Picture credits - 1 Leftfield
2 & 3 Photo by Sara Bowrey & Virtualfestivals
4 Keith Curtis

Hugh Cornwell is one of the UK's finest song-writing talents and accomplished live performers. The original guitarist, singer and main songwriter in The Legendary Stranglers enjoyed massive UK and European success with ten hit albums and twenty-one top forty singles in the 17-year period that he was in the band. The Stranglers etched themselves into the UK's musical psyche with many hit singles, including 'Peaches', 'No More Heroes', 'Golden Brown', 'Always The Sun', 'Grip', 'Nice N Sleazy', 'Duchess', 'Walk On By', 'Strange Little Girl' and 'Skin Deep'.

Hugh has revelled in his musical freedom ever since he stepped off the stage after a sold out Stranglers gig at London's Alexandra Palace in the summer of 1990, when he announced that it was the last time he would be fronting the group. He felt it was a bit like having a noose around his creative neck and that it was time to do something different.

He has released six solo albums, Nosferatu (1979) Wolf (1988) Wired (1993), Guilty (1997) Hi-fi (2001) and Beyond Elysian Fields (2004) The studio catalogue is completed by Footprints in the Desert, a compilation of rare and unreleased tracks.

Hugh's book The Stranglers: Song By Song was published in November 2001 and gained massive media coverage. In the book he sets the record straight, displaces the myths and explains for the first time the real stories behind the Stranglers extensive catalogue of songs.

The Stranglers' most successful song, 'Golden Brown', featured on the soundtrack to Guy Ritchie's Hollywood blockbuster 'Snatch'; whilst 'Peaches' appeared in its entirety in the opening sequence of the hit film 'Sexy Beast' as well as in a Nike TV ad for 2002's Football World Cup.

'Beyond Elysian Fields', produced by Tony Visconti and Danny Kadar, was released in October of 2004, alongside his eagerly awaited autobiography, 'A Multitude of Sins', published by Harper Collins.

Cornwell was the only non-Czech artist to be formally invited to perform at the Prague Street Festival to celebrate 15 years of the Velvet Revolution and to open Speakers Corner in the Czech Republic.

A triple live album, 'People Places Pieces' is currently available by online mail order only at www.peopleplacespieces.com and contains 45 tracks recorded at London's Carling Academy in April 2005, spanning the whole of Cornwell's career in one glorious live package. It is the culmination of a lifetime of songwriting genius and spans his time with the Stranglers from 1974 to 1990 plus his entire critically acclaimed 6 album solo career to date.
The songs range from the Stranglers first ever single, 'Grip', right through to 'Henry Moore', the final track from his last studio CD, 'Beyond Elysian Fields', and features remarkable new performances of old and new standards throughout its breathtaking journey.

'Dirty Dozen' (available through Invisible Hands Music), is the 12-track single CD containing selections from 'People Places Pieces' and is available in all good record stores. It features a pick of superb live rearrangements of Stranglers and solo classics. Hugh will be supporting this release with a UK tour in late August; through September 2007 accompanied by Robert Williams on Drums (The Beefheart Band) who made the now legendary Nosferatu album with Hugh in 1979. The trio is completed by his current bass player; Caroline (Caz) Campbell. Don't miss it.

DIRTY DOZEN TRACK LISTING

1-DUCHESS

2-FIRST BUS TO BABYLON

3-GOODBYE TOULOUSE

4-PICKED UP BY THE WIND

5-HANGING AROUND

6-BLACK HAIR BLACK EYES BLACK SUIT

7-ALWAYS THE SUN

8-NERVES OF STEEL

9-NUCLEAR DEVICE

10-PUTTING YOU IN THE SHADE

11-WALK ON BY

12-NO MORE HEROES