Live (X Cert)

The album includes recordings made during two concerts: at The Roundhouse Club (June 1977 ) and at the Battersea Park Festival (September 1978 ). The album was the last in which the group retained a hard punk sound . Already in the next, fourth studio album, The Raven The Stranglers softened the sound by going to complicated, unusual arrangements and original stylistic experiments.

The album is marked by unusual skirmishes of frontman Hugh Cornwell with the audience ^{[2] [3]} and, as critics have noted, serves as an accurate document of the concert sound of the band of that time ^[4] .

Live (X Cert) was highly praised by the music press: reviewers of major music publications gave it grades 4 and 5 (out of five). Sounds columnist Harry Bushell (who signed “Barry Gushell” and explained that “the name has been changed for personal safety”) gave the X-Cert album a 4/5 rating, admitting that “unlike the vast majority of live albums, it“ reveals only the best performers ". ^[5] Five stars were given to the album by Ronnie Guerr ( NME ), who noted "the gigantic power and depth of the music that the Stranglers offered to youngsters in The Roundhouse and in Battersea Park." It followed from his review that the album was clearly concluding in nature (“It can mark the end of a chapter, but it can also be the last page of the whole book”). ^[6]

1. " (Get a) Grip (on Yourself) "
2. Dagenham Dave
3. "Burning up Time"
4. "Dead Ringer"
5. " Hanging Around "
6. "I Feel Like a Wog"
7. "Straighten Out"
8. "Curfew"
9. "Do You Wanna?"
10. "Death And Night And Blood (Yukio)"
11. "5 Minutes"
12. "Go Buddy Go"

CD (Bonus)

1. "Peasant in the Big Shitty"
2. "In the Shadows"
3. "Sometimes"
4. "Mean to Me"
5. "London Lady"
6. Goodbye Toulouse
7. "Hanging Around"