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Songs performed
01. Dead Souls*
02. Wilderness
03. Shadowplay
04. Heart And Soul*
05. Decades*
06. She's Lost Control
07. Atrocity Exhibition*
Appx. duration: 30 mins.
Sound quality: 7+
* For many years there was speculation
whether this unconfirmed tape existed.
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Then,
in 2020, on the 40th anniversary of the
concert, two tracks surfaced:
Decades on Twitter (cut short at about two
minutes) and Atrocity Exhibition on
YouTube.
In 2021, the 41st anniversary, Dead Souls
appeared on YouTube. Heart and Soul appeared
on YouTube 23 May that year.
The recording was made from seat RR 9 in the
stalls, quite near the back, right of
centre.
Atrocity Exhibition contains Ian Curtis
shouting "Turn the lights off"
Evening
Standard adverts 28 March and 2 April 1979
thanks to Novelty |
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Notes: This
concert was one of several sponsored by Levi Strauss
to celebrate the Rainbow Theatre's 50th birthday.
The Stranglers had been booked for two concerts in
the series but Hugh Cornwell was serving a short
prison sentence for posession of a small quanitity
of drugs at the time.
With Cornwell unavailable the Stranglers called on
their friends to help out and the result was an all
star line up with Ian Dury, Toyah Wilcox, Hazel
O'Connor, Nicky Tesco, Phil Daniels, Peter Hammill,
Jake Burns and Richard Jobson on vocals ... |
Wilko Johnson, Robert Fripp, Robert Smith, Steve
Hillage,
Basil Gabbidon, Larry Wallace and John Turnball on
guitar.
Matthieu Hartley from The Cure on keyboards.
Nick Turner (Hawkwind) and Davey Payne
(Blockheads) on sax
.. and Steel Pulse providing the rythm
section.
This must have been one amazing night out - so if
you were there let us know!
Read the full story on the
Skippy's Cage web site ...
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Joy Division:
were one of the support bands that night:
During their final number Ian Curtis had an
epileptic seizure brought on by the strobe lights
and collapsed backwards into the drum kit. On the
recording of Atrocity Exhibition he can be heard
shouting "Turn the lights off"
The audience thought this was the grande finale to
the show and Ian was carried off stage.
He recovered quickly and the band set off for the
Moonlight Club concert.
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"I was at
the stranglers gig at the Rainbow on 4th April
1980. It was an amazing gig. Apart from thinking
Ian's epileptic set was part of the act, I was
also amazed at the site of just one persons
dancing, a woman right at the front. By the way
Fashion also played at the gig". - Dave
 
Thanks to Dave for the scans of the
Stranglers And Friends info sheet above
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