Gig preview: The Stranglers at O2 Academy Leeds

FOR this year's tour, The Stranglers, often known as '˜The Men in Black', will be performing their 1978 album Black And White in its entirety.
The StranglersThe Stranglers
The Stranglers

March has now become the traditional month for the band’s annual UK tour and it starts on March 3 in Perth, finishing on the 26th at the usual Manchester show.

Strangely enough, the album isn’t celebrating any particular anniversary, but founder-member and bassist JJ Burnel explains why they are performing this, their third, album.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“It’s because it signified the departure from our earlier sound,” he says. “The first two [Rattus Norvegicus and No More Heroes] were effectively recorded at the same sessions and were basically our live set. But on Black and White was when we started exploring and fulfilling our potential.

The StranglersThe Stranglers
The Stranglers

“It was our ‘post-punk’ album and we were developing as writers and performers.”

“At the time, it was a commercial risk, but we were a lot younger and didn’t care.”

The risk paid off and the album got to number two in the charts.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The album contains some of the all-time Stranglers’ classics like Tank, Toiler on the Sea and Nice n Sleazy as well as the band’s excellent cover of Bacharach and David’s Walk on By, which was voted number three in BBC Music’s Top 50 Greatest Cover Version poll.

The StranglersThe Stranglers
The Stranglers

And with a surfeit of brilliance, Burnel understandably finds it difficult to pick out and stand-out tracks.

“To be honest, I’m too involved with them, I think they’re all fantastic and I’ve fallen in love with them again.”

Burnel, along with bandmates Dave Greenfield on keyboards, Baz Warne on guitars and Jim McCauley standing in for Jet Black on drums, has been rehearsing hard for the tour.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Yeah, we’ve broken the back of it now. For the first few weeks we were a bit frazzled.

The StranglersThe Stranglers
The Stranglers

“In order to do the Black and White album you have to get in the headspace of 35 years ago. It’s really edgy and we were thinking ‘what were we on to do that?’

“Then there was the discovery of coming face to face with your younger self.”

As well as the album, The Stranglers will also be playing a selection of carefully selected tracks from their long and illustrious career. “It’ll be quite different,” says Burnel, “and not what people expect.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

From their early days, when they were lumped in with the New Wave explosion (when in fact they had already been around a few years), the band has continued to court controversy whilst producing ground-breaking music and they are now receiving the respect they deserve.

The StranglersThe Stranglers
The Stranglers

The band has survived the loss of one of their frontmen and have never split – continuously touring and recording new material. And they are already looking to the future, Burnel says.

“We may do The Raven next year with some new material which we are working on. It’s an interesting album that one.

“But my big ambition is to do something based on the Men in Black album. I’ve written the story and I’m looking for a choreographer.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

A choreographer? “It’s going to be a ballet ’cos it’s a love story.”

In the shorter term, the band has plans for later in the year. “We have some festivals in summer, after our tour of Australia and New Zealand. We enjoy doing them and we always try to do new things. Then there’s the new album; we’ve started work on it, but we’ve got a bit distracted by the touring – hopefully it’ll be out next year.”

The Stranglers will be at Leeds O2 Academy tomorrow. For details visit ttps://www.academymusicgroup.com/o2academyleeds/events/759468/stranglers-tickets. They also play at Grassington Festival on July 1. See http://www.grassington-festival.org.uk/product/the-stranglers-and-support/ for tickets.

Related topics: