 Before I went to this gig there was a disappointing
lack of recognition of ‘The Stranglers’
in my friends below the age of 30 without me following
it with “You know, Golden Brown.”
This upset me greatly as ‘The Stranglers’
are legends. Maybe I’m just hanging out
with the wrong people because when I arrived thinking
I was going to be the youngest in the crowd I
was pleasantly surprised. The fact it was sold
out should have been a heads up really. This just
proves they can still put on an amazing show before
they even set foot on stage.
As the venue began to fill up the support band
‘Max Raptor’ emerged. I have never
heard any of their material so I met them with
an open mind, which I can’t say was the
attitude of the rest of the audience. Will Ray
(the lead singer) burst onto the stage full of
energy, pinballing from one side of the stage
to the other. The rest of the band had energy
equal to his, spewing out a mish mash of punk
and rock to a relatively unresponsive crowd. Despite
the unsupportive crowd ‘Max Raptor’
kept their energy up throughout and even managed
to get some crowd interaction. Although some of
their songs are a bit samey in my opinion they
were a good live band and get an ‘A’
for effort.
 By the time ‘The Stranglers’ got
on stage the Apollo was heaving. As they walked
out one by one they were greeted with waves of
cheers. This crowd wanted a good gig, and they
got it.
They started off strong with a good choice of
songs. A personal highlight was “Strange
Little Girl”. Although they played mostly
old classics I felt they integrated their new
material well into the set. Songs like ‘Retro
Rockets’ fitted in nicely and were well
received. However I did feel they hit a bit of
a slump midway through for a couple of songs,
loosing a bit of energy, but they brought it back
and ended as strongly as they started.
J J Burnel and Baz Warne were on form as front
men: dancing, pulling faces and generally just
putting on a good show. Even though Dave Greenfield
was stuck behind his mountain of keyboards he
was entertaining, drinking a pint and playing
the keyboards one handed. The fact that the show
was being filmed for a live DVD did play in the
back of my mind that they may have been playing
up to the cameras, but who can blame them? If
anything it probably just made the show better
for everyone that was there.
 Expecting an encore or two I was caught unawares
by the third. No doubt a play to the camera it
was definitely the best of them, ending with a
powerful rendition of ‘No More Heroes’.
It left me, and I’m sure others, with the
satisfaction of a good gig. It almost made me
forget the slight wane mid set….almost.
Acquiring a jacket, a bra and someone’s
wallet throughout the show illustrates that ‘The
Stranglers’ can obviously still make the
crowd go wild. Being able to draw crowds ranging
from fans that were there from the beginning to
teenagers, even entire families, is a rare thing.
‘The Stranglers’ irrefutably still
have ‘it’, whatever ‘it’
is.
Max Raptor 3/5
The Stranglers 4/5
Review By Nicci Peet
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