Hugh Cornwell, the original vocalist and guitarist of
The Stranglers, hits the road for a series of UK concerts from April 6th. Reason enough for Music-News Claudia A. to interview a friendly, well-spoken and polite artist!
The man whose credentials include the
Stranglers classics
Golden Brown,
No More Heroes, and
Peaches, will not only perform his critically acclaimed solo album
‘Guilty’, but due to fan demand, he will also perform epic
Stranglers songs never performed before as a solo artist, including
The Raven,
Schoolmaam and
Toiler on the Sea.
Music-News:Hugh, what factors do you attribute your long-standing success to, both as a former member of The Stranglers and now as a solo artist?
Hugh Cornwell:Well, I’ve been fortunate to have worked with very good musicians and a talented team that comes up with good songs regularly. It keeps my audience interested in what I do. Of course, I also have great respect for the old songs that I wrote with
The Stranglers, though at first I didn’t want to play them at all after I left the band, I just wanted to take a break. But I’m gradually growing to love them again and I’m quite happy to put a proportion of them into my concerts. And another big factor is the fact that with my last studio album, instead of releasing it the normal way, we made it available for free on the internet. Even now - two to three years later - it’s actually still available for free download with no strings attached. No one has to put their name or address or any other of their details in and they can get it delivered immediately in about four minutes.
MN:From your solo stuff, there is one particular track I would like to ask you about. It’s a wonderful track called
Within You Or Without You from the
Hooverdam album. I can hear some rockabilly and even a bit of country/Johnny Cash influences on it. It’s not a sound one might expect to hear from someone associated with
The Stranglers…
HC:I’m glad you like the song as this is my favorite, too! As for the influences, yes, completely true. It comes from the fact that when I was growing up and a teenager, I was in a house with two brothers and a sister and my father was a big classical music fan, while my oldest brother was into country & western and jazz. And my second eldest brother was into rock ‘n roll,
Jimi Hendrix and
Cream. So without having to go anywhere – even thinking about it – I was being bombarded with all that different kind of music from a very early age. So I think that in the end it served me quite well, and if you can hear all these different influences then that’s great.
HC:Speaking of influences: for my upcoming tour there are special VIP tickets available and instead of just printing up a boring old T-shirt, what the fans get is an album of songs that influenced me when I was a kid. There is a song by
Bobby Darin on there and also by
Ricky Nelson and the
Everly Brothers. There is even an
Elvis Presley song. You know, it’s a complete mix of songs. There will be 10 tracks on the album and it’s going to be called
‘You’re Covered’, with 250 copies printed up. And that’s for the people with the VIP tickets.
MN:Speaking of influences… As far as your fan base is concerned, do you think that your fans still associate you more with being an ex-
Strangler as opposed to being an accomplished musician/artist in your own right?
HC:Well, thing is it always takes time to change opinions and the
Stranglers brand was so strong that it’s taken a long time. It’s my 21st year now that I have left
The Stranglers.
MN:What was the reaction of the remaining members of
The Stranglers to your solo stuff?
HC:I have no idea; I’m not really in contact with them. You know, I played with different line-ups over the years since I’ve left the band. Although it makes it more difficult, there is a beauty in that as well, because you play with so many different people and you meet great players and you remain in touch with them if you had a good time. It just so happens that I got the bass player and the drummer who actually played on
‘Guilty’, the album that I’m showcasing on this tour. So I got the original rhythm section back, so I’m very happy about that.
MN:One song on the
‘Guilty’ album is called
Torture Garden. I’m very intrigued by the title and the song’s lyrics…
HC:Ha-ha (laughs). You know, I’m very much into cinema and movies and my favorite movie is
The Misfit, it was the last film with Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift. It was their last movie they appeared in together and it’s about the passing of the age of the romantic cowboy and how their days were numbered. It was really groundbreaking at the time and it was written by Marilyn Monroe’s husband as well, the playwright Arthur Miller. It was very odd that all could make this film and then die. So the lyrics are about that.
MN:As for more cinematic connections et al, years back you collaborated with acclaimed Czech surrealist filmmaker and artist
Jan Svankmajer. How did that come about?
HC:I knew about him and I watched his stuff and so I thought
“Wouldn’t it be great to get him to make a video clip for a song?”. I was doing my first solo record for Virgin Records and they were gonna make a clip for one of the songs (
Another Kind Of Love) for MTV, so I said
“Hey look, why don’t we get this guy Svankmajer? It would be a first, because he doesn’t do them and he is a genius”. So they had a look at it and they said
“Ok if you can get him” and I said
“Well fine, I try get in touch with him”.
And of course, I could not because at that time where he lived was behind the Iron Curtain and it was very difficult to establish contact with these people. So I’ve almost given up hope when suddenly someone I met – their sister worked for a chap who knew him! So I send my message through and Svankmajer said ‘No’. Once again I gave up hope and we were looking at other people and then suddenly he changed his mind and he decided to do it. So I went over there about six times to make the clip. It took about six months to make it and while I was over there with him, I asked what made him change his mind. He didn’t speak English of course so we had to use an interpreter the whole time. So he answered that because he was allowed to be an imminent celebrity from Czechoslovakia, he was allowed to travel abroad. I mean, very few people were in those days. But he was allowed to travel and he was at the ‘Madrid Film Festival’ and picking up a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’. Back in his hotel room he switched on the TV and MTV happened to come on – which he had never seen before. So he saw all those video clips and he thought they were so bad, his reaction was
“I will show them how to make a video clip!”. So that changed his mind and he thought,
“Ok, I am going do that clip with that rock ‘n roll bloke”. Of course, at the time he had no idea at all who I was, so I was lucky. Though he’s never made another music video clip since. Funny enough, after people saw mine, other musicians rang him up, too. I know
Sting rang him up to make a clip and Svankmajer said ‘No’… But maybe I could persuade him to do another one.
MN:In your opinion, how has the music industry changed since the
Strangler’s times? Do you think that nowadays, the industry is more controlled and corporate?
HC:Well, it’s sort of less corporate but more corporate in the sense that there are lots of manufactured singers now, with all these talent shows. The increasing technology now means that in the studio, you can tune someone’s voice so it’s in key. So you know, these days people don’t even need to sing in key in the studio or live. I think nowadays industry has lost a certain amount of credibility and integrity. But then, I feel that about life in general anyway. Personally, I admire artists who’ve been around for a long time and who aren’t just one-hit-wonders. I’m a big fan of
Bob Dylan for example. Anyone with highs and lows and longevity and a career/career path – these people are real artists you know. They are the people that I aspire to. You see, a singer can come up with a great song, but it’s in one ear and gone. So until they have a real body of work it doesn’t impress me.
MN:Many thanks, Hugh. It’s been a pleasure talking with you and I look forward to see you at your London show in April.
HC:Thank you. And by the way, there is another piece of breaking news you might be interested in. In time for the tour, I should have my first novel published. It took me five years to finish and I just got a literary agent. It’s coming out on Quartet Books in the UK and is called
‘Window On The World’. It has nothing to do with music but is set within the art world of London.
Hugh Cornwell's UK tour kicks off on April 6th at the Portsmouth South Parade Pier. Other dates include - Gasteshead Sage (April 7), Manchester Academy (April 8), Glasgow Academy (April 9), Sheffield Academy (April 10), Clitheroe The Grand (April 12), Leamington Assembly (April 13), Bath Komedia (April 14), Wolverhampton Slade Rooms (April 15), Islington Academy (April 16) and Brighton Komedia (April 17). Tickets are now on sale from the National Ticket Hotline:0871 230 1101 or can be booked online from
www.thegigcartel.com or www.seetickets.com. Further info:
www.hughcornwell.com.
(Photo of Hugh Cornwell by © Christie Goodwin)
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