Gig Review – The Stranglers – The Venue Middlesbrough – 14th July 2015.

Gig Review – The Stranglers – The Venue Middlesbrough – 14th July 2015.

Northern Road Trip Journal – Day 2

Vive La Boro

Retreating from York in the early hours, we wound our way across the North York Moors to our secret Castle hideaway for a few hours shut eye. Awoken at the crack of dawn by a charitable Poet fellow who had mistakenly roused us to ensure we were up in time for a day’s work on the railroad! His heart was in the right place…

After taking in the sights of sunny Helmsley we partook of afternoon tea, then a quick siesta, before adjusting the sugar tongs to Paris 1789. France-ward we headed off but a malfunction caused us to divert to Middlesbrough in the present day etc Etc EiTC.

Our journey took us northeast across the stunning, jaw-dropping beauty of The Moors. The beauty of the countryside soon gave way to the stark industrial landscape of Middlesbrough and its surrounding areas, in its own way no less stunning!

Arriving at our destination we darted into the nearest Inn, where we met up with Mr and Mrs black on track and a few other faces from last night among the many others out for tonight’s gig.

A short while later we made our way to The Venue – the venue for the show tonight. In stark contrast to the Sauna of York, we found ourselves in the Fridge of Boro… The genteel southerners that Baz had teased at Hampton Pool could learn a thing or two about style and sophistication (and surreality) from The Venue, as not only did they provide all mod cons such as air-conditioning, they also had two gents toilets – one with troughs, the other with booths and both with a personal valet offering a range of lotions, potions and pleasantries to enhance your visit.

Unfortunately we arrived just in time to miss all but the closing bars of support act Zeitgeist 77 who sounded very good indeed and had the crowd right behind them.

We journeyed toward the barrier where we met up with Megabus Elaine and Purple Eileen.
Cheers as the lights dimmed, much bigger cheers as Waltzinblack struck up (for a teasingly long one tonight) and eventually The Men in Black!

Toiler and they were off. And tonight we were treated to a set similar to that of previous days.

Although The Venue itself is a large space, the stage is quite close to the barrier, so once again we had the feeling of it being up close and personal, albeit somewhat colder thanks to aforementioned air-con. And the sound tonight really was spot on, it was all there from the Bastille bass and the Brum drums to the Brighton keys and the Teesside Tele, absolutely flawless!

Mid set tonight after Golden Brown saw another extended remix, this time it was Dave’s pitch bend intro to Always The Sun going in slow-motion as he covered up for Baz’s guitar tuning, much to the amusement of the band. Although it was back to serious business with the normal radio edit of 5 Minutes tonight!

Baz had a good banter with the locals, being his near neighbours, all good natured and fun which would sum up tonight’s crowd quite nicely also. Similarly during Peaches, worse places to be was – or even working at fucking ICI (chatting with the Pauls in the post gig social they informed us that they had both been employed there in the dim and distant past)!

Again the band were very tight yet at ease and infectiously enjoying the moment, interacting with each other and the crowd. Sublime! Then Hanging Around and then they didn’t (hang around that is)! And the crowd were having none of that, as we all clapped, stomped, cheered and whilstled for more, which of course was duly paid off…

In celebration of July 14th Megabus Elaine had thoughtfully draped a fair sized tricolore across the front barrier. As the lads came back for encore, JJ gestured toward the said flag, which we duly passed up to him. He gave us a bit of banter in French, a quick history lesson and proceeded to sing us the opening lines of La Marsellaise, fucking brilliant! He then out Bazzed Baz in the regional teasing stakes and posed the question – What would you rather have a Frog or a Mackem?!

Tonight we got a super Walk On By with the IV in the zone and eyes closed during the superb musical section. Then we felt it big style as the bass was beaten to submission then teased into set closer No More Heroes. Splendid!

On exiting JJ came to the front and handed his pick to the young lad Elliot who’d been on the barrier all night with his dad. Then further icing on the cake for the young ‘un as Baz too came forward and handed over his plectrum, sweet! As a nut! Sorted!

Over…

Words: EiTC,

Photography: Karlos Antrobus.

Bonus: