Known for defying genre expectations since their debut, The Stranglers, led by founding member JJ Burnel, bring fresh tracks from their 2021 album Dark Matters alongside timeless hits from a 50-year legacy.
Entirely clad in black as always, the band's reputation as punk pioneers might have lead many to expect po-faced miserabilism, but The Stranglers were never willing to be pigeon-holed or limited by genre expectations.
Bassist and co-vocalist JJ Burnel is the sole founding member remaining, but this is no glorified tribute act. 2021’s 18th album Dark Matters got a deserved nod at the concert, alongside expected classics from 1977’s debut album Rattus Norvegicus and the 16 other albums making up The Men in Black’s half century of music.
For a band whose best known hit is the heroin-themed Golden Brown, and whose backstory includes the usual gamut of substance abuse... how they’ve survived and prospered many decades past most of their punk peers (becoming the Stones of punk if you like, but with better recent tunes) is amongst the many topics JJ Burnel addressed in a very frank and open interview.
This may be the only time I’ll ever have a punk icon apologising for swearing – and the only time I could do an interview that coincided with my other job as a school teacher. So as Burnel and I chatted, a class just beginning their own journey into radio presenting got a live demo of interviewing!
Burnel reflected on playing Belfast at the height of ‘the Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, and other conflict zones like Kosovo, where a military escort warned them against relieving themselves outside for fear of tripping a mine. Burnel got pugnacious over Putin, would live to chill with Chopin, and told the tale of how he had to fight the record company to release Golden Brown. And then, when asked for a follow-up, Burnel gave them a 6 minute prog workout. Lastly he discussed his very distinctive take on the differences between British and continental crowds.
Dubbed hippies by their less sonically adventurous peers, The Stranglers shocked the audience through their rejection of the Year Zero narrative by featuring a synth on stage. The Stranglers were the British band Patti Smith and the New York Dolls would call upon for support when they swung by the UK. Their early years made quite an impression on the likes of The Clash frontman Joe Strummer, then of bluesy rockabilly outfit, the 101ers.
Listen to The DB3 Show's full interview with JJ Burnel of the Stranglers here.
The live show reflects the mix of punk intensity, pop sensibility and willingness to experiment. The riffs get crunchy and the vocals are snarled out on the likes of Tank and classic closer No More Heroes, but over their two hours on stage, the keyboards were never swamped in the mix and there was plenty to enrage Year Zero purists from a band not shy of dropping in a bit of prog. At times seen variously duck walking and furiously punching the bass, the now 72 year-old Jean Jacques Burnel cheerfully struck some disco poses during White Stallion, a highlight from their latest album.
A bilingual black belt (I got him comparing the discipline of martial arts to his rock career; he sees them as very similar!), the hefty crowd warmed to him considerably when he chatted in French, highlighting some audience members and reminiscing about the first song he wrote.
If you’re only familiar with Golden Brown, Always the Sun, No More Heroes and the other big hits, I’d actually say you’re lucky! You’ve got a rich catalogue of music to discover by a band who both formed and refused to conform to the punk genre. Packed full of Peaches you might say … And you can discover and listen in to 11 of those mixed in throughout my chat with a true musical iconoclast, JJ Burnel!
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