The Stranglers Sunderland Mayfair 17 July 1980
The Stranglers were persona non grata in Newcastle after a riotous gig at the City Hall in 1977. It was almost three years before they appeared in the North East again, this time at Sunderland Mayfair (aka The Mecca or, previously, the Locarno). A lot had changed in the intervening years. By 1980 The Stranglers had released four albums, the latest being “The Raven”, and had 10 singles in the UK singles charts, including top twenty hits with “Something Better Change”, “No More Heroes”, “5 Minutes”, “Nice ‘n’ Sleazy”, and “Duchess”. Disaster also struck for the band in 1980 when Cornwell was arrested and convicted for drug use and sent to prison for three months in Pentonville.
This tour was to promote “The Raven”. I remember the Sunderland show as a good gig, but also being a little disappointed that many of the early songs had been dropped in favour of more recent tunes. A young Baz Warne was apparently in the audience that night. He would, of course, join the band some 20 years later. The programme from the show folds out to make a large poster of the band.
Based on setlists from that period the concert is likely to have gone something like this: Shah Shah A Go Go, Ice, Four Horsemen, Toiler On The Sea, Duchess, Thrown Away, Hanging Around, Hallow To Our Men, Waiting For The Meninblack, Down In The Sewer, Who Wants The World, Princess Of The Street, Just Like Nothing on Earth, Tank, Nuclear Device, Genetix, Baroque Bordello, The Raven
“Duch of the terrace never grew up
I hope she never will
Says she’s an heiress sits in her terrace
Says she’s got time to kill
Time to kill
And the Rodneys are queuing up
God forbid
And they all want to win the cup
God forbid” (Duchess, The Stranglers, 1979)
10 Jun
Vintagerock's Weblog. 
Posted by Steve on November 29, 2014 at 12:08 am
Convinced that at the Locarno they sang “the Geordie’s are lining up, god forbid…”.
Posted by vintagerock on November 29, 2014 at 9:26 am
Quite possible. Bet that raised some jeers 🙂 Peter