The End of The Stranglers? A Glimpse at the Glory Days
Age has inevitably taken its toll. Drummer Jet Black was already in his mid-thirties when the band first came together. Today, at seventy years old, Jet is finally feeling the years. His recent health concerns have, understandably, resulted in him easing off touring and performing. They will be in Australia for a couple of gigs in early March, and seems very likely that the Land Down Under will be his final stop, for this tour, and indefinitely. Bassist and vocalist JJ Burnel has commented that perhaps they will all join Black in that final goodbye. It will be a sad day when The Stranglers play their last song (which could be any time now), but a day many fans have been expecting. It’s been thirty-five years since the band first came together, and all things must come to an end at some point. The Stranglers have some amazing years behind them, and a catalogue of music and events that have earned them a place in history.
I was first introduced to The Stranglers’ music through a film; it was just a snippet of one of their earlier performances, a clip shown during a quick montage of 1970s punk and post-punk musicians that influenced and were a part of the emergence of the ‘Madchester’ scene in Britain. That movie was 24 Hour Party People, and the archive footage of The Stranglers takes up only about thirty seconds. The band is not mentioned again in the film, but that half-a-minute was more than enough to stop me. I needed to see, hear, and know more.
The Guildford Stranglers came to be in 1974 (they axed “Guildford” a couple years after the group formed). At the time, Hugh Cornwell ended his post-graduate studies in biochemistry and a teaching career to become the lead guitarist and vocalist, Jet Black gave up a successful career in the business of ice cream vans to become the drummer, and Jean Jacques (JJ) Burnel joined the band after a chance meeting with Hugh and Jet, becoming the band’s bass player and second vocalist. As for Dave Greenfield, well … he answered an ad the band put out in Melody Maker in 1975. Over the years, the band has lost and gained members, but the four aforementioned musicians were, and will always be, the heart of The Stranglers.
To the minds behind Youtube and digital imaging, I thank you. I have watched pretty much every video file and read every scanned article I could find on The Stranglers. To put it simply, they are legendary — Hugh’s spiting vocals, JJ’s gravity-defying kicks and jumps, Jet thundering away at the drums, and Dave working those black and white keys. They gave it their all (mind you, only at the gigs they liked though — their Top of the Pops forced-lip-synch performances are the stuff of disobedient comedy) and I don’t have to convince you that they looked damned good doing it. At their best and most infamous, The Stranglers were four men in the prime of their lives — youthful, intelligent, talented, and itching to stir up trouble wherever they went.
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The Stranglers have had their fair share of controversy, particularly in the early years. Their performances almost always ended with some kind of brawl breaking out in the crowd. In 1978, they headlined a small festival at Battersea Park, despite concerns from the Greater London Authority about their troublesome tendencies. In typical Stranglers style, the group performed an amazing show, and invited a few strippers on stage (and one naked Finchley Boy) to perform a show of their own brand while the band played one of their more famous tracks, “Nice N’ Sleazy”. In that same year, they were scheduled to perform on the televised programme Rock Goes To College at the University of Surrey in Guildford. When the band found out that the BBC had not honoured their request for tickets to be sold at record stores (which resulting in non-university students not allowed entry to the show), they still went on. However, they performed for only fifteen minutes, and ended with Hugh shouting “Guildford University never represented Guildford. We hate playing to elitist audiences, so f--- off!” before the band left the stage. They’ve physically attacked interviewers (they tied one to the Eiffel Tower and left him there for hours); their first three albums were accused of being racist and extremely sexist, resulting in many feminists and women angrily protesting their shows (this, however, did not stop female fans from rushing the stage and ripping off their clothes to the band’s amusement); Hugh spent eight weeks in Pentonville Prison in the spring of 1980 for drug possession; and later that same year, Hugh, JJ, and Jet were imprisoned for allegedly starting a riot in Nice. |
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Amidst all of that, The Stranglers wrote and released some of their generation’s best music. Hugh was an amazing singer; while he was much more grating snarling, and angry in the early days, the progression of the band and its sound allowed him later to exhibit a different side of his vocal talents, which was melodic, smooth, and intricate. JJ was, arguably, one the best bass players to come out of Britain. His chords and riffs were incredibly catchy and expert. His energy and stage presence during their performances were youthfully enthusiastic, unrestrained, and definitely crowd-pleasing. Together, Hugh and JJ were adept guitarists whose sound meshed extremely well together on stage and in the studio. Jet’s simple drumming style layered perfectly with the band’s sound. Just the same, he had the skill to be a frantic hound on the drums; whether the tempo was sped up or slowed down during live performances, Jet kept up flawlessly. Dave, an already established musician (having played for other bands before joining the Stranglers), was a veritable master at the keyboards. It was his defining talent that gave The Stranglers their idiosyncratic, progressive sound and brought them to the foreground, standing out from the rest.
Their first album, Rattus Norvegicus, was one of the highest-selling albums during the punk-era in Britain. Between the mid-seventies and the mid-eighties, their noteworthy follow-ups included No More Heroes, The Raven (many fans consider this album to be the band’s best), The Gospel According to the Meninblack (a concept album heavily influenced by government conspiracy and the idea of life beyond Earth; it may also have been heavily influenced by Hugh’s suspected heroin use at the time), Feline, and Aural Sculpture. Among their more well-known singles include “No More Heroes”, “Straighten Out”, “Burning Up Time”, “Nice ‘N Sleazy”, “I Feel Like A Wog”, “Hanging Around”, “Peaches”, “(Get a) Grip (On Yourself)”, “Something Better Change”, “Duchess”, “5 Minutes”, “Don’t Bring Harry”, “Nuclear Device”, “Strange Little Girl”, “La Folie”, “Golden Brown”, and “No Mercy”. The Stranglers were known for their ability to evolve. Although marked as a punk band, the group incorporated sounds from several genres and flowed through elements of new wave, rock, goth, jazz, and even pop.
As rumours go, the current band members have not had one friendly word with Hugh since he left the group soon after the release of their tenth album, 10, in 1990. The resentment Hugh has expressed over the years towards his former band hasn’t been subtle. As the story goes, when he told his fellow band mates that he wanted to pursue a solo career, they were *ahem* less than ecstatic for him. Due to mounting animosity between Hugh and the rest of the group, his departure was neither shocking nor opposed. Nevertheless, no amount of bitterness has stopped him from singing the classic Stranglers tunes during his solo performances. Of course, he’s got every right to sing the songs he penned himself, but without the energy of the rest of the group to accompany him, the old songs don’t sound quite right.
Even The Stranglers sound a bit odd nowadays without their founding frontman at the microphone. When Hugh left, he was quickly replaced by Paul Roberts, who brought a new flavour to the songs and participated in four albums until his departure in early 2000. Roberts was subsequently replaced by a young Baz Warne, who is currently the band’s lead guitarist and singer, and has contributed to two more albums, making The Stranglers total an impressive sixteen records to date. Despite the new talent, and a self-proclaimed rejuvenation, the band will never regain that electrifying dynamic they once had with Hugh and maybe, it’s about time these old boys graciously call it quits.
Any expectation of Hugh returning to where many fans feel he belongs (maybe the guys could have a heartfelt, no-hard-feelings reunion, and bring together the original line-up for one last hurrah) is hopeless. The last time JJ reportedly tried to bury the hatchet with Hugh, there were some curt words over the phone and a swift hang-up. Seems Cornwell is quite happy to remain solo. As bleak as it is, it’s still nice to dream that impossible dream. As I hang on to the thought of a band that may soon be referred to only in the past tense, I’ll keep my playlist stocked with some of The Stranglers’ finest, pieces of frozen time from their best era — pre-split, post-punk, and eternally brilliant.
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