Hugh Cornwell in action. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Originally published by L.S. Media. May 17th 2010.

One of the joys of travelling around the country to see musicians ply their trade is that sometimes you get to go to a completely new venue in a brand new city. For the first time as a fan of music I had the pleasure of visiting Gloucester Civic Hall to see Hugh Cornwell on his latest tour and I wasn’t disappointed by the venue or the man behind some of the iconic songs of his generation.

Hugh performed two sets during the evening; the first consisted of Hugh’s last solo studio album, the critically acclaimed Hoover Dam which Hugh in his own style played from start to finish, only taking the barest of moments to explain a few things to the capacity crowd. Thankfully Hugh is one of those rare performers who know that just by playing his music; he is doing all the interaction he needs to do. The music is after all, why fans go to the gigs in the first place.

Hugh didn’t put a foot wrong as he raced through the album and as his want, to prove that he has nothing to prove. Tracks included the wonderful Philip K. Ridiculous, Please Don’t Put Me on a Slow Boat to Trowbridge and the laconic The Pleasure of Your Company.

After a short break, Hugh and his band took the audience back to the days of the advent of punk and The Strangler’s debut album Rattus Norvegicus. Some of the tracks of this seminal piece of work rarely gets played these days, radio stations up and down the country preferring to concentrate on a couple of songs like Peaches and Get a Grip (on Yourself). There are though some thought provoking and intensely supreme tracks such as Goodbye Toulouse and the epic Down in the Sewer which deserve the airplay just as much. The crowd lapped up this rare treat and greeted each song with applause and a certain amount of reverence.

Hugh finished an excellent night with the encores that included a dystopian and cool version of Cream’s White Room which thanks to Hugh’s unique style and vocal talent had an edge to it which took the packed Civic Hall by surprise.

Hugh also added the firm fan favourites of Always the Sun and one of the standard bearers of Hugh’s career, the awesome No More Heroes, a superb song to finish a superb evening and surely a misnomer, for as long as we have Hugh around us, to entertain and to inform, then we will always have one hero amongst us.

Ian D. Hall