We chat to singer and guitarist Baz Warne about returning to Cornwall, the loss of founder members Dave Greenfield and Jet Black, and their most successful album for 40 years
The Stranglers are returning to Cornwall to headline The Great Estate – Baz Warne is pictured second right
It’s almost ten years since The Stranglers last played in Cornwall and there will be no better time to pogo again when the punk originators headline The Great Estate at Scorrier House at the end of May. This year marks 50 years since they formed and they’re touring again off the back of their most successful album in 40 years.
I chatted to co-frontman Baz Warne, who’s been the guitarist for the MenInBlack for almost a quarter of a century now. Fittingly for a band that terrified audiences in the 1970s, the Sunderland singer looks hard as nails, but in reality he’s a bit of a pussycat and he loves Cornwall, which is a bonus. In fact, one coastal town has a special place in the band’s collective heart.
Is this the last hurrah for The Stranglers as has been reported? „There’s been a bit of misunderstanding about this in the press in the last few months – we never said we wouldn’t tour again, we just said we wouldn’t do any big ones. Originally the idea was that we wouldn’t do any more large tours in one go. Traditionally we’d sometimes do 25 to 35 shows on a British tour, going everywhere, and it was knackering.“
Well, you’re not getting any younger are you? „Aye, well that’s very true. Thanks for pointing that out. Funnily enough, on this upcoming tour in March I turn 60 and I was 36 when I joined The Stranglers, so I’ve been in the band a long time. In our world a tour is when you go out and you don’t go home again until it’s finished. What we’re doing during the summer isn’t really a tour, it’s one-off festival gigs.“
The band last played in Cornwall, at Tunes In The Dunes, in 2016 with several gigs at the Cornwall Coliseum in the 1980s (my first Stranglers experience was a right rollicking night there in 1986) and before that they played during the zenith of punk at the Winter Gardens in Penzance in March 1977. There was even an odd one among the rollercoasters at Flambards in Helston 20 years ago and who could forget their co-headline set with Motorhead at the Eden Sessions in 2015?
„We haven’t played in Cornwall for quite a while, so we’re really looking forward to coming down,“ said Baz, who reminisced about the time he and bass player, singer and original member Jean-Jacques Burnel encamped to Cornwall to write one of their albums.
„We lived in a house on the beach in Looe for about three months in 2005 where we wrote a massive part of the Suite XVI album, so we’ve got a bit of an affinity with Cornwall. There were the Looe festivals we did on the beach, one of which was touch and go whether we’d even play because it was so wet.
„We were all sitting in the hotel room in Looe waiting for the phone to ring for someone to say yay or nay. There were about 5,000 people on the beach in the chucking down rain and we finally got a call to say it was safe. Everything that’s supposed to be protected from the water is protected from the water. So went down and it was magnificent – it was a really good show.“
It’s been a huge rollercoaster for the band with the deaths of founder members keyboard player Dave Greenfield in 2020 and drummer Jet Black in 2022, but also the massive success of their last album, Dark Matters, which was released in 2021. It must have been such a strange time.
„Yeah you could say that,“ said Baz. „When lockdown initially started, because Dave was 70 at the time, he was automatically instructed to be restricted to the house. He was going up the wall, he couldn’t even go up the pub which was a big thing for Dave, part of his daily routine was to go and have a jar and natter with all the old fellas in his village.
„We got the call that he’d been rushed into hospital for other health reasons but unfortunately he contracted Covid while he was in there and that’s what took him. When I heard the news I switched my phone off for about three weeks and had no contact with anyone because it was so upsetting. It was devastating.
„When I switched my phone back on there was literally smoke coming out of it with the messages. JJ was the same. We did say ‘what are we going to do?’ There was talk of maybe not doing anymore because how do you replace someone like Dave Greenfield?“
He added: „Then we found a guy who had posted a little tribute up online who was a phenomenal keyboard player. Toby Hounsham was known to the band because Dave was his hero. We asked him to join but we couldn’t get together for a year because of the pandemic. When we first played together it was quite an emotional thing because he was playing Dave’s keyboard rig. It was bittersweet to say the least.
„He’s been received like a conquering hero by fans. I think God must be a Stranglers fan to deliver Toby to us because we couldn’t have found a better guy who fits in amazingly.“
On Jet’s passing, Baz said: „He was in his mid to late 80s and had had a wonderful, fulfilling life. I was very pleased to speak to him about ten days before he passed away. He was chipper and then he slipped away in his sleep in his little cottage in Wales with his loved ones around him – the ideal way to go.“
JJ Burnel of The Stranglers at Tunes in the Dunes in 2016
The band are looking forward to 2024, which has started with a current UK tour and then some summer festival dates, including The Great Estate in Cornwall alongside the likes of The Darkness and Soul II Soul.
„This year is the 50th year and we’ve sold the Albert Hall out in one day, so we must still be doing something right,“ said Baz. „There was a lot of emotion and curiosity attached to Dark Matters obviously – Dave is on about eight of the 11 tracks but we had to finish it without him.
„The songs stand up and I think we were really pleased and flattered that it got the attention it deserved and became the first Top 5 album for The Stranglers for nearly 40 years. Even though there is only one original member of the band left, it seems that people just want to come along and hear those songs and celebrate.“
I think the songs and the name The Stranglers is bigger than any member now.
„That’s exactly right. Dare I use the word ‘brand’, which I hate, but there’s no getting away from it, I guess that’s what it is. In May we’re having a rare sojourn to the United States – we don’t play in America very often anymore. Apparently everyone is just waiting to see us, so we’re looking forward to the coming year.“
What can we expect in Cornwall?
„Well, we’ve got 18 albums to draw from. There are songs that you are expected to play and you can’t get away from – we all know what they are – but we like to mix it up and surprise people. When you play a festival you look down and a lot of the audience are kids who know the songs but might not be sure who they’re by. You see them going ‘oh, this is them!’ It’s still nice to convert and initiate people after all these years.“
I finished off by telling Baz that I have an affinity with the band. Apart from loving them since 1982, my aunt was one of a bunch of strippers who took to the stage at a notorious Stranglers concert in Battersea Park in 1978.
„You should get privileged passes for life for that.“ I’ll hold Baz to that.
For more details about The Great Estate and how to buy tickets to see The Stranglers who headline the first night, Friday, May 31, head to the website.
https://www.cornwalllive.com/whats-on/music-nightlife/stranglers-cornwall-special-place-dark-9169351
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