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1977 is remembered as a moment of musical revolution, when bands like Burnel’s Stranglers took crowns from bands like Wakeman’s Yes. But as the pair agreed when they discussed that time, it wasn’t that simple
Rick Wakeman spent six months of 1977 recording Going For The One with Yes. Meanwhile, JJ Burnel and The Stranglers released two albums over the same time period in the same year. When Prog put the pair together in 2012, some might have expected the punk wars to resurface. What happened instead was an epic revealing of home truths about the time when prog’s glory years ended, and another movement took its place.
“What’s all this about?” asks Stranglers’ bassist Jean-Jacques Burnel is leaning forward in his chair and enquiring why he’s sitting next to the rather less buff former Yes keyboard player and all-round prog overlord Rick Wakeman.
We decided to bring together two men from opposite ends of the musical spectrum to find out what things were really like on the frontline all those years ago. In 1977 Wakeman had spent six months in Queen’s Mountain Studios in Montreux working on Yes’ Going For The One album. In stark contrast, The Stranglers were preparing to release not one but two albums, six months apart: Rattus Norvegicus and No More Heroes. For Yes it marked the end of their imperial phase. For The Stranglers it was the beginning of theirs.
The pair greet each like old friends – and it turns out that they are old friends, their paths having crossed several times over the years. “1977, then,” booms Wakeman, settling back into his chair. “I’m not certain either of us will remember that far back…”
For JJ, 1977 would have been the start of an adventure, whereas Rick had, to put it bluntly, been round the block a few times.
Rick Wakeman: Thank you!
Jean-Jacques Burnel: It was the first time we’d released an album. We felt something was going on – a bit of a revolution, and with every revolution you chuck the baby out with the bath water. It was a Year Zero for many people. It was only years later that people started admitting to having liked anything before Year Zero.
How long did that take?
JJ: A long time. I do remember Captain Sensible at the time, without any irony, admitting he liked Abba; and when I saw the Sex Pistols they were playing old Monkees covers. There was a dichotomy between what people were doing and what they were claiming in the press.
A lot of the bands claimed punk had nothing to do with drugs. I was like, “What?!” We used to get called hippies because we smoked dope. Everyone was broke and tight, so speed was the drug of choice because it was cheap.
What was 1977 like for you, Rick?
RW: In 1977 I’d just rejoined Yes and we were recording Going For The One in Switzerland, which took six months…
JJ: Six months! We recorded our first two albums in 10 days!
RW: A lot of that time was spent with Alan going skiing, Steve tuning his guitars, and trying to wake Chris up! But [label boss] Ahmet Ertegun came to us and said: “I don’t know how much longer I can keep funding records like this.” We realised that this was the last bastion of prog rock as we knew it. We were aware of punk – I’d seen it coming a few years earlier when I saw The Tubes and took them to A&M, who signed them.
JJ: Really? We used to love The Tubes.
RW: We were aware that something was going on. And it kills off what went before it, at least for a bit. When prog came along, it did away with the old beat and psychedelic groups, the way the beat groups had done away with the crooners before them.
JJ: When something new comes along, everyone wants to be a part of that peer group, to the extent that they’ll deny their history. It’s only when they’ve gained some confidence that they can start to admit where that history actually came from. Up until that point it’s almost politically incorrect to admit your influences!
But you can tell by just listening to the music. On our first album, the nearest thing we had to a prog rock song was this four-part piece called Down In The Sewer. That was about 11 minutes long and it was a suite. Prog rock, essentially, even if it was prog à la Beefheart and The Doors.
Did that kind of rivalry exist in prog, Rick? Did you have any dust-ups with ELP or Genesis?
RW: No. The press tried to stir things up, between myself and Keith Emerson especially. But we were great friends and we used to laugh about it all. We let it go on because it fuelled press.
JJ: We used to laugh at things like Pink Floyd taking years to make an album. But we’ve just taken two years to make our album [Giants, 2012]. The creative process can take time, because you’re not on an assembly line. And you have a life outside the band as well. The two worlds did occasionally meet: Freddie Mercury bumping into Sid Vicious in the studio, members of Led Zeppelin turning up to punk gigs…
I don’t really recall fraternising with any bands from the previous generation apart from Dr Feelgood. When I was a kid I’d go and see bands like Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac and Black Cat Bones, who became Free, and I felt that kind of vibe in Dr Feelgood.
Our keyboard player, Dave Greenfield, was a prog rocker, though. When I first met him he had platform boots on, his jacket had frills, and he had long hair and what we called a semi-pro moustache. He introduced me to In The Land Of Grey And Pink by Caravan. I did like that. I do remember the Yes singer [Jon Anderson], though. Is he still into elves?
RW: Jon has his own little world. When he doesn’t like what’s happening in the real one he retreats into his own one. He’s a big fan of yours, though, JJ. We were touring together recently, driving around in the same car, listening to all sorts of music. We played some Stranglers, and he said to me: “You know, there’s a few of their songs that Yes could have done.” He was right. Certainly something like Golden Brown.
How did get you away with that?
JJ: There was a lot of hypocrisy involved at the time, like people claiming to be working class when they weren’t. I remember Joe Strummer crying on my shoulder when we were the first band to support Patti Smith and the Ramones. He was in a rhythm and blues band called The 101’ers; he was going, “Oh, I wish I had a band like yours!” He used to live in the Notting Hill squats at the time. No one knew his dad was a diplomat.
Was there a rivalry between the punk bands at the time?
JJ: Not until success kicked in. I remember meeting Steve Jones and Paul Cook from the Sex Pistols when we supported Patti Smith in 1976, and all Steve said to me was: “We’re going to be famous in six months’ time. I like your haircut!” Then a year later I remember having a punch-up with Steve and Paul and Paul Simonon from The Clash at the old Dingwalls. That’s when the rivalry seemed to start – when we started outselling everyone.
JJ: I’ll tell you something about Golden Brown that I’ve never told anyone before. It actually developed out of a prog rock suite. We were recording the La Folie album, and Hugh and I were pissed off because we seemed to be writing all the songs. So we said to Jet and Dave, “Right, you two are going to write a song. We’re off to the pub. Have it written when we get back.” We fucked off to the pub all afternoon.
Now, with Dave being a prog rocker and Jet being a jazzer, when we got back they presented us with this six-part piece of music. And we were like, “Fucking hell, we can’t record this.” We went, “Don’t like that bit… don’t like that… oh, wait a minute, we could something with that.” And the part we did like formed the basis for Golden Brown.
1977 has retrospectively been cast as the year of punk, but the biggest-selling albums of the year were Bat Out Of HellandRumours. Has there been a bit of rewriting of history?
JJ: Have you seen these re-runs of Top Of The Pops from 1977 on telly? What a load of shite! It’s like karaoke central.
So, 1977: was it fun?
JJ: It certainly was. I knew a year later that things were changing, though. I had a bank account, and I went in and the teller was a young girl with streaks of green in her hair. The great British assimilation had begun.
Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.
All Comments1
Tony Burt
1 hr ago
The great thing about 77 was the sheer diversity of music in the charts and beyond and if you were being honest with yourself and not trying to be cool there was a lot to love and embrace and enjoy ABBA Yes Strangers Fleetwood Mac etc etc We were very fortunate to have had that embarrassment of choices as the french put it. Everyone loves great music regardless of the genre and we had it in spades. If you want to hear good music now what do you listen to? Old music!
MENINBLACK: The Stranglers are due to play a headline show in Wakefield this week. But they say their next album will be their last.
HOURS after The Stranglers have shared an open-air stage in Scarborough with fellow veterans of the 1970s punk rock movement, the Sex Pistols and The Undertones, Baz Warne is relaxing in a hotel in York “enjoying the solitude of the morning”.
The evening before, the singer and guitarist reflects in gentle Teesside tones, had been “very enjoyable”.
“Going on in the middle, I think we had the full captive audience,” he says, adding that they had a “good craic” with Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock, who The Stranglers’ mainstay Jean-Jacques Burnel has known for 50 years. “JJ and Paul and Steve go all the way back to the mid70s. They first met at a famous London pub venue called the
Red Cow in Hammersmith, where they all used to play, and I heard them talking about that last night.”
Next on The Stranglers’ agenda is a headline concert in Wakefield. “I only live eight miles away, in Leeds, so it’s going to be a blast for me, that one. I think I’m going to ride in on my motorcycle and then just go home afterwards,” says Warne.
“We’ve had a busy summer. The gigs come thick and fast at festivals through June, July, August and September, then we’ve got a few weeks off and then we’re off to do a French tour in November, which we’re all looking forward to as well.”
It’s now 26 years since Warne joined The Stranglers – originally as a guitarist, before also becoming their main vocalist following the departure of Paul Roberts. Although the move was a step up from his previous band, Smalltown Heroes, who had supported the Meninblack in the mid-90s, it had been a complicated decision, he says.
“I think it would be fair to say that they weren’t in the best of health then in the mid to late 90s… We were watching them every night and they didn’t seem to have any fire or passion to do it any more…I think all bands have a period like that where they go through the doldrums,” Warne says. “We had a guitar tech who worked with the Heroes who went on to work with The Stranglers, so he was the connection, and when the guitar player left JJ had said to him, ‘Can we find that guy?’ So that’s how it came to pass. At the time The Stranglers had a singer, so I would’ve just been the guitar player and I thought, I’d love a bit of that. “However, I was still married to my first wife and we had small children and we’d been on the road with the Smalltown Heroes for pretty much eight or nine years with precious little to show for it… She said to me she’d never once asked me in all the time we’d been together not to do something that I wanted to do, but she asked me not to do The Stranglers, so I rang them, and…turned it down purely for her. I felt that I owed her because she’d stood by my side through many lean times and I thought, OK, I’m 36, maybe I’ve had my bite of the cherry. But then somebody told me your average man only lives to be 72, so that was half of my life gone, and I thought if I don’t try now…
“I was in turmoil for a whole weekend and my wife knew it and she just kissed me on the cheek one day and said, ‘On you go, I think you should give it a shot.’ So I called them and I went down to London on the train… I did the audition, got the gig on the spot and 10 days later we were in Kosovo playing for the United Nations troops in Pristina, driving Scorpion tanks and firing automatic weapons and living with the squaddies, and I’ve been there ever since.”
Within months of joining the band, Warne was contributing songwriting ideas. His partnership with Burnel has yielded four albums. Burnel recently suggested that The Stranglers might have another album in them, but he was adamant that it would be the band’s last. Warne reveals that they have several ideas for songs.
“Dave (Greenfield, the band’s late keyboard player) wasn’t particularly a songwriter – although he did contribute to The Stranglers’ biggest ever hit, Golden Brown – but Toby Hounsham is a very good songwriter and between him, me and JJ we’ve got quite a lot of material to flesh out and to record,” he says. “There will be one more album, categorically, but it will be the last one… I think we owe it to Toby to make an album with him on and draw the curtain to a close – although it’s still something that we don’t like to talk about. JJ is 74 now but when he gets out onstage, I looked across at him last night and he was having a ball. The band ending is inevitable, as everything is, but we’ll just keep going as long as we can.”
The Stranglers play at Wakefield Exchange on Friday August 21.
Tonight’s headliners are The Stranglers. I’ve seen the band many times, both with the original lineup and since, and they’ve never come anywhere close to being disappointing. However, a friend of mine who hasn’t seen the band since the 1980s walks out saying “that’s not The Stranglers. That’s a tribute band with Jean-Jacques Burnel on bass.” Well, that isn’t an opinion that I’d share with JJ. Or Baz Warne for that matter, as he’s now been in the band for twenty-six years, a decade more than Hugh Cornwell managed. So, in order to quash any doubts, the band onstage tonight are definitely The Stranglers. JJ and Baz will be available to discuss the matter with any naysayers at the end of the review. Probably.
This being a festival, what we get tonight is a greatest hits set, and there really is nothing to fault. You really can’t beat an opening trio of ‘Straighten Out’, ‘Duchess’ and ‘(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)’. For me, the sound of The Stranglers always revolved around JJ’s bass and Dave Greenfield’s keyboards. Current keyboard player Toby Hounsham plays just like the late Dave Greenfield so that sound is very much intact.
Although this is largely a hits set, there is the odd excursion away from that zone, such as ‘Relentless’ from 2006’s ‘Suite XVI’ album. This song also highlights what a wildly underrated guitarist Baz Warne is, as his playing is incandescent. ‘White Stallion’ from the band’s most recent album ‘Dark Matters’ is another comparatively recent highlight. Apart from that there are very few surprises, but that is by no means a complaint. The Stranglers give this crowd what they want, which is a tour through some of the best of their back catalogue. Toby Hounsham’s keyboard solo in ‘Walk On By’ is excellent, whilst Baz Warne’s solo in ‘Hanging Around’ kicks ass. The set closes with the brilliant ‘Tank’ from the ‘Black And White’ album.
The first of the encores ‘Mean To Me’, also from the ‘Black And White’ album (although it dates back to at least a couple of years before that album’s release) harks back to the band’s blues-rock origins, and what else could the final encore be but ‘No More Heroes’? This has been a brilliant end to a brilliant day, and there are still three more days to go! Yowzah!!!
With a career that has spanned five decades, Hugh Cornwell remains one of the defining voices and songwriters to emerge from the punk era. As the 50th anniversary of The Stranglers’ debut album ‘Rattus Norvegicus’ approaches, Cornwell is looking back as much as he is looking forward, with plans to celebrate the milestone live while continuing to explore new territory in his solo career. Next year, as he exclusively reveals will also see the release of his latest solo album, ‘Succubus’ — a title he reveals here exclusively for the first time. We caught up with Hugh at Forest Fest to talk about the enduring legacy of the Stranglers, the genius of Dave Greenfield, the forthcoming ‘Nosferatu’ live film, and what it means to revisit fifty years of The Stranglers. Coming out of the winderness; Eamon O’Neill.
Hi Hugh, how are you doing? Hello, nice to see you.
The last time we spoke you were preparing to do your ‘Nosferatu’ shows. We’re about to go out and do some more shows of that in the UK, just in England. One of them is in a cave, and we’re going to film it. We’re going to film the show, so there’ll be a live film of ‘Nosferatu’.
A cave is very appropriate because it’s a strange album, isn’t it? Very strange. I never thought I’d be playing it all live, but thanks to the efforts of Windsor and Pat, very able musicians, we’ve managed to do it.
It must be nice for you to be able to mix it up like that because obviously at a festival like this today, people expect the hits, don’t they? Oh, we won’t be playing any ‘Nosferatu’ today. We could do, but no, we’re sticking to something else. I mean, I’ve got the old ten Stranglers albums in the back catalogue, and then I’ve got about ten of my own solo records, and then to add ‘Nosferatu’ as well, as another one I can dip into, it’s great. And the more you’ve got, the more variety. I enjoy variety. If everything sounds the same in a set, you think; „well, hang on, they played this earlier, didn’t they?“
I wanted to chat to you about a few of those classic tracks. Now, ‘Peaches’ is a song that, it’s such a cliché that you couldn’t get away with it today, but you couldn’t get away with it then either. Apparently, it was banned. Right? Yeah, you could never get away with it. It’s tongue in cheek, it’s an observation of life. I mean, everyone will agree with this; reportage of live events has got to be truthful, and it’s got to show what’s actually going on, so if I can’t write a song about peaches, which is about guys on building sites who wolf whistle girls walking past? That is the truth. That’s what happens. Now you can’t document that. There’s something very odd going on with society, but anyway, that’s another discussion.
I think the key to that song is your vocal delivery. The whole thing is based on that bass riff, which continues and continues and continues, so I had complete carte blanche to do whatever I wanted, so I just let rip.
On the other side of that, you’ve got a song like ‘No More Heroes’, which touched on something much deeper. Well, that was written at a time in my life when suddenly Elvis Presley and Groucho Marx, two of my heroes, died in the same week within a few days of each other, and so it really came like a sledgehammer to me. My cultural reference points were being taken away from me, being pulled away from me. It’s an ideal time to be talking about this because next year is the 50th anniversary of the release of the Stranglers’ first album, ‘Rattus Norvegicus’, which was April the 17th, I think, or 27th, I’m not sure which. And I’m releasing an album called ‘Succubus’, not in April, but next year. And so it’s the fifty-year anniversary of when ‘Peaches’ was released, which is quite remarkable, really. So that makes sense that we’re talking about this now.
Are you going to celebrate it? I know some of these things be out of your hands like the deluxe edition albums, but have you thought about playing the album in full or anything like that? Well, I’m going to celebrate it live. I mean, if people want me to do a whole Stranglers thing, which I’ve resisted doing over the years because the Stranglers are out there; they can do all the old catalogue and I like to play my new stuff as well, but but to celebrate the fifty years, if a promoter is excited enough to want me to play a whole Stranglers set then I will because it’s the fiftieth. If there’s no other time when it makes sense to do it for me, it’s then, and then then people will get the voice and the guitar of the Stranglers, which they haven’t really had before.
Mentioning promoters, do you get pressure to reunite with old band? They say you’ve got to do a fifty / fifty; you know, fifty percent Stranglers and fifty percent solo. Sometimes I can get away with seventy-five / twenty-five, but no one said; „we don’t want you to do any Stranglers songs!“ But I don’t hold that against them because they’re great, you know. Of course, they don’t say; „No, we don’t want any. We definitely don’t want you to play any old Stranglers songs“, I mean, that would be so funny if someone said that. I’d laugh. I think. I’d think they were joking.
Going back to ‘No More Heroes’, it has that really unusual start with the bass. That’s just JJ [Burnell]. It wasn’t written [the intro] when we wrote the song, and then one day when we were going to play it John was obviously feeling frustrated, and he did that, and; „yeah that’s great. Let’s do that!“
There’s such a unique sound from the keys, and even the keyboard modulation in the solo. Yeah. Well, Dave [Greenfield] had a great contribution to the band, and obviously his huge contribution was, without Dave we wouldn’t have had ‘Golden Brown’, that classic song, because it’s his music, and he should be remembered for that, if for nothing else,
Even the the timing of ‘Golden Brown’ is unique. It ends up at 11/ 8 eight, or is it 14/8? [Thinks] I always struggle with it. It’s three bars of 3/4, and then one of 4/4, so that’s 13/8. Sorry, apologies to music lovers.
We’ve spoken before about your amazing guitar solo in that song. Yeah, I had this weird guitar that Hofner had given me. It was a prototype, and it had an amazing neck in the sense that it had two whole octaves, and it was completely in tune at the top of the second octave. There’s no other guitar I’ve ever played that you get two whole octaves. A [Fender] Telecaster goes up about one and three quarter octaves. And so because the frets were so close together, it was very easy to come up with that solo.
It’s an unusual scale as well; have you got any theoretical knowledge? That’s what came out when I was fiddling with it. No, no, I’ve got no musical knowledge at all. I used to fall asleep during our music lessons at school. „One day you will stop falling asleep!“ – Doctor Prince. „One day you will regret falling asleep during my music classes!“, that’s what he used to say.
So what’s coming up next for you then? Well, we’ve got a few more ‘Nosferatu’ shows in August around the UK. There are about five of them, one of which is going to be filmed, and so we’ll have a live ‘Nosferatu’ film next year when it’s all edited. That’s in a cave in Derbyshire, which is nice. Then in the autumn I’m doing a big acoustic tour, just me and my guitar on stage, no band. I haven’t done that for ten years, and it’ll probably be the last one I do because it’s a lot of effort, a lot of mental effort to get that done. So I’m doing that in November and finishing off the new album, and I think we’re going to Australia at the end of the year.
So you’re very busy, as always! Well, I try to. otherwise, I get bored. If I’m not fully occupied, I start thinking about things, and then I get depressed, so I’d rather not have time to even think about it.
Sex Pistols, The Undertones, and The Stranglers at Scarborough Open Air Theatre, on August 3
Review and photos by Dave Lawrence
SCARBOROUGH time warped back to the Seventies on Sunday night with an evening of punk nostalgia.
Three bands – The Undertones, The Stranglers and Sex Pistols – all performed on the same bill, each contributing their own share of iconic songs that made for a superb evening’s entertainment.
Yes, none of the bands have the line-ups that made them famous. Unsurprising given all had their first brushes with success more than 50 years ago.
It mattered not. For people of a certain age – self included – the music that these bands created came along at a pivotal time in our youth and I was happily transported back to being a skinny, spotty teenager.
Undertones play Scarborough – photo by Dave Lawrence
The Stranglers followed, their signature sound – Burnel’s deep growling bass combined with rippling keyboards – grabbing the audience’s attention immediately with songs like Peaches, Nice ‘n Sleazy and Something Better Change sounding superb.
Chart friendly hits like Always The Sun, Golden Brown, Walk On By and Duchess were not forgotten and the set closed with pounding versions of Tank and No More Heroes.
The Stranglers play Scarborough Open Air Theatre. Photo by Dave Lawrence
Sex Pistols of course need little introduction. John Lydon continues to deride the current line-up with singer Frank Carter as “karaoke” but tell that to the thousands of ticket buyers having the time of their lives on Sunday. There were three bona fide Pistols on stage and in Carter they’ve found a front man who brings his own energy to the party.
The band’s set was short, but of course they only really released one album. Covers of the Stooges’ No Fun, Paul Revere and the Raiders’ Stepping Stone and Paul Anka’s My Way helped push the set beyond the hour mark.
In short, Sex Pistols were simply terrific – the dandyish Matlock on bass (last seen on this stage performing with Blondie), Cook lean and powerful behind the drums, Jones crashing out mighty riffs on his guitar and Carter a bundle of pent-up energy in his Smith’s The Queen Is Dead vest.
Sex Pistols at Scarborough – photo by Dave Lawrence
Opener Holidays in the Sun was followed by Seventeen and New York. Behind the band, old footage and headlines from their notorious heyday ran on the screen behind them.
For Pretty Vacant, Carter – who has breathed new life and joy into the band – was over the barrier and into the crowd orchestrating a mosh pit before being crowd-surfed back to the stage.
few songs later and it was the turn of God Save The Queen to get the audience moshing away in excitement.
There was only one way to bring a terrific show to a close, and that was with a rabble-rousing version of Anarchy In The UK that worked the audience up to a frenzy and sent them off into the night.
This came out in 2001 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Stranglers were one of those bands that slipped through the cracks. They were too smart and arty to be punks, too punky for a rock band, too ugly to be pinups and too surly to be pop stars.
Since embarking on a solo career, singer-guitarist Hugh Cornwell has consistently demonstrated he’s also too old to change — or to give a good goddamn about it. So Hi Fi, like his previous albums, is basically a latter-day Stranglers album — the same darkly melodic ballads, the same literate lyrics, the same chiming guitars, the same hypnotic minimalist arrangements, the same post-punk sneer. The big difference is Hugh doesn’t have to split the money as many ways. Speaking of money, here’s a bonus worth every penny: Live acoustic versions of the classics Golden Brown and Always the Sun. If you were ever a Stranglers fan, don’t let these suckers slip through the cracks.
The punk/new-wave icon admits he’s never been certain about his guitar playing, although he’s proud of the legacy he’s left in music – and he’s not finished yet
The Stranglers helped usher in the UK’s late ‘70s punk/new-wave/post-punk movement. The band’s songs and albums remain memorable – even if former lead singer and guitarist Hugh Cornwell doesn’t think much of his playing from the time.
“I’ve never been sure of what kind of guitar player I am,” he says. “Guitar has always been a struggle because I really wanted to be a singer. I picked up guitar because I wanted to accompany myself.”
But Stranglers albums like 1977’s No More Heroes, 1979’s The Raven, and 1981’s La folie – containing their biggest hit, Golden Brown – tell the story of an inventive player. “It was a means to an end,” Cornwell shrugs.
“I’ve never felt particularly capable. I can make it do what I need it to do, but I’m no innovator. The guitar and the voice are slaves to the song, and the song is the keynote to everything else.” But he’s aware that he and The Stranglers helped change the musical landscape.
“You don’t think of it like that when you’re doing it,” he says. “You don’t think it’s going to endure.”
“I’m very proud – and even though pride is a vice, it’s becoming more and more clear how important that period of music was. I feel very happy that I was a part of it, and maybe helped shape it.”
Since leaving The Stranglers in 1990 he’s released nine solo records, with another, Succubus, primed for 2027. “I still want to write the perfect song,” he says. “I still want to make the perfect album. I’m getting closer, and the next one will be better than the last. I’m happy about that.”
What got you started on guitar?
One of my brothers had renovated a Spanish guitar. I don’t know where he got it – probably a junk shop – but he stripped it down, polished it, and repaired it. He left when he was 18 and I was 14; the first thing I did was rush up to his room to see if he’d taken the guitar. He hadn’t!
Did you take to it immediately?
Well, I got my grubby little fingers on it, and for over a year I’d be in his room playing and teaching myself. By the time he came back, I could find my way around it. I asked him, “Do you want your guitar?” He said, “You can have it.” I guess he’d grown out of it.
(Image credit: Ian DicksonGetty Images)
Later on you became friends with Richard Thompson.
We happened to be in the same class at school. He lived very close to my parents, and we realized we both loved music. At 15 he had a rock group and needed a bass player, so I volunteered. I didn’t mind that it had four strings – who cares?!
Did you know how to play bass?
Richard taught me. My first electric instrument was actually a homemade bass I’d bought from some kid for £5. It was terrible to play, but I managed to make a sound come out of it.
Not until I got my Telecaster – and I’ve never played anything else on stage since, really. I’ve picked up the odd Epiphone, Gibson Melody Maker, or Höfner Razor; but mostly, the Tele is my go-to guitar. I felt the Les Pauls were too heavy. Once I picked up a Tele, I said, “This is it.” It had a sign from God that said, ‘Play me.’ So I did!
I lost my way with my sound at the beginning, since I was mostly a rhythm player. I whacked on an overdrive to give it extra body so I could play a lead line, and I was happy with that. Then Dave Greenfield’s keyboards became more to the fore, and the guitar got lost a bit.
I got a bit lost in a lot of the mid-Stranglers catalog – it’s hard to hear what the guitar is doing. The bass and keyboards were up loud, so there wasn’t much room left.
What gear did you rely on back then?
I had the Telecaster and I started with a Vox AC30, but on advice I got sidetracked into Fender Twin Reverbs, which are horrible. I never got on with them; when I left The Stranglers I went back to Vox AC30s because I love the warmth. The Telecaster and the AC30 work so well together.
But the AC30s are very sensitive and fragile. They don’t last long on the road, so you always have to take a spare. So I moved over to the Fender Hot Rod Deville, which is great because it’s roadworthy and I could get the Vox sound.
In the early ‘80s, The Stranglers had their biggest hit, Golden Brown.
It’s the biggest song we ever did! If you look at its popularity then – and now with Gen Z using it in films – it’s become the go-to song, you know?
Did you use your Telecaster for the lead on that track?
I played the lead on a prototype from Höfner. They came to a gig and offered me this weird-shaped guitar, and I said, “What the fuck is that?!” They said, “It hasn’t got a name yet, but we’d like you to try it.” I picked it up and it was amazing. You could go up two octaves on the neck, and it was perfectly in tune!
(Image credit: Getty Images)
I thought, ‘I’ve never had a guitar that could do that.’ Then I said, “I’ve got a name for it – you should call it the Razor.” The shape of it reminded me of that with the sharp edges; it looked like a broken piece of glass.
How did you put together Golden Brown’s lead?
The guitar had three pickups and loads of knobs and switches, which I didn’t like too much. But I got around that and was fascinated by it, so I used it on the whole La folie album. That’s why I was able to get up there and do that intricate solo for Golden Brown.
It was very easy because the frets were very close. In order to squeeze in that extra octave, the space between the frets and the action were low. It would have been a lot more difficult for me to do on a Telecaster.
Your record label didn’t want to release Golden Brown as a single, so it must have been satisfying for it to be a hit.
We always thought it was a hit! [Guitarist] John Ellis hated it, but Dave was tickled pink because it was his music. John and I monopolized part of the writing, and Dave was very much an embellisher. He’d come up with this weird piece of music, and at first we couldn’t do anything with it – although we knew it was good.
One day I came in and he was playing it in rehearsal. I said, “You know what? Keep that. It’s bloody good!” Suddenly we got the song written. Within 10 minutes, [drummer] Jet Black arrived, and I said, “Listen to this, Jet.” He said, “That’s a smash hit.” But John said, “I think it’s shit!”
So we had mixed opinions – but John realized that Jet and I were really into it and that it was Dave’s music, so he acquiesced. But he didn’t play on it because he couldn’t think of anything to play; it didn’t inspire him, which was fair enough.
In 1988 you released your solo album Wolf, which wasn’t a hit per se but was warmly received in America. Two years later, you left The Stranglers.
It was a big move to do that. I was encouraged by Wolf, even though it’s a bit dated now. I realized I could make a record by myself, which I’d never been aware of. But I didn’t really plan on leaving The Stranglers.
So why did you?
I could feel something brewing inside of me – I wasn’t happy. We’d spent most of our career living together and out of each other’s pockets. We knew what was going on in each others’ lives and hung out together… we were a gang. When we went onstage to make music, it was just an extension of that.
(Image credit: Lorne Thomson/Getty Images)
We’d pretty much got along, and even lived in a house together early on. But then, suddenly, you found yourself on the sidelines of people’s lives, and their lives became self-contained. I’m not talking musically; just day-to-day. You didn’t know what people were doing anymore.
In the years leading up to 1990, we’d meet up to tour and do music, but I felt like I had less and less in common with the people I was playing with. It was weird. It wasn’t a shared experience anymore. It wasn’t really being truthful anymore, and I suddenly felt uncomfortable.
Was there a big fallout, or did you leave quietly?
I got very despondent. I suddenly realized that the show coming up was going to be my last. Like, two hours before, I said to myself, “I can’t really see a future, so this might as well be it.” It was the last show scheduled for a while, so it was the best time.
I called the others. John, whom I was emotionally close to, said, “I can tell you haven’t been very happy over the last couple of years.” He understood, and we spent around 15 minutes on the phone. Then I phoned Jet. He said, “OK.” He didn’t even want to talk about it. It was very odd. So, that was the end of that phone call.
Then I said, “I’d better call Dave.” When I told him, he said, “Does this mean we’re gonna have a meeting? Thanks for letting me know.”
In the years since, you’ve carried on solo. Are you working on new music now?
Yes – I’ve managed to sell enough records and generate enough ticket sales to justify still doing it. If any of those things change, I’ll stop. What I’m working on now will be called Succubus, and it’ll be coming out in 2027, 50 years after The Stranglers’ first album, Rattus Norvegicus.
Do you have any regrets?
I think The Stranglers were probably a bit too big for our boots. All of us were a bit too overconfident with hubris, and that didn’t help. I’m sure people realized and noticed it, so that’s a regret. But really, I don’t regret anything, because you define who you are by the things you’ve done. You can’t change them. There’s always positives and negatives to each decision.
I’m proud that I was part of a great musical experience – not just The Stranglers, but that whole period. I bumped into The Sex Pistols’ Glen Matlock at an exhibition of art from punk records. He said, “It’s true, isn’t it: neither you nor I had any idea what we were doing, or that it was going to create this.”
And it’s ridiculous! We were just doing it because it felt right and it was fun. You don’t think about it becoming a legacy – what you leave behind.
Andrew Daly is an iced-coffee-addicted, oddball Telecaster-playing, alfredo pasta-loving journalist from Long Island, NY, who, in addition to being a contributing writer for Guitar World, scribes for Bass Player, Guitar Player, Guitarist, and MusicRadar. Andrew has interviewed favorites like Ace Frehley, Johnny Marr, Vito Bratta, Bruce Kulick, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Morello, Rich Robinson, and Paul Stanley, while his all-time favorite (rhythm player), Keith Richards, continues to elude him.
Punk legends The Stranglers open up about riots and nights in cells at Scottish gigs
The band shared wild memories ahead of a string of gigs in Glasgow, Inverness and Kilmarnock this March
By Matt Bendoris, Chief Features Writer
Published: 22:33, 22 Feb 2018
STRANGLERS wildman JJ Burnel had to forget his black-belt karate skills and leg it instead when a riot broke out at their first Scottish gig.
The bassist from the legendary punk band is a seventh dan martial arts expert but even he feared for his life when the group ended up barricaded in their dressing room at Glasgow’s Strathclyde University.
Trouble flared when The Stranglers stepped in to replace The Ian Gillan Band at the last minute in December 1976, with local reports at the time claiming the punks goaded the crowd for being rock fans.
JJ — real name Jean-Jacques — recalls: “The first time we played in Scotland we weren’t the advertised act. The crowd came to see a rock group and got a bunch of punks instead.
“I do remember we had to barricade ourselves in our dressing room as the crowd tried to lynch us.
“We were kind of used to people not liking The Stranglers, but not to that extent. It was a lot more physical than we were used to.”
He adds: “I’ve been doing karate way before The Stranglers started. But that night at Strathclyde Uni I needed to have fast legs rather than my karate skills, I can tell you.”
Formed as the Guildford Stranglers in 1974 in Surrey with JJ, drummer Jet Black, frontman Hugh Cornwell and Dave Greenfield on keyboard, the group rose to fame during the UK punk explosion of 1976.
They went on to have more than 20 hit singles — including the worldwide smash Golden Brown, No More Heroes and Always The Sun.
But the uni riot wasn’t their only scrap north of the border as the bassist once spent a night in the cells at the old Strathclyde Police HQ in Glasgow’s Pitt Street.
A riot broke out at the band’s first Scottish gigCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
He chuckles: “I was having dinner with Jet at the Central Hotel, which is where all the bands used to stay when they came to Glasgow.
“Then Jet did one of his little ‘things’ and got belligerent, which saw him jump up on the table in the restaurant.
“At first the transport police came and put us in a cell at the end of a platform. Then we were escorted to Pitt Street on a Saturday night.
“The licensing laws were different in those days when everyone had to drink up by 10pm then the streets were carnage afterwards.
The Stranglers were originally formed as the Guildford StranglersCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
“So we’re in the waiting room and there’s this steady stream of people being brought in with a whole catalogue of injuries, with blows to the head and cuts to their faces. It was like a war zone.”
That night in the clink came just a day after the band played the city’s legendary Apollo in May 1978.
But they actually needed rescued by the boys in blue after bouncers attacked lead singer Cornwell.
JJ explains: “The bouncers pushed Hugh down the stairs head first.
“So we had to be escorted out of the venue by the police. But it was a lot of fun in those days.”
The punk legend was born in London to French parents. But his hair-trigger temper has seen The Stranglers get into hot water all around the world.
THE MUSIC IS STILL SO RELEVANT
THE Stranglers’ classic hits have provided the soundtracks to a string of TV shows and movies.
Their 1982 anthem Golden Brown was used in Brad Pitt’s film Snatch in 2000, cop show Ashes To Ashes in 2008 and the recent Netflix sensations Gotham and Black Mirror.
Meanwhile, No More Heroes was used in Steve Coogan’s 24 Hour Party People in 2002 and Channel 4’s Fresh Meat seven years ago.
And Waltzinblack was also the signature tune to the late Keith Floyd’s popular cookery shows.
JJ says: “I’m always amazed where our songs pop up.
“It’s basically recycling. Something you wrote 30-odd years ago reappears in a completely different context even though the song remains the same. It’s flattering.”
The group have never categorically stated what the lyrics for Golden Brown mean although former lead singer Cornwell claimed it was about heroin and a girl — saying “both provided me with pleasurable times”.
However, JJ also enjoyed mimic Rory Bremner’s version when he renamed it Gordon Brown after the former PM.
He adds: “I liked Rory’s song. It was funny.”
The group were arrested in France in 1980 after it was claimed JJ incited a riot at a gig in Nice which left a trail of destruction including “smouldering palm trees”.
JJ was once lifted in Australia for swearing on TV, while they were also escorted out of Sweden under armed guard after a run-in with Teddy boys that only saw the band escape unharmed by throwing Molotov cocktails.
But the 66-year-old insists they learned how to take care of themselves in Scotland.
JJ says: “We did have a lot of aggro back in those days but it formed the character of the band.
The band will play in Glasgow, Inverness and Kilmarnock
“Scotland set us up as we’ve been ready to take on all comers ever since.” But it was karate which helped the France-based musician overcome his wild streak and quit the drugs.
He explains: “I had always done karate until I got involved in Class A then I stopped it. But it became something to fall back on.
“I got my seventh dan in Japan four years ago which, for a white boy of my age, is about as high as I can go. You can go to the maximum of ten in Japan — but that’s usually when you die.
“I don’t train as much because The Stranglers keep me busy. That’s a nice position to be in but it does impact on my training.”
Singer Hugh left the band in 1990 and was replaced by John Ellis. When he then quit in 2000, guitarist Baz Warne joined the group.
They might not get banged up any more but JJ insists the pensioners still have a point to prove.
He says: “The Stranglers are not in the pantheon where they deserve to be, because we p****d off so many people. At one point opinion was polarised against us in favour of The Clash and Sex Pistols.
“But they’re long gone and we’re still going strong.”
Right now he’s looking forward to returning to his old battleground.
He adds: “Scotland provided us with more war stories than any other country in the world.
“I visited Pitt Street a few years ago for old time’s sake. It was sad to see it in such a sorry state as it’s a dilapidated building now.
“It really should have a blue plaque outside saying ‘The Stranglers spent a night in the cells in here’.”
Published on: 16 Jun, 2026 Updated on: 16 Jun, 2026
Stars at The Star: From left, Duane Stubbington, Chris Scopes and Jezz Buzzing. Lee Dallaway is on drums
Dragon Review by Charlie Whiting
Chris Scopes, from the spiritual home of The Clash, graced the home of The Stranglers in Guildford on Saturday – and his band played tracks from both bands.
Chris fronted Clash ’n’ Sleazy at The Star Inn – where The Stranglers (originally the Guildford Stranglers) played their first ever gig, on December 21, 1974.
Chris now lives on Kings Avenue, five minutes from The Crown and Sceptre on Streatham Hill. “You were down The Crown planning your next move” says a line from Stay Free, off the second Clash album, Give ‘Em Enough Rope. Clash guitarist Mick Jones wrote Stay Free when he lived in the flats opposite The Crown.
Chris admits: “When I heard the start of Nice ’n’ Sleazy on Top of the Pops in 1978 I thought that’s ugly, nasty, brutal… but a minute into the track I thought, I love it!”
The last gig I saw at the Star was when Jean-Jacques Burnel from The Stranglers played acoustic with fellow Strangler Baz Warne as they campaigned to keep the pub as a live music venue. An absentee property developer had bought the adjoining flats in Quarry Street and decided he would prefer silent neighbours. He did not succeed, obviously.
So amplified Stranglers filled Quarry Street again, turning it into Quality Street, this time mixed with Clash tracks including Safe European Home, White Riot and what Chris introduced as “the best punk reggae song ever written” – White Man in Hammersmith Palais. And Guildford marches on as the kernel of great music.
Asked whether he prefers The Clash or The Stranglers Chris, the bassist, replied: “I’d have to say Stranglers because of the basslines.” You can give your opinion, below.
He and the band have extensive experience on the music scene. Drummer Lee Dallaway has also played with Chelsea. Jezz Buzzing on keyboards, rhythm guitar and vocals has played with Past Tense. Duane Stubbington plays the lead guitar and also sings.
Chris, formerly of Chords UK, is also in two other bands – Woking Calling, which plays Clash and Jam, and Punky Reggae Party. The latter started in 2017.
Chris returns to The Star with Woking Calling on Friday, October 30. Meanwhile, original Stranglers frontman and songwriter Hugh Cornwell is playing Guilfest on Sunday, July 5.
By Jerry Ewing( Prog,Classic Rock ) 1977 is remembered as a moment of musical revolution, when bands like Burnel’s Stranglers took crowns from bands like Wakeman’s Yes. But as the pair agreed when they discussed that time, it wasn’t that simple Rick Wakeman spent six months of 1977 recording Going For The One with Yes. Meanwhile, JJ Burnel […]
Duncan Seaman 18 Avgust 2026 MENINBLACK: The Stranglers are due to play a headline show in Wakefield this week. But they say their next album will be their last. HOURS after The Stranglers have shared an open-air stage in Scarborough with fellow veterans of the 1970s punk rock movement, the Sex Pistols and The Undertones, […]
THE STRANGLERS – Empress Ballroom (22:45 – 00:15) Tonight’s headliners are The Stranglers. I’ve seen the band many times, both with the original lineup and since, and they’ve never come anywhere close to being disappointing. However, a friend of mine who hasn’t seen the band since the 1980s walks out saying “that’s not The Stranglers. That’s a tribute […]
6/8/2026 With a career that has spanned five decades, Hugh Cornwell remains one of the defining voices and songwriters to emerge from the punk era. As the 50th anniversary of The Stranglers’ debut album ‘Rattus Norvegicus’ approaches, Cornwell is looking back as much as he is looking forward, with plans to celebrate the milestone live […]
By Dave Lawrence Sex Pistols, The Undertones, and The Stranglers at Scarborough Open Air Theatre, on August 3 Review and photos by Dave Lawrence SCARBOROUGH time warped back to the Seventies on Sunday night with an evening of punk nostalgia. Three bands – The Undertones, The Stranglers and Sex Pistols – all performed on the […]
The Stranglers frontman makes it clear he’s too old to change. Or give a damn. Music & Audio By Darryl Sterdan 2026-07-27 This came out in 2001 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing): Stranglers were one of those bands that slipped […]
By Andrew Daly The punk/new-wave icon admits he’s never been certain about his guitar playing, although he’s proud of the legacy he’s left in music – and he’s not finished yet The Stranglers helped usher in the UK’s late ‘70s punk/new-wave/post-punk movement. The band’s songs and albums remain memorable – even if former lead singer and […]
Punk legends The Stranglers open up about riots and nights in cells at Scottish gigs The band shared wild memories ahead of a string of gigs in Glasgow, Inverness and Kilmarnock this March By Matt Bendoris, Chief Features Writer Published: 22:33, 22 Feb 2018 STRANGLERS wildman JJ Burnel had to forget his black-belt karate skills and […]
Published on: 16 Jun, 2026Updated on: 16 Jun, 2026 Stars at The Star: From left, Duane Stubbington, Chris Scopes and Jezz Buzzing. Lee Dallaway is on drums Dragon Review by Charlie Whiting Chris Scopes, from the spiritual home of The Clash, graced the home of The Stranglers in Guildford on Saturday – and his band played tracks […]
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