Kicking ass with Jean Jacques Burnel - ☆ Strangled.co.ukstrangled.co.uk/pdf/but01.pdf · Stranglers.” News quickly spread among the youth from the myriad of villages and towns

The Burning Up Times

Kicking ass withJean Jacques BurnelLatté withHugh Cornwell

Issue one: September 2005

Featured album:Black And White

Battersea exposed

Black And White on tour

Rock Goes To College uproar

Exclusive online Stranglers PDF

The Burning Up Times Issue one

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4 You have been informed20 things you really ought to know about Black And White

5 The road to RuanBearshanks Lodge uncovered

8 What an album! What a year! 1978We look back at Debbie Harry, Wonder Woman and other delights

11 Dissecting Dave�s organsEverything you ever wanted to know about Greenfield’s toys

19 Black and white innit?John Robb argues why Black And White is definitive post-punk

21 Total recall...A personal view of Black And White from Jim Drury

29 I was there!Battersea exposed!

31 I was there, two!Fans looks back at Bingley Hall and Lancaster University gigs

32 Cocks go to collegeHow storming off stage at the BBC cost the Stranglers dear

33 Rovers� returnVivid memories of the Northern Ireland tour

39 Means To MeFans old and new reminisce on Black And White


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In this issue…

EditorialWelcome to issue one of The BurningUp Times, a brand new Stranglers PDFcreated on a shoestring by Stranglersfans. Each issue will be available whenit’s ready, and will focus on a particularyear and a particular album.

And here in issue one you canindulge yourself in all things Black AndWhite. It’s 1978 again! Throw on atank top and get a basin haircut! Digout your vinyl copy of the LP and turn itup loud!

There are exclusive interviews withband members, along with articles byestablished writers as well as fans on amyriad of related topics and themes.

There is also, hidden somewhere inthis issue, a hyperlink to a rare unofficiallive recording from Madrid (19 May1978). Happy hunting!

Thank you to everyone whosupported this issue and helped us out.Special thanks to JJ Burnel, HughCornwell, Jim Drury, David Fagence,Jamie Godwin, Alastair Graham,Stephen Howard, Tony Kinson, JackieMacKay, Donald MacKay, Jim Radley,Stephen Reid, John Robb and TheStratfords.

The Burning Up TimesIssue oneSeptember 2005

In The Shadows

Burning Up Times is published when it’s ready. It is available free of charge from the website and you are free to distribute it to whoever you want. Issue one, In TheShadows, September 2005. © Planet Earth Editor: Gary Kent Production Editor: Dominic Pilgrim Webmaster: Ian Keiller Contributors: Chris Alderton, Billy Bragg, GaryCook, Jim Drury, Jamie Godwin, Stephen Howard, Richard Kolkman, Donald MacKay, John Robb, Carl Sanderson, Barry Spooner, Mark Tall, Eric Vonk, Al Wallis,Damian Franklin, Mike Contact: [email protected] Website: www.strangled.co.uk

12

JJ Burnel remembers 1978,Bearshanks and all that...JJ Burnel remembers 1978,Bearshanks and all that...

22

Hugh Cornwell trawls hismemories of creating BlackAnd White

Hugh Cornwell trawls hismemories of creating BlackAnd White


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11 Black And White was the firstStranglers LP written to order.

22 Each side was to be divided intoHugh’s music and JJ’s lyrics andvocals – with JJ’s music and Hugh’slyrics and vocals on the other.

33 The band originally wanted whitevinyl on the White side of the LP.

44 Bearshanks Lodge inNorthamptonshire was the place theband wrote the album. It wasowned by musician andphotographer Ruan O’Lochlainn,whose remit was take the frontcover picture.

55 Teenager Billy Bragg was one of thefirst to hear the songs at Bearshanks.

66 It is their only album to not featurethe Stranglers name on the cover.

77 It is probably the first album tofeature Morse Code in a song,which was invented by SamuelMorse. The first dot-dash-dotmessage in 1844, read: “What hathGod wrought?” In a similar vein, themessage in Enough Time read: “Thisis planet Earth, we are fucked!” –courtesy of Mr. -.. .- …- .

Greenfield.

88 Frank Sinatra’s lawyers objected tothe title of Nice ‘n’ Sleazy. Theythought it was too similar to Nice‘n’ Easy. Though the hair colourantof that name didn’t receive suchattention from the crooner’s legaleagles. Keep your toupee on,Frank!

99 Nice ‘n’ Sleazy is about touring theUS and the Dutch Hell’s Angels.

1100Shut Up! is the shortestStranglers’ B-side at 6 secondsover the minute mark.

1111JJ wrote the music for ToilerOn The Sea inNorthamptonshire and Hugh

wrote the lyrics in Morocco. Thetitle comes from a novel by Frenchwriter Victor Hugo. 80s electronicband A Flock Of Seagulls tooktheir name from the lyrics in themiddle 8 section.

1122According to JJ, Threatened wasinspired by a conversation onarchitecture. It built up from

there. Built up from there…! Boom,boom...

1133Sweden (All Quiet On TheEastern Front) could have beena single. A video was filmed.

1144In Sverige, ‘Jag Ar Insnoad PaEstfronten’ means ‘I am snowedin on the Eastern Front.’

1155A video was made for Nice ‘n’Sleazy, but never shown. Theband rejected it. “It was

terrible!” JJ told The Burning UpTimes in 2005.

1166Hugh directed a video forWalk On By, based onMichelangelo Antonioni’s 1966

cult classic, Blow Up. It was shotin Maryon Park, Charlton, southeastLondon where the film featuresheavily.

1177The Walk On By video featuredthe two guest musicians on theB-side, Old Codger: well-known

jazz man George Melly – and aninfamous harmonica virtuoso andwild man of R’n’B by the name ofLew Lewis. Lew, real name KeithLewis, lived in West Road inWestcliffe-On-Sea. In December1986, he robbed a post office of£5,386 with an imitation pistol. Thepost office was in the same roadwhere he lived. He got seven years.

1188Tank and Walk On By wereoriginally intended as a doubleA-side release.

1199The album was released onMay 12th. It was also BurtBacharach’s birthday, the co-

writer of Walk On By.

2200It went straight in at No.2 inthe albums charts. The albumthat stopped them hitting the

top spot? Saturday Night Fever.‘Well, you can tell by the way I usemy walk…’ ❏

You have been informed20 things you should know about Black And White...


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FOR TWO snow-swept months duringthe white winter of 1977-78, TheStranglers stayed at Bearshanks Lodge

near Oundle, Northamptonshire to write acollection of songs that became Black AndWhite, their most abrasive and bravestalbum to date.

Bearshanks was an old ramblingfarmhouse that bordered RockinghamForest, owned by a bohemian couple DaiDavies knew from London’s pub rockscene. Photographer Jackie and Irishmulti-instrumentalist and bon viveur RuanO’Lochlainn met in the mid 1960s,married, and moved out of the hustle and

bustle of West London in 1975. “Wealways had this dream of having a housein the country with a studio,” said Jackie,who is now in her mid-60s. “We foundBearshanks – which was basically a pile ofstones – and we loved the location. Weput in a bid in a Dutch Auction – wherewe said we’d bid £50 more than anyoneelse’s bid – it was all very controversial –but we got it. It cost us £4,500.”

Over the phone, Jackie immediatelycomes across as a lovely woman, sweetand extremely helpful. But in the earlydays of their residency, it was evident notall the locals appreciated this strange new

hippy couple in wellies and Laura Ashleygarb.

“They didn’t like us much, and thisfarmer dumped a huge pile of manureopposite our home, just to let us know ourplace. So Ruan wrote a song about it, withlyrics based around us going to thecountry for some peace of mind andfinding a pile of shit instead.

“He then contacted Esther Rantzen’sThat’s Life TV programme and sung tothem down the phone. By the time he’dfinished, they said: “Right – we’re sendingup a team! So when they came with thefilm crew, Ruan jumped on top of themanure with his mandolin and performedthe song with Riff Raff while I went aboutspraying a can of air freshener!”

Surrounded by flat arable fields andlittle else, the old farmhouse lies at theend of a long lane in the middle ofnowhere. Once the renovation workbegan, a 50ft studio was set up for bandsto practise and record four-track demos.Their first ad in Melody Maker went out inthe summer of 1977.

“Billy Bragg was the first person tocall. I actually named his band Riff Raff,and I became their roadie, driving them togigs in my old BRS lorry. I’d make a stewto take along and after the gig, we’d allend up in the back of this old lorry havinga great time.

The second phone call came fromPierre Moerlin from the progressive band,Gong. They used to get up really early andrehearse. I once saw their drummer setting

up his kit – out in the cornfield! Then afterthat, we got a booking from TheStranglers.”

News quickly spread among the youthfrom the myriad of villages and towns inthe area. Although it was doubtful whetherany of them had ever seen The Stranglersbefore. Billy Bragg: “When me and RiffRaff went into town in our ripped jeans,everyone thought WE were The Stranglers!All the girls wanted kisses and autographs,and their boyfriends would be waitinground the corner to kick our heads in!”

Soon teenage Billy moved in andbecame a bit of a handy man. “I lookedafter the goats, although, I remember oneday they all escaped, went into the houseand chewed through a reel of quarterinch tape!”

Dinner with The StranglersJackie also recalled the day The Stranglersarrived, but she soon sensed something hadbeen troubling the band about thearrangements at Bearshanks. They decidedthey wanted the place solely forthemselves. “They were realIy sweet, andextremely apologetic, and they didn’t quiteknow how to ask us. Anyway, it was okaywith us – we moved out to a rented cottagein a nearby village. But that evening, Icooked dinner for all of us at Bearshanks,and we all sat round our enormous kitchentable, including my two little nippers,Oscar and Finn, plus The Stranglers.

“Traditionally, my two never ate muchdinner, so we always ended up finishing

Calling occupants of Bearshanks Lodge! Gary Kent tracks down residents past and present of theisolated farmhouse that gave birth to the Stranglers’ Black And White album

The road to Ruan

Bearshanks Lodge in 1982

The Stranglers arrived with Hell’s Angels andFinchley Boys. One thing I’ll never forget isJet being the mummy of the band. He sentHugh and JJ miles off to the shops to getsome food and gave them a £10 note – andthey came back with a tenner's-worth ofWagon Wheels! Billy Bragg


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off their plates. On this night, everyone atelike horses, and there wasn’t that muchleft over for seconds. I offered JJ Finn’sleftovers, and Ruan was completelygobsmacked by what I’d done – offeringThe Stranglers Finn’s leftovers! I rememberthe shame and embarrassment of it all –and there were The Stranglers all fallingabout laughing! They all thought it washilarious. But we left that night so theycould write their album, and we stayed inthe cottage. We came to visit them, andgot to know them.

“I remember that the first thing you’dhear when you came up the road was JJ’sbass. You could hear it as clear asanything – and then as you got nearer, thedrums. It was quite amazing when youarrived at the place. But of course, theyweren’t disturbing anybody – everybodycould do exactly what they wanted.”

Flying shoes and shaggingJJ had seen an old caravan in the groundsand claimed it as his bedroom. He hadbeen handed a telephone number of ayoung female fan when they set off forBearshanks, and one day he called andsent a car to collect the girl from thestation. In the caravan that night on anevening the O’Lochlainn’s came down,poor seven-year-old Finn got a fright.

Recalls Jackie: “Finn burst into thecaravan and he found JJ and the girl, shallwe say, having some fun! JJ threw a shoeat him telling him to ‘bugger off’ and hecame running into the house, crying: ‘JJ’shurting the girl!’ We had to explain to himthat JJ is not hurting her and it was allperfectly okay. ‘But JJ threw a shoe at me!’He said, sobbing.”

Billy recalled the bands urgency ingetting the job done with Hugh the mostdetermined, and JJ the most approachable.“We did a gig in a nearby pub and JJ

came down to watch. The second or thirdsong in, we did Go Buddy Go and JJ gotup onstage and sung it with us. It wassuperb.” Riff Raff guitarist Wiggyremembered seeing Hugh’s old Telecastersitting there in the studio, along side JJ’sbass and Hi-Watt amps, with bits of paperwith scrawled out lyrics strewn all overthe floor.

One Saturday night, Wiggy came intothe lounge to find the band watching thefilm ‘The Boston Strangler’ on television.“I just thought it was quite funny.” Hesaid. “We later got the support slot on theBlack And White tour when The Stranglersplayed Peterborough Wirrina Stadium. I’venever had to scrape so much gob of myguitar! But it was great fun, obviously asign of appreciation!”

An indelible impact was also made onJackie, who had nothing but praise for TheStranglers 27 years later: “They were allsuch incredibly decent people.” She said.

“They were just fantastic. I had a greatgame of chess with Hugh, and for me itwill always be a highlight. He was highlyintelligent, very much an intellectual,always concerned about world affairs,always with an informed opinion. If youlooked at Hugh, though, you wouldn’tthink of him as someone in a band,would you?”

The Stranglers playing chess featured inNME Teazers section the day 5 Minuteswas released. “That goat in the photo isFelicity,” Jackie remarked, “but we alsonamed a sweet little white billy goat afterJJ. I’d love to see JJ again. He was one ofmy favourites. Had it not been for JJ, Oscarwouldn’t be the bass player he is today.”

One day, Jackie found a scrap book Jethad left lying on the kitchen table andstarted flicking through it. It containedcuttings of all the press reviews of theband. When he returned, Jackie told him:“Jet – there’s not one good review here,

how come?” And he just laughed it off. ButI loved Jet. Jet Black was a gentle, beautifulguy, always looking out for people, alwaysthinking about the little things. He wasfatherly. He seemed to underpin thecamaraderie of the band.

“I don’t remember much about Dave,though.”

Armed with the new Black And Whiterepertoire written and rehearsed, the bandembarked on a small UK tour beforerecording commenced at TW Studios inFulham with producer Martin Rushent.Meanwhile, both Billy and Wiggy wereback at base to greet the teenage girlswho’d come up after school in search ofThe Stranglers. But late one night, Jackietoo found herself with some unexpectedvisitors. All alone one night – the childrenstaying with friends and Ruan in London –a deafening roar came from down the lane,marking the arrival of a 15-strong gang ofHell’s Angels motoring up to Bearshanks.

The scene of many an infamous nosh up


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“They said they’d come to see TheStranglers.” Jackie recalled. “So I said:‘They’ve gone’ and one of them, calledMoose, came out with a few expletives,and said they were really tired after thelong journey. So I invited them in, all ofthem, and sat them around the table andfed them toast and crumpets and cookedthem anything I could find in the freezer.

“Afterwards they each got their stashout – grass, hash, all different kinds andeverything – and laid it all out right downthe middle of the table. All I can say is thatit was one hell of an evening! They wereincredibly nice guys, The Essex Chapter. Iwas a woman alone in the middle ofnowhere, but I never felt safer. Once they’drested, they drove off into the night. Mooseand I kept in touch and became mates andwe’d often go out for a drink and he’ddrive me around on his motorbike.”

Sadly the one person I couldn’t talk toabout Bearshanks was Ruan, thephotographer of Black And White’s iconicmonochrome cover. Ruan passed awaysome years back from pulmonary cancer.

“They discovered cancer on his lung. Theysaid cancer was the cause on the deathcertificate, but he didn’t die from that. Hehad a successful operation to remove it –only, they left a little piece of bonesticking into something, so he was indesperate pain, and they just thought hewas putting it on. They kept giving himaspirin – he had so much aspirin that itshot his stomach lining and he died ofstarvation about six weeks after theoperation. It was just so unnecessary.”

Colourful and characterfulRuan led a colourful life. Having played informer Small Face Ronnie Lane’s SlimChance and pub rockers Bees MakeHoney in the mid-70s, Ruan had areputation for wild nights. Even from theconfines of the audience, such was histalent he’d jump up onstage and play akiller riff on the keyboards or thesaxophone, blowing both the band andthe crowd away in the process.

“Ruan was such a fantastic character –but he drank a lot. He was a total James

Joyce Irishman, and I was too naïve at thetime to handle that. I was a righteous oldcow. Anyway, we split up... the constantpressure of money… I moved out. Butwhen times were rough for him, I’d alwaysturn up at Bearshanks with a big pile ofgroceries. But he ended up letting thingsgo. He once ran out of oil for the heating,it all went to pot and he went back toIreland for a couple of years. So we soldBearshanks.”

For the cosmopolitan hippy couple inthe wellies, the rural studio dream wasover by 1979/80. Bearshanks was brieflyowned by a music promoter before beingsold to the present owners, a charmingcouple from the teaching profession in1982. Life at Bearshanks should havequietened down, but late one night, thenew owners were awakened by aterrifying police visit, with dogs.

A fugitive was on the loose, andfollowing a tip-off from a local, the policearrived to search the place from top tobottom. Finding nothing, they left and theordeal was over. But a short whileafterwards, the couple discovered a falsefloorboard cut out in one of the upstairsrooms. They prised it open to reveal a bagfull of dried aromatic leaves – fortunately,the police had overlooked that.

Today, Bearshanks Lodge itself hasn’treally changed much from the earlyphotos seen here in 1982. Neither has thedivide between locals and newcomers,although no one dumps piles of dungoutside peoples’ doorsteps anymore.“We’ve only recently been accepted in thevillage,” Polly Stratford remarked. “Evenafter all these years!”

Bearshanks Lodge has a profoundhistory. For Riff Raff fans, it was the birthplace of I Wanna Be A Kosmonaut andRomford Girls. For Stranglers fans, theexperimental Black And White album. I

wonder how that would have ended uphad Bearshanks been prettier, moreverdant, and filled with spring buttercupsand meadows? For it was also here that Jetdevoured the pages of The Flying SaucerReview, chancing upon the relativelyunreported enigma of the Men In Black.

Unremarkable in many ways,Bearshanks is remarkable all the same forproviding warmth and shelter to theO’Lochlainn family, and the realisation oftheir bohemian dream, howevermercurial. But listening to the eloquentand frank Jackie, you sense an enormousamount of unresolved business. Perhaps itwas attributed to more than Ruan’suntimely death. “It was awfully sad… Butif I could have my life over again, Iwouldn’t have left Ruan… It is my biggestregret still to this day.” ❏

A huge thank you to Jackie MacKay, BillyBragg, Wiggy and to The Stratfords for allowingus to visit and for providing us with theBearshanks Lodge photographs.

The Essex chapter finally tracks down Mr Burnel

Ruan with his sax


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IF someone said: name three things from1977, you could bet your best tank topthey’d say Punk, the Silver Jubilee and

Elvis Presley dying. And while most music-led retrospectives focus on the controversysurrounding the Sex Pistols, to propermusic aficionados, the year undoubtedlybelonged to the Stranglers: two top fivealbums in the charts at the same time andthree Top 10 singles (Peaches andSomething Better Change passed eachother in the top 30). Backed up with over130 sell out gigs across the UK made theStranglers one of the biggest bands by thetime the year of Punk, the Jubilee and thedeath of the King came to an end.

In 1978, The Stranglers looked to buildupon their success – writing albumnumber three cocooned at a remote snow-

filled location in the middle of nowhere.News leaked out that JJ quit the band, andHugh had already predicted to journaliststhat the band probably wouldn’t last theyear. In fact it seemed the whole punkscene was in danger of imploding as bythe end of January Johnny Rotten had quitthe Sex Pistols during an acrimonious UStour (“Ever get the feeling you’ve beencheated?”) and the Damned announcedthey were calling it a day (for the first ofmany times) and a farewell tour wasmooted. To add to the woes of punkseverywhere, the charts suggested thesupposed revolution had made littleimpact on the music scene: Wings’ Mull ofKintyre topped the singles chartthroughout the month with compilationalbum Disco Fever heading the LP charts.

Punk apathy and decline continued,and in February, leading punk teen-fanzine Sniffin’ Glue called it a day. Thenit was Abba’s turn for world domination inboth the singles and album charts.Thankfully, The Stranglers stuck together,and emerged from nowhere to perform alow-key mini-tour of pubs usingpseudonyms like “The Old Codgers” and“The Shakespearoes” to dissuade anyattention. The tour coincided with therelease of 5 Minutes which entered thecharts at No. 23 and backed up by avideo which showed the band at theirmenacing best peaked at No.11. At theend of the month they returned to thestudio with Martin Rushent, who had

produced both Rattus and Heroes, to startwork on Black And White. This wassomething that Anna Ford was only toohappy to relate as she became ITV’s firstfemale newsreader. (Or probably not!)

In March the Stranglers finishedrecording and tried to succeed where theSex Pistols had not by embarking on atour of the States. However, theyencountered the same hostility the Pistolshad earlier in the year and made fewfriends. The band as ever stood up toprovocation and a series of controversialstatements saw JJ issued with threeseparate death threats, with the bandreceiving an ultimatum from their USrecord company to shape up.

Meanwhile, Blondie had a debut hitwith Denis, as did Kate Bush with theNo.1, Wuthering Heights. The world’sbiggest super tanker disaster occurredwhen the Amoco Cadiz split in twopumping 220,000 tonnes of oil into theBrittany sea. Former Italian PM Aldo Morowas kidnapped in an ambush in Rome bythe left-wing Red Brigade. His body wasfound riddled with bullets 55 days later, inthe boot of a red Renault 5 parkedstrategically between the headquarters ofthe Communist Party and the rulingChristian Democrat Party. The Toriesrecruited Saatchi & Saatchi to revamptheir image in a move to topple Labour’s“Sunny” Jim Callaghan. Margaret Thatcherwas just around the corner…

Disco took a hold on the nation in

April as the phenomenon that wasSaturday Night Fever packed cinemas andtopped the singles and album charts.Grooves got fatter as the 12” record wasalso born. Close Encounters Of The ThirdKind made it to the UK cinemas.Meanwhile on BBC1, Grange Hill made itsfirst appearance to the delight of kidseverywhere and the dismay of parents andteachers. However the big event of themonth for Stranglers fans was the releaseof the single Nice ‘n’ Sleazy on April 21st.The taste of what might be expected onBlack And White – the white reggaetinged song met with mixed reviews fromthe press and the record buying publicreaching number 18 in the charts.

What an album! What a year! 1978Black And WhiteKate Bush.. Debbie Harry...Wonder Woman… plus Olivia Newton John dressed in skin-tight black Lycra? Stephen Howard wonders if 1978 could get any better

In May, in Perthshire, weatherwatchers recorded the biggest temperaturerange in Britain: -7°C in the morning, and22°C in the afternoon. The Swiss grave ofCharlie Chaplin was dug up and his coffinstolen. This was later discovered in a fielda mile away in Lausanne. Two motormechanics, inspired by a similar attemptin Italy were arrested and charged withstealing the coffin and extortion.

The Stranglers took a plane-load ofjournalists to Iceland for a few days for theofficial launch of Black And White. Thetrip was drink-fuelled and left one musichack stranded for being too inebriated forthe journey back.

Black And White, with advancedorders of 134,000 and backed by anextensive promotional campaign, wasreleased on May 12th and shot straight toNo. 2 in the charts, being held off top spotby the Night Fever soundtrack in theofficial charts. Only the NME album chartrecognised it at the top spot. A short tour

ensued, which saw both Jet and JJ arrestedfor a hotel incident in Glasgow, climaxingin a sell out gig at Stafford’s New BingleyHall.

In June, Naomi James broke the soloround-the-world sailing record. CricketerIan ”Beefy” Botham became the first manto score a century and take eight wicketsin one innings of a test match (ear). Hostnation Argentina won the World Cup,beating Holland 3-1. Ally’s Tartan Army –the Scottish Football Team – were knockedout in the first round, even though theybeat runners-up Holland 3-2!

Gimmick-hits came in the shape of CaPlain Pour Moi by Plastic Bertrand andThe Smurf Song. The band toured Europeduring the summer, surviving a riot inPortugal after a gig was cancelled at thelast minute through no fault of their own,and then returning to the States asprevious death threats issued against JJthankfully never materialised. Onreturning to London, JJ worked on his solo

LP, Euroman Cometh. Grease took overthe planet with John Travolta and OliviaNewton John topping the chartsthroughout the summer with You’re TheOne That I Want, something many a malewas thinking each Saturday night as LyndaCarter hit the TV screens in WonderWoman. Meanwhile in July Louise Brownfrom Oldham became the most famouskid on the planet being the first “test tubebaby” to be born.

The Stranglers regrouped in Augustready for the release of the single Walk onBy. With 75,000 copies having beinggiven away with Black And White, thesingle was a surprising choice. Backed byTank and the George Melly-sung OldCodger, it reached No. 21. September sawTop 20 hits from Sham 69, the BoomtownRats, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Jilted John,The Commodores, 10cc, David Essex andDarts. The Stranglers hit in the headlinesagain when, as part of a UK tour, theyplayed an open air gig at Battersea Park,performing an extended Nice ‘n’ Sleazy

backed by a line of strippers. By now theBoomtown Rats had finally knockedTravolta and Newton John off the top ofthe charts with Rat Trap, however by theend of the month the world was met withthe news that Pope John Paul had died just33 days after being elected. He wasreplaced by Pope John Paul II in Octoberwhilst at the same time Sid Vicious wascharged with the murder of his girlfriendNancy Spungen in New York. TheStranglers made the news before themonth was out as they stormed off thestage at Guildford University for the BBC’sRock Goes to College series following arow over ticket distribution.

Outrage occurred in political circles inNovember when Liberal Party MP JeremyThorpe was accused, and acquitted thefollowing year, of plotting to kill hisformer gay lover Norman Scott. The chartswere ignited by Blondie’s Hanging On TheTelephone and Public Image by PublicImage Ltd.

The Stranglers made more enemies,this time stateside, when they sent atelegram to A&M records in Americareading: “Get Fucked – Love TheStranglers” in a protest over lack of recordpromotion. To compound matters inDecember, producer Martin Rushent hadbeen working on new tracks with theband and mixing the forthcoming Live (X-Cert) album when he said he could nolonger work with the band after hearingthe track they had started working on,entitled Meninblack. The latter inspired analbum two years later, all from a UFOpublication Jet read the previous winter atBearshanks Lodge on the Men In Black.

Meanwhile, Boney M’s Mary’s BoyChild topped the Christmas charts,ensuring peace on Earth and goodwill toall men prevailed. Aaaw, Gawd Bless!Good old 1978! ❏


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Portrush 8/9/78 Pic: Alastair Graham

http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1970S/1978/PAK_IN_ENG/PAK_ENG_T2_15-19JUN1978.html


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Page 11

DAVE set up his Vox Continental,much in the same wayRay Manzarak

did when he tuned in,turned on anddropped out for TheDoors some yearsbefore. Ever heard LightMy Fire, or Break OnThrough? Yeah – that’s thesound Dave started out with.Unfortunately, it appears that thereare no existing recordings of thefledgling Stranglers with this particularkeyboard. Why? Dave soon upgraded tothe heavier and more famous HammondL100.

Everyone knows that one! HangingAround? The A minor stabs on the intro?The piercing, penetrating lines in I FeelLike a Wog? Original tone-wheelHammond organs arevery heavyinstruments, andlater on,Davediscoveredlightweightand morereliablesynthesisers with aHammond rack-mount soundmodule to replicate the old sounds.Chiropractors have since believed to havegone out of business – that’s how heavythis keyboard was! Ask the roadies.

Gaffer-taped andperched

somewhatprecariouslyon top of the

L100 was thesorely missed

Hohner Cembalet. Thisis the famous instrument that

produced the well-known melodyriffs in Heroes, Tank and Toiler and

many other early keyboard signatures.Sadly, Davemothballed theCembalet whenspare partsbecame toohard to find.In the currentworld of

technology, it has proveda challenge to totally replicate thisinstruments distinct sound. One

can wonder if a wizard likeDave can’t raise extinctinstruments Frankenstein-like, then who can?

The trustyMini Moog whichwas used oninstrumental freak-outs like Nubiles

and Nice ‘n’ Sleazy saton top of his rig up right up untilThe Raven era when the set-upchanges to accommodate the masses of

new analogue synths. Some greatpsychedelic sounds were got by feedingthe Hammond through it. Rememberthose glorious swirling phasings ontracks like Wog, Dead Ringer and Death& Night & Blood. Check out the breakin Curfew played live the next time youwatch The Old Testament video, andyou’ll know what I mean.

Once The Raven came out inSeptember ‘79, synths like the OberheimOB-XA were added, along with the

truly colossal Oberheim 4 Voiceand the Korg Vocoder. This lastsynth is well-knownfor Dave’s vocal partsfor Baroque Bordello,North Winds andAlways the Sun – notto mention JJ’sFreddie Laker. And

who could forget the tinyblack and yellow Wasp synthwith its unique flat keyboard?

During some gigs,another Oberheim sat

next to the MiniMoog. Was it

an OB1which he

used for thesample and

hold effect on JustLike Nothing On Earth?

Possibly. It was around thistime that the Hohner Cembalet

disappeared into dust to be replaced bythe touch-sensitive Yamaha CP30. Anyone

who has the video of the BatterseaPark gig can see Dave he uses it forthe chorus arpeggios on HangingAround. A big instrument!

According to Dave, the fastarpeggios on Toiler whereparticularly difficult to play onthe CP30 as it was touch-sensitive. Can you spot theOberheim 4 Voice on thisvideo too?

Well, that sums up the rig Daveemployed right up until 1979, althoughwhich Oberheim is played where might beopen to discussion. One might suspecteven Dave might beexcused fromrecalling suchanorakiandetails! ❏

The third keyboard player to be auditioned pitched up and plugged in. It was 1975. Pony-tailed and high-heeled, Brighton-born wizardDavid Paul Greenfield set up his organ and instantly impressed his would-be band mates, The Stranglers. Suddenly, the famouskeyboard sound was born. Jamie Godwin gets to grips with Dave’s early keyboards, tickling our oscillators in the process

Dissecting Dave’s organs

Vox Continental

Hammond L100

Mini Moog

Korg Vocoder

Hohner Cembalet

Oberheim 4 Voice

Yamaha CP30


Page 12

CALL me a perceptive, insightful oldfool if you must – but I thought Icould detect a subtle hint of

sarcasm in Jean Jacques Burnel’s clipped“Thanks, Gary.”

The big superbike belonging to ourbass-playing black-belted icon had stalledright before me as it mounted the kerb,leaving the rider momentarily marooned,with half a tonne of motionless metalbetween his legs.

I’m at the Barbican, Thursday 30 June,2005. Having just arrived outside JJ’sCentral London dojo – following a pissand a swift pint of Dutch courage in thepub on the corner – I slide open myphone and check the time. It’s just gone 5o’clock and there’s a text message here.It’s from JJ.

Is he about to cancel the interview, Iwondered? I open the inbox as I takeshelter from the summer rain beneath themodern cloisters adjacent. A quick glancein the direction of Chiswell Street, andone of the capital’s seemingly ubiquitouscourier bikes purrs unobtrusively along thecobbles. Or so I think.

The rider slows up, his eyes brieflymeet mine, probably prowling for aplace to park before mounting the kerb,and pduff... The engine stalls halfwayonto the pavement. Off comes thehelmet, and a fit-looking and furtive JJappears. Still astride his bike, he single-handedly steers the now-silent Triumphtowards its bike bay.

“Thanks, Gary. For the help.”

I add to the feint rhetoric withsomething along the lines of not gettinginvolved with anything less than fourwheels on it. “New bike, is it?” I playfullyventure while JJ alights his macho machinewith a cocked leg and a cockier grin.

“Yeah – good old Triumph!” He straightens up his clothing, and we

walk up the steps to the airy foyer of thefitness club that houses his dojo.

“I texted you about 10 minutes ago,”he says, “to see if you were here yet.”

“Yes, I just got that – I was in the, err,car park. Probably…”

We sat down together at a teak table bythe bar, away from the clanking pool tableand the tennis on the telly. Little did Iknow just what a sonic impact thesewould play on the interview’s mini-cassette when I got home. Meanwhile, thedank smell of distant deodorant andmuscle-bound men filled thecosmopolitan health and fitness centre.

I couldn’t help being reminded of the16-year-old lad living in Leytonstone: anacne-faced adolescent who sat watchingJJ’s experimental Euroband play to anempty auditorium at Gants Hill Odeon inApril 1979. It was an amazing spectacle,with so few choosing to witness it – notone kid from my school went. Not onlydid I have the whole of the stalls to myselfand an unobstructed view, but I feltprivileged to be allowed inside what feltlike a private gig, especially watching JJ

JJ Burnel talks to Gary Kent about new songs, Black And White, why Sweden is off the smorgasbord and the trouble with Jet

Euroman cometh and all that

JJ in Covent Garden in 1999, a bit younger then... Pic: Ian Keiller

Interview: 30 June 2005


Page 13

lovingly drag his sluggish Bonneville beastonstage to roar and splutter through theinstrumental Triumph Of The Good City.

“Yes, cos Bonneville means good city– and it was also one of the titles in Plato’sRepublic.”

Jean Jacques Burnel was in a goodmood after all: I think he likes dishing outa little cheeky banter to start with. He’slike me, except he got in there first. Wepoured our pots of tea into service station-style tea cups and sipped our glasses oficed water. Conversation was easy andbuoyant as I studiously set up myDictaphone and paperwork with all theprompters neatly in front of me. JJ quizzedthe Euro-garcon who served us:

“I know that accent, where is it from?”He asked. “Aah, I had a girlfriend fromthere. She was a famous dancer. You knowher…?”

With a view to getting the interviewunder way, our Stranglers small talk wentas effortlessly into something far moreintellectually uplifting and stimulating,something deep and thought-provoking…

The Battersea Park strippers!

“Well, I was seeing a girl called Tracey,”recalled JJ. “She had a flat she shared withher sister Jane, who was 16 – along withLinda, who’d been a girlfriend of CareyFortune – one of our very first fans whenwe were playing the Nashville Rooms ona regular basis, and later became thedrummer for Chelsea. We called himMutant… he was also our roadie. He wasa bit of a body builder, although he wasonly about five ft nothing – but he wasalso quite a violent little bloke – he had alot of issues… Anyway, Linda was living inthe flat and she offered to strip for us onNice ‘n’ Sleazy at the Brighton ConferenceCentre first. So she did that. It was very

un-PC even in 1978, but we’d beenaccused of sexism ever since the first lineon the first album. For the Battersea gigthat summer, Linda asked if she couldbring some friends along who would bemore than willing to show them who’s incontrol. Jane of course, volunteeredherself, and she was one of the highlightsof that video. She was stunning.

You still in touch with any of the girls?

No. I lost touch with Tracey and Jane,although I did speak to them a few yearsago, but Tracey had issues with me: shedidn’t like the way we split up. But Janebecame a world expert in dolphins.

What else do you remember aboutBattersea?

I’d burned my hand on the exhaust on myTriumph Bonneville, cleaning it orsomething. So I wore a white bandageround my wrist to stop it rubbing on thestrings cos it was very painful. I remembersome Finchley Boys there, and going backto Tracey and Jane’s flat in Ealing after thegig. There was one guy from Sheffield whoI met after one of the gigs who was there –he died shortly after that in police custody.

He was a fan?

Yeah, we used to meet fans sometimes inhotel bars – we never cut ourselves offfrom fans – it was a great way to meetgirls too!

After two albums in six months, how comeyou set to work so quickly on the third?

Well we hadn’t really written for a while.We’d done Rattus and No More Heroes,and apart from a few songs, maybe, we


Page 14

hadn’t written any new stuff. So, we hadquite a lot of ideas already, because we’dbeen collecting ideas, so there were lotsof songs ready to be written.

You already had 5 Minutes, didn’t you?

We had that on the No More Heroes tourat the end of 77 that’s right. But we didn’tput it on an album which was kind of sillyreally.

Bit like Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane noton Sgt Pepper’s..?

Well, we did all the wrong commercialmoves, if you want. In retrospect, I think itwas quite a nice thing to do.

Nowadays if you had a hit single,you’d want it on an album. But at thetime, we had a certain way of thinking.

Did you feel under any pressure to writethe next hit?

Yeah – the management desperatelywanted us to write. They’d been buildingan empire: they had moved from a littleoffice in Wandsworth to a big building inOxford Street and we were living in squatsand floors.

So were your royalties yet to comethrough at that stage?

No, they would have started coming in.They gave us a bit of money but we hadn’tdone much about it. I think Hugh was stillliving at his friend’s flat in EgertonGardens, off the Brompton Road. Isometimes slept on the floor there alongwith some college mates of Hugh’s. I thinkeveryone at the end of 78 was looking for

houses. We had money. But before then,after Chiddingfold, I wasn’t livinganywhere. I was living where I could. Ispent at lot of time round Tracey’s,although I was a bit naughty… I was like akid in a sweet shop: I had a lot ofgirlfriends, and I had a lot of thingsavailable to me. I was a young, good-looking boy with a motorcycle, and I sleptwherever I felt like it.

When the chance of living atBearshanks for a couple of months cameup, I jumped at it. I remember everyonewent away for Christmas, and Dave wasmarried by then, and they all had families.I didn’t have any family or anything. So Ispent the whole of Christmas atBearshanks with various girlfriendscoming up to keep me company.

But in all that time, I’d been muckingabout with guitars, playing and writing afew riffs and songs. I remember coming upwith Toiler – as much as Hugh likes to thinkhe did it – it’s definitely a JJ kinda song!

You hummed the melody line to Hugh,didn’t you?

I was actually playing it with Dennis ofthe Finchley Boys. He drummed to it.

Was he a drummer?

Naah, but he could sorta keep time. Therehearsal room was right next door to thehouse, and one night I started assemblingthe parts to what became Toiler On TheSea. The lyrics were written by Hughfollowing a disastrous Christmas holidaywith a very pretty Japanese girl toMorocco.

Suddenly the chime of JJ’s mobile went asa tinny Toreador 1 rang out from his

Nokia. It’s that annoying ring tone youhear in restaurants, pubs and the tube.Even the Crazy Frog would have been lessannoying, and more appropriate, to adegree.

“It’s not my phone, Sil got me this. Ilost my one. Hello?”

For JJ’s karate students, tonight was thebig one: it was the heats and a chance forthem to impress the boss. While karate-talk ensued between the caller and the 6th

Dan, I couldn’t help wondering what itwould be like getting in a tangle with themaster, and me – a complete and uttermartial arts no-hoper, but nevertheless aforce to be reckoned with in an arm-wrestling tournament.

Could a surprise flick of a fist breakthe man? Stun him long enough to floorhim with a forearm smash? Would hereturn with quality kyokoshinkai – or justa swift kick to my nether regions as if hewas aggressing an aggravating musicscribe from the late 70s, swatting himdead like an annoying fly in the ointment?Last year Goldblade’s John Robb confidedto me JJ hurled him across the room – andthat was just practice!

Did you do need to do demos for BlackAnd White?

No, we didn’t do demos in those days. Wedo now. In two weeks we’ll start demoingthree to four new tunes which arecompletely under our belt. There are aboutseven songs we’re kicking about with.

You’re working full-on for the nextalbum, aren’t you?

Yeah, yeah. Y’know in music, when you’reon a creative roll, it would be crazy toignore it. We want it to get it right.

Belfast Ulster Hall 7/9/78 Pic: Alastair Graham


Page 15


5 Minutes uncovered

What are the French bits at the end of 5 Minutes?

It's a long time ago. Let me think. Is it: “ma pauvre chouchou enculée?” Or “cherie enculée?” That means “my poordarling who was…”, well, it can’t really be translated.Enculée is the worst French word you can think of. Youcan’t say it in France, but basically, it means ‘fucked over’,or buggered.

This is when I rented a flat off Wilko in West End Lane,West Hampstead. Wilko’s mistress lived there, and so did agirl called Susie, who worked for the Pistols.

The summer of ‘77 was a great one, but when we allcame back at the end of summer, we found out Susie hadbeen raped there at knifepoint by five black guys – a merefive minutes from Bishop’s Avenue, the richest road inLondon.

Before that it was an amazing place to live – there’dsometimes be Lemmy, The Clash, the Pistols.

I even remember one night giving Steve Jones a copy ofRattus. Everyone loved Wilko, and Billy Idol used to staythere… and so did Steve Strange, who I shared a small bedwith... But the magic had been destroyed, and I thinkMotorhead ended up taking over the flat. So it’s somethinglike: “Et si je les trouve, ma pauvre chou chou enculée, jeles aurais.” – “And if I find them, my poor darling who was‘fucked over’, I will have ‘em.”


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For Norfolk Coast, you went away toHunstanton to write songs. Recently, youwent to Looe in Cornwall didn’t you?

Yeah, me and Baz. I get on very well withBaz, he’s been a complete shot in the armfor the band. I mean, he even plays aTelecaster like Hugh did. But when I wentto Norfolk, Baz wasn’t in the band.

Do all stay over at Charlton Farm, Sil’sstudio complex?

Well, Jet commutes as he only lives about40 minutes away. Baz is in Frome, Davestill lives up in Cambridgeshire, but heoccasionally stays in, and I stay wherever Ifeel like staying. I’ll sleep in the barn, orin Baz’s house…

It sounds a bit like the Bearshanks era?

Yeah, it does. Just with a bit more moneyin my pocket, flashier motorcycles. I’mstill a kind of nomad really. I have asleeping bag always in the back of my car.

What other memories of Bearshanks doyou have? Was it a derelict shit-hole?

No. But it was a bit farmy. The roomswere cosy, and I liked the idea of havingsomewhere to live for a while. Andbecause we had so many ideas anyway, itwasn’t an effort. On the first day we justwanted to make as much noise aspossible, get some booze and have aparty. I remember we wrote Shut Up therein 10 minutes. I also remember gettingLaura Logic up there to rehearse with uson Hey! (Rise Of The Robots).

In ‘No Mercy’ it says you arrived withHell’s Angels and Finchley Boys. Is thattrue?

No... No Hell’s Angels. Finchleys yes,because Dennis used to drive us in ourband car, which was a Ford GranadaGhia... “Hi…”

M. Burnel’s gaze was distracted by afemale member of staff from the centre; atall elegant Swedish-looking beauty withher long blonde locks scraped back,dressed in a tight white blouse and aneven tighter black skirt. I’d already spokento her when JJ went to the loo, and Imomentarily fell in love just minutesbefore. Now it was JJ’s turn to flirt,cunningly using the subject of food to lureher with his enticing charms.

“Hi. Hello. How are you? Are you onduty tonight? Cuz I think one of my girlswas inquiring about some sandwichesbeing laid on. It’s for the karate club. Isthat okay at such short notice..?”

It was okay, apparently. I think mostthings could become ‘at short notice’ rightnow as her delicious curves disappearedround into the aluminium kitchen area.

…No, definitely not Hell’s Angels. Dennis,possibly Steve [Hillier], Daddy and a fewothers. They often went around in aconvoy anyway.

Who were you closest to around thetime?

Hugh. Hugh and I were as thick asthieves.

Didn’t you write the beginnings ofEuroman Cometh here?

Crabs was the first song. Oh, I rememberwhen I started recording that, at TWStudios – I had nowhere else to sleep. I’d

just been given the key and when MartinRushent and everyone left, I’d sleep therein the studio. I got stoned with someFinchley Boys, and set about doing Crabs.

The lyric – bring me a piece of mymummy, she was quite close to me. Whatwas that all about?

Er, well, it’s er…

Threatened.

Threatened, yeah. Erm, one night I wentout with these people in London who Ithink were to do with Rough Trade,funnily enough, and we were talkingabout the architecture in London, and Iwas saying: it’s not bad, I rather like it.Some of it I do, some of it I don’t – andI said: opinions aren’t really important,they should just exist unless theythreaten you.

It went on to things that arethreatening, narcissism – a mish-mash ofphilosophical ideas, and one of them wasbecause I enjoyed shocking people withthe subject of cannibalism, cos it was kindof an interesting fetish, eating people… Ican’t remember the whole logicalsequence 27 years on…

The likes of Hey! And Enough Time werefiller tracks for the album, according toStranglers literati?

I wouldn’t describe them as filler tracks,cos it was quite weird, experimental stuff– sometimes you succeed, but you don’tknow where or how it’s going to go.They’re not great classic numbers but Iwouldn’t call them filler tracks. We hadother filler tracks… But I don’t thinkanyone in the band would say “Oh, wejust need three minutes to fill up.”

But that’s what Martin Rushent stated inNo Mercy – there’s about three or fourminutes of time left, we need anothersong. You had a bass line already andEnough Time developed from there.

He did? Oh well, that’s possible.

Morse coding in Enough Time – This isplanet Earth – we are fucked, whose ideawas that?

You know, I don’t know.

Dave?

I assume he played it, but we had to findout off someone… don’t forget there wereideas coming fast and furious, somecrazier than others.

Dividing the songs between you andHugh, the White side and the Black –how did that come about?

Everything was getting polarised for us.Being cast aside by our own peer group,so to speak, and a developing siegementality. We said: Fuck ‘em, we don’tcare – we’ll be all alone. All these socalled mates of ours, fuck ‘em – you’reeither with us or against us. We didn’tfucking care – it was even more so TheStranglers versus the rest of them. With thesiege mentality, we didn’t care, and wewere sufficiently strong enough to getaway with it, so it was an expression ofour times.

We saw everything in black and white.Everything was polarised, we werepolarised and we started to be aware wecould be quite global physically and alsointellectually questioning. So we thoughtone side could be melodic, and the otherside brutal, hard and soft – because The


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Stranglers always had a brutal side as wellas a melodic side.

Do you think the Black And White albumworked?

At the time it worked – it went straight inat Number 2. I think it was quiterevolutionary at the time. Since, it’sbecome a reference point for a lot ofpeople, and only now they’ll admit to it asan influence. You couldn’t mention TheStranglers. Now it’s almost hip to.

In No Mercy it says you quit the bandafter a stormy argument at Bearshanks,with your management having to patch itup. Why was that?

I don’t know. I don’t remember that.

Do you remember Billy Bragg staying atBearshanks?

Billy, yes. He was alright then, it’s justlater on he was up his own arse with hispolitics, I thought.

And Ruan O’Lochlainn?

Ruan was quite an eccentric, lovely guy.He’s dead, isn’t he? Probably frombooze… He loved his drink. He was intobooze, drugs, everything. He’s been insome bands from the pub rock scene andDai Davies and Derek Savage knew himrunning a few pubs – the Red Cow, TheNashville Rooms, playing the Hope &Anchor on a regular basis.

He took the cover shot of Black AndWhite at Bearshanks too, did he?

Yes, but I can’t remember where that wastaken, maybe in a studio somewhere. But

there were shots taken of us playing chessout in the snow in the garden. Was it FinCostello who took some of those blackand white shots? Jet’s the one who wouldhave copies of everything. He’s thearchivist, he’s the band historian.

Only two pictures came from that session– the other appeared on the back of theSverige single. Black And White wasunusual in that the two front men weren’tto the fore. How did that come about?

I’ve no idea, we may have thought aboutit ourselves. I wonder if Ruan’s widow hasany of those? Actually, Ruan’s soncontacted me a few years ago saying hestarted up as a bass player in a bandbecause of me.

Martin Rushent didn’t like some of yourmaterial, did he?

Wasn’t that The Raven stuff when westarted parting company?

In No Mercy it says as early as In TheShadows in late 77 he dismissed the lessmelodic Stranglers songs – he said hethought it wasn’t really a song.

Well, he was onto a good money maker,though. I remember when we went to theBlack And White launch in Iceland,Martin at one point he said to me andHugh: “Are you happy with yourmanagement?” He’d put little ideas intoour heads… intriguing.

Carey Fortune, who you mentioned earlier,was reported as far back as 1977 to haveput himself up in place of Jet on drums.

Even back then we had a couple ofdrummers to fill in for Jet.

No – in No Mercy it said he wanted toreplace Jet.

Oh really? That is possible. Funnilyenough, he contacted me a couple ofyears ago. I replied to a couple of hisemails, but he was after too much, but hewanted to get back into our lives – mineand Hugh’s life. I wasn’t interested, he’dhad alcohol problems for years and toomuch baggage, and we’d moved on.When someone contacts you after 20years, you either want to reconnect or not.But there was always a bit of tensionregarding Jet anyway.

He’s got his own mind. It’s been agood thing for the band, but his health hasalways been a problem. In the early days,before we signed up, we had to have asubstitute drummer for one gig in

southeast London. He just couldn’t do it. About two weeks ago down at the

Farm, we did a list of all the drummerswe’ve ever had in the band. We got aboutseven or eight drummers listed. KeithTobe, a Japanese guy who did the wholeAmerican Tour, Tim Bruce, a mate ofPaul’s… Rat Scabies – he was just awful.He did just one gig with us. He couldn’tkeep time to save his life! We flew himover from Germany, and he got to the gigwith 10 minutes to go, and it was a bighavoc to set up for the gig. It was in themiddle of one song where he just couldn’tget the timing.

So I stopped the show. I went up to thecrowd and said: “I’ve got to explain toyou, Rat Scabies has helped us out atshort notice, he’s been travelling all day toget here because Jet, our drummer’s ill, socan we have a big hand for Rat forhelping us out…” and that was the end ofthe tour. The next day, Paul lost his voice.They’d all caught everything, end of thetour. Cancelled it.

Was there a promo video made for Nice‘n’ Sleazy?

There was one. It was terrible. Absolutelyterrible. It was shot in a studio like asleazy night club with girls and featherboas and red lighting, dressed all sleazyand we refused to let it be shown.

There was one for Walk On By, wasn’tthere?

Is that not on any of our videos? Oh well,that’s with a Dionne Warwick lookalike,with George Melly and Lew Lewis in it,and Hugh directed it. It’s quite good, it’s aplay on Blow-Up. Where you seesomeone in the bushes and you’re not


Page 18

sure if you’ve seen the murder, and filmedin the same park. I’m sure it’s on one ofour video collections. It’s a red video isn’tit, not the Greatest Hits.

You always seemed to attract trouble ontour in Sweden, didn’t you?

Oh, the Raggere? They ruined our tour.They all had 50s American Graffitihaircuts and big American cars. The firsttime, they came to beat us up. They’dheard about Punk bands. Suddenly awhole posse of about 40-50 cars rolledinto this clearing – it was a huge chalet ina wooded clearing just outside town –with the cops guarding the gate. They justdrove straight through the gate, I don’tknow what happened to the cops.

We were in the dressing rooms on thefirst floor, but our crew were on groundlevel. These guys, four to five in each car,came en mass and beat up our crew andsmashed our gear up. We managed toescape into the surrounding woods, and wemanaged to put some petrol into bottlesand threw them at their cars with theminside. We got back, picked our things up,drove to Helsingbourg and caught the ferryback to Copenhagen… ha ha!

Every time we played there, it’s been adisaster. At one time, Jet destroyed awhole restaurant. Most of us were sittinground this huge semi-circular table in thisrestaurant on the first floor of this hotel.We’d all ordered our food, and then Jetturns up and sits there waiting for hisfood. He thinks: I’m not getting anyattention here. And there are all thesefamilies sprinkled around us.

So he walked out to the foyer and cameback with one of those Pac Man Gamesthings, unplugged, and dropped it in themiddle of the restaurant and said: “Nowthey’ll notice me.” Well, they didn’t – but

all the families who were eating just fuckingscarpered, all the waiters were shittingthemselves. And we thought: Jet, this is notvery cool thing to do, we don’t need this.Then Jet picked up a chair and smashed itright round the bar – a bit like here –smashing all the glasses and bottle, andthen threw the chair through the window!

We thought: We’re not going to eat,are we? So we all went up to our rooms.About five minutes later, all of our roomswere opened up – machine guns, armedpolice, and escorted 120 km to StockholmAirport. We then had to sleep in theairport that night.

I think the Raggere died off… Weweren’t very popular in Sweden, whatwith three times having troops involved!Although we toured there in the 80sbecause Feline was a bit of a hit out there,and we managed to play a gig inStockholm in tact.

What are your memories of the Black AndWhite launch in Iceland?

Well all these journalists, although theyseemed to not like us and criticised usbadly, they were all up for a jolly. I mean,we chartered a plane – we had our ownplane – and all the journalists gotabsolutely fucking pissed, and weintended to seek revenge on a few ofthem… Tim Lott…

I met Tim Lott a couple of years back inEpping Library, he’s a really nice guy –but as soon as I said the word Stranglersto him, he started backing off into thebookshelves saying: “You’re not anassociate of the band, are you?”

I think he’s a good writer, I liked hisarticles in the Standard. I didn’t have aproblem with him, but he was like

everyone else and jumped on this anti-Stranglers bandwagon or pro-Clash pro-Pistols bandwagon. We were selling morerecords than those guys, but he wouldwrite some nasty stuff. I remember TonyParsons came on tour with us atCambridge, at the end of 77, and he didn’tlike the whole Finchley Boys scene, andhe’d managed to recruit a few musiciansto the Socialist Workers Party, and wewere just toeing the fucking line.

So, we weren’t gonna suck up to thesecunts, so it was like war, really. It’s like JonSavage – he wrote something scathing,and one of us had a go at him, and he gotup to attack me and I punched his lightsout – and at the Red Cow – which was infront of everyone – Jake Riviera, AndrewLauder, our A&R guy who was lovely, ElvisCostello, Nick Lowe – all these peoplesaw what I did.

In that period, we made a lot ofenemies, bless ‘em, with these peoplewho got in a lot of quite influentialpositions within the music industry andliterature. Tony Parsons, Julie Burchill…

Do you regret that?

No, not at all. I regret the long term effectit had on it. But on the other hand, we’restill going, and a lot of them aren’t. Somaybe that animosity gave us the strengthto fight our corner.

Towards the end of 1978, the bandfamously walked off stage at SurreyUniversity on Rock Goes To College TVprogramme – any regrets there?

I suppose I have to regret the impact, theperception people had of us. But wedidn’t make any threats or anything. Ourplugger resigned that particular night, theBBC TV banned us for many years.

And Michael Appleton became theproducer on the Old Grey Whistle Test.Would you have played it had you beeninvited?

Yes, of course. We would have doneanything. But as it happened, we had todo it without any help whatsoever.

Once 1978 and Black And White wasportrayed as JJ perceived it, I found myselfreturning to Euroman Cometh. I listened inawe as JJ spoke of these old earlyelectronic drum boxes being put throughloads of filters and reverbs in the 24 trackto end up sounding as superb as they did.Bossa Nova 1… Bossa Nova 2.. Rock Beat1… He also mused about the plannedfollow-up to Freddie Laker – The Girl FromThe Snow Country – had the recordcompany not tried to release the demoinstead, without his consent.

A young girl, an architect apparently,joined us and she excitedly spoke of theapprehension she felt about tonight’sheats, having gained her black belt threeweeks ago in Japan. Then that awfulToreador 1 rang from JJ’s pocket oncemore… The karate class was due to startshortly, and it was time to rap up theinterview. JJ went off with his student toget changed and do battle.

My battle started when I got home. Tomy horror, my mini-cassette had alsorecorded the Centre’s entire ambientracket to help smother JJ’s soft tones: theclanking of balls from the pool table,Wimbledon on the TV, the coffee cupsand saucers in the bar, the Centre’s firealarm – they’re all in there. It just tookthree days to decipher it all. But I leftsated, and pleased that JJ was such a greatinterviewee. One piece of advice though:get that ring tone changed. ❏


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THE Stranglers stormed punk. Thesurly outsiders gate-crashed the partyand instantly made a connection

with Britain’s musically disaffected teens. They were the biggest selling group of

the period and their songs were anthems.The ‘experts’ tried to deny their presencebut the band were breaking all the rulesand were getting the utmost respect fromthe new generation – releasing two greatalbums stuffed full of brilliant rock ‘n’ roll.

The halcyon days of 1977 saw TheStranglers work non stop to establish theirbass driven, yet melodic, prowlingmachismo. A brilliant combination ofdirect punk rock, snarling, neo-psychedelic keyboards and genius guitarlines. Somehow they managed to barge aspace into the over-subscribed rock ‘n’ rollpantheon – a formula that no-one hadmeddled with before.

Late 77: they were back in the studioagain, a work rate that seems incrediblethese days when bands put out albumsonce every two or three years. They werein Bearshanks Lodge working up, for thefirst time in their career, a whole new setof songs. Instead of resting on their laurelsthey took everything that was best abouttheir sound and exaggerated it for a seriesof numbers that would see the band at itsmost stark and experimental.

The Black And White album releasedin 1978 is, arguably, the first post-punkalbum. And nowadays when post punk isre-examined and re-evaluated and bands

like Gang Of Four get elevated to godlikestatus, it’s time to look back and see whogot in there first.

This was 1978 remember – punk wasstaggering and there was little else; JoyDivision were still in a formative stage,bands like the Stranglers were leading theway – Peter Hook is still cool enough totell you who his bass god was.

The Stranglers had arrived at that darkhued period that came after punk: thesombreness that hung around after theglorious failure of the punk revolution. Atime when nuclear war seemed to be lessa bad nightmare and more a horriblereality. When Britain still looked shabbyand the charts were full of shite – it wasn’tfor no reason at all that The Stranglerswere dressing in black.

These were dark times, there was apessimism and a cynicism in the air andthe Stranglers caught this flavour in theirnew set of songs.

There is a journey into a heart ofdarkness here, a whiff of the nihilisticcordite of 1978…

Everything about Black And White isperfection – from the songs, to the sound,to the artwork, to the simple brutalconcept. Even the idea of doing a presslaunch in Iceland, because that country’samazing landscapes somehow looked likehow the album sounded, to how cool theband looked at that point.

Black And White was a superb slice ofpost-punk psychedelia, all twistedlandscapes and weird song structures, itwas the Stranglers at their most obtuse andyet you could still file it under pop. And alot of people did as the album hammeredinto the charts at number 2.

This was a band at the peak of itspowers, their best album, their greatestmoment (and that’s a tough call in acareer stuffed full of genius moments) andwith the sheer bloody nerve to stretchtheir sound to a vicious extreme.

Just listen to that bass sound again, it’stotal perfection, never has a bass eversounded that good on a record. Heavyrounded ballistic and perfect it realisedevery note a black Doc Marten imprintedon the song, and yet every lick is so damnmelodic. The bass kicking into Nice ‘n’Sleazy – a neat rat walk of a thing – thechugging intro to Toiler On the Sea couldonly be played by a black belt karate pairof hands. The stark riffs of Enough Timeare beautifully jagged, the sound of basscarnage, a fantastic horror. And while you

Black and white innit?TV punk pundit, Goldblade front man and author John Robb recalls

what he describes as the first post-punk album Let me tell you about Iceland


Page 20

can understand why Hugh would bepissed off with the sheer volume of thebass in this track, it works. It sounds likethe gnashing of angry teeth and Hugh’sjagged guitar part counterpoints itperfectly, (listen again Hugh – the lop-sided mix of Enough Time sounds likeperfection now).

Any album that opens with Tank is goingto be on a winner – firmly in the Stranglerstradition of shit-kicking opener. Tank was thesingle that never was – and yet anotherexample of The Stranglers’ knack for writingsongs that sounded like their subject matter– the hanging ending that sounds like thebomb is timed beautifully and is a stunningexample of the band’s sheer musicalprowess and dark imagination.

There had already been warnings ofwhere The Stranglers were going with theFebruary 78 release of 5 Minutes – thedarkest and heaviest slab of Strangola so far.

5 Minutes is not only one of thegreatest Stranglers singles, it’s one of thegreatest singles ever released.

The amount of menace and brutal rawpower crunched into one track is awe-inspiring. That bass intro alone still soundsas adrenaline busting now as it did allthose years ago, and the sledgehammerchorus still packs a punch that ran ringsround most of the other punk pretendersaround at the time.

Oh and let’s not forget Hugh’s mostpsychotic ventures on acid guitar breaksthat twangs out of the middle of the song.Let’s not forget the B-side, the fab Rok ItTo the Moon, with its crazed bass riff-driven menagerie of madness, the twoaccompanying video promo clips were theband at their peak as well, themalevolence in JJ’s eyes and Hugh’s dropdead cool surliness made them look thetwo coolest beatnik freaks on the scene.

For me, the Black And White period startshere, a new darker Stranglers, great forfucked up young psychos from thesuburbs cranked up on magic mushroomsto get off to and debate in longmeandering walks around boring seasidetowns. This record was big for me and mysmall coterie of dark-clothed friends.

I first heard Black And White on theJohn Peel show: he played the wholealbum in one go, I tried to tape it one myprimitive system and got a crunchymuffled version of it which becamemanna, the countdown to release day wastotal excitement. What was the artworkgoing to like? Was there anything we hadmissed?

On release the album was played overand over. Where were the band going?This was weird new territory and we werehooked immediately, the artwork, like thefirst two albums was fantastic, the band in,er, black and white. Perhaps their greatestever promo shot, looking cool as fuck,even Dave – gawd bless him.

We used to play the album back tofront: black side first, the song cycle onthe Black side went further and furtherinto new places, Curfew was a manic andugly look at an apocalyptic future withmusic to match, Threatened just stankwith a weird paranoia and an obtuse lyricand delivery from JJ, In the Shadows was ahint at JJ’s solo album that was gettingrecorded at the same time – the barracudabass and Jet’s awesome off-beat drummingtook the band somewhere else.

And then it really took off. Do YouWanna? was another in that grand oldtradition of Dave vocals and he soundedsuitably vampiric, as the band jolted andlurched around a crazy riff behind him,and fuck, the bass sound on this isphenomenal, crunching, jagged, bizarre!The way it segues into Death And NightAnd Blood is powerfully effective and JJ’spaean to Yukio Mishima and warrior-hoodis as about as weird as Strangler musicgets. The song oozes the strangest ofatmospheres, its clipped verses collapsinginto the most evil sounding chorus.

Enough Time had everyone spendingweeks trying to decipher the Morse codeat the end, it’s another great Stranglersalbum finisher – more weird timings,collapsing drums, and black black blackbass sounds.

The Stranglers played Lancaster on theBlack and white tour I hired a doubledecker bus and everyone paid about twoquid each and we went up there (about90 of us). It was one of the great nights inBlackpool punk rock history, the gig waswild and the next day everyone formed aband. The Stranglers were perhaps thecatalyst band that came out of punk, theirmusic suggesting so many differentavenues to explore.

We went back that night and slappedthe album back on again, trying to followthe bass in Robots. Getting off on LauraLogic’s free-form sax and singing along toits immense chorus, letting the mushroomswander around the keyboard break inSweden and then falling in love for themillionth time with best song on thealbum – Toiler On The Sea – with itswacky twanging guitar break, itsdescriptive music and Hugh’s first realcrooned vocal.

It had ended the gig that night, eachmember of the band leaving the stage oneby one. It’s always ended the album for us,played back to front: black side then whiteside. Perfect.

While bands like Wire and JoyDivision rightly get credit for taking punkinto new areas it really pisses me off thatthe Stranglers, who were a far bigger bandin real terms, and a far more influentialband, get left out.

Black And White is easily as bold andbrave as anything produced by any of thehipper bands, and it turned far more kidsonto something weirder and freakier inmusic.

The Stranglers were so far ahead of thepack it was outrageous. The Black AndWhite period also encompassed the 5Minutes single, Nice ‘n’ Sleazy chartingwith the sensational punk rock ballad ofShut Up on the flipside – that bass run atthe beginning! Wow! And JJ’s suitablybelligerent vocal.

There was also the band’s classicmugging of Walk On By – the scratchytelecaster intro and JJ’s growling bassstealthily coming in and that long middlebit half inched from Light My Fire andmade all modern and tough for us thepunk rock kids!

It’s hard to imagine now but TheStranglers were dead centre in British popculture at the time. They were the leaders.All the post-punk experimentalists came ayear or two after, even the black-fixatedGoth scene was a few years away. TheStranglers had already been there anddone it, and done it the best. They willnever get the credit they deserve but, then,we know the truth and that’s what matters.

This was a genius band at the peak oftheir powers.

Like Hugh said in an interview at thetime: “It’s black and white, innit?” ❏

It’s hard to imagine now butThe Stranglers were dead

centre in British pop cultureat the time. They were the

leaders


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IWAS 16 years old when I first heardBlack And White. A whole 11 years afterthis fabulous record had been released.

In mitigation, I was just six years old in1978, so I think I can probably be forgivenfor my tardiness.

The Stranglers exploded into myconsciousness when I was a sociallyawkward sixth former living in the EastLondon-Essex border suburb of Barking. Incommon with many teenagers, I wassearching for an ‘adult’ identity and turnedto music to help provide it. The late 1980swas a pretty barren time musically, withthe likes of Rick Astley, Bros, and JohnnyHates Jazz polluting the airwaves.

Madchester was still in its infancy anddecent music seemed at a premium, sowhen I bought a copy of the No MoreHeroes album in late 1988, the sound ofthe band completely blew my mind.Bizarrely, I was in a history lesson atschool when a teacher played us a videoof BBC’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Years, and when Isaw The Stranglers on the screen I knew Ihad to hear more.

Within weeks of making that purchaseI had used up my pocket money andsavings to buy up the entire Stranglersback catalogue and any item of blackclothing available in the shops of Barking.I also had a new idol to look up to; asuave, cool bass player with an exoticname. No-one else at my school wasremotely interested in the Meninblack, soI finally had myself some kind ofdistinctive identity, and a realisation thatmusic meant something more than awedge haircut and wacky dance routine.

No More Heroes remains, somewhatincongruously, my favourite album of alltime, due to its huge impact on me as ateenager, but it was my purchase oneSaturday afternoon a few weeks later ofRattus Norvegicus and Black And White

on vinyl that launched the start of whatwas to be a long love affair with TheStranglers.

The first thing to mention about BlackAnd White, of course, is the cover; thebold and striking photograph of fourmenacing men dressed in black on a sheerwhite background, with no band name orinsignia in sight. What a statement. To thisday, it’s my favourite record sleeve,nudging Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of theMoon into a cocked hat.

After listening to side one of Black AndWhite on my creaking Sony stereo I wasstruck by what a powerful and curiousrecord I had just bought, with itsreferences to Hell’s Angels, time, robots,and maiming soldiers. Tank, Sleazy, andToiler On The Sea still retain some of theirfreshness over a quarter of a century onand when I got off my bed to turn therecord over I didn’t think the nextcollection of songs could possibly soundany better. However, as I worked my waythrough the Black Side I was left absolutelydumbstruck by what I was hearing.

As the sheer power and violentpromise of Black Side became clear Iknew that I would love this band like noother. The first two songs, Curfew andThreatened contain some of the scariestriffs ever heard. More than a decade later Isat in Hugh Cornwell’s living room,interviewing him for the Song By Songbook, and he explained to me that thosestrange ‘interval’ chord sequences in theverses were associated with satanic music.

Hugh casually picked up a guitar frombeside his sofa and strummed the spine-chilling chords to Threatened – to explainwhat he meant. I felt the hairs on the backof my neck stand up. Here was HughBloody Cornwell playing one of myfavourite songs to me in his living room.Talk about surreal. It’s my fondest memoryfrom working on the book.

Death and Night and Blood is anothermagnificently crafted piece of music,particularly the cross-fade section thatfollows the bizarre Do You Wanna?. Asmall mention should go to MartinRushent and Alan Winstanley for allowingThe Stranglers to move beyond the ‘punk’formula that had served them so well ontheir first two records. As the band tookgreat delight in telling the press at thistime, they wanted to test the patience ofthe listener with bigger and bolderexperimentation.

Rushent often gets a slating, frommembers of the band and the fans,because of his ignominious exit from theStranglers camp, but his was undoubtedlya steadying hand in the studio. That hethrew a wobbly over the recording of theMeninblack shouldn’t lead to him beingwritten out of the overall picture.

What struck me when speaking toHugh about Black And White, and indeedall the albums from his time in TheStranglers, was what an impressive recallhe had on events. Hugh’s mind wouldreturn to the time in question throughouteach of our two hour sessions in his

home, and whenever he didn’t have anexact answer to a question, he would atleast give an answer that was thought-provoking. No small feat considering theamount of time he and the rest of theband spent off their faces on varioussubstances in the early years. I havewritten two similar books since, onSqueeze and Ian Dury & The Blockheads,and none of the musicians involved hadas clear a memory.

I don’t know how much time Hughspent thinking about each album inpreparation for my visits, but he never hada clue what I was going to ask him. I’msure this helped him be more open with hisrevelations on life in the band. I’d like tothink that our book has gone some smallway to explaining the mysteries of thegroup I regard as the greatest in the world.

Whatever anyone’s views on Hughsince he left The Stranglers – and I’ll laymy cards on the table as a fan of his solowork – few could deny that the manpossesses a truly original mind. I think it’sterrific that he is now reconciled with hishistory as a Strangler and that so many ofthose songs he wrote in the band are nowgetting an airing at his live shows.

That the original line-up divided intoseparate entities is, to my mind, ancienthistory. Both camps have carved out aniche for themselves and we should all begrateful to have the opportunity to seeboth The Stranglers Mark III and Hughperforming those old classics.

As for Black And White, I don’t listento the album very often these days butwhenever it makes a re-appearance on myturntable I remember instantly that I amlistening to a work of pure genius. To mymind, the band’s first five albums stillsound magnificent today, and I can safelysay that no-one will ever replace theMeninblack in my affections. ❏

Jim Drury, co-author with Hugh Cornwell on Song By Song gives ushis thoughts on Black And White, and Hugh’s amazing memory

Total recall...


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HUGH was eager talk about BlackAnd White – The Stranglers’ firstforay into experimental music 27

years ago – and I was keen to ask himquestions he hadn’t been asked previously,particularly since the publication of Hugh’sfirst book, Song By Song. All we had to donow was find a venue to talk.

Hugh was cool and relaxed in jeansand cap, and in close proximity to hisWest London pied-a-terre: he clearly knewall the coffee shops. The first one, aStarbucks, saw the pair of us traipsethrough in a line to check its interviewingsuitability, but the microphone wouldhave struggled to pick up anything otherthan the ear-busting percolator anddecibel-blasting piped music. I had thistheory, as I told Hugh on leavingStarbucks, that the louder the percolator,the crapper the coffee shop.

“It’s okay, there’s one across the road Iknow, over there. The guy in there’s okay –he once turned down the music before forme.”

Meanwhile, an old woman inWellington boots and Mac meanderednonchalantly ahead of us in the NottingHill Gate throng. Her extendable dog leadwas barely visible, as was the poordiminutive pedigree pooch several metresaway from her. The gentle, slightly ganglygait of Hugh Cornwell suddenly came to ahalt as his right foot stumbled over theminiature black and white dog.

“D’ya see that?” He said, “I nearly

kicked that dog up the arse!” With a pied-a-turd narrowly avoided,

we crossed over and went inside‘Café’, where I took a table at theback, by the bogs. Hughdiscretely sorted out the guybehind the counter, and I dulylost a contact lens. In a flash,my ocular device had hoppedfrom Formica to floor, where Ispotted it, picked it up, andshot into the loos with it. Uponmy return, the muzak still seemedtoo loud – too loud for recordingan interview. So I suggestedHugh asked his guy again,and I couldn’t helpbeing reminded ofcringing occasionswhere Hughscreamed at theonstage soundmanmid-song when thelevels were wrong. Andthe ubiquitous inter-songaside: “More guitar please,Mr. Sound Man. Can I hearsome acoustic, please? Morelevel… Hello? More guitar –please.”

Hugh beckoned his guyand gesticulated with a smileand a wave across the shop,and Hugh resumed his chattingand listening as he stirred in thesachet of white sugar into his

cappuccino. As he removed the spoonfrom the cocoa-sprinkled froth, Hugh

suddenly noticed something appearin his cup.

“Look at that,” he remarkedwith childlike charm, “it’s aperfectly formed heart-

shape!”“Aaww – it must be

love!” “Listen – is your car

gonna be okay on thatmeter? I’d hate to see you geta ticket.”

My mind fleetinglypondered as to

whether the likesof Tim Lott or TonyParsons everreceived suchattentiveness and Ilaid my trusty taperecorder mike on thetable, as the muzakfinally became more

ambient andconducive to the

chilled afternoon. “Ah, some classical

music. Perfect.” Hughthen grabbed my mike andheld it in front of hismouth for the entire

interview to get the bestrecording, the consummate

professional that he is. He

even kicked off with a few hello – hello –hellos for level.

Having watched Hugh play his soloset many times already this year: a lastminute Tsunami benefit at the MarketBar, Islington – The Café de Paris inLeicester Square – The Carling Academy– a drab affair at Croydon’s Fairfield Hall– and then the best Hugh gig I’ve everwitnessed – The Horn in St. Albans, awarm-up to the Canadian leg. Brighton’sKomedia gig was also impressive as Hughcombined an acoustic night withreadings from A Multitude Of Sins. I wasnaturally keen to kick off by bringing uphis solo work.

So Picked Up By The Wind is your newsingle, Hugh?

Oh, yes... That’s nothing to do with BlackAnd White!

No, but it would make a good preambleinto the piece on Black And White.

Ha. Yeah – we’ve put some saxes on to it,that’s what we’ve done to it.

Are you still pleased with Beyond ElysianFields?

Oh, fantastically pleased with it. It’sproved to be a landmark album for mebecause it’s the first time I’ve had

With another solo single out and an autobiography in paperback, Hugh Cornwell looks back at 1978 and tells Gary Kent about making thatdifficult third album, Dave’s left hand and what George Melly kept in his tin

BBllaacckk AAnndd WWhhiittee bbeeccoommeess…… Hugh CornwellInterview: 28 July 2005


Page 23

extended releases with it abroad: it’scoming out in Spain in September,Germany in October, Australia towards theend of the year, and we’re talking aboutan American release, as well as Canada –so it’s all looking good.

Will that coincide with a tour?

The rest of this year, we’ll be doing thebook reading acoustic shows to promotethe Multitude Of Sins book, and thenprobably tying in touring in Germany,Spain and hopefully, as I said, further afield later on in the year, and that’s it.More touring, really.

You’re about to play at theRockingbeerfest in Godmanchester – isthis the first time you’ve shared a stagewith Hazel O’Connor?

Oh, am I? Ha ha! I didn’t know that.

And Paul Roberts is on the same bill in LaVida Santana…

Oh really? Is he on the same bill? Do youknow what the order of bands is?

No. Aren’t you headlining?

I dunno – they just tell me where to goand I just turn up. I think there’s someprogressive band on after me. I can’tremember who, though.

So who’s on bass for you – SteveLawrence or Caz Campbell?

Caz is still filling in for Steve (adopts a USaccent) who’s been abroad on business.He’s been working with David Halliday inFrance so Caz has been covering for himvery, very well. So it’s down to Steve’savailability, Caz’s availability, I mean, it’s avery loose situation, which I like. I had achat with Steve last night, he’s in greatform, I spoke to Caz yesterday – she’s veryhappy. So everyone’s just happy to gowhen and wherever they’re needed. It’squite easy.

How did you come by Caz?

Caz is a friend of Windsor’s. They playedin a band together about three or fouryears ago – but she was actuallyrecommended to me by Steve, funnilyenough! He said: Oh, I know someonewho can dep for me in the summer, so wetried her out and she was great.

So how did you meet Steve, then?

I met Steve through Robert Williams.Steve’s been in and out of my line-up likea yo-yo. He was the first bass player afterCCW, and when I made Wired, Stevecame in on bass under recommendationfrom Robert Williams who I brought infrom Los Angeles to play drums, and wewere looking for a bass player, and hesaid: “Yeah – I know a bass player. He’sfrom LA, but he lives in London.” So I

tried him out and Steve was great, andhe’s been in and out forever.

Outside, Notting Hill Gate was a steadystream of silver Met. Police cars speedingpast, with engines revving and sirensblazing with wailing Doppler effect. Thehunt was on for the London Bombers, anda torrent of security alerts added to themayhem. Having sat in traffic outside theBBC Television Centre earlier, I wasamazed to witness such heavy duty policepresence. London was on high alert, andany naïve trust London may have had, hadbeen well and truly tarnished by theterrorists. In fact, Hugh brought up thesubject of whether it was safe on the tube.Just before we crossed over, he pointedout a paper stand on the corner with theheadline: ARMED POLICE FLOODLONDON.

Inside ‘Café’, a mother sat down a fewtables away and helplessly watched herbaby scream its face through severalshades of red. She seemed oblivious to thenoise pollution her kid was causing. Ididn’t know what worse, the noise fromoutside or the noise from within.Thankfully Hugh had chosen to hold themike up to his mouth, capturing virtuallyevery word and intonation in the racket.

So the very first day The Stranglerspitched up at Bearshanks Lodge inDecember 1977 – what was it like?

Bearshanks Lodge… I think we were –well I was – a bit trepidatious about it, abit unsure of what to expect, because itwas the first time we… we were so usedto – I keep saying we, but I mean I – I wasso used to being in a cosseted, familiarenvironment, and it was very strange to be

suddenly put somewhere I wasn’t familiarwith to create. It’s something you have toget used to. You must remember, for thepast two or three years, we’d been livingtogether – first in Guildford, the three ofus and then after Hans left and Dave camein at Chiddingfold – and we’d been in afamiliar environment. So to suddenly gosomewhere we’d never been to everbefore – it was completely new territoryfor us. It was strange. It could have beensnowing. I seem to remember the wholeperiod in my head seems to be covered insnow. It was winter… it was very bleak,like Russia or somewhere. It was like we’dbeen sent to Siberia!

Were there any songs already written?

I didn’t think John and I had had evenstarted writing things down before we gotthere. My memory’s hazy, and I might betotally wrong, but I seem to remember wehadn’t even started thinking about whatsongs we were going to write before wegot there.

5 Minutes was already written, wasn’t it?

Yes, but that wasn’t on the record. So thatdoesn’t count towards Black And White,does it? Or was 5 Minutes recorded in theBlack And White sessions, but notincluded on the album?

I think so, but I don’t know for sure. 5Minutes was released on 28 February andthe Black And White sessions at TW wasin February/March, but this is about1978.

Well, we must have written it beforeBearshanks anyway.

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy was inspired by the Hell’s


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Angels – did they stay at Bearshanks?

Well the Hell’s Angels experience was atthe top of my mind. In my mind, I have afile of papers of what’s happened to me,and they were obviously right at the top ofthe pile. I have a feeling it was right thereat the top of the pile, or it had justhappened to us, or pretty soon before, so Ithink Sleazy was one of the first songswe’d finished as a composition, when wewere writing there. John and I consideredSleazy to be the son of Peaches, with thatnice syncopation, that reggae-type feeltaken to another stage.

How did you become involved with theAngels?

Well, we had this remarkable introductionto them in Amsterdam, invading ourbackstage area and becoming our security,but they adopted us, rather than the otherway round. We were very much a passiveforce in this whole relationship… Baby –shut up! Er, I mean, it was a very newfriendship, our connection with theAngels, but later down the line, it wentinto all sorts of things. Like, doing abenefit for their club house inBournemouth, which ran into disaster.

They were rebuilding their club houseand put on a gig, and we were beingescorted to the stage by their security, andjust on the side of the stage, two of thesecurity were rolling around on the floor,trying to kill each other with knives! Ithought: this is kind of ridiculous.

This was even before we’d played thegig! It didn’t endear me to theirorganisation very much. They were justcrazy. But it went onto other things afterthat, but the lyrics to Nice ‘n’ Sleazy werealmost a naïve concept of the Hell’sAngels.

You took a short break from Bearshanks,didn’t you?

I took a break to Morocco, a disastroustrip which I wrote about my experiencesand came back with the lyrics to Toiler –or Toilet With No Seat, which was what Jetand I used to call it. I think I’d – we’dalready worked on the music beforeChristmas and I went off with this musicin my head, it was easier to write becauseI had this song in my head already.

Did you do demos for Black And White atBearshanks?

No… we might have recorded but if wedid, it wasn’t used at any stage. It wouldhave been just for our own… we didn’t dothat sort of thing, we didn’t recordrehearsals. I mean Windsor recordseverything. He records himself brushinghis teeth!

Did you feel pressurised to come up withthe goods after Rattus and Heroes?

I have a feeling we were under immensepressure to get things done. The first two

albums were virtually from one sessionwith a few songs added, so this was thefirst time we had gone about the businessof writing a whole set of new material fora very long time. There was an immensepressure. When it’s the first time you’vedone something, it’s the most pressure. Butthe more you do it, it becomes easier.

When we did The Raven, we’d alreadydone this bit before. “This is like when wedid Black And White but we’re goingabroad!” It’s not much different.

Swapping snow-filled Northamptonshirefor sun-drenched Tuscany!

Yes! But if Black And White had been adisaster we’d have been even morenervous going abroad. But because it hadworked for Black And White, we knew wecould try it again. The house we wererenting in Italy overlooked a pond withloads of frogs in. At night, all these frogscroaked all night, and it was amazing. Atnight we used to sit outside with a glass ofwine and a joint and listen to the frogs. Itwas an amazing cacophony of noisecoming from this pond, all these frogsmating away in the warm evenings.

When did the title Black And White firstcome about?

Well, I think there were three things thatcame up all at the same time. I can’t saywhich one came first, but one was the factthat we were very frustrated at beinglabelled by so many journalists and noneof these labels were we happy with. Outof that came the idea of not wearing anycolours, so by wearing black, we wouldn’tbe giving any indications by our clothes.They’d said we were wearing torn clothes,but the reason we were wearing tornclothes was because they were the only

clothes we had, where some of them weresaying torn clothes were beingmanufactured. So, we said we were goingto get away from all these journalisticideas of labelling us, by wearing black.

Wearing black clothes was trendy wasn’tit?

Well, no. Not at that time. I don’t think itwas. People were wanting to be punkswith the whole ethos and the punk fashiontook a great hold. The first thing thatfocused on black was the Ska thing withblack suits and white shirts and black ties.Bands like The Selecter and so on, theygot on it, but not for the reasons we goton it. That was later.

The second one was at Bearshanks, webecame aware of the fact that Jet wasreading these UFO magazines, and heexplained to me the whole idea aboutthese UFOs, and I said to John and Dave:“You gotta listen to this, it’s amazing out ofwhat Jet’s reading – it would make anamazing album.” Everyone got into it, theidea of the Men In Black. The third thingwas making an album with a black sideand a white side. So those three things allsynchronistically occurred at the sametime.

John came up with the idea of wearingall black clothes, and my idea was to havethe album called The Meninblack, and thealbum with a black side and a white sideas a cumulative thing. As the songsbecame finished, it became clear that,well – that’s a black one and that’s a whiteone. It all happened simultaneously, so forme, it reflects a pattern of thought broughtup from these three ideas.

It was a very creative environmentwhen you’ve got all four people living andworking together in a creative place, soyou get these things happening. But I


Page 25

know when we went into Bearshanks, wedidn’t go in and say: right, we’re going towrite an album called Black And White,so I think it was part of this process.

So, after discovering the UFO topic of theMen In Black, why didn’t you call thealbum Men In Black?

We didn’t know enough about thephenomenon at that time. We’d only justbeen introduced to it. Jet was the only onewho knew all about it. I wanted to getgenned up on it, and John and Davewanted to get genned up on it. We wantedto get more immersed in it before we didit. The things we were doing didn’t seemright for that – that seemed to be forsomething further down the line. It wastoo much to consider then.

What was the magazine Jet was reading?

He’s probably still got it. He collectseverything. It was a journal which hesubscribed to, and he got it once everytwo months, and it was a UFO magazine,and it was a worldwide thing. People gotit from all over the world. I think it waspublished in America, and I picked up acouple of these things and I wasabsolutely amazed. You couldn’t believesome of the stuff that was written in there.It was all very much a mystery. Youcouldn’t write better fiction from fact.

The idea of splitting the Hugh sung songsand the JJ sung songs into different sides– was that born from the alternating theHugh/JJ track listings on Rattus andHeroes?

No, I didn’t even realise that. The onlything I was aware of was that on the firsttwo albums, a lot of people couldn’t tell if

it was me singing or John singing, which Ifound interesting, and says a lot for MartinRushent’s production! I think he must haveencouraged John to sing more properlyrather than his operatic thing, or the softthing, y’know. So no one could tell thedifference between our voices and thenDave would sing a song! One on everyalbum. We wanted to do that whole oneside of John’s musical ideas and my lyrics,and one with my musical ideas and hislyrics, but it was always easier for me tocome up with lyrics, and he was alwaysquicker to come up with the musicalstarts. So it became more 60-40, or 65-35or something. And I ended up singing a lotmore of the songs, I think on the album.Something like 80-20, but the beautifulidea of the black side and the white sidedidn’t actually work in the end, so it wasrather good in the end that the limitededition was grey. We wanted originally tohave white vinyl on one side and black onthe other, and they said: You can’t do that.

Who told you that?

The record company. They said: You can’tdo that. Why not? Well, blah blah blahblah blah… We thought: Well, it’s deadeasy, it’s just that it’s gonna cost a bit moremoney. Do one side in white vinyl andone in black and stick them together, butthey couldn’t see that. It would have beengreat, and the cover ended up beingalmost black on one side and white on theother with the picture. But they said: Youcan have grey. So we ended up with grey.We could never get what we wanted –you can’t get the staff!

Like the alternating your vocals and JJ’svocals on the track listing for the first twoalbums – the singles did that too, didn’tthey?

My God!

Was that by design?

No, there was none of that going on.What was the B side of Get A Grip OnYourself then?

London Lady.

And then what?

Peaches’ B side was Go Buddy Go.Something Better Change…

Straighten Out, yeah?

No More Heroes… ah. In The Shadows.

Ah. Fell down there!

5 Minutes and…

Rok It To The Moon, yep.

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy and Shut Up… Walk OnBy and Old Codger. So it held up for a lotof the time. The Black And Whitephotograph, whose idea was it to pose

like that with your head down and JJ onhis haunches?

It was Ruan, the photographer. It was hisidea. I think it was suggested by the factthat we’d started to wear the blackclothes, and we were surrounded by allthis snow. He took a load of shotsoutside…

The one playing chess in the snow?

Yes. I remembered I’d just seen the filmThe Seventh Seal by Ingmar Bergmanwhere the guy plays chess with the devil,and if the devil wins, he takes the guyssoul. So he plays the devil on this beachin this black and white film, and I thoughtthat would look great in black and white.He wanted to photograph it in black andwhite, so I said: Let’s have a chess set – sowe had the black and white thing again.

So we got this chess set out, and wehad loads of shots of me and John playingchess – me and John used to play chessanyway, before we realised Dave was ajunior chess champion! Thank god wedidn’t play him! So John and I played a lotof chess while he was taking these shots. Itwas a very long photo session in a field,and then we went inside and he got thewhite sheet and that’s the one we endedwith.

I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed onthat front cover shot, but if you look atDave standing there with his bag on, andif you look at his left hand, it’s absolutelyimmense. It doesn’t look real. It looks veryodd. It doesn’t look like a keyboardplayers hand – it looks like a butchershand or something. I don’t know, it’salways weirded me out.

Whenever I look at that photo, Iimmediately look at Dave’s left hand andthink: that is a very weird, strange looking


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hand. Call me sad, call me funny, but…It’s very odd, isn’t?

I tell you what’s even funnier?

What’s that?

The Mod shoes Dave’s wearing.

Ha ha ha…

Tell me about Ruan O’Lochlainn.

Ruan was a lovely, lovely man. He wasvery, very kind and very, very interesting –a dope-smoking hippy – one of the best.He was very welcoming to us. He was anold friend of Dai Davies. He put up withour strange characters and our behaviourand everything – we were a bit grumpywhen we first got there, being out of oursurroundings.

But once we’d had a few beers withhim and relaxed with him, he was fineand very, very welcoming. Made us reallyfeel at home, so that was good.

Why were you so grumpy?

Just at the beginning. We were all so closeto each other, y’know, with the managers,and Alan Edwards, it was our family, andsuddenly it was: Who is this person? Whyare we at their house? We were verydistrustful of anyone that wasn’t in thefamily. But once we got to know him, hewas lovely, y’know.

Do you remember Billy Bragg staying upthere?

I don’t really remember him at the time,but I’ve met him loads of times since then.I remember once I was having a beer with

him, and he said: You don’t rememberthis, but I was that little spotty 14 year oldthat hung around Bearshanks. He was bestmates with Ruan’s son, I think. He used tohang out with him, so they were just inthe background all the time. So he said:Yeah – that was me. Very funny.

Around this time, there seemed to besome unrest in The Stranglers camp. InChris Twomey’s book, ‘The Men They LoveTo Hate’ it says JJ left the band after astormy argument at Bearshanks, and itwas later reported in the London EveningStandard that you confidently predictedthe band would not last beyond 1978.

What me? Really? My god! Wow. Wellwasn’t John doing a solo record at thistime? While we were recording Black AndWhite, he’d stick around after the sessionfinished and would then record his ownstuff after it. I seem to remember thathappening, which didn’t fill me withoptimism for the band. You finish a sessionwith the band, and one of the bandmembers carries on to record his ownalbum, that’s probably why I came outwith that statement in the EveningStandard. It was a bit depressing, wouldn’tyou say? But I don’t remember a bigargument or anything with him. Maybe Iwas dissatisfied with other things,y’know… tetchy… y’know, that could beinterpreted as having an argument.

Were there any tracks that didn’t getincluded on Black And White?

I don’t think so. I remember coming upwith Have You Got Enough Time [sic]right at the dying moments of the sessionsbecause we didn’t have enough songs. Imean, we were short of songs. Do youknow? Do you have any recollections? We

were short of songs, so we ended uphaving to do Have You Got Enough Timein the studio because we didn’t haveenough. We’d recorded everything we’dwritten at Bearshanks, and then MartinRushent aid: “Guys, that all adds up to 37minutes, and it’s not enough for analbum.” So we said, Christ, what wegonna do? So we ended up doing HaveYou Got Enough Time, which was quitefunny it was called Have You Got EnoughTime because we didn’t have enough timefor the album! So with that in mind, Idoubt if there was anything thrown awaybecause we wouldn’t have dared thrownanything away… In The Shadows wasdone separately, wasn’t it left over fromthe Heroes sessions?

It was the B side of No More Heroes,wasn’t it? So that was September 1977.

Yes, yes – so it was a lot earlier, wasn’t it?

What else do you remember aboutrecording at TW at this time?

Well, George Melly and Lew Lewis comingdown to do What An Old Codger...

Lew was a bit of a wild man, wasn’t he?

They both are. George Melly turned upwith a tin, and he gave it to me becauseI’d said: Do you mind if we roll a joint.Then he said: (Hugh adopts a very goodGeorge Melly mimic) “If you’re gonna rolla joint, you might as well use some ofthat. It’s rather good.” He brought out thistin, and inside was this huge fucking lumpof very, very strong hashish! So I thought,good ol’ George! So he was a bit of a wildman too, well he was in those days. LewLewis got very drunk and kept throwingup and he was last seen that day, being

Notting Hill, 28/7/05 Pic: Gary Kent


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put on a train to Southend at 2 o’clock inthe morning and left by one of the roadcrew with his body hanging out over theopen window. He did get there, and he isstill alive, apparently. Another wildevening was when Laura Logic turned upto do the sax on Hey! (Rise Of The Robots).

Jim Drury recalled for The Burning UpTimes that you played Threatened to himon guitar in your living room when youwere writing Song By Song. You told himthe chords were satanic.

Yes, that’s right. It’s the intervals. If youstart with the bottom E, then B flat, andthen E again and then B flat. So it’s theinterval between E and B flat, and you canrepeat that on any position on the fretboard. And it’s a very strange chordposition on the neck of the guitar, and mygood friend Chris tells me that the intervalis used on a lot of these Black Sabbathtype satanic mass songs all use that. And Iused it in Mothra as well.

You wrote the last verse in Threatened,saying in Song By Song it was aboutparanoia. Whereas when I asked JJ twoweeks back, he said the song is about onarchitecture. Who’s right?

What was the last verse?

Man killed by industry… Man killed by…

…Falling tree… Sanity. Is that inThreatened? No, that’s Rise Of the Robots,isn’t it? Man killed by falling tree, mankilled by sanity… then John tacked on thebring me a piece of my mummy. Mankilled by falling tree – I seem to remembertaking that from a newspaper front pageheadline, so I threw it in. It seemed to fitin at the time.

Why was a video made for Sweden – wasit destined to be a single?

Well it was in Sweden. People come up tome at my solo gigs with the Swedishversion for me to sign, so it must havebeen released there. I wouldn’t say itstormed the charts, though! But HangingAround was going to be a single off thefirst album but it never was. Lots of thingswere going to be singles. Man Of TheEarth off 10 was too. But the video ofSweden was only made because we hadtime left over in the studio. We did thevideo for Nice ‘n’ Sleazy – which weweren’t very happy about – and we hadtime left over that day. So we improvisedSweden.

Why wasn’t the video for Nice ‘n’ Sleazyever shown?

Well, it wasn’t very good. It had a lot ofmen in bowler hats sitting in rows in bentback chairs in front of a stage with a girlstripping and we were playing next to her.And the guys were all sitting there in theirbowler hats and umbrellas, and it’s reallydull and I don’t think it ever got used inthe end. Someone’s got it.

You did the video for Walk On By, didn’tyou?

Chris Gabrin directed that. He was thephotographer on that first session for thesleeve of Get A Grip On Yourself (as seenon the Strangled home page). It’s a verystrong shot. The Walk On By video wasmy pastiche to Antonioni’s Blow-Up andwe filmed it in the same park.

Maryon Park.

Yes.


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What are your memories of the BatterseaPark gig?

I remember Johnny Rubbish performing ina dustbin, I think. The Edge played – aband with Jon Moss in, Spizz Oil… Iremember Peter Gabriel coming up to meafterwards and thanking me profusely forgiving him the chance to play, and Ithought: Well, it wasn’t down to me, ha! Iremember the tank blasting off, a lot offilming, and that’s the video they used forSleazy wasn’t it?

Martin Rushent seems to generate stickfrom the band, doesn’t he?

What from producing Black And White?He gets stick from the band in general,doesn’t he? He’d been brought in from thecommercial side of things. And so songslike In The Shadows and Meninblack, hejust saw them as mindless self-indulgenceand experimentation which had nobusiness being on a commercial record.That was why he’d been put onto us, toimpose some sort of doctrination on us.That was why we got rid of him in thesessions from The Raven. Alan Winstanleywas doing all the knob-twiddling whileMartin was taking a lot of calls from all hisinvestments, saying: “Buy this – have yousold Rio Tinto Zinc yet?” And all this sortof stuff going on, and we thought, well –you should be in here working on ouralbum, or telling us some jokes orsomething. You shouldn’t be on yourphone, but it was happening an awful lot.

So you wouldn’t work with him again?

Probably not, but he’s just worked onHazel O’Connor’s new album, hasn’t he?He hasn’t done a bad job, actually. It’spretty good. The production’s great.

Whether I would work with him again, Idunno. But I bear him no malice.

How do you rate Black And White inrelation to Stranglers albums?

Well, I know it’s one of the fans’favourites. The Raven is probably top,with Black And White a close second. ButThe Meninblack – ah, that for me is thebest album. It’s fantastic. I heard it theother day and it sounded fantastic.

If we were to publish a second edition ofThe Burning Up Times, do you think weshould focus on…

You’re thinking of doing The Meninblack,aren’t you? Yes – it’s a great album.

I first heard The Meninblack six monthsprior to its official release. It was August1980. Jet walked into the SIS office witha cassette of The Meninblack to play tohis son, Anthony and myself.

What did you think of it?

To be honest, neither Anthony or myselfliked it much then. In fact, at the end, wewere almost speechless when Jet asked uswhat we thought of it. All I could musterwas: “Not a lot.” Jet chuckled and said:“Don’t worry – it will grow on you!” Itdid, of course. But what I noticed in the80/81 gigs was that The Meninblacksongs were a totally different story alltogether played live.

What better or worse?

Miles better live – these songs suddenlycame alive.

Really? God! But what you’ve got to

remember is that… we’re getting onto thesecond edition here.. when it wasrecorded, it wasn’t an ensemble recording– it was in bits. So it didn’t have that liveenergy, but when it was put all togetherlive, it would have had all that.

The link between 1978’s Black And Whitealbum and 1981’s The Meninblack albumwas that Jet discovered the UFO topic ofthat name while writing Black And White.Another interesting link was that at theend of 1978, you recorded Two Sunspots,which was later included on TheMeninblack album, after it was sloweddown and turned into Meninblack, off1979’s The Raven!

It was the same version, the same tape. Itwas a palimpsest. Yes, in the Middle Ageswhen they used to create a brass plate incommemoration of someone who died,they used to make a wood cut, but inbrass to sit on their tombs in churches.Like brass rubbing, you get a piece ofpaper and lay it on top and you get acrayon and rub it and get an imprint of thecutting. Rather than taking the thing andputting it in ink and on paper, you’reputting the paper on top of it and doing ityourself, basically.

The word palimpsest comes from thatworld, as explained in Song By Song, whatyou find there is that the piece of brasswith the figure of someone on it, if youturn it over, you’ll find something else onthe other side. But it’s called a palimpsest,it’s like veiled, it’s there but you don’t see itunless you’re looking for it and I use thisword to describe Meninblack. We took the2” analogue tape of Sunspots with all thestuff recorded on it, and we slowed itdown to half speed, by mistake. AlanWinstanley put the tape on and pressedplay, and we heard this thing and said:

“What the fuck’s that?” And Alan said: “Sorry – wrong speed.” And I said “No hang on, let’s have a

listen to that.”

So was it the same 2” tape for all threetracks?

No. The tape as put away. We didSunspots and Martin was going: “It’s notquite the single, not sure about this…” soit was shelved. And when we did TheRaven, the tape then came out again…But that’s what a palimpsest is. It’s in thedictionary, and in fact some big Americanauthor wrote a book called ThePalimpsest, didn’t he?

Anyway, maybe if you do a secondedition, all this part can go in there, really,shouldn’t it? I think you’ll find TheMeninblack will be much more interestingto delve into than Black And White, I think,because there was a lot more happening…

Hugh settled the bill as I put away mymike. We stepped outside as the suncrouched to the west, and Hughwanted to check with me that my carwas okay: the ticket ran out five minutesbeforehand. I reassured him it would befine, and we went our separate ways. Meto the west, Hugh to the east. He reallycame across as a sweet guy whoappeared at peace with the world.

At times, he even reminded me of acollege lecturer in his pub break, friendlyand amiable, but still keen to convey whathe knew. Out of the blue, while sitting intraffic just by The Elgin, the word‘palimpsest’ came to mind, bringing asmile to my face. I knew that word wouldbe with me forever… and The Burning UpTimes palimpsest could be well be oneedition away! Thank you, Hugh! ❏


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GOLDY was always late. Or was itme who was always early? Eitherway, I’m here – and he’s not. “It

was the westbound platform at BethnalGreen, wasn’t it..?” I stood nervously toattention, sentry-like under the woodenclock, preparing for the journey south ofthe Thames. I checked the money Mumhad given me, first the change, then thenotes, which I folded carefully back intomy pocket. I checked my watch, the clockand then the desolate Central Lineplatform. In six hours time, The Stranglerswill play Battersea Park.

Like a lot of other spotty little fifteenyear old kids from the East End, I hadcaught the bug; and although I didn’tknow it at the time, what with hormonesand things such as puberty, acne and justadolescence in general to fuck my mindup, Punk and The Stranglers had got meby the short and curlies – trapped,ensnared, totally enraptured. But this wasmore an ascent from buying vinyl roundRoach’s Records in Church Lane. Today

was all about my first gig – my firstStranglers gig. And fucking Goldy had thetickets. Where is he?

Some furtive looking skinheadsdescended the escalators, kicking a Cokecan while the one with the magic markerscrawled on the platform posters. I feltsick, and froze like a chameleon in case itkicked off. Minutes ticked away as myheart raced inside my grey C&A shirt.Slumped against the wall, I quietlypondered my new blue suede trainers, mymatching shiny satin-effect bomber jacketand my old grey Marks & Sparkscorduroys. Soon the jacket would beditched by an old ripped school blazer, aripped black Stranglers T-shirt and blackmonkey boots. Only the cords wouldsurvive, this time replete with graffiti – andthe centre parting will be cut with aStanley and spiked with Vaseline.

As the clatter of the tin can echoedabout the concourse, my Rattus badgewas the only clue I gave off. A warmbreeze from the black tunnel blew dust in

my face, and as I blinked and looked up, Ispotted an un-phased, half-running, half-caste Goldy appear from the escalatorswhile the skinheads flattened the can intothe tarmac.

“Alright geez?”“Yeah – got the tickets?” “Yeah. Let’s go.”Saturday September 16th, 1978

was indelibly etched into mycerebellum forever when TheStranglers played Battersea. Ithad been mooted to beLondon’s big outdoor event ofthe summer, but for fans likeus, it was also a gig thatalmost didn’t go ahead. Inresponse to the threat of violence anddisruption caused by Punk concerts, theformer Greater London Council hadpostured and spurned previous gigapplications for QPR’s ground at LoftusRoad, Hyde Park and Ally Pally. The open-air gig at Battersea Park was grantedpermission at the eleventh hour.

In front of the padlocked gates, we satcross-legged in the sun on the worn outgrass as Stranglers badges and patcheswere compared and discussed in thecrowd. Surrounded by rips, tears andsafety pins, I felt overdressed like a shopwindow mannequin. A girl opposite mehad written on the side of her scuffed-upplimsoll: ‘Yeah – Take it Hugh!!!’ …as JJshouted in Something Better Change. Shedidn’t see me staring at her for she wasbusy relaying to anyone who would listenthat she had once met JJ backstage, andthat she kissed him. A boy sat next to her,

impassive to the girl’s saga, with his headin his hands. He’d hacked off the blackgrooves off his Peaches single and worethe label as a badge on his jacket. Itwasn’t a pretty sight, and neither was hewith a safety pin through his nose, eyeing

my Rattus badge. He knew how cool itlooked – he told me so. I think

he wanted it. Bang on midday, a man

with a key unleashed thegates allowing Goldy, me and

a hundred others to secure ourvantage point down the front.

The dam had burst.My first gig experience began

with a steady shower of tins andbooing aimed at the head of

comedian Johnny Rubbish, who playeda truly tuneless version of Mull Of Kintyre,altered to Mud On My Tyre. His timingwas awful, his jokes unfunny. Morepleasure was derived from an expertlyaimed can than his act.

“If you throw one more tin can, I’mgonna go off...” formed Rubbish’s epitaphand early bath. A shrilling kazoo markedthe arrival of the duo Spizz Oil who spliteardrums in two in the process. ErstwhileClash member, Lu Edmonds brought outhis new New Wavers, The Edge, whoplayed relentlessly in spite the restlessnessof The Stranglers’ crowd. The Skids’ setwas up tempo and blistering, and I knewthen I’d be buying everything theyreleased. Ex-Genesis, former prog-rockerPeter Gabriel worked the crowd well,weaving about the stage singing hisgrown-up songs to the grown-ups in his

I was there! Battersea Park, London, September 16, 1978. It was more than just the strippers, Gary Kent discoveredsomething else that day


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white outfit and orange hard hat. Finally, The Stranglers ambled across

the sun-soaked stage and took up theirpositions to rapturous applause. Talk in thepress that week had said the band hadplanned to arrive with jet-propelled back-packs, but the training required wouldhave been too time consuming. Theopening keyboard signature of Gripformed the clarion call for frenzy andmayhem down at the front. The crowdbobbed up and down, and I was partedfrom Goldy in the melee. The sight of myheroes up there, playing live, sent tinglesup my spine. I watched JJ and Hugh upclose for the first time in the flesh. Thewhole band were clad in black; Hughwith his nodding oily quiff and JJ struttingand leg-cocking, and both Jet and Davewith their shades on. Tracks from the firstthree albums were churned out in afrenetic whirlwind as Heathrow boundcharter flights hovered over our heads inthe heat.

Hugh snarled and spat out the lyricswith venom while JJ, with Sparta in his eyesand then sans shirt, used his blackPrecision like a weapon to deliver anendless stream of incessant bass twangingmenace. Their performance of Death andNight and Blood was probably the mostpoignant, iconic Stranglers song on the day.A Sherman tank fired off a few timesthrough the gig, but the biggest shockoccurred at the end when a troop ofstocking-clad strippers took to the stage totease and gyrate to an extended Nice ‘n’Sleazy. I’d never seen a stripper before.

Once the fishnets and thongs hadgone, and Toiler On The Sea was now arudderless wreck in an ocean ofanalogous white noise, the party was, forus fans, over. The crowd reluctantlydispersed at the insistence of the stewards,but Goldy and myself made our way over

to the scaffolding at the side where wethought there was some backstage activity.With fingers firmly gripped in the ringfencing, we peered between press jacketsand security guards for a glimpse of thisother world we weren’t allowed access to.Beyond the mayhem of bodies, we couldsee the strippers, with their clothes on, asthe policemen addressed them and tookdown their particulars. Then, one by one,the band swiftly departed in a cavalcadeof roaring Ford Cortinas and GranadaGhias. We watched in awe, spyingthrough the looking glass, as the motorsrevved up and sped off to some fancy bar,club or bordello.

As the rest of the crowd was beingcleared away, the stewards swept away thedebris remains of empty Coke cans andlemonade bottles. A shoe, a sock, a rippedT-shirt, a screwed up poster…. A tampon.A used tampon. Urgh! With a gentlenudge from a dusty blue suede trainer, Iflipped over the soiled, bloody tamponwith horrified curiosity. While us twospotty fifteen year olds stared at the blood-sodden plug, pondering the events leadingup to its public abandonment, thesteward’s big broom came along andscooped it up along with the rest of thepost-gig flotsam and jetsam.

Now having broken the gig cherry, Iwas keen to go to my second gig thefollowing month, and once more I wentsouth of the river. This time, to see TheLurkers at Thames Poly, Woolwich, wherea raucous fracas exploded when theNational Front skins fought the BritishMovement skins tooth and nail. Butmemories of Battersea remained firm, andwe were so inspired, that Goldy and Ibecame part of a school band with CraigMack on vocals, Adrian (“small c, big C”)McCleish on guitar, Sparky on keyboards,Goldy on bass, and me, or my self-

appointed alter-ego – General Jah – ondrums. Why shouldn’t a drummer have anom-de-plume, eh?

Thursday nights were eagerly whittledaway down a very damp Allan-GordonsRehearsal Rooms in Midland Road, Leytonfrom eight until the electric went off. Therewas just one solitary strip light, but it gaveout more heat than the dysfunctional one-bar heater. Over the ensuing months into1979, our set stretched to Grip, Peaches,Go Buddy Go, Hanging Around, Nubiles,Something Better Change, Tank and Nice‘n’ Sleazy – once I’d managed to keephold of the two drumsticks, not to mentionnailing down Jet’s off-beat drum tempo inthe latter. I named the band The Shovels,partly because it started with ‘S’ –

knowing that we could have recordsreleased and filed in Roach’s in the samesection as The Stranglers, and mostly…because nobody else could think of aname. As my skills at holding down thebeat improved, we split. This was mostlydue to musical differences, and partlybecause McCleish (“small c, big C”)couldn’t get to grips with the Peachesverse chords, so he was fired as wecollectively called it a day. I said goodbyeto the drums, and dreams of standing infor Jet were suddenly shelved, as were ourchauffeur-driven limousines.

We all left school the following yearand vowed to stay in touch forever, andapart from Goldy, no one did. In 1980, Istarted helping out on Strangled magazinewhile Goldy helped with themerchandising. With a deal under his belt,Goldy asked me to play keyboards for hisrock band around 1989, and an album’sworth of material was laid down atAdvision, just off Oxford Street. Plushcoffee making facilities were eagerlyshared with current chartsters ClimieFisher, Wet Wet Wet, Fuzzbox and JimmySomerville and gigs at The Astoria inCharing Cross Road and The Marqueefollowed in the balmy summer of 1990.We’d cram all the amps in the back of abattered Ford Transit and blow away theheadliners as imaginary Ford GranadaGhias whisked us back to the hotel. Thatall came to an end as the band was‘restructured’ that year. The truth was Icouldn’t get hold of any speed before agig at the Pegasus, and it got too late toturn up. I knew I’d missed thesoundcheck, so I didn’t show up. Hence, Iwas liberated from my keyboard duties fortimekeeping. Goldy would never touchdrugs: he. was way too smart for all that –for he was always on time now, and I wasleft standing on the platform. ❏


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We’d just bought some cheaplager, when this metallic blue-grey Ford Granada pulled up

beside us: “Wanna lift to the gig?” We did.We dived into the back and the car spedoff. I noticed these two guys in the front,dressed tight T-shirts and Man Utd tattoos,and wondered if we’d made a massivemistake.

Were we about to take a beating in themiddle of nowhere..?

We sped off and suddenly we werebeing dropped off right outside the stagedoor! These guys are with the band!Realisation dawned years later – thesewere obviously Finchley Boys en route to

the gig. After dropping us off, me and mymate Gav sat on the grass drinking ourcheap lager in the sun in front of theformer old agricultural hall. Bingley Hallwas big, seating 5,000 – it meant the bandwere stepping up in status with therelatively small Black And White tourtaking in bigger halls, such as the BrightonCentre just 10 days before.

Once inside, I grabbed a Tony MoonStrangled magazine as Steel Pulse took tothe stage. The crowd jeered and started toheckle, and bottles flew at them from theaudience before they walked off. Next up,an angry Jet Black appeared at the mic:

“Steel Pulse are our friends, so fuckoff!” Soon, the lights went down onceagain, and The Stranglers burst on with afast and furious Burning Up Time. You justcould not stand still, even if you wantedto! We bobbed up and down pogoingwith the mass – it was total bliss! I was 14and this was my first gig ever!

My favourite band were feet away. Itwas so hot, someone sprayed water from afire extinguisher over the squashed,sweaty bodies. Heroes, Something BetterChange, Tank… there were so manyhighlights as the white lights rained downon the stage for the Black And White:Curfew, Do You Wanna? Death And NightAnd Blood and Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, completewith a dancing stripper.

I’ve since seen the band play manytimes but Bingley Hall on 30 May 1978was definitely the best gig of my life!Carl Sanderson

I was there, two!New Bingley Hall, 30 May 1978 Lancaster

University,11 September 1978It was a case of third time lucky seeingthe “Guildford Four” play live: I’dalready missed a night club gig in myown town – before they’d signed arecord deal – and they also played at anearby village in the spring of 1978during the Pubs And Clubs Tour.

So later that year, this 13 year oldmade sure he got to see them atLancaster Uni. And they were amazing!They kicked off with Something BetterChange, and went into Grip, Nubiles,Peaches and Hanging Around. At thatpoint, an altercation erupted betweenHugh and the crowd; they seemedintent on showering the band with spit.At the intro to Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, Hughthrew down his Telecaster and walkedoffstage! Ironically enough, it was JJwho defused the situation, persuadingHugh to return after 10 minutes. Backto the set list for Threatened, Tank,Burning Up Time, London Lady and NoMore Heroes.

A short break later, and the bandreturned for a ceiling-raising version of5 Minutes and Toiler On The Sea, thelatter almost being aborted half-way ina mass stage invasion where one ofDave’s keyboards almost ended up inthe audience! Gary Cook

More memories of the BlackAnd White gigging days


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IT IS notable that there are few qualityBritish TV and audio recordings of theStranglers halcyon years of 1978 to

1981. This dearth of quality material can insome way be traced to the infamous RockGoes to College incident in October 1978,where the band stormed off stage after thesecond scheduled number of the night.

The producer of the show was MichaelAppleton, who went on to produce theBBC’s other influential and cool Old GreyWhistle Test. There is no doubt that theband were denied crucial TV and radioexposure, as the only show to feature themwas Rockstage in mid-1980 MIB phase.

Most other acts of similar popularityhad gigs on In Concert (Radio 1) or onlocal radio stations. They had effectivelygotten themselves banned by the BBC. Itappears to have taken the Titanic success

of Golden Brown to break its resolve. Andthe radio friendliness of La Folie musthave helped the band be invited backonto the airwaves in Britain (BBC RadioOne In Concert, February 1982).

The late 70s and early 80s BBC seriesRock Goes To College featured bandsplaying on various campuses. It featurednew wave acts and popular groups of thetime – bands such as AC/DC, TomRobinson Band, The Cars and theBoomtown Rats played in 1978. The nextyears saw the Police, The Specials andSiouxsie and Banshees make successfulappearances on one of the key live musicshows of the time.

It was essential viewing for anyoneinto music at the time, especially for thosetoo young to be allowed out to see theirheroes strutting their stuff. Theannouncement in the press of theirappearance on RGTC was manna for allthe fans of the Stranglers.

Unfortunately, the gig itself was rathershort of Stranglers fans, and this was thecrux of the matter, and the catalyst for thatevening’s entertainment.

Series host Pete Drummond’s insipidwarm up gag (“She was only thetobacconist’s daughter, but she was thebest shag in the shop.”) and inability toknow where he was (“…is it Colchesterwe’re here this week?”) gave no warningof what was to come. This was also theband’s last UK gig of the year.

A caustic Ugly opened up the show.The first of three “warm up numbers”

before the recording started. A quick “Shutup!” from Hugh and into Wog…then:“This is fucking boring. You lot are a loadof the most boring people I’ve ever seen inmy fucking life.” The disdain in Hugh’svoice is plain to hear on the soundboardbootlegs doing the rounds. “Nube count’spretty low as well…”

The Stranglers at Surrey University,Guildford, was set up by the BBC andHoward Marks, an independent pluggerhired by the Stranglers management.

The surprising ire on show wassparked by a deal the group believed theyhad struck regarding the sale of tickets.They weren’t keen for the tickets to beavailable only to students. Wanting localfans to get a chance to see them (thisbeing the area where the band properstarted out, and they were still bannedfrom the main local venues) they askedthat half the tickets to be sold throughlocal independent record shops. HowardMarks assured them that he had securedthis arrangement with the BBC.

After the sound check on the day of theconcert Hugh spotted an offer of free ticketsto the concert for new students who

attended a cheese and wine party.Suspicious, he interrogated BBC personnelto discover that no-one had heard of anyagreement to sell tickets to the generalpublic. It soon became obvious that allthose queuing to get in were from theuniversity. On top of that, those fans whohad obtained tickets had paid through theroof. The Stranglers had let some publicnon-ticket holders in, but these wereejected by stewards.

By the time they had stormed throughBring On Nubiles, and before the cameraswere to be turned on, Hugh decided tomake the band’s position on the audienceclear: “You all look like a lot of escargots.You should be boiled alive, the lot of ya.”

After a pause he quizzed the crowd:“Anyone from Bellfields estate here? Never‘eard of it have you? Two people. Anyonefrom Park Barn? Three people… JesusChrist!”

Jet: “Anyone from GuildfordUniversity?” A huge cheer erupts. “FuckOff!”

They raced trough Burning Up Time,Pete Drummond returned for more limp-wristed intros and one of the angriestversions of Hanging Around proved to bethe last number of the night. Hugh:“Guildford University never representedGuildford. We hate playing to elitistaudiences, so fuck off.”

Jet: “And for the record I thinkGuildford University sucks.” PluggerHoward Marks resigned later that night.

JJ Burnel admits on these pages that itmay have done the band some harm: “Isuppose I have to regret the impact, theperception people had of us.”

Years later the fans have one hugeregret, especially in light of the power ofthe performance…. no high-qualitymixing desk bootleg from an the BlackAnd White era! ❏

Cocks go to collegeThe Stranglers committed TV suicide in the early winter of 1978 when they stormed off stage during aBBC recording. Dom Pilgrim looks back to that gig, and dreams of the bootleg that might have been

Pete Drummond – funny or what?

ear

http://www.sundownspecials.co.uk/RGTC.html

http://www.sundownspecials.co.uk/Madrid1978.html


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When you’re a 17-year-oldschoolkid living in small-townNorthern Ireland you rely on

radio and very limited TV coverage to hearany new music. All we had were strangelypopular Country and Western groups and

Showbands, who covered the latest hits.We were starved of decent live music;hardly any name bands crossed the water,with many maybe using The Troubles asan excuse to give NI a body swerve. Sonews that The Stranglers were to return to

NI in September of 1978, for their secondtour in a year, was incredibly exciting.Portrush, only six miles away, was inkedin as one of the dates on the Pubs andClubs Tour. I was ecstatic.

I had been transformed into a fullyfledged fan of the band the previousNovember, when The Stranglers becamethe first punk/new wave group to play myhome town of Coleraine, as part of the NoMore Heroes Tour. I was still a bit of aheavy rock fan at that time (Alice Cooper,The Who, Deep Purple and others I won’tmention) and I hadn’t bought anything bythem. That would change soon enough.

After that first gig Iwas hooked andbought all therecords they hadreleased.

The Stranglerswere massivelypopular at thetime, and wereseen by us aspioneers of themusical revolutionthat was punk/new wave. Theywere the bandamong thisunlikely alliancethat had themusicianship togarner respect fromthe older kids, andthey also had theinstantly catchysingles to attractthe younger musicfans. They were theultimate cross-overband (heavyrockers couldadmit to liking

them and they were also cool to the kidsjust getting into music). That’s why Rattussold so well – everybody liked it.

There was no real scene where I lived.This was limited to Belfast, though I wasignorant of this at that time. I’d been toonly two or three gigs previously:Stranglers in 77, and Stiff Little Fingers inearly 78 (after I heard their first Peelsession, scarcely believing that there wasa decent punk band from NI – we were soused to the idea that “pop stars” camefrom somewhere else and were kind ofgod-like).

Punk definitely gave us hope that WE

could do something different, and youdidn’t need to be some sort of musicalexpert before you gave something a try.This DIY mentality was punk’s greateststrength and inspiration. Punk was theunknown, the spark for thinking thatthings could be done differently – time foraction. I realised more than ever that I hadto escape from the small-town mentalitythat surrounded me.

The gigThe Ulsterbus from Coleraine to Portrushseemed like a stretch limo that night. Wewere special passengers; we were going tosee the best band on the planet. A coupleof pals from down my street, and my olderbrother, were the other VIP travellers.

We dared to have a couple of pints inthe Harbour Bar – this was an excitingenough start ‘cos I hadn’t started going topubs. The tension was building – shouldwe get there early? No-one knew whattime they would be on, so we left to makesure we didn’t miss anything. But mybrother had met some pals and smuglydeclared they wouldn’t be on for ages.(He arrived halfway through the set!)

Once at the hall I bought a fewbadges, including a large album cover one

Portrush – Chesters Arcadia Ballroom – 8th September 1978

Rovers’ returnDonald MacKay gives a personal account of the men in black ontheir second ground-breaking tour of Northern Ireland



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with no writing – cool as fuck, and a pairof BLACK AND, AND WHITE ones which mademe snigger, ‘cos they were so clever.These badges were destined to proudly

adorn my school blazer lapels for many amonth afterwards. In fact, the whole fifthand sixth form seemed to be walkingadverts for the band for a week or two. Of

course, I wore mine longer than anyoneelse! It felt for a while like we were allpart of one tribe.

And behold, my first ever sighting of aStrangled magazine! Vol 1 number 6. Ihad never even heard of this publication,so was totally intrigued as to what it was. Ibought it and stuffed it down my trousersfor the gig. This crumpled copy became abit and worn during the actual gig, but Ilater smoothed it out and began my loveaffair with the hallowed publication.

The venue was perfect: a seasideballroom, with balcony around the edge ofthe medium sized room and no seats,hooray! Capacity about 1500 so a nice size.

After a short period of jostling forposition close to the stage, the support actappeared. I had no clue who they were,and no announcement was made. Theyjust got on with it. I asked someone besideme who they were and the reply came:“The Undertones”.

The amps were emblazoned in whitelettering: THE STRANGLERS – ALBION

MANAGEMENT. During The Undertones set,this reminded you who you were waitingfor, and heightened the anticipation. Yes,they were really here, and we would seethem soon!

The band appeared to a huge roar, andthey immediately launched into a tripleonslaught of well known numbers thatblew the place apart. The lighting wasstark; lots of white, not as colourful as theprevious year, where the main colourswere green and red, per the pic on theinside cover of No More Heroes. It wasfantastic to see them again in the flesh,and it such a good feeling to know all thesongs. JJ bounced around like he wasdoing an assault course, Hugh scythed athis strings, Jet pummelled the skins, andDave’s arms were a blur, as he used everykey available. Mesmerising!

It was hot and sweaty, the audiencewas young and enthusiastic, and the bandwas firing on all cylinders with superb oldand new songs. The set was very directand incredibly powerful. This band wastotally in control and masters of their craft.The dark clothes had replaced the jeansand t-shirts from 77. Hugh wore a white t-shirt under his black jacket, with themotto “Support your local Hell’s Angel”. JJwore a leather jacket, with the famousnetting top underneath (per the 5 Minutesvideo). Jet and Dave were sombre in theircolourless gear. Boy, did they look meanand moody. They were here to work, nothave a laugh. There was very little chatfrom Hugh – no jokes tonight. Theintensity of the songs spoke forthemselves.

About three numbers in Hugh speaksfor the first time, “Anyone here fromColeraine?” Jeez, he is talking to ME! Hugeroar goes up from the many that had beenthe previous year.

Then… Hugh shouts “Black andwhite!!!” and the boys burst into Tank. Itwas like standing in an aural wind-tunnelas the roar hits you. Totally mind-blowing,and exciting all at once.

The spitting that hadn’t seemed tobother the Undertones continued, andeventually JJ had enough. During HangingAround he stopped playing and pointed tosome jerk who he had identified as the

The SetlistSomething Better Change, Wog, GoBuddy Go, Tank, Nice ’n’ Sleazy,Sweden, Hanging Around (restart),Peaches (cut short), Toiler, Threatened,Burning Up Time, Curfew, Do YouWanna?/Death And Night And Blood,No More Heroes, Straighten Out, Downin the Sewer, 5 Minutes



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worst culprit, giving him some verbals off-mike. I think Hugh also said a few choicewords about the situation.

The band restarted Hanging Around(much to my delight ‘cos I didn’t want tomiss any of the songs) and things seemedto settle down a bit as far as thatunwelcome variety of audience“participation” was concerned.

However, the dickhead in the crowdgot his dutch courage back, thinking hewas really tough hiding in the darkness ofthe crowd. But half way through PeachesJJ showed him who was toughest. I wasstanding about two rows from the frontclose to JJ. Like a flash, he threw down hisbass and dived head long past my leftshoulder into the crowd. Megasurprised, I turned round tofind JJ a few feet awayon the groundwith theculprit in aheadlock. Ibet this guyshat himselfwhen he saw JJcoming for him!Hugh jumpeddown into thecrowd too, to makesure his mate was OK.No fear, there was nowa wide circle around thetwo combatants. JJdragged the guy awaytowards the nearby entranceand the bouncers then tookover. I expect the guy endedthe evening with a bruise or two– served him right. Hugh walked right pastme on his return to the stage and I pattedhim on the back. That was when I firstrealised how tall he was.

Thankfully, after that we had a

phlegm-free gig and, if anything, thenatural anger of the band created an evenmore intense atmosphere. JJ ripped intoToiler with incredible ferocity to vent hisanger at the idiot minority, and themajority responded with enthusiasticsupport. No-one was going to mess with JJnow.

The new songs were even moreimpressive, probably ‘cos they meantmore to me, being new yet familiar. I justloved every minute of this stuff.

Sweden was absolutely superb. I stillremember JJ staring right at me (or so itseemed) as he sang the “too much ti-ime”

backing vocals. I yelled inunison, of course. Strange howlittle snippets of gigs stick inyour mind. I always think ofthat vision when I hear thatsong. Toiler blew my mind, itwas just sublime!

Threatened wascool, especially“…piece of myMummy….” ‘cos Ifelt good aboutknowing thewords to shoutalong with JJ,unlike themajority inthe crowd.

Curfew wasreally impressive also,

the songs from the Black sideseeming somehow more accessible in

the live setting.The “oldies” were expertly executed

also and my particular fave from 77, NoMore Heroes, was played perfectly, withof course the classic keyboard sound inplace.

Every song was totally enjoyable, but

the pride of place went to Down in theSewer. It was so good that night. Duringthe finale the crowd all started clappingabove its heads in time with the insistentrhythm. The atmospherewas nerve tingling, andI’m sure JJ and Hughwere getting off on theaudience reaction. Itis one of thehighlights of mygig-goingexperiences. Atotally brilliantperformance of thatsong.

And soon it was all over. Thepost-gig euphoria followed.

These early gigs are unsurpassable forexcitement and full-force power of a bandon a mission to prove how good theywere. Artistically and commerciallysuccessful, The Stranglers could do nowrong. As good as it gets, really.

Looking back on it now, this was thegig that really cemented my love for theband. Although they later became moremusically adventurous and sophisticated,the raw energy of this period of the band’sdevelopment was truly unbeatable for me.Things were never again quite as manicand thrilling as this! Just check out theRock Goes to College footage to get anidea of what I am talking about. This ispretty close to my gig. In contrast theopen-air footage from Battersea Park lacksthe atmosphere of the indoor gigs of thetime.

Post-gig euphoriaThe last bus home had gone, so I had tophone my Dad to come and pick us up(very rock’n’roll). With my ears ringing, Iwatched proudly as he perused myStrangled magazine. He became a little

uneasy about the “Hello little girl…”cartoon and asked, “What’s this?” I repliedhastily, “It’s only a joke”. I’m not sure hewas convinced, but put down the magand wandered off. I took his reaction tomy mag as evidence of the generation

gap, so I felt good about being youngand different to him. Strangled

had got me already! I soonsubscribed and got

the back issues(30p each!).

Battersea Parkwas imminent, but

there was no way Icould get to that one.

However, there was theconsolation that the

band were going torecord Rock Goes to

College soon after, and I was so lookingforward to seeing this set on prime timeTV. Alas….

A few weeks later I saw an advert inSounds (my music paper of choice) for alocal fanzine called Alternative Ulster. Thebit that caught my eye was that TheStranglers were featured, so I sent off forone.

When I opened the home-spun pages Iwas delighted to find not only a review ofthe Portrush gig, but also some great pix ofthe boys in action. [This article isreproduced here in Burning Up Timesfrom the very copy I bought way backthen. And Alastair Graham’s fab pix fromPortrush and Belfast that have onlyrecently been discovered are publishedthroughout for the very first time].

The Stranglers were definitely now“my band”. They were starting tometamorphose into variants that no-onecould have predicted, and it wasfascinating following their journey intothe unknown, all the while producing


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intoxicating music. Certainly the liveshows always retained my 100% interestfor many a year to come. We all have ourfavourite eras, and no doubt the “firsttime” has a major influence on how weall perceive their exploits. Well mysecond time was the best, and will livewith me forever as the greatest gig ever.Cheers lads.

The following year I had an interestingconversation about Black And White witha guy I met during my early days atuniversity (I had escaped!). His local bandwas the Skids and he saw himself as a bitof a “punk”. I said I was a big Stranglers

fan and he said “I liked the first twoalbums, but Black And White is shite!That’s not punk rock.” Well, exactly! I said“Who cares? It’s fucking brilliant!” This forme highlighted the difference betweenStranglers fans and the “punks”. Wethought for ourselves and didn’t give a tosswhat the image makers said about whatwe should and shouldn’t like.

I loved this band and I would defendthem against any idiotic statements fromany quarter. This helped breed the loyaltyof the fans, and I never met any punk fansthat were as loyal to the cause as us. Weknew our band was the best. ❏


Alternative Ulster fanzine:


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Main photo: Ulster Hall, BelfastTop left: Hugh in BelfastTop right: JJ at the Portrush soundcheckBottom right: Dave at the Portrush soundcheck

All pics courtesy of Alastair Graham


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Satan Jim DruryMy favourite moment of working on thebook [Song By Song] with Hugh wasactually doing Black And White when hepicked up his guitar and started playing the‘satanic’ chords to Threatened, which is myfavourite song on the album.

Tank Billy BraggI remember Tank as being one of myfavourites off Black And White. Not only isit a great track, but it’s particularly poignantfor me, as that is what I used to do in theBritish Army, drive tanks. Yeah – I’m gonnaget it now on CD.

Yukio Chris AldertonMy favourite song off the album is DeathAnd Night And Blood (Yukio) with JJ’ssnarling voice… Dave’s heavy keys... and atgigs, the way crowd joined in – “Hey littlebaby don’t you lean down low, your brain’sexposed and it’s starting to show your rottenthoughts, yuk!” It’s an unforgettableexperience being at a gig with everyonejoining in with the words. Rather like achurch service where all the congregationsing “I Vow To Thee My Country” – in tune.I only hope JJ found it therapeutic everytime he performed it and got whatever itwas off his chest. Think of all those hours ofAnger Management classes he’s savedhimself. The song was very angry andmenacing. It got the blood flowing and theheart beating. That’s what it did for me. Itlifted the roof. It was pure Stranglers.

Fuck my new boots Damian FranklinBlack And White got me hooked on theStranglers. I even bought a pair of MonkeyBoots on the strength of seeing Hugh’s onthe cover of Black And White. I then gotmyself a pair of Jam shoes like Dave’s ashort while after. My older cousin lived inFinsbury Park, and he had a copy of BlackAnd White with the White EP. He used totake me to see The Stranglers at theRainbow on many occasions. Having seenthem play live over a hundred times, forme, it’s the Black And White songs thatcome out best. Although there was one gigthat proved to be the exception – Ally Pally.I thought Toiler was ruined by John Ellis’guitar work. A year on from that, I wasfortunate to catch Paul Roberts’ first UKdate at The Old Trout in Windsor when hesung a superb version of Threatened.

SleaZzz… Mark TallEvery night at 10.02pm I tuned into JohnPeel’s late night show on Radio One. In thedarkness of my room, I lay there with mylittle radio right up to my ear, hoping myparents wouldn’t find out. One night inApril 1978 I’d drifted off into a light sleepwhen suddenly John announced intomorrow’s show he was going to play thewhole of the first side of the forthcomingStranglers LP, Black And White. I actuallyleapt out of bed in my C&A jim-jams rightthere and then, shocked from slumber andwith nowhere to go – I paced around mytiny room in the dark bumping into stuff. Iwas so excited I had to catch my breath. I

was totally wide awake – how could Isurvive the next 24 hours?

Anticipation was building. I happilywent to bed and amazed my parents in theprocess. Into bed, out with the radio andunder the covers. The intro. Dum- da-dum,da dum, da-dum ... what a spine-tinglingsound...waiting for the spindly little guitarnote that heralds the dour night time tonesof Mr. Peel. He waffled on as he did,mentioning a few bands he had linedup…and it seemed an age until he againsaid that the whole of Side One of the newStranglers album would be played…atsome point. I dipped into a sleep once ortwice, and did my best to stay awake in mycotton cocoon. Then suddenly – I awokewith a start. I checked red numbers on mybedside clock: I’d missed the first 24minutes of the show. But had I missed TheStranglers? Surely not... time was passinginto the night. “Oh shit! It’s now 11.25…”

Now it’s 11.35. Less than half an hourto go. The anticipation was killing me… Butthen the opening chord, and the joy andthe relief as Tank opened the segment. Iwanted to capture every note and soundand I wished my ears could grow bigger. Ipressed the radio hard to my ear and mysynapses went into overload, busily tryingto process all the information. And just likemy very first Stranglers gig that very year,the whole thing went by in a blur. Hauntingmemories of the beautiful Outside Tokyoportrayed an unexpected departure insound, and the mesmeric Toiler On The Sea– with it’s mantra- like finale fading into thewhoosh of the sea, or was it the South West

radio reception playing up? Uncle Johnended the bedtime session with: “Well –there you have it.”

The Stranglers sounded different. Lesspoppy, more sharper, more textural, morechallenging, more pensive. Something hadhappened to them. They’d grown up.Grown wiser. And I was growing withthem. And what if Peelie had played theBlack side? What would we have made ofthat in our pyjamas, eh? We’d haveprobably put it down to bad reception.Little did we know what waited for us onMay 12, 1978.

What a picture! Stephen HowardI got into The Stranglers when I heard NoMore Heroes. Pocket money was scant,and I used it to get singles from Revolver inCheetham Hill, Manchester. One day Iwalked in and saw a brand new displayadvertising Black And White. I’ll neverforget it. The display dominated the shopwindow. But it wasn’t until a trip toSalford’s Woolies a few weeks later withmy Dad, that the LP became mine. I rushedhome and put it straight onto the turntable.I couldn’t wait to tell my mates I had TheStranglers new album.

Black And White has that special placefor me: my first album admittedly, butmusically, it’s up there with Rattus and TheRaven as amongst the best. I’m still blownaway by Tank, just as I was then, whilst theintro to Toiler must rank as one of thegreatest in rock history. But it is the Blackside that captivates me then now, as it did

Stranglers aficionados expose their brains, do lots of tapping, click on send and tell us what Black And White…

Means To Me


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back then. Curfew – dark and menacingbut with a great pop chorus… thethreatening Do You Wanna? merging intoDeath And Night And Blood showing thebands great artistry... In the Shadows waspretty creepy, especially in the dark of thenight. However, Threatened stands out themost. Never has there been a more aptlytitled track. Musically, it’s suffocating andJJ’s vocal is, well, threatening: “Bring me apiece of my mummy – she was quite closeto me…” Enough Time never really did itfor me but the rumours that the code at theend was some dark satanic message madeit fascinating listening but my mainmemory of this track is how my brotherrushed in thinking I had damaged therecord player in the slow fade out.

An album of great music and memorieswhich were brought back on my trip toBath last year to hear Norfolk Coast. JJkindly showed me around Charlton Farmand we popped into the merchandise officeand there in the corner, was a hugecardboard cut-out of Jet from the Black AndWhite display. For a moment I felt I wasback in Revolver...

What a photograph! Al WallisIt’s a classic album cover, it’s up there withAbbey Rd, Dark Side of the Moon andmany, many more. Talking of Abbey Rd –do you remember the myth surroundingthat cover? Paul McCartney had allegedlydied and was replaced by a doppelganger!Paul has bare feet, a symbol of a dead man.George in denim, the gravedigger. Lennonin white, the preacher or the angel. Ringoin black tails, the undertaker. It’s allbollocks, we know, but hey! Black AndWhite’s cover is just as interesting,considering the ultimate outcome of TheStranglers Mk1. JJ the naughty child, theimp, in almost a foetal position. Jet, the

rock, the centre of everything, the universe!Dave.... well I dunno about Dave, he justlooks mental! The mad professor, thegenius, his crazy deformed hand! AndHugh – the odd one out, the only one notfacing the camera, head hung down. Helooks not dissimilar to the Hanged Mancard in a pack of Tarot. He also has the lookof a mime (a clown?) in his black gloves.The martyr? A very brave move to notinclude the band name on the front too.

No troubles... Donald MacKayWhen Black And White came out none ofthe record shops in Coleraine had copiescontaining the White EP. This was becauseNorthern Ireland was excluded at the timefrom the Chart Return. I was highly pissedoff at being treated as a second class citizenby the music biz! I got my White EP a fewweeks later on a trip to Glasgow, makingmy second B&W album purchase – thestart of the multiple purchase trend for me!I thought Tits was hilarious, with Hugh verycleverly taking the mickey out of the self-indulgent “serious” rock musicians of thepre-punk era.

The new Stranglers sound was differentbut not so radically different as to alienatefans like me. The White side was musicallyaccessible and instantly enjoyable; theBlack side was definitely very interestingbut was going to take a bit more work to getinto. A challenge! The lyrics (thankfullyprinted on the inner sleeve) were at timesobscure, and deep. I was not used tothinking too much about lyrics, ‘cos Ihadn’t come across such unusual topicsbefore in rock music. The sounds were darkand serious, the words were intriguing andchallenging. I wasn’t sure what it was allabout but I had to find out. The effortrequired was essential – and rewarding.

I thought the cover of the album was a

very powerful image, and I perused thisstark, unusual shot along with thechallenging lyric sheet for many an hour asthis musical masterpiece revealed itsintricacies to me. The speakers struggled tocope with the demands placed on them asthe sounds drowned out all else in myworld (well, my bedroom). This music wasgodamm interesting and getting addictive,and I played the album all summer long.The previous year there was no question inmy eyes (and ears) that The Stranglers werea punk band. They were part of the scene inthe music press and seemed to have noproblem with being labelled as such. ButBlack And White was asking morequestions. They were certainly moving onand becoming something else, as theyrevealed their darker thoughts.

Stay in your homes Gary KentFirst the adverts appeared, then Peelie’snight-time teaser, then Friday May 12th,1978... I bunked off with a mate – and£3.75 – and raced round to Roach’sRecords in Church Lane to wait for theshutter to go up. Back at my hi-fi, with thesalient sleeve propped up on top, we spentthe day blasting Leytonstone with thenewest, freshest, tightest explosion ofinstruments ever – hanging on to eachword, we laid there awestruck. I can’t recallever having the same feeling for a piece ofplastic wrapped in a bit of cardboard eitherbefore or since that day. Magicalmonochromatic masterpiece.

On the rocks Jamie GodwinI was 15 when I first heard Black And Whitein 1993. To be honest, I thought the albumsounded empty at first and didn’t makemuch of an impression. But like mostStranglers albums, it grew on me, and now

it’s firmly established in my mind as thedefinitive Stranglers album! I stuck on BlackAnd White the first time I raided my parentsdrinks cabinet, aged 16, getting hammeredwith dubious spirits while listeningawestruck at Dave’s complex keyboardarpeggios in Toiler On The Sea. After awhile I became dizzy and had to throw up!My favourite tracks off Black And Whitemust surely be Toiler, Curfew and Sweden.

Years later – and to me it’s obvious thatthis album was a characteristic masterpieceembodying much of what we nowappreciate as typical Stranglers musicalmotifs. It is all here in abundance: thescathing vocal approach, the rumblingbass, the manic keyboards, thepowerhouse pretentious-free drums, andthe dark subject matters. Truly a classic.

Grey becomes… Barry SpoonerBack to a time when I wasn’t 40 plus,married, with kids and debts… It’sNottingham, 1978. The second half the 4thyear. I’m 14. I’d heard a lot about punk. TheStranglers were the ones in the press and onthe radio, but they still hadn’t impressedme. Until 5 Minutes came on Top of thePops! I have never seen a band look orsound so menacing! Also never seen asinger look so cool as JJ... This is a lifechanging moment and I knew from thatmoment The Stranglers really are somethingspecial. That fact was proven when KevinBennett played me Black And White on hismusic centre a few months on. Althoughlistening to Toiler was on unforgettablemoment, it was tracks like Threatened andCurfew that made the major impact. I couldhear it was JJ singing – this cool-as-fuckFrench man, and I the fixation with JJ startedright here: his looks, his style, his attitude,his voice and, of course, the sound of hisbass guitar. I have never seen/heard/known


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of anyone like him. He is a truly awesomeindividual. An icon.

At the end of the school holidays, Irushed round to my record shop andgrabbed Walk On By, knowing I’d be goingback to school a different person. Thingswere never be the same again. This was thepoint that I really started to seriously listento music and collect records.

Heavy rok Carl SandersonIt’s February 1978. The Stranglers haven’treleased anything since No More Heroes,Autumn last year. Then the full-page advertsappear in the music press – 5 Minutes – wow!I picked it up on release day from my localrecord shop, but – wait a minute – what’sgoing on? A plain black sleeve with just thebands’ name and the title in a red LEDtypeface, no logo on the front? And no rat?!

As soon as I get home and give it a spin,I soon realise why the sleeve is all in black:5 Minutes is the darkest, blackest, heaviestthing that the band has released so far. A realappetiser of what is to follow on the blackside of the next album… The kick drum introsets the feel… Dave’s keys and Hugh’s leadriff… leading up to JJ Burnel’s bass run of allbass runs. Martin Rushent’s production wasalmost perfect: heavy, hard and driven alongat a murderous pace. God how I loved thissong! And then came Tiswas….

Hugh and Jet are being interviewedSaturday morning kids telly – the pair werefairly unforthcoming as they threw sweetiesover their shoulders to the youths behindthem. They play the videos to 5 Minutesand Rok It To The Moon. What a video! Alow budget classic, which has got to be myfavourite clip ever. The band looking hard,mean and moody as they mime along tothe playback in a rehearsal studio…thelook on Jet’s face as he pounds away is anabsolute gem. So we got an awesome song

and an awesome video, what more could afan ask for ? Some awesome gigs….. butthat came later!

Strangers in the night Mark Tall5 Minutes was a watershed. It was the firstrelease of a new year. 1978. It brought afuller sound and arguably the best singlesleeve the band ever produced – clean,clear, modern, threatening and very black.For most of us, it was our second year withthe Stranglers. During the first we foragedfor NME articles, clippings, reviews andmost importantly visuals of the band.Visuals that seared through our eyes andinto our memory.

It’s fair to say that Burnel and Cornwellwere the characters we most adored. Theywere different – to each other and to thePunk crews we were engaged by. We readof Cornwell’s bohemian intellectualism, hisway with sarcasm and his student rag dresssense that covered his puny, boney body.But it was Burnel who really caught ourimagination and desire. An angry, cheeky,smart, bouncy, lithe, lean, risk taking, motorbike riding French boy prone to sporadicacts of violence and partial to a tight leatherjacket. He was the one to watch.

And so came the video to 5 Minutes. Asa boy of thirteen, the excitement of thisvideo being played on Top of the Pops waselectrifying – almost unbearable in it’ssensoral asphyxiation.

The moody, subterranean, wire strewndungeon and luminescent light. TV’sblinking and flickering all around. We hadchanced upon the Stranglers lair – theirLondon hideaway. Jet quaalude-laden andleaden, standing as he pumped out thefierce insidious beat of the song; Greenfielddebuting his ability to provide glisteningarpeggios as he drank unknown Europeanbeer; Cornwell in tight black pants, hungry,

intense and looking frighteningly unstableduring his solo; and then there was Burnel..

The new Burnel was totally in black.Black leather jacket, black Dr. Marten’shammering out the intro beat, but nowwith tight black jeans, black string vest andmost importantly, the black FenderPrecision with cream neck. The first timewe had seen it. It was gorgeous. It sat sosnug. It was as if it was connected. A toy. Aweapon. A beast of sound. It moved acrossand back, across and back to the rhythm ofJJ’s hips and to the beat of the song. It wasmagnificent to watch.

We sat in silence. The impact wasmade. The sinister button had been turnedup a notch. We knew things had changed.There was no album, just a tease ofsomething smouldering to come. The bandseemed older and wiser. More unstable.More extreme. The lyrics shouted of rape,knives and revenge. We were scared. Butso excited. We all wanted more. Fourmonths later we found out. 1978 was thestart of things going black. 5 Minutes wasthe turning point. And when The Collectionvideo came out…which one did I go tofirst? 5 Minutes. It’s the best.

Nice ‘n’ Uneasy Eric VonkBlack And White was the hardest record tolike at first. Although Tank, Nice ‘n’ Sleazy,Outside Tokyo, Curfew, Threatened andDeath and Night and Blood were superb.In retrospect, it’s a very good album but abit “hit and miss” to be honest. They werevery much left of centre, drifting furtheraway from the pub rock/punk sound of thefirst records and not being afraid to get a bitintellectual on the punters with harshfuture scenarios like Curfew or Japanesesuicidal literature Death And Night AndBlood which comes across a lot deeperthan, say, Peaches, Princess Of The Streets

or Something Better Change. These days, inthe era of MP3s etc., I still play a handful ofthese tracks regularly.

Bangor and mash Mike I was much too young to be listening tonasty horrible groups like The Stranglers!That’s why I didn’t buy Black And White in1978. But a seed was sown by my mate’sbrother who was into the band. I rememberseeing the advert for 5 Minutes in mysister’s Record Mirror, and she bought meBlack And White from Cob Records inBangor. I remember listening to it withmixed emotions, but Threatened, OutsideTokyo and Toiler were the stand-out tracksby a long way.

Eerie, USA Richard KolkmanI live in Indiana, USA – no one here hasever heard of them. I was a Beatles snobwho discovered The Stranglers’ Black AndWhite LP in the discontinued bin on thecheap in early 1979. I was 16 at the timeand Stranglers were like nothing I’d everheard. All other bands paled beside thecomplexity, aggression, melody TheStranglers produced (and humour). I washooked the minute I heard it. In 1997 I builtthe www.xulucomics.com/stranglers.htmlsite, I’d had almost 19 years of obsessionbehind me and an entire set of Strangledmagazines to work with.

Killed by sanity Dom PilgrimI first heard it in 1986. A guy at college hadit and we played it in his room very loudlyon a hi fi one crisp, cold blue-skied Fridayafternoon in November. Death and Nightand Blood (which I knew from my first-everpurchase: Live X-Cert) and Threatened werethe songs that really twisted my head. ❏

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Kicking ass with Jean Jacques Burnel - ☆ Strangled.co.ukstrangled.co.uk/pdf/but01.pdf · Stranglers.” News quickly spread among the youth from the myriad of villages and towns