2003

The year of the *In the Dock* album. A handful of UK dates plus a US festival appearance at CBGB, New York, as part of the Vive Le Punk Festival 2003. In November, Hugh toured as Hugh Cornwell's 3 Piece Sweet with Windsor McGilvray and Steve Lawrence.

🎙️ = a recording of this show exists

26 Feb 2003 (Wed)
St George's Hall
Bradford, England
Resolves the previously date-unknown Bradford show. Confirmed by three British Newspaper Archive listings — Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer (24 Jan 2003), Hebden Bridge Times (24 Jan 2003) and Halifax Evening Courier (21 Feb 2003) — all reading "Wednesday 26 February 7.30pm HUGH CORNWELL... 01274 432000... £12.50"
28 Feb 2003 🎙️
Darlington Arts Centre
Darlington, England
Electric and acoustic sets recorded; setlists not supplied
02 Mar 2003
Waterfront Hall (ntl Studio)
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Per a Lurgan Mail preview (13 Feb 2003, Page 21) on the British Newspaper Archive: "the ex-Stranglers front man - Hugh Cornwell - plays Belfast Waterfront Hall's ntl Studio on Sunday, March 2"
03 Mar 2003 (Mon)
Newark Palace Theatre
Newark, England
"Live and Alone" / Song By Song Tour; per Chad (Alfreton) and Hucknall Dispatch listings (both 21 Feb 2003) on the British Newspaper Archive
07 Mar 2003 🎙️
Carnegie Hall
Dunfermline, Scotland
A second Dunfermline date this year (see also 13 Nov)
08 Mar 2003 🎙️
Theatre Royal
Wakefield, England
Forum thread →
11 Mar 2003 🎙️
Harlequin Theatre
Redhill, Surrey, England
Venue confirmed via a British Newspaper Archive listing: "Hugh Cornwell will be at The Harlequin Theatre, Redhill, on Tuesday March 11 at 8pm"
13 Mar 2003 (Thu)
Prince of Wales Centre
Cannock, England
Church Street. Confirmed by three sources on the British Newspaper Archive: Cannock Chase Chronicle (5 Dec 2002, 13 Feb 2003 and 27 Feb 2003) and Wolverhampton Express and Star (6 Mar 2003)
15 Mar 2003 (date uncertain)
The Platform
Morecambe, England
Old Station Buildings, Marine Road Central. Per a British Newspaper Archive listing found via a themeninblack forum post; the 15 March date is inferred from an accompanying Westmorland Gazette article date, not stated explicitly in the listing itself. Corroborated by a Morecambe Visitor item (12 Mar 2003, Page 30) announcing the winner of "our Hugh Cornwell competition", which places local promotional coverage in the same week
16 Mar 2003
Assembly Rooms
Derby, England
Darwin Suite. Per an Ashbourne News Telegraph listing (12 Mar 2003) on the British Newspaper Archive: "The Darwin Suite at Derby Assembly Rooms sees more action with Hugh Cornwell on a song by song tour, starting at 8pm"
17 Mar 2003 🎙️
Cheltenham Town Hall
Cheltenham, England
20 Mar 2003
Palace Theatre
Paignton, England
Mar 2003 (date unknown) 🎙️
Whelan's
Dublin, Ireland
26 Mar 2003 🎙️
High Wycombe Town Hall
High Wycombe, England
Forum thread →
27 Mar 2003
Oswaldtwistle Civic Theatre
Oswaldtwistle, England
Union Road. Venue confirmed via a British Newspaper Archive listing: "Oswaldtwistle Civic Theatre, Union Road, Oswaldtwistle. 7.30pm. Tickets: £10"
Forum thread →
29 Mar 2003 (Sat)
Hebden Bridge Picture House
Hebden Bridge, England
"Song by Song" acoustic set. Per Halifax Evening Courier (7 Mar 2003) and Hebden Bridge Times (28 Mar 2003) listings on the British Newspaper Archive: "Saturday 29 March 8pm Hugh Cornwell 'Song by Song'... Tickets £10 from Victoria Theatre Box Office"
12 Apr 2003 🎙️
The Met
Bury, England
Recording exists; setlist not supplied
13 Apr 2003
Citadel Arts Centre
St Helens, England
Contemporary event listing
event listing →
2003 (date unknown)
—
United Kingdom
Track Records released the enhanced live acoustic CD *In the Dock*, recorded at Leicester Guildhall; it also included video footage of five songs from an early Plugged & Unplugged show in Bergen
May 2003 (dates and venues unknown)
Middle East shows
Middle East
Hugh Cornwell's three-piece with Steve Lawrence and Windsor McGilvray; the November UK tour was described as a follow-up to these shows
20 Jun 2003 🎙️
The Oval
London, England
Hugh appeared live on Radio 5 Live's *Phil Tufnell Cricket Circus* after the England–Pakistan one-day international; broadcast and streamed from 8–9:30pm
May 2003 (date unknown)
Meeting with Tony Visconti
New York, NY, USA
Hugh performed most of the proposed new-album songs acoustically for Tony Visconti and discussed their arrangements. This was a planning meeting, not the later recording or mixing session
17 Jul 2003
St Stevens Church
Nijmegen, Netherlands
Acoustic solo show
10 Sep 2003
Hugh Cornwell website Q&A
Online
Hugh previewed the November tour by Hugh Cornwell's 3 Piece Sweet, with Steve Lawrence and Windsor McGilvray, explaining that the new name replaced Sumyunguise because the line-up had stabilised. Proposed repertoire included expanded arrangements of “Feel Like A Wog,” “Spain,” “Walk On By” and “Torture Garden,” plus “Tank” and possibly the new “Under Her Spell”; these were intentions rather than confirmed setlists. Hugh confirmed 11 songs were scheduled for an acoustic-feeling album inspired by Dylan's *John Wesley Harding*: Danny Kadar would produce the New Orleans tracking before Tony Visconti mixed in New York. A March/April 2004 release and US touring before Europe and the UK were contemplated. Hugh also said he was negotiating with publishers over an autobiography
30 Sep 2003
Truck Farm recording studio
New Orleans, LA, USA
**Studio diary — Day 1.** “So ends the first day at Truck Farm.... Beauty On The Beach backing track has been nailed and we've been trying to get down Cadiz but time was not on our side today, so we will continue tomorrow.” — Hugh, 30/9/03. Danny Kadar, 30/9/03. “Steve and Windsor have had a long day as they only got in from Detroit this morning after being diverted yesterday to New Jersey, but they have done admirably and soldiered on today, coming straight in to start at the studio.” Steve, 30/9/03. Windsor, 30/9/03. “Danny has been great to work with: very understanding and helpful to us all. The weather here in New Orleans is superb: 80 degrees with very low humidity, which is unusual. The overall atmosphere in the whole town is very laidback, every day is like a lazy sunday, with a very friendly crowd.”
Diary entry →
01 Oct 2003
Truck Farm recording studio
New Orleans, LA, USA
**Studio diary — Day 2.** “Here we are at the end of day two in sunny New Orleans. After some running around getting bits and pieces for the session we had another go at Cadiz but the aircon in the studio was affecting the intonation on the Godin acoustic, which meant that the crucial tuning needed for this song could not be achieved.” — HAC, 1/10/03. Steve, 1/10/03. “So I took the guitar into the garden for a while and it slowly returned to normal but it did mean that the aircon was switched off!” Steve, 1/10/03. Windsor, 1/10/2003. “We swiftly moved on to The Story Of Harry Power which we nailed without too much work; then it was time to tackle one of the newer songs as I was feeling confident by this stage! Mr.Big took us a while but by about 7pm we had it captured.” Trident desk, 1/10/2003. “Danny was eager to get another one down and Windsor was hot to do 24/7, so in we plunged. Which brings me to now, with Danny leadering up 24/7 as I write. Its Windsor's birthday today - he's reached the ripe old age of 22!! Lucky bugger!”
Diary entry →
02 Oct 2003
Truck Farm recording studio
New Orleans, LA, USA
**Studio diary — Day 3.** “All is well in the land of Three Piece Sweet today. Its been a bumper day for recording. After a hearty breakfast we got started earlier and nailed Land Of A 1000 Kisses in the bat of an eyelid. Feeling confident I decided to go immediately for Picked Up By The Wind which I knew was going to take high energy levels out of the band.” — Hugh, 2/10/2003. Dog in the yard, 2/10/2003. “This was ensnared without too much trouble and Steve's bass playing really got me going. Then it was time for a break. Whats really good about being here is that there is a very large yard out back of the studio, so its very easy to jump outside and get some fresh air and sun quickly.” Danny Kadar, 2/10/2003. “We then had a stab at Do Right Bayou and I had to curb Windsor's enthusiasm and get him to lay back on this track, which he did to great effect. We suddenly realised we had got three songs down by 4pm, so we went for Henry Moore and by the time the sun was going down we had it down with Windsor using brushes. Feeling lucky I went back to Cadiz which we had failed to master yesterday due to guitar tuning problems, and got the best take yet of it.” Windsor, 2/10/2003. “So that's 5 backtracks in a day which is pretty good going. Danny is now putting all the 9 we have so far down onto cd so we can study them and decide which ones to try to improve on. Roll on tomorrow!”
Diary entry →
03 Oct 2003
CBGB
New York, NY, USA
Vive Le Punk Festival 2003
03 Oct 2003
Truck Farm recording studio
New Orleans, LA, USA
**Studio diary — Day 4.** “So ends day four at Truck Farm. We started off today having a go at She Is From Heaven, I Am From Hell which I have retitled Under Her Spell. After a few attempts we decided to restock our lunch supplies and stock up on guitar strings, which meant a trip out in the lovely weather here. After topping up our energy levels we tried again and nailed it straight away.” Studio gear, 3rd October. “We then moved on to the last song, I Dont Mind, which is pretty new to us all. By about 6pm we managed to capture it, which left us time to try to get a better version of Cadiz. After a couple of takes we had a better version than we already had. It was always going to be a difficult song to record. The slow ones always are!” Windsor, Steve & Danny, 3rd October. “Windsor really wanted to try Mr.Big again, so we played around with it and made a few changes to the arrangement, which I think have improved it. But its got to that time in the evening where diminishing returns come into play, so were going to wait till tomorrow to redo it. Night night!”
Diary entry →
04 Oct 2003
Truck Farm recording studio
New Orleans, LA, USA
**Studio diary — Day 5.** “And so the story continues..... First thing today we were trying to finish off the new arrangement for Mr.Big. Upon Danny's suggestion we made the song a half-time shuffle which immediately gave more room for the vocal and the song sounded more boss. Full marks Mr.Kadar!” Hugh, Truck Farm, 4th October 2003. “Once this was perfected by Windsor and Steve we all took a lunchbreak and then it was time for me to put the master guitars down on the bass and drums of the backing tracks.” Danny Kadar, 4th October 2003. Hugh vocal take, 4th October 2003. “I started with Cadiz and managed to get it down easily. We then put a second guitar down in the background to accentuate the 8s which worked. A lead vocal I tried isn't the final one. Then we moved on to Henry Moore and got a great guitar and lead master vocal quickly. I added some backing vocals which Danny liked.” Hugh, Steve & Windsor, 4th October 2003. Windsor, 4th October 2003. Windsor, Steve & Hugh. “Then we moved on to Under Her Spell which is starting to sound very nice indeed. I put the guitar on and then did a double track lead vocal which seems to work. Windsor put on a tambourine and then there was just enough time to put the guitar on 1000 Kisses. A good days work overall!” Mose Allison, 4th October 2003. “Last night we went with Danny and his wife Ann to see Mose Allison play. It was great for me as I've been a Mose fan since I was 14! Danny has worked with Moses' daughter Amy in the past, so I had the pleasure to meet the great man himself!”
Diary entry →
05 Oct 2003
Truck Farm recording studio
New Orleans, LA, USA
**Studio diary — Day 6.** “Today has been a workmanlike day for me, putting main acoustic guitar on Wind, Kisses, Bayou, Beauty, 24/7, Mr.Big & I Dont Mind. I also managed to do the lead voice on the first four of those, plus Harry. Windsor and Steve have spent the day recovering from a Saturday night out in New Orleans, I think Steve got back at 6am! It was a great gig of Mose Allison's at Snug Harbour too. Today's temperature has been in the 90's and its starting to get more humid. Tomorrow is the boys last day in the studio to do any overdubs so were all having an early one. Looking forward to my bed tonight. Goodnight.”
Diary entry →
06 Oct 2003
Truck Farm recording studio
New Orleans, LA, USA
**Studio diary — Day 7.** “Today was the first overcast day we've seen in New Orleans, so it was straight in to the studio for a day of overdubs.” Danny Kadar, 6th October 2003. Hugh, 6th October 2003. “We started with percussion on Beauty, then went on to Kisses, which really knocked the stuffing out of Windsor.” Windsor, 6th October 2003. Windsor, 6th October 2003. Windsor, 6th October 2003. “Then we moved on to putting organ on 24/7, Bayou & Mr.Big which took the rest of the day. Now its time to go home as I'm kanackered.”
Diary entry →
07 Oct 2003
Truck Farm recording studio
New Orleans, LA, USA
**Studio diary — Day 8.** “It seems strangely quiet now that Windsor and Steve have left. We did a bit more percussion and a piano track before they had to leave for the airport and then there were two...” Steve, Danny, Windsor & Hugh — last day together. Hugh & Danny, 7th October. Hugh, 7th October 2003. Truck Farm Studio. “Danny and I have been finishing up the overdubs and lead vocals on the tracks and we're in good shape. Tomorrow we have a flute player coming in to play on Beauty and Harry Power and I have a few more electric guitar dubs to do, but its more or less there now. Seems like a long time ago when I arrived! Suffering a bit from a bug which is leaving my limbs and joints aching and making me feel incredibly tired. I feel like I could sleep for a week. Danny says its probably the West Nile bug. Goodnight.”
Diary entry →
08 Oct 2003
Truck Farm recording studio
New Orleans, LA, USA
**Studio diary — Day 9.** “I can't believe that we've finished all the recording in nine days! Today Scott Bourgeois came in and played flute on Harry and Beauty and they now sound fantastic! A bit more electric guitar went down on a coupla tracks, some piano, and I redid the vocals on Beauty, and hey presto, its all done.” Scott Bourgeois & Hugh Cornwell, 8th October 2003. A picture of a picture of a parrot. The big sleep? “Tomorrow we move to Piety Studios down the road to transfer all the recordings to Protools for Tony to mix from in New York. This is digital and means all the info is on a hard disc! Remarkable the times we live in! May not do a diary tomorrow as there won't be much to see... We'll see ...”
Diary entry →
09 Oct 2003
Truck Farm / Piety Studios
New Orleans, LA, USA
**Studio diary — Day 10.** “Goodbye to Truck Farm.” Transferring to Pro Tools: end of session.
Diary entry →
14 Oct 2003
Recording studio
New York, NY, USA
**Mixing in NYC — Day 1.** “Settled into the New York studio now and we've nearly finished Beauty, which is probably going to be the opening track.” Hugh at the Mac. Listening to the mix of Beauty. Listening to the mix of Beauty.... “Tony Visconti discovered that the bass recording was out of phase slightly with the DI bass recording, so once that was corrected the bass really started pumping. He suggested some surf handclaps for the choruses, so down they went. I wanted to highlight the softness of the percussion so we've added a breath every bar in the intros and the verses. TV has also decided to mix straight down to analogue from the Pro Tools, which should retain much of the warmth of the original recordings with Danny. Next up will be Cadiz...” HC & TV. HC & TV. “The other chap is me. We're clapping hands to the song Beauty On The Beach.” — Tony Visconti.
Diary entry →
15 Oct 2003
Recording studio
New York, NY, USA
**Mixing in NYC — Day 2.** “Just laid down Cadiz and I think we have it. Earlier Tony got out his ultrabass and bass recorders and put some beautiful countermelodies down. He also wanted to add a few castanets. They have added greatly to the track. We're both very happy with the way it has turned out. I always knew it would be tricky, the slow ones always are! I think Under Her Spell will be next up.” TV playing orchestral castinets and playing the Grossba & Blockfloten on Cadiz.
Diary entry →
17 Oct 2003
Recording studio
New York, NY, USA
**Mixing in NYC — Day 4.** “Things are progressing well, we seem to have caught up today, as we finished Spell and 1000 Kisses! TV got me to put baritone guitar on 1000 Kisses, plus I've added some backing vocals which seem to work. We are trying very hard to resist the temptation to add more and more, and preserve the simplicity of the songs.” Hugh playing Baritone Guitar. Hugh playing Baritone Guitar. Hugh playing Baritone Guitar. “Big night last night, as the New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox in an historic game after trailing 5 to nothing in Boston, to win 6 to 5 and enter the world series tomorrow against the Florida Marlins.” TV and assistant DJ Puter Ninjah (Mario McNulty) — the mix team.
Diary entry →
18 Oct 2003
Recording studio
New York, NY, USA
**Mixing in NYC — Day 5.** “Cruising along at hi speed here in NYC. Due to some nifty setting up last night by DJ Putah (Mario), TV was able to nail Harry Power by lunchtime today, so we are now close to completion on Henry Moore! So that's 6 in 5 days, which is pretty good progress in my book. A good point at which to take a break tomorrow (Sunday).” Hugh listening to “Harry Power” (photo: Mario McNulty). Hugh listening to “Harry Power” (photo: Mario McNulty). “I'm looking forward to a day off, and I can check out the mixes so far. May catch a movie tonight.” Mario McNulty at the Pro Tools workstation (photo: Hugh Cornwell). Mario McNulty at the Pro Tools workstation (photo: Hugh Cornwell).
Diary entry →
20 Oct 2003
Recording studio
New York, NY, USA
**Mixing in NYC — Day 6.** “Day off yesterday, so I walked up to Central Park and watched the peregrine falcons as they cruised high over the city. They've been introduced here to try to curb the pigeon population. Ingenious. Then it was a trip to see Mystic River, the new Clint Eastwood directed movie with Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon. Pretty good but a bit long.” Hugh twangin' the Tele. Hugh twangin' the Tele (TV). “Then it was back in this morning to finish off Henry Moore - which TV put some recorders on for me - and on to Do Right Bayou, which I put some electric guitar on. That tune sits on the board overnight as I write this, after which we hope to get on to Picked Up By The Wind next.”
Diary entry →
21 Oct 2003
Recording studio
New York, NY, USA
**Mixing in NYC — Day 7.** “And so ends day seven. We started off with the overnight mix of Bayou, on which I had to update the guitar pieces I'd done yesterday. After listening to it overnight, I decided to make slight changes to them. We also changed the profile of the voice and hey presto! another TV mix in the can. It was then on to Picked Up By The Wind, to which I was keen to add some sound effects and it worked out great. By 6:30 we had it nailed and now Mario is setting up Mr.Big for Tony to start on first thing tomorrow.” Hugh playing his wonderful Godin acoustic. Listening intently to the latest mix. “TV looking very authoritative playing slide guitar. Sadly, it didn't make the cut (because he'd never played slide guitar before).” — Tony Visconti. “The world series picks up tonight with the first of three games in Florida. It now stands at 1 game each. The first to 4 will win whenever that is. The rest of the seven games will not be played. Does that make any sense? It's much more complicated than cricket.”
Diary entry →
22 Oct 2003
Recording studio
New York, NY, USA
**Mixing in NYC — Day 8.** “We've just finished I Don't Mind but left it on the board for the night so that we can listen to it fresh in the morning. Earlier today we finished Mr.Big, which I put some gutsy telecaster on for the outro, and that worked a treat. I had double tracked the lead voice in New Orleans but we decided to keep it as a single lead voice for more character. I am very pleased with the progress we're making, we should be able to mix 24/7 tomorrow which leaves us two days to revisit some songs which I'm not sure about. It's mostly due to the fact that this album sounds so different from anything I've done before and it's taken me a while to figure out how I want it to sound. Added to that is the new studio sound from here, which is somewhere new for my ears to get used to. So with that I will bid you goodnight.”
Diary entry →
23 Oct 2003
Recording studio
New York, NY, USA
**Mixing in NYC — Day 9.** “We managed to polish off I Dont Mind this morning and then we moved on to 24/7, which didn't take long at all. By 5pm Mario was resetting up Cadiz as I was unsure about the way the voice was sitting on the track. After some careful manipulation, and some of Tony's expertise, I was happy and now Mario is recalling 1000 Kisses as the same thing applied to that song too. We are sitting pretty at the moment, with 2 full days left to go! Its turning cold here and its been a long trek. Nearly there.”
Diary entry →
24 Oct 2003
Recording studio
New York, NY, USA
Online studio diary, Day 10: Tony Visconti album session
Diary entry →
25 Oct 2003
Looking Glass Studios
New York, NY, USA
**Mixing in NYC — Day 11.** The outer expressions of satisfaction (TV). “Hugh said some funny things with seconds to spare as his car waited for him on Broadway to take him to the airport. ‘Is there still time for an edit?’ ‘I was told off because I didn't write for my daily diary yesterday. I don't have time to write one now. I've got an idea, you can write the last entry for me!’ As you can see, an artist will always be reluctant to declare his work finished. But we finished mixing Hugh's new album in record time. On the last two days we managed to recall (that means remix in studio jargon) six mixes, mainly from the very first efforts of the previous week, to bring them up to the standard of the second week's work. In addition, Hugh began to twitch when he felt a song needed an extra ‘something’ so not only were we remixing these past two days, Hugh was running out to the studio to add some minimal, but tasty harmony vocals to Harry Powers, Mr. Big and Henry Moore. Even some extra Telecaster parts were added to some songs in these past few days that were either undreamed of or overlooked in New Orleans. All in all I'm very satisfied with the outcome and Hugh seemed to be too, as he raced out of Looking Glass studios to get to his airport car, waving the freshly burned CD over his head.” — Tony Visconti, 25/10/03.
Diary entry →
29 Oct 2003 🎙️
BBC Radio 2, *Drivetime*
London, England
Hugh premiered two unmastered tracks from the completed Danny Kadar and Tony Visconti album sessions. Session tracks: Land Of 1000 Kisses; Do Right By You; interview
09 Nov 2003
(venue unspecified)
St Albans, England
Sunday show; Hugh Cornwell's 3 Piece Sweet with Windsor McGilvray and Steve Lawrence; venue not supplied
Forum thread →
10 Nov 2003 🎙️
The Scala
London, England
Monday show; Hugh Cornwell's 3 Piece Sweet with Windsor McGilvray and Steve Lawrence
Forum thread →
12 Nov 2003
Manchester Academy
Manchester, England
Hugh Cornwell's 3 Piece Sweet with Windsor McGilvray and Steve Lawrence
Forum thread →
13 Nov 2003
Carnegie Hall
Dunfermline, Scotland
Hugh Cornwell's 3 Piece Sweet with Windsor McGilvray and Steve Lawrence
Forum thread →
14 Nov 2003
Rescue Rooms
Nottingham, England
Hugh Cornwell's 3 Piece Sweet with Windsor McGilvray and Steve Lawrence. Venue confirmed via a British Newspaper Archive listing: "Hugh Cornwell, Nottingham Rescue Rooms; Jet Plane Landing, Derby Victoria"
Forum thread →

Photos courtesy of Paul Pappas