've got to get up the next day and leave.
So it's quite frustrating, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Do you find when you come here as well, that
you've got such a built in fan base. I mean
New Zealand is full of English people.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Well, yeah, that's the case. I remember playing in christ
Church and the Cure people afterwards to have some ex
signed old stuff. It was full of English people and
they were all most of them were cabins. Ah, in
christ Church, most of the cabins are English. That's funny.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I love it. I just want to touch again. On
Moments of madness. Your voice sounds so good, which you
say even surprises you because, as you say, yourself admittedly
still smoke a few fags a day, but well, the
jeans really work for you, don't they.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Well I'm fortunate really, yeah, I mean I've only ever
canceled the two or three shows. In the whole of
my career, you know, I had to stop. I lost
my voice once about three years ago on a tour
for the first time ever, and it took about two
weeks to come back, and we had to reschedule some shows.
But on the whole it served me well, and long
may it continue.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
And you wrote, Hugh, what I considered to be one
of the greatest songs of all time, always the Sun.
You're always writing though you sit. At the end of
this tour, you'll probably even be ready to go back
and start working on the next album.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well the thing is that,
you know, it's people look at the schedule and they go, well,
there's four years in between each album's release. But as
soon as you finish recording and the album is released,
you've already got in your head things that you've learned
from that experience. So they're sitting there, brewing away, you know,
in the back of your mind. And then about eighteen
(04:01):
months before the four years circle is up, I start
getting itchy, you know, to record something again, and I've
already you know, I started sure enough, those pangs have
started again. So towards the end of this year. I'd
like to get in the studio and see what comes
out of it.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
And good for fans to know as well. Who whind
and saw you last time in twenty nineteen, I'd say
good amount of them and be coming back again. Good
for them to know that the show is going to
be quite different in that you're mixing up the sets more.
You said list of you know, a show of two halves,
more of a festival setlist as how you're kind of
describing it.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
That's absolutely right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it seems to work
quite well. You know, we do like about our thirty
percent of Strangler's content now and the reason is because
there's more focus on my solo material now, especially after
the success of this and the last album Monster, People
are more interested in that side of me that than
they have been before. So with that in mind, we've
(04:56):
rejigged the proportions.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Oh that's so good. I know last time we spoke,
you'd see that it took a while to sort of
get to that point where you wanted to play Stranglers,
because you said, why would I leave the band to
just play these songs that you wanted to do? New stuff.
But you know your fan base better than anyone and
you sort of see how people react on a nightly basis.
So it's good to know what sort of proportion isn't
it to put into each show.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yeah, and I couldn't do a whole show not playing
a Strangler song. I think it would be weird. I mean,
I would feel really uncomfortable doing that, and people will go, well,
why it's not in the band anymore. Well, I mean
the thing is, those songs are part of me, you know,
and I wrote or co wrote all of them. They're
part of my makeup. To not play any of them
would be a ridiculous gesture, you know. And I wouldn't
(05:39):
feel comfortable at all.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
And of course you got the fiftieth anniversary of the
Stranglers this see congratulations. There's not a heap of artists
that were doing this in seventy four that are still
out there smashing and it must be a really good feeling.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Well, I'm not sure if seventy four is the exact
fiftieth anniversary of the band, because I went from Sweden
back to England in nineteen seventy four and it was
a while before the Stranglers took shape. There was a
band from Sweden called Johnny Socks in early seventy four,
So yeah, late seventy four was when John Burnelk joined
(06:14):
to play bass, but Dave Greenfield didn't actually come in
until a bit later. The lineup you're U used to
started a little bit later.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I think, of course, you know you and me have
something in common, Hue, in that your first album and
my first album was Cliff Richard album.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Oh which one would did? It was yours?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Mine was called rock and Roll Juvenile, which I think
would have been about seventy eight or seventy nine. Which
one was yours?
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Line it that's a bit late for me, late late phase.
Cliff Mine was just called Cliff Sings. There were eight
songs on each side, the sixteen altogether, and the first
four on each side were rock songs, and then the
last four were ballads. So it's really weird, and I
couldn't get used to it, you know. I went out
and bought it without knowing what was on it, and
I got it home and played it, and then there
(07:01):
was this weird transition between this rock and roll side
of Cliff to this really smoochy ballad singer, and it
was very odd because I got into and appreciated what
he did when he was wearing a leather jacket and
singing Living Love and doll and all that. Then move It,
you know, which was a fabulous song, the first single,
move It. I Love It, Love It. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Oh look, I'd have to admit to being a super
fan of Cliff I think I've seen him in concert
about thirty times over the years. Big fan. Wow, Who
would you be a super fan of? Who would you
fly to the other side of the world of to
see in concert? Living Ordeed, if you could.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Wow, fly to the other side of the world, cool,
that could be Hendrix. Maybe, you know, if for suddenly
someone said you've got this one opportunity to go and
see it because he's been brought back to life, that
would be a funny experience. Actually, I remember when I
was at school, I was invited to a party on
a Saturday night in Golders Green where a lot of
(07:56):
the kids that I knew at school lived. And I
remember getting the bus up there and I got off
the bus and I was walking to this address of
this friend of mine because he was having a parents
were away, you know, and they were going to be
some girls. So I got off this bus and walked
past this pub and there was this incredible din coming
out and it set outside on a board standing outside
it said one night only Jimi Hendrix, and I didn't
(08:19):
go in. I thought, well, I've got a party to
go to, you know, because I wasn't aware of who
he was at the time. Isn't that funny? I want
to pass the gig with Jim Hendrix on it and
there's probably only about thirty or forty people in there
watching him.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Oh God, isn't that amazing? That is the kind of
story that needs to go in your memoir.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Well, I've did an autobiography about two thousand and six.
I think it was called A Multitude of Sins. It's
so long ago that I wrote it and I haven't
really referenced it for a while, so it may be
in there. Yeah. If not, I'll have to do a
second edition and that in the reprint.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Oh Hugh, we are so excited to see you. You're
touring New Zealand, playing Auckland and Wellington this July. Tickets
are on sale now. Moments of Madness is out now
as well. Thank you so much for taking the time
to talk to your fans down here in New Zealand.
And we'll see you in a months.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Absolutely, I look forward to it. Tracy, thank you very
much for the time.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Cannot wait.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Okay, we'll have a beer, definitely, Hugh all right, okay.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Okay, thank you too.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Bye.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Gold Asides Podcast The Stories behind Just Great Rock. If
you enjoyed this podcast, click to share with family or friends.
For Just Great Rock, listen to gold FM anytime anywhere
on iHeartRadio.
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