La Folie

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By then, Dave Greenfield’s glorious baroque playing was all over the charts. Before his death from Covid in May last year, the keyboard wizard had spent 45 years in the Stranglers, appearing on 23 top 40 singles and 17 top 40 albums as they established themselves as one of Britain’s most enduring bands. Next month, some of his final recordings will appear on the band’s 18th album, Dark Matters, which Burnel calls “our first genuinely grownup album”. The album contains untypical, beautifully raw ruminations on depression, ageing and mortality. Most of it was put together after Greenfield’s death, a process that singer-guitarist Baz Warne, a genial and open Wearsider, found cathartic. “We opened up a huge well of emotion,” says the 57-year-old. is, as I said, my favourite in London where I’ve seen The Stranglers. The floor slopes down towards the stage so everyone, even a short arse like me, can get a decent view. La folie is the sixth studio album by English new wave band the Stranglers. It was released on 9 November 1981, through the EMI record label Liberty. Dave was 70, so he was put in quarantine,” Warne recalls. “He said, ‘I don’t know how I’ll cope.’ I told him to chill out, but I was desperately worried. The band had been his life for 45 years. He’d always needed something to focus on, so I was worried what sitting at home would do to him.” In the event, Greenfield died during a long stay in hospital for heart surgery. “He was already very poorly,” Burnel sighs. “Covid was the last nail in his coffin.”

Much of Dark Matters was put together remotely. “Finding these fragments that Dave had left us felt exciting,” Warne explains. “We got permission from his widow, which was important, then we realised we needed to pour it out.” The City Hall is a big venue with upstairs seating that comes all down the sides so myself and Dean perch ourselves in the balcony at the front just above JJ. It’s a great view, yet another good show and another lively crowd. As Hugh starts Nubiles, JJ looks up to us and mimes along to the cabaret start–very bizarre! I can only assume there was a pretty girl behind us!! But that’s not the end… Dates had just been announced for a part two tour in January and February 1982. These really are golden times being a Stranglers fan! Two albums and two tours in the same year and another tour in a few months. Don’t forget, it had also only been 18 months since WWTW tour–golden times indeed… It’s summer ’81 and The Stranglers have been busy rehearsing new material before recording starts at The Manor in August. Some good news is announced in Strangled, tour dates for November and December to promote the new album which is to be titled La Folie. Jet had previously informed us in our holy mag that it was all about The Stranglers take on love!! So waiting in eager anticipation…..It’s a great atmosphere tonight, the Odeon is a great venue and the gig ends with quite a few on the stage.

Go and make my way inside and watch Taxi Girl for the last time. It’s a great atmosphere tonight which builds up waiting for the MIB. The venue Cornwell, Hugh; Drury, Jim (2001). The Stranglers Song By Song. Sanctuary Publishing Ltd. p.203. ISBN 1-86074-362-5. There is some good and interesting stuff here, but really La Folie is only for completists (like me!). Get the train to Newcastle, the Railcard is proving it’s worth again. There’s snow on the hills and it’s really cold. Get to the venue and see a couple of faces we’ve seen a few times, Mark Senior from Sheffield and Greg Herman from Wolverhampton. We’ve also seen Gary Bainbridge a few times. Greg is pretty quiet but Mark is the life and soul, a very lively character. He’s a big fan of Taxi Girl and gets to know them, even travelling to some gigs with them. We missed this gig. For some reason we couldn’t go tonight so that’s the first missed gig on the tour…Greenfield came up with the music for their most famous song, 1982’s Golden Brown, a harpsichord piece in 6/8 waltz time, which lyricist Cornwell later said was about both heroin and a girl. When the record company rejected it, the band invoked a contractual clause to make them put it out. “They released it at Christmas, expecting it to be drowned in a tsunami of Christmas singles,” Burnel recalls with relish. “After it was a hit all over the world, they asked for ‘another Golden Brown’. So we gave them a seven-minute song in French.” This was La Folie, which made allusions to Japanese necrophiliac murderer and cannibal Issei Sagawa. It charted at No 47. This week all the gigs are up north so myself and Dean have booked another week off work. We’re fully refreshed and raring to go. We’re really looking forward to going to Glasgow again, especially the legendary Apollo. Dean has never been before and doesn’t know what a good night he’s in for… The Stranglers – Tomorrow Was The Hereafter". Discogs. 31 August 1980 . Retrieved 14 December 2021. It’s La Folie month in the History section. The La Folie tour started exactly 30 years ago today and intrepid explorer Phil Coxon was again attempting the complete tour around the UK. I get the tube to Finsbury Park to the legendary Rainbow, my favourite London venue, that has been the scene of some great Stranglers nights.

Years After: The Stranglers – "Tomorrow was the Hereafter" ". Songsmiths. 9 September 2020 . Retrieved 14 December 2021. Meanwhile, Greenfield’s condition gave him a highly idiosyncratic approach to making music. “He couldn’t improvise,” says Burnel, “and if we wanted any last-minute changes to the setlist, he’d just freak out.” However, Greenfield’s devotion to creativity was such that he thought nothing of taking three days to learn the electronic pattern on the song Genetix, note by note. “He ‘programmed’ himself,” smiles Burnel. “People thought it was a sequencer. It was a human being.” We meet Mark and Greg at the venue. Greg has started to help out S.I.S on the merchandise a few times. He is another one, like Gary Bainbridge, who went to follow The Stranglers on tour and ended up working for S.I.S. Elsewhere, they engage spiky rhythms and riffs, often with darkly humorous lyrics, so that one way or another, all the songs get to you. La folie was preceded by the release of the album's first single, " Let Me Introduce You to the Family", released on 7 November 1981 [3] and reaching No. 42 in the UK Singles Chart. [15] La folie was released two days later. [3]Cornwell, Hugh; Drury, Jim (2001). The Stranglers Song By Song. Sanctuary Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-86074-362-5. train to Crewe and taxi to Alsager and have a nice warm bed for the night. We’re up early in the morning for a bath and a breakfast of bacon, eggs We then go to the venue which is a big hall and watch the support acts. First it’s ‘Dr Spratt and his 21st Century Motets’–or something like that! Didn’t really like them though. Next up are a band from France ‘Taxi Girl’ (left) and pretty good they are too. This is the last day of the tour so I want to enjoy the whole day. I get the train early and arrive in London late morning and even see a few sights.