Hugh Cornwell at the Georgian Theatre

Hugh Cornwell

The Georgian Theatre, Stockton

10.11.2018

Hugh Cornwell's long-anticipated return to Teesside coincided with the release of his new album, Monster.

Last time he appeared at the Georgian Theatre it was to promote his Anthology album and he was solo, acoustic in a seated hall, which didn't suit some of the local yokels at the time. Hecklers, presumably expecting nothing more than a 'best of The Stranglers' were ejected.

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This time the billing was much clearer: Hugh would be with his band and the show would be in two halves, with Stranglers songs taking up the entire second half. The only seats were located up in the small balcony area.

The first half started with the opening track from Monster, called Pure Evel. The spelling gives away the theme of the new record, which is all about Hugh's personal heroes. Further songs he played from the same album included Bilko (about Phil Silvers) and the title track, Monster (all about Ray Harryhausen.)

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The set included songs from several more of Hugh's albums, with stand outs such as I Want One of Those (from Totem and Taboo) and Black Hair, Black Eyes, Black Suit (from Guilty).

The set was played at a very fast pace and the Georgian Theatre continued to fill up as the evening progressed.

There was a short interval between sets and when High and the band returned for the Stranglers section the eager crowd had moved forward to fill up the room completely.

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Apparently the set list of the second half changes every night 'because there's so many songs to do.'
On this night we started with a frantic Five Minutes and hurtled through a fine collection of the classics, with Duchess, Always the Sun, Goodbye Toulouse, Nice 'n' Sleazy, Skin Deep and (Get a) Grip (on Yourself) all present and correct, plus slightly rarer cuts such as Nuclear Device.

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The audience kept in a good mood and there was no trouble; just lot of signing and dancing.

There was no encore - it had already been a long evening - but Hugh soon came out, as he usually does, for the signings and chat.

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It was a fine evening and just the sort of intimate gig the Georgian Theatre continues to produce with great regularity.