Here’s a real mindboggler, which came my way via newly-minted novelist Bob Pfeifer, the former leader of my beloved Human Switchboard, whom I met at EMP and again at UCLA back in February:
A full 13 years before The Stranglers‘ debut LP, ca. 1964, a young Hugh Cornwell [far left] joined his first band, at the behest of schoolboy chum Richard Thompson [far right], who taught him to play the bass in order to complete "Emil and the Detectives"!
Soon enough, Fairport Convention and The Stranglers came and went, though I don’t imagine folks have frequently spoken of those two bands using the same breath.
In 2008, quite randomly, they were reunited, 38 years after they’d last crossed paths:
Wow….ain’t music and friendship grand!
By the by, I very nearly went to see ol‘ Hugh C. play the aforementioned Stranglers album [RATTUS NORVEGICUS] in its entirety at The Funhouse back in March, but just couldn’t swing it, alas.
Still kickin’ myself over that ‘un, though I did see RT again last fall in Knoxville, TN, of all places!
