{"id":334,"date":"2017-07-20T10:52:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T09:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/2017\/07\/20\/the-stranglers-at-the-godiva-festival\/"},"modified":"2017-07-20T10:52:00","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T09:52:00","slug":"the-stranglers-at-the-godiva-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/2017\/07\/20\/the-stranglers-at-the-godiva-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"The Stranglers at The Godiva Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nThe Stranglers at The Godiva Festival<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
\nby Pete Clemons<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
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A reported 36,000 people attended the Godiva Festival on its opening day. With a maximum capacity of 3000 allowed in the Rhythm tent and a similar assumed capacity for the Paradise tent then, by my reckoning, that was an awful lot of people who had come to see Friday night\u2019s headliners The Stranglers.<\/p>\n

To be fair though, the steadily growing crowd had been suitably warmed up by some really good and appreciative performances by, firstly, local band The Institutes – who to their credit have not been together a year and yet put in a very impressive shift – and also Tom Williams and Cast completing the line-up.<\/p>\n

The background sounds of Waltzinblack heralded the Stranglers onto the stage where they quickly broke into \u2018Toiler on the Sea\u2019 from the Black and White album. Next up came the band\u2019s first ever single \u2018Get a Grip on Yourself\u2019 followed by another single released during the Black and White album era \u2018Nice \u2018n\u2019 Sleazy\u2019.<\/p>\n

It was an incredible start. But the audience reaction seemed to hit fever pitch when they heard the first strains of the classic \u2018Golden Brown\u2019. On the back of that came another popular tune from The Stranglers 1980s period \u2018Always the Sun\u2019, a tune popularised by a film I was later informed.<\/p>\n

The crowd settled down again when the Stranglers played a less familiar tune, the more recent \u2018Norfolk Coast\u2019. However the volume cranked up again at the sound of \u2018Peaches\u2019. <\/p>\n

\u2018Walk on by\u2019 proved to be a massive favourite as well as being, as I seem to remember, a free seven inch single given away with the Black and White LP when it was first released.<\/p>\n

The band returned to their 1980s period with a rendition of \u2018Skin Deep\u2019. And then it was back to, arguably, their classic period when they rattled out tunes such as \u2018Duchess\u2019, \u2018Hanging Around\u2019, \u2018Something Better Change\u2019 and the anthemic \u2018No More Heroes\u2019.<\/p>\n

It was a memorable performance. Even the weather was kind as the rain, which had been threatening for most of the evening, held off.<\/span><\/p>\n

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With their long history and a massive discography the size of what The Stranglers have in their locker, the band were never ever going to satisfy everyone. There is always going to be that certain song someone really enjoyed that didn\u2019t get played. But I really don\u2019t think the band could have picked a better set list that would have given something for everyone. It was an exceptional performance.<\/p>\n

From their beginnings as being a pub rock band and then unwitting pioneers of the punk rock phenomenon of the mid 1970s, it is now fair to say I think, that The Stranglers are now accepted and a part of the fabric of the UK music scene.<\/p>\n

And on a totally personal note, that I have just realised while typing these notes, it is just over forty years since I first saw The Stranglers play live at The Locarno in the city centre.<\/p>\n

Where did that time go?. And who would have thought that they would still be delighting audiences in 2017?.<\/span><\/div>\n

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The Stranglers at The Godiva Festival by Pete Clemons A reported 36,000 people attended the Godiva Festival on its opening day. With a maximum capacity of 3000 allowed in the Rhythm tent and a similar assumed capacity for the Paradise … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}