Stranglers, still wild after all these years

Jul 18 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

Hugh Cornwell from The Stranglers _320

From punk rock to distant thoughts of the bus-pass years, a Strangler contemplates bra-throwing in the years to come.  David Charters reports

THE chap with the cool looks and Cockney chuckle is lukewarm about Sir Cliff Richard’s importance to rock music. Well, it takes all sorts.

But you wouldn’t call your group The Stranglers if you were concentrating on the church social end of the market.

On the other hand, as it were, the subject of brassieres has our man, with the romance of old France pumping through his blood, fizzing with joie de vivre – the "joy of living" to those who haven’t dipped into the delights of a second language.

Anyway, he is picturing himself in his eighties at a gig and the girls are still throwing their bras on stage. "If they’re D-cups, the more the merrier," he volunteers, in a manner which suggests a keen appreciation of foundation garments. "I’ll have a heart attack and die on stage overcome by the perfume in the D-cup."

That’s a rock and roll dream, isn’t it?

"Hmmm, it’s one of them," says Jean-Jacques (JJ) Burnel, with heavy qualification on the "one", alerting us to the fact that he has realised a few dreams already and anticipates plenty more.

Obviously, singing and playing bass guitar with The Stranglers has provided many good times down the years. And next week the group perform at the Echo Arena Liverpool, in a Summer Pops double-header with Blondie.

The Stranglers have scored 42 Top 40 hits since forming in 1974, just as the pomp-rock of endless guitar solos was to be given a sharp kick in the rear by punk.

Critics labelled The Stranglers as "punk", but they were really a band of many styles, as can be heard in their top-tenners – Peaches (1977), Something Better Change (1977), No More Heroes (1977) Golden Brown (1982), Strange Little Girl (1982) and, of course, their cover of The Kinks’ All Day and All of the Night (1988).

Had Ray Davies ever expressed an opinion on their version. "No," says JJ, "he just smiles all the way to the bank."

These days, The Stranglers are JJ, Baz Warne (guitar and vocals), Jet Black (drums) and Dave Greenfield (keyboards).

JJ, 56, was born in Notting Hill, London, to French parents, but was brought up in Surrey, attending the Royal Grammar School, Guildford. He is that rare thing – an Englishman who can speak French.

"But I was completely Anglicised," he says. "I do speak fluent French, but the family in Normandy call me the Roast Beef. So few British people can speak French because English is and will be for the foreseeable future the lingua franca, the dominant language," says JJ, a history graduate from Bradford University. "We expect everyone to speak English. There is a cultural arrogance there. It breeds laziness."

The subject turns to rock and roll. What records did he buy first?

"Jimi Hendrix’s Hey Joe, and My Boy Lollipop by Millie," he says. "It was kind of ska. I liked the back beat. I remember seeing her and she wasn’t much older than me. She was gorgeous, a beautiful little girl. She was only a teenager.

"Then I bought The Kinks’ All Day and All of the Night. The song’s a big hit in Japan at the moment. Hitachi have been using it for six months on TV and it’s our version.