The Stranglers - Peel Session 1977 

I know this won't sit well with others..... But these guys were the finest prog punk band ever......

When i met my wife, we both had the same albums Stranglers, the Cure etc...23 years of happy marriage later, and she dies in my arms. I am still broken, but the music of the times keeps me alive.....for some reason....i miss my wife so much.......thanks for the music.......

RIP Dave Greenfield :-(

The Stranglers were without a doubt one of the best British bands of all time. They were better live than on record and that is so great to be able to say. A sweaty, aggressive wonderful experience never to be forgotten

Dave Greenfields sound was totally unique.......Amazing band........first saw them in 1977.....I was 15

RIP Dave... much love to the family and the rest of the band x

Dave Greenfield was and is such an underrated keyboard player. No one else from the punk / new wave era sounded like him. Supersonic riffs & runs all the way.

'Hanging Around', absolutely marvellous. I never tire of hearing it, in all its' forms.

The two best bands I ever saw live were the jam they were unbelievable and the stranglers brilliant

Hugh Strangler - the only voice that works with this group for me.

Dave Greenfield RIP

Insane musical virtuosity meets the punk ethic. Phenomenal. Handy to have the best bass player of all time helping out

Remember listening to this at the time. Who’d have thought all these years later hearing it again and realising just how great it was. 👍

Rest in peace dave greenhill one the finest keyboardist in the late 70s. And onwards.

John Peel had so many cool bands on his show

What a great fucking band!! Dave on keyboards classic. And then they went on to write golden brown, one of my favourite tracks. R.i.p.Dave.

Best band in the world

Stranglers forever.

Rattus Norvegicus on cassette, played non stop all the way to, and back from my brothers house in London many times. Unique, original sound.

just the best band ever.......bass, keyboards and great song construction...constantly producing different styles ....and not bothered....did what they liked!!!!!! always the best way..

The STRANGLERS are Hugh Cornwell - Jean Jacques Burnel - Dave Greenfield - Jet Black

What a great session. So good. What a top notch band.

Certainly among the most talented bands of their historic period.. and that period was so full of talented bands! Genuine punk attitude and the ability to compose great melodies..

My first concert was The Stranglers at the Keystone Palo Alto in 1980. Dave's synth on Rok it to the Moon is still ringing in my ears. "Dave, you put Rick Wakeman to shame" - RIP!

Absolutely loved the original line up of Black Burnell Cornwell and of course Dave Greenfield ,such a fantastic band seen them many times and loved them every time ,Dave is among the musical giants above us now ,Thank you for some of the best days I can remember from my teenage years :(

IT'S SO GOOD TO HEAR THIS AGAIN...!!! I had this LP ( peel session's ) BUT..!!! It got wreaked at a PARTY someone threw up all over my LP collection's....AH...THAT WAS ME....🍺🥴🤮🤮 Anyways big thanks for putting this up in a upload yeah I got into PUNK ROCK in 1978 -- 79 and I'm still a PUNK ROCKER today.... well as they say in it for life...!!! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇨🇮🇷🇺🏴🏴🏴🅰️☮️☯️🏴🏴@🏴🏴🏴🍺😊✌️

Heard this live on the radio back then age 16 and went bonkers. Knew the future looked bright that night!

The Stranglers were one of my favourite punk bands! The first single I bought was ;Something better Change! Love em! dx

All of you Old School Punks & Mods from the U.K.are absolutely right about The Stranglers.They were a brilliant band & very underated back in the day.I have seen & experienced The Stranglers Live in Concert more times than I can count? In Hollywood & Los Angeles.The first time I saw them Live,I was fortunate enough to see them with Magazine as the opening band!

My first big gig, aged 14. Stranglers at Portsmouth Locarno / Mecca..Skids backing! What more could a young lad dream of. Fantastic times !!

Лучшая группа всех времен и народов!!!!!!!

I can still tell you the first time I heard the Stranglers. Our local (Toronto market) FM station was still doing what an FM station was SUPPOSED to do; playing good & interesting music. (my, how the world has changed!) My brother & I were still living at home....suddenly, one evening, the ground floor of the house was ankle deep in water...hey hey! Spring run-off time in Ontario, folks!! We're furiously mopping up water and the Stranglers are on the radio! Never heard a bass like that and immediately loved their sound. Next thing you know, Bro & I put Dead Ringer in the set of our goofy little bar band while all the other bar bands were trying to figure out Max Webster tunes! Good times.

saw these guys perform in 77, absolute perfection.

the main elements .......daves keys and jjb's bass......it was like...that was meant to happen.....r.i.p. dave...many thanks for the memories...deepest respect to your family.

More than mere Punk...

The Peel sessions are amazing for so many groups......The Jam , Adam Ant ect......

Respect Dave greenfield rip

Fantastic band.

Iconic tunes.

Life changing music , top musicians and still brilliant live.

What a wonderful expression of power and humour and intelligence .

My first punk show, Chicago 1977 or so! Blew me away completely! Tuff Darts (never heard of them before or after, also on the bill. They were also fantastic!).

Sits alright with me also Mat . It's hard to have a favourite band when u get to my age , BUT.... The Stranglers are my favourite band of all time . I still love every album , never skip a track when listening to them , as I do very often . By 1978ish , I was already obsessed by American thrash bands like Dead Kennedys , then I heard Something Better Change and Peaches , and that was it , fan for life . The concepts behind the albums did then , and still do , impress the shit out of me , The Raven , Meninblack etc. , opened my mind , educated me even toward intrigue and mystery of subjects I still am fascinated by 45yrs later . I love Luscious Jackson , Groove Armada , Yello , Underworld , Morcheeba , The Cramps , The Clash , Killing Joke , The Ruts etc. etc. , but nothing has ever taken The Stranglers off pole position for more than a month or two . And HEY , Dave Greenfield , you will NEVER be forgotten , not as long as anyone who's ever known me is still alive ha ha... Matt , TT even .

I like these slower versions, nice to hear the songs done like this, the performances every bit as good as the vinyl ones we all know and love.

This is 1977, just look at what had come from the earlier recordings, I bet this was in one take...Some of the greatest engineers were and still are at the BBC

Thank you for uploading.

The 1st band that musically fell in love with. There was something special about this band, they were so different to anything else that was going about at the time. I liked a lot of the stuff from 77 but to me it was the Stranglers who stood head and shoulders above everybody else. Great recording and thanks for posting. Vibracobra23. Great Memories.

Stranglers were my 1st band to see after my o level maths 1977 . Life changing and possibly life ruining for young impressionable types . Completely original , forget Doors comparison . I still listen to early Stranglers . Not bugged about stuff post Black and White . Similar with Clash . Became a bit meh and American .

Fantastic sound quality and great playing. Managed to see Hugh live several times and the post-Hugh Stranglers a few years ago.

anyone see the similarity with The Doors, I love both.

Huh? How did this one slip by me? It was posted 11 months ago on the excellent Vibracobra23 channel but somehow I missed it. This band, frequently surrounded by controversy in their early years, formed way back in 1974 in Chiddington, Surrey, England. The three original members were Hugh Cornwell, an ex-science teacher, Jean-Jacques Burnel, a history graduate and Jet Black, a jazz drummer. They were subsequently joined by Dave Greenfield on organ in 1975. They started playing a kind of retro rock but in 1976 after supporting gigs with the Flamin' Groovies and the Ramones, they hit on their trademark style, a blend of punk, rock and for want of a better word, new wave. But they were most feverishly embraced by punks and that is probably how most people would describe their music. It's the churning organ that gives one pause. I mean, how many punks bands had an organ? Hanging Around and Goodbye Toulouse turned up on their debut album Stranglers IV -- Rattus Norvegicus (April 1977) I Feel Like a Wog and Something Better Change both were included on their second album No More Heroes ( October 1977) Something Better Change was also issued as a single in July 1977. So the Stranglers were one of the few British punk bands to have two albums out in that seminal year of '77. This Peel session is strange. The songs are taken at a more relaxed tempo than the album versions, especially I Feel Like a Wog which has quite a different feeling here. And I don't know why. From what I've heard, most bands really revved it up in these Peel sessions, especially since punk was the rage at this time. It seems every band wanted to out-punk the next one and I find it very peculiar that one of the most aggressive groups (in their lyrics, at least) here is so laid back. Maybe someone can supply an answer. Be that as it may, these are well played very early recordings of a very important band.

" Peel " Back The layers Of " Musical Brilliance " And Enjoy " This Classic Session " Courtesy Of The Stranglers!!! From Adrian Browne 1965

excellent!!!

Brilliant

Bizarrely, Cornwall's father was a canoe coach at my school, back in the '70's!

Love Nice n sleazy great bass In the tune, Black and white album My favorite.

Great band

Thats too fucking good

Fantastic!

The slower pace feels comfortable, like this was recorded early in the AM and the boys were shagged and ragged from the previous night's performance, but still on top of their game. Brilliant performances all around, just a bit more ...relaxed.

What an amazing session. Tight as a chuff

Worth 2 a levels to have followed this lot . Paid the fucking price ever since . God bless these bands . Atv , Stranglers , Ramones , Wire , Television , Moped , Gong . Crass . Here n now .

The bass from Jean Jacques Burnel ist incredibly

Seen them in Dublin a few years ago and the bass player is a s good today as back in 1977

Stranglers are good Songwriters. And very good Musicians too. I Feel like a Wog in a slow Version. And with whispering Backingvocals from JJ.

Great sound quality and I love the slower, thumping throb of, I Feel Like A Wog

RIP Dave. Such sad news.

I taped this on my new Toshiba music centre with Dolby tape deck when it was on the peel show, back then no internet or phone but i always heard what was going to be on peel and when, like the pistols album, must have been melody maker the only paper i ever bought, JP would say ill give it a 3-second silence for you home tapers.

i have yet to hear a bad peel session. this one rocks.

Completely original , I scratched around in the shadows throughout my time at College with an orange rat on my ripped t shirt my best years , ohhh the memories squeek .

The stranglers,the perfect 8 track in my first ever escort van.

Amazing music skills up here ! Too bad Hugh and JJ had to split some way. The music is in the books and we'll never stop playing it so loud that our neighbours finally know who the Stranglers are!!

The band with the best base line by far.

No more hero s anymore RIP Dave G,,,,

Top 4: Stranglers Magazine Japan and The The.

Awesome, classic, love em

Thanks Vibracobra for putting this up, such a brilliant recording and performance, such balance and I love hearing Dave Greenfields swirling keyboard loops slightly different to the albums but the whole band is so tight in this Peel session. RIP Dave Viva Stranglers the real musicians of that era.

Loved their Early stuff!

Cool ... surprising how slow & subdued they are . Kings none the less !

Hello Vibracobra, I have been going through all the Peel sessions that you have uploaded they are superb, very well done it brought back my teenage years thank you.

Been nice to have this on my Old Testament box set 1997

I remember recording this very session off the radio and going out to buy Rattus Norvegicus.Still have both somewhere in my collection

thanks VC. Great uploads and this is one of your best. Cheers mate!

Another great post

Lo maximo!!! Saludos desde Perú

This sounds fantastic, i have yet to hear a peel session that is of poor sound and production quality. Considering the diversity of the acts that recorded peel sessions the engineers always done a sterling job.

Saw them 21.09.78 at Tiffanys Great Yarmouth last saw them in Norwich where I met JJ and Baz - still love 'em.

excellent :) thank you

i won a stranglers album when i was a kid at a army cadets Disco . just 13, molded me ok... well........

i have no more heroes and rattus norvigacus on vinyl..stranglers are one my a;lltime fav bands and the damned..original as,,awesome bass by j.j burnell

This was released by the band along with other BBC sessions they cut on a 11 song cd called 'The Sessions'. 8 songs from '77 and 3 from '82.

That bass ❤JJB

thx Mr Goodall!

Everyone always bangs on about JJ and Dave. Hughs a great super consistent guitar player and the best singer of the band. Great drums too from Jet. Sum of all parts

Really interesting to hear this, these are all slower than the ones off the albums.

Nice chord progressionon Goodbye Toulouse.

Carlisle Market Hall . 78 or so . Academic attainment nullified by Stranglers , Clash , Wire. Crass ,Pop Group ........

Hanging around reminds me of the stooges meets transmission meets the doors.

Some people need to be held down and forced to listen to this band. I know I did. they are so unique, that to many people their work is initially unrecognizable as music. The absolute genius of Rattus Norvegicus is not forgiving to the bland palate or the faint of heart. Exquisite.

Dave could do it, thru, thru, thru, and all the guys, i mean what a band, Thank's John, they are not gone, not when they are here....