NWR Dave Greenfield RIP

Very sad news to hear that The Stranglers keyboards virtuoso passed away last night. He was in hospital for heart problems and contracted Covid-19. Personally gutted with this news having been a Stranglers fan since the beginning of their career and have seen them live 63 times between 1977 and 2019. I have a ticket to see them in November, but I doubt that will happen now as they would struggle to find a competent replacement in such a short time.
I feel as if the last remnants of my youth are ebbing away now. :(

Edit: Just a reminder of how good he was.............


 
Last edited:
All in Scotland too!! With the ticket in my hand to make it 64, I was considering going up to Aberdeen to make it a nice round 65 as this was their last full UK tour, implying that appearances would be limited in the future. I'm still feeling numb.
 
One of the best concerts I ever saw was The Stranglers in a warehouse on Bristol docks in around 1977/78. It was the height of punk and a proportion of the mosh pit took to splitting at the band (well it was the thing to do with punk bands at the time!). Hugh Cornwell took great exception to this and dived into the crowd, mid song, guitar still connected and grabbed one of the crowd and shook him. There was no more spitting after that!

What made the evening unforgettable was that after the gig we walked past Bristol Cathedral to see a movie crew outside. We stopped and watched as the cameras rolled. A crowd of people ran out of the cathedral, with the facade (made of large polystyrene blocks) crashing down on them! It turned out they were filming part of the Medusa Touch.

Saw them again a couple of years back at a festival and (despite no Hugh Cornwell) they were still very good. DG was a very distinctive keyboard player.
 
I've followed them from the start, buying all their albums on release and seeing them live a few times.

I never thought of them as a punk band as they were too accomplished musically

Following Greensfield's demise they had someone on BBC R4 Front Row* talking about the complicated time signature of Golden Brown. Something about 4/4 going to 5/4 and back... Too complicated for me, so I just played Golden Brown to hear it without someone talking bollix over it

*
BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Film director Alice Wu, writer Frank Cottrell Boyce, the allure of Golden Brown and baritone Peter Brathwaite remakes paintings
The Stranglers' keyboard player Dave Greenfield died on Sunday having been infected with the coronavirus. He wrote their best-known song, Golden Brown, which, involving a harpsichord an eddying melody and varying time signatures, is an unusual work for a punk band. Composer and Radio 3 presenter Hannah Peel explains the allure of this sophisticated piece, which depends on a strange rhythm shift, from 12/8 to 13/8.
 
I’ve been out of the news loop a few days so hadn’t seen this. Very sad. To be honest I only saw them once, but I liked them enough to go and see JJB’s solo tour, probably at the Rainbow, with a “wound up” Triumph Bonneville on stage. Wonder whether H&S would allow that today.

My tribute will be to hoik out the 33rpm white 45 which i think came with the second album, and play Walk on By, for its keyboard magic.
 
My tribute will be to hoik out the 33rpm white 45 which i think came with the second album, and play Walk on By, for its keyboard magic
It came with the 3rd album, Black & White, David. Only available with the first 75,000 albums - those were the days eh? As well as having the original (purchased on release day, of course), I bought the remastered 180g vinyl version (signed, albeit with Baz's signature,rather than Hugh's :() when they did the B&W revisited tour in 2016. There were only 1000 copies pressed (mine is #880). It also came with a reproduced original tour poster (with Hugh included) and a 12" single, on white vinyl, with Walk on By/Mean to Me/Sverige/Shut Up on the A side and Social Secs/Old Codger (George Melly on vocal)/Tits on the B side.
 
Last edited:
It came with the 3rd album, Black & White, David. Only available with the first 75,000 albums - those were the days eh? As well as having the original (purchased on release day, of course), I bought the remastered 180g vinyl version (signed, albeit with Baz's signature,rather than Hugh's :() when they did the B&W revisited tour in 2016. There were only 1000 copies pressed (mine is #880). It also came with a reproduced original tour poster (with Hugh included) and a 12" single, on white vinyl, with Walk on By b/w Mean to Me/Sverige/Shut Up.
Yes, of course, obvious. Sorry for my addled senility Paul.
 
It came with the 3rd album, Black & White, David. Only available with the first 75,000 albums - those were the days eh? As well as having the original (purchased on release day, of course), I bought the remastered 180g vinyl version (signed, albeit with Baz's signature,rather than Hugh's :() when they did the B&W revisited tour in 2016. There were only 1000 copies pressed (mine is #880). It also came with a reproduced original tour poster (with Hugh included) and a 12" single, on white vinyl, with Walk on By/Mean to Me/Sverige/Shut Up on the A side and Social Secs/Old Codger (George Melly on vocal)/Tits on the B side.

Don't know if you do 6 music Paul, but 9-11 they were doing a tribute and playing the 1977 BBC sessions. It'll be on Sounds if you didn't catch it tonight.
 
an unusual work for a punk band.

That's because they weren't a punk band. Jet Black was about 40 when Rattus was released and I think owned a fleet of ice cream vans.

In fact, scrap that: I've never thought "punk" as a musical style - certainly in terms of the bands normally given that moniker - ever existed really. A loose collection of bands unwilling to buy in to overblown operatic stuff like Queen, Floyd and ELO - that's about it. Discuss. ;)
 
That's because they weren't a punk band. Jet Black was about 40 when Rattus was released and I think owned a fleet of ice cream vans.

In fact, scrap that: I've never thought "punk" as a musical style - certainly in terms of the bands normally given that moniker - ever existed really. A loose collection of bands unwilling to buy in to overblown operatic stuff like Queen, Floyd and ELO - that's about it. Discuss. ;)

An endless debate is "what is punk?". Or new wave, garage, post punk, power pop etc. etc.
 
Withut giving it too much considered thought, I'd probably have the Stranglers as the best songwriters to come out of that "movement", so for avoidance of doubt, better than the Clash, the Damned, Weller... I don't count the Police and although Blondie come close, they're not "punk" as they're American. I suppose Lydon in his various guises has produced some great stuff, but he was never going to produce Golden Brown.
 
Last edited:
Top