Hutchinson The Stranglers

Every Album, Every Song
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-78952-090-3
Verlag: Sonicbond Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 160 Seiten

Reihe: On Track

The Stranglers, or Meninblack, were once considered the bad boys of punk despite never really being a punk band. Formed in Guildford in 1974, they celebrate their golden anniversary as a band that have continued to tour and record throughout their history, giving us some classic tunes like 'No More Heroes', 'Peaches' and 'Golden Brown,' just part of a legacy that includes 40 top 40 UK singles hits and 18 studio albums. They have courted controversy, been jailed, been reviled and lauded - in fact, everything that can happen to a band has happened to The Stranglers.
Still led by original bassist Jean-Jacques Burnel, The Stranglers have created some thought-provoking music with a sense of melody, which proves that their musicality and intelligence were often greater than their contemporaries.
This book examines every album and single recorded by the band, as well as rarities and their many videos throughout their history. With a foreword by current guitarist and vocalist Baz Warne, the band's colourful history is explored as we discuss every song created by one of the most interesting and eclectic bands in rock music.

Martin Hutchinson lives with his wife Michaela (and cat Sydney) in Horwich near Bolton, UK. He has written comedy sketches for TV and Radio, compiled quizzes for TV and has penned over 270 CD liner notes for EMI and others. For over thirty years, he has concentrated on music, supplying articles and interviews for around 20 provincial newspapers and three magazines. He is also, for his sins, a lifelong Bolton Wanderers fan. This is his second book for Sonicbond, the first being The Kinks On Track.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hutchinson, Martin

Leseproben

Introduction And Notes

The Stranglers are a phenomenon. They were the top new-wave band (not punk!) and have been going for 50 years. In that time, the band have never split up, although there have been several line-up changes. As I said, they are not a ‘punk’ band. They were around a couple of years before the genre started, and they were a bit older than the bands that made up punk.

How does a band made up of an inventor and businessman, who, in his own words, left school ‘barely literate’, a biochemistry graduate, an Anglo-French martial arts expert who had read Economics and Social History at University, and a keyboard player who was a high-functioning autistic, become a band that has been reviled, respected, written off and lauded? Well, I hope to lift the lid a bit on the band and especially their music.

I will not be commenting on the band members’ various idiosyncrasies and moods, nor will I go into too much detail on the touring – suffice to say that the band have toured their arses off for the whole of their career.

I have been aware of The Stranglers since their first hits. I was 17 years old when their first album and single were released and I have always liked their work – especially the singles as, in every song, there was something that set the band apart. It was quite a few years before I became a bona fide fan and started collecting their albums and seeing them live. I have also been lucky enough to interview JJ, Jet, Baz, Hugh, Paul and John, but not Dave, as he tended to only do interviews for keyboard magazines (although I have met him!). Every time I speak to one of the band members, I find them friendly and extremely helpful – a far cry from their early image of journalist-hating pranksters.

It is for that reason that I feel honoured to write a book about them. In this book, I have tried to examine – as far as I am able – the origins of the songs. For the most part, the writing credits always say ‘written by The Stranglers’, but then all The Beatles’ hits say ‘Written by Lennon and McCartney’, which we know to be rubbish. It was Baz Warne who told me that, although one member may have had the original idea, all the band members contributed to the final track, and that is why all the credits (and royalties) go to them all – equally!

As with my first book, I shall be concentrating on the UK releases by the band and all opinions expressed in this book are entirely my own, although I must add that I do not personally side with the band in regard to any controversial topics that may arise in the lyrics. That said, let’s get a ‘grip’ on the songs. I hope you enjoy it.

Formation

The story of The Stranglers doesn’t start with their registration as a business on 11 September 1974; it began a few years before in Sweden when Hugh Cornwell formed a band called Johnny Sox. Hugh Alan Cornwell was born on 28 August 1949 in Tufnell Park, North London, and after gaining a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Bristol, he moved to Sweden to study for a PhD in Lund, a city near Malmo in southern Sweden. He was already proficient on the guitar, having played in a few bands, and whilst in Lund, he formed the semi-professional band Johnny Sox with guitarist Hans Axel Warmling (born 22 July 1943 in Gothenburg), bassist Jan Knutsson, singer Gyrth Godwin and drummer known just as ‘Mike’. The latter two were a couple of American draft dodgers.

They were moderately successful on the local circuit but realised that they were never going to set the world alight from Sweden (this was just before ABBA proved that it was possible to set the world alight from Sweden) and, having renamed themselves Wanderlust, came over to England.

A number of personnel changes ensued, with Warmling returning to Sweden and Mike to the States. Mike’s replacement was a former jazz drummer and local businessman, Jet Black. Jet was born Brian John Duffy on 26 August 1938 in Ilford, Essex. In 1997, this author enquired, during an interview, whether anybody still called him ‘Brian’. His answer was a terse, ‘My name is Jet Black’. ‘Nuff said. He wasn’t a good scholar, but was adept at chess and music, playing clarinet, piano and violin. After falling in love with rock ‘n’ roll, he moved to drums. He played all over the place but eventually settled in Guildford, where he set up his own business(es), amongst which were a beer and wine-making concern and an ice cream business (at one time, he owned a fleet of ice cream vans. He also ran an off-licence!). After a while, it became apparent to Jet that of the members of Wanderlust, only Hugh and himself were taking it seriously and had to either pull their socks (no pun intended) up or quit.

At the same time, singer Gyrth had been given a lift whilst hitch-hiking home, by a delivery van driver for a local firm. As a thank you, he invited the young man for a drink at the band’s base – the off-licence. This young man was a karate-obsessed biker – and also a talented classical guitarist – called Jean-Jacques ( JJ) Burnel. JJ was born in Notting Hill, London, on 21 February 1952 to French parents who ran a French restaurant. Due to being bullied at school, he anglicised his name to John but reverted to Jean-Jacques at the request of The Stranglers’ manager Dai Davies. He read for a degree in Economics and Social History at Bradford University and was already into music and motorcycles (as well as women and drugs). At the time he joined the band, he was trying to save up the money for a trip to San Francisco and from there to Yokohama in Japan, where he wanted to win his black belt. He developed a lifetime love of Japan and its culture and is now a Black Belt 7th Dan in Shidokan Karate, the only 7th Dan in the UK. He also teaches karate and is head of Shidokan UK.

When Knutsson and Godwin left the band suddenly, Hugh went around to JJ’s house and asked him to join the group and he had his audition in April 1974. As the band already had a guitarist in Hugh, JJ took on the bass guitar, buying a Fender Precision bass from Hugh.

Jet made them work for their board and the two frontmen were often seen behind the counter at the off-licence or around the town selling ice creams. He also sold all his ice cream vans to fund the fledgling band, except one, which served as the band’s tour bus until 1977.

Hans Warmling eventually completed the first line-up as he came over to visit Hugh and was persuaded to join for his keyboard and guitar skills.

He was also a talented writer, penning (with lyrics by Hugh) a song called ‘Strange Little Girl’, which was demoed and sent to EMI, along with ‘Wasted’ and ‘My Young Dreams’. They were rejected, but the band had the last laugh as they re-recorded ‘Strange Little Girl’ as their last single for EMI.

The band left the off-licence and moved into a house in nearby Chiddingford and as Jet (still known as Brian Duffy) tried to get a recording deal, the rest of the band were pressed into bringing in some money. A local club took JJ on as a doorman and Hans as a dishwasher. Hugh signed on the dole.

The band performed gigs under a number of different names: Oil and The Slicks, The Chiddingford Chokers and The Guildford Stranglers, before finally settling on The Stranglers. Jet registered the name on 11 September 1974.

By this time, the band were playing a mixture of original songs and covers (one of which, notably, was Bacharach and David’s ‘Walk On By’), some rock ‘n’ roll standards and even the David Gate’s classic ‘If’, recently a chart hit by actor Telly Savalas and given a live treatment by the one and only Jet Black. But it was the band’s intention to cover ‘Tie A Yellow Ribbon’ by Dawn that led to the departure of Hans Warmling on the way to a gig. He returned to Sweden and did not meet up with his former bandmates until 1994. He sadly died in a boating accident a year later, on 12 October 1995.

The band soldiered on as a trio, but they knew something was missing. An advert was placed in the British music paper Melody Maker for a saxophonist and keyboard player. They hired a sax player, who only remained in the band for a few days and only played one gig. They started auditioning keyboard players. The third one they saw looked like a hippy and had been on holiday in Germany when his aunt had rung him to tell him of the Melody Maker advert. He was very proficient and played the songs like he had been rehearsing them for months. His name was Dave Greenfield. David Paul Greenfield came into the world on 29 March 1949 in Brighton and had a musical father. Although never pushed towards music by his parents, he became interested in classical guitar in his early teens. He then took a music theory course and taught himself to play the piano. Leaving school early, he spent a year in Germany playing gigs at American bases and clubs before returning home, earning money by tuning pianos and working in his father’s printing business to finance trips to the continent to further his musical aspirations. He was a fan of The Beach Boys for their vocal harmonies and prog rockers Yes and classic rockers Deep Purple for their keyboard intricacies. Many people liken his playing style to that of Ray Manzarek of The Doors, but he has always refuted that, saying that he was only aware of their hit singles.

A week after the audition, Dave made his debut as a Strangler and the rest of that...