Released on 8 November 1982, Love Is A Stranger is very possibly my favourite Eurythmics single. Although its original chart position of 54 was a disappointment, the song benefitted from being released with an immensely striking video, alerting Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox to the power of an exciting new medium.
Based on a simple drum pattern with an eerie short riff, Love Is A Stranger is driven by Annie’s vocal which veers effortlessly from the sinister description of the dangerous, destructive and overpowering effects love can have before the insistent yearning refrain of: “And I want you, so it’s an obsession.”
What’s so remarkable is that 43 years on, “It’s savage and it’s cruel, and it shines like destruction” yet the track still sounds utterly contemporary in its chillingly minimalist soundscape. Glamorous and sleek by design whatever the prevailing musical trends.
On this current extended visit back to Blighty, I had an afternoon assignation with a Portugese lad in Clifton Gardens and as I left his place I immediately felt the address was ringing a cacophony of bells, so I looked up the details of the video and found that the duo had filmed LIAS in and outside Dave Stewart’s mother’s flat next door to Porto guy with his Tom Dixon lamps and art books. What were the chances?
53 Clifton Gardens W9 is five minute’s walk from Warwick Avenue station, just around the corner from my old college on Elgin Avenue, and only a mile from my first flat in Kilburn. But you never do these touristy pilgrimage-y things when you live in the area, do you?
Fantastically located in the heart of Little Venice just one street away from where Annie Lennox would later live circa Diva, and befitting the ‘call girl’ night worker of the promo, Clifton Gardens is also close by the infamous kerb crawler area around Sussex Gardens.
The elegant five-storey terraces surrounding the garden square were constructed between 1860 and 1880 and have been awarded conservation area status. A unique combination of white stucco, greenery, and nearby canal, it boasts the glorious expressiveness of high Victorian domestic architecture in London.
Emblematic of the architectural charm of the area, their handsome façades have Ionic porches and panelled doors topped by overlights. Mrs Stewart’s former front-facing two-bedroom apartment lies on the first floor punctuated with sash windows framed by striking pedimented surrounds, elegantly accompanied by attached Corinthian columns on each side, all overlooking a balustraded balcony in addition to expansive, beautifully lush gated communal gardens with a tennis court.
And as if my being in the handsomely appointed road already wasn’t serendipitous enough, I decided to shoot a requisite number of so-so photos before I noticed a large bearded Asian gent in a large SUV was in the parking bay outside with his engine and lights on.
With the song playing on my phone to bolster the atmosphere, suddenly the lyrical opener “Love is a stranger in an open car…” forced me to pluck up the courage to tap on his window and make a slightly unusual request:
“Sorry to bother you, but this building was used in a famous pop video where they mention an open car. Would you mind if I sat in your passenger seat for 10 seconds to take a photo?
And with that I was tempted in, and the guilt-edged result. Totally cool.
Steve Pafford
