Roger had the opportunity to catch up with Jean-Jacques Burnel (JJ) of The Stranglers recently to talk about an upcoming tour as well as the extraordinary longevity of the band that has been having chart success for the past 35+ years.

Roger Goodgroves: So JJ, You’re just about to embark on a new 17 date tour of the UK. How has touring changed for you over the years?

JJ: Less chaotic, less violent but still equally enjoyable and obviously as the years progress we have more and more material to choose from. So that actually ads a bit of spice so we can choose what we want to play. Since we have nothing to promote this particular year it’s great, it means we are completely free from any kind of constraints.

RG: You had a greatest hits album out last year, presumably the previous tour was focusing on that?

JJ: Yeah, there have been a few greatest hits albums, completely out of our hands, sometimes we play ball. It’s actually interesting, a lot of people deride us but they like all the songs and when you say this particular song is by the stranglers they say, “oh” surprised,. So I think there’s some separation between a lot of our songs that are known and the image of the band.

RG: What do you think caused that, do you think it goes back to the punk/New Wave origins?

JJ: Undoubtedly, or the kind of shenanigans we got involved in, that obviously creates a certain perception of The Stranglers.

RG: You mentioned the violence, was that on or off stage?

JJ: Well a lot of time it was on the stage, we’d get attacked on stage, because in the very early days we were supposed to be representing this movement that was coming out of London, we were the only band actually really playing all over the country. So we would be taking the full brunt of people relating to this shocking new stuff. There was a year, 76/77 where it kicked off every single night, you know The local yobs coming round trying to duff us up.

RG: That must have been quite intimidating, going on stage knowing that it was likely to be the same as the previous night?

JJ: Yeah it was but we kind of got used to it and almost thrived on it. It’s a bit nerve racking because you didn’t know what would happen.

RG: So the bass guitar must have been a bit of a shield at times?

JJ: One time I asked the road crew never to wipe any blood off it. Things have progressed and that doesn’t occur anymore. People now come to The Stranglers to see us and to hear our music not try to knock us off our pedestal or beat us up.

RG: You’ve shared the stage with many bands, who have you particularly enjoyed touring with and why?

JJ: We’ve shared the stage as you say with loads of bands and some of them have become friends over the years, notable Blondie. Debbie and I correspond by email.

RG: I saw Debbie a week or two ago , she was performing with The Who at Hammersmith for a charity gig. It was a great night . I love charity events when they get people together that you aren’t used to seeing, there was Jeff Beck, Debbie, Bryan Adams and The Who and that’s not a line up you’d expect to see on the stage together.

JJ: Hey, talking of line ups; in front of 30 people , bottom of the bill Stranglers, next Sex Pistols then Ian Dury.

RG: Where was that at?

JJ: Walthamstow college or something, 30 people! Or here’s another bill but this time in front of 80,000 people, bottom of the bill Nils Lofgren, next AC/DC, next Stranglers, next The Who.

RG: Nice gig, must have been great. You mention there’s nothing particular to plug on this tour, does that mean there will be no new material?

JJ: On the contrary there will be new material. This is the luxury that we can afford to try out some new pieces that we’ve been rehearsing before we actually record them. Just like it was when we first started out.

RG: I assume a new album on the horizon then?

JJ: Yeah, for next year,

RG: Any title yet?

JJ: Not yet no.

RG: how do titles come about, some are obvious like “10” and “Suite XVI”, how do you normally go about it, is it a collective?

JJ: Really there are no rules and I don’t think there should be any. As you get closer to the period you have a better sense of the collective… material, maybe that can dictate a title or occasionally it’s been an eponymous title based on one of the tracks that you think stands out. It’s quite early days at the moment, I think we’ve got about 8 pieces were working on .

RG: How many of those do you think will hit the set list?

JJ: One or two, I don’t think more than that, we just slip them in. We don’t want people looking blank.

RG: As you say you’ve got so much material to cover it must be difficult to pick a set list.

JJ: we’re going to play some old stuff we’ve never played live. So that’s going to be quite fun.

RG: What sort of variation if any do you have in your nightly set-list?

JJ: Once we have the core of it, it changes very little but it does change most nights to keep the interest for us.

RG: Playing the same songs over and over again might get tedious.

JJ: It definitely would and then when that’s happened we’ve dropped a piece for 10-12 years. If it’s a crowd pleaser you just have to forget about it otherwise you just become a cabaret band and The Stranglers are never going to become that.

RG: Do you play them in a different way when you bring them back again?

JJ: Yeah in fact it’s interesting enough. Some of the really old pieces were going to introduce this time I mean I wouldn’t be able to play those things if I did them now. I’m having to learn how I played as you evolve as a musician, so I wouldn’t play them the same now.

RG: The Stranglers are one of the most enduring bands of the New Wave era, what do you put that success down to?

JJ: Talent; he says modestly.

RG: Anything in particular?

JJ: Well we are great live, on a good night you can’t beat it. Also the material is there, so when you’ve got good material to play…

RG: and such variation in style.

JJ: Yes “Peaches” doesn’t sound like “No more heroes“ or “Golden Brown”. The term is eclectic which is how I’d like it to be.

RG: By most bands standards you’ve had a very stable line up of musicians. Baz Warne has been with you for a few years now.

JJ: 11 now

RG: Wow 11 already. How did that addition come about?

JJ: I didn’t have a writing partner when Hugh (Cornwell) left 20 years ago. Most people need someone you can bounce off. Then John left (John Ellis had joined The Stranglers after Hugh) and Baz turned up and really made a huge difference and in fact the two albums we’ve done since have been the most successful ever. So there’s life in the old dog yet. It’s just down to chemistry really isn’t it. In a small group of four or five people one person makes a heck of a difference. So that’s one fact is changed and anything can happen

RG: So back to touring, what sort of music do you listen to when on tour, or are tastes too diverse for collective listening?

JJ: Well it depends, sometimes you’re involved with music for several hours in a day, I prefer to listen to radio 5 live.

RG: What about your own tastes?

JJ: My iPod is pretty eclectic everything I’ve managed to collate since when I first started getting interested in music as a kid. At the moment, in the car Chopin variations by Bernstein, anything. If you like music you don’t keep to any particular style, like I have a sonny fortune album in the car.

RG: Good music is good music, it doesn’t matter necessarily.

JJ: Music’s such a broad subject . I was first subjected to music when I was a kid being pushed across in the pram from Notting Hill to the Albert Hall going to see the Russian ballets and my parents Spanish and South American music. You’re subjected to that and subconsciously it’s there isn’t it?

RG: Absolutely I know, my brother was nine years older than me and I grew up with his collection of music and I was very fortunate as he was very much into Stax/Atlantic. So I had a great grounding.

JJ: Yes fantastic music. It never leaves you does it.

RG: No and I come back to some music that I probably dismissed in previous years because it wasn’t hip to like it. Sad to say but I’m old enough to admit it.

JJ: I know; you’re subjected to so much peer group pressure as a kid and as you grow up but as you get older and more confident you become more confident of your own tastes and don’t mind admitting it.

RG: Guilty pleasures no longer.

JJ: Yes it’s not guilty anymore it is what it is.

RG: Going back to old songs. Your driving bass for me was a corner stone of the Stranglers sound. You covered Bacharach and David’s “Walk on bye”. How did you choose that song to cover? Any Stranglers collection of covers album like other people are doing?

JJ: No they usually do covers albums when they got nothing they can produce themselves, like “American Songbook”. We have done a few covers but usually it’s from a bands point of view. I think in the really early days we had to slip in a familiar piece in amongst 2 or 3 of our pieces that nobody knew before we had a record out. So you know we had to sneak that one in to prevent getting lynched. With that particular piece it became a showcase for our virtuosity that’s what we thought plus it also helped us develop. Plus we were fans of The Doors and it was our kind of tribute, our version of “Light my fire”, you know that long passage? We kept on adding more and more each putting their interesting little pieces to add to it, so it became a seven minute song.

RG: Back to gigging for a second. Last year you did a few festivals including Glastonbury, do you intend doing more this summer?

JJ: Not so many, we are doing some in a few countries, the main thing is you really have to concentrate on the new material. We’re doing a few festivals, up in Norway, Greece, maybe Israel, France and that but the main thrust is getting stuff ready for next year and a world tour next year.

RG: In thirty plus years in the industry you must have seen many changes, what do you notice most?

JJ: What I notice is in the industry itself the record companies have fucked it themselves. You can’t feel too sorry for them. They ripped so many bands off for so many years then they started allowing themselves to be taken over by accountants rather than music lovers or entrepreneurs who might lose everything with one risky act but took risks nevertheless and actually went to gigs and saw stuff and based their signings on gut instinct rather than cold commercial considerations. And as a result everything became much more short-term and as a result bands weren’t allowed to develop and nurtured anymore because if their royalties aren’t being recouped within 6 to 12 months they are out on a limb. So all that changed, you don’t have many Chris Blackwells anymore (founder of Island records) who would take a risk. U2 and Bob Marley wouldn’t have existed if it wasn’t for people taking a bit of a punt. So that’s gone and they are left with back catalogue. Originality seems to have been sacrificed at the alter of commerciality.

RG: I notice Hugh has released his own album for people to download. Do you think that’s the way it’s going to go? Bands releasing their own stuff, rather than through labels.?

JJ: That seems to be one direction; who knows how it’s going to be. It sort of feels from a musical point of view there’s a lot of good live stuff, the problem being is rock music or pop music is going round in circles, eating itself. Everybody is repeating themselves or doing newer versions. Look at the acts from the last few years, Amy Winehouse, Duffy.

RG: The sound of the 60s.

JJ: Yeah 60s basically they are just harping back to that. It’s not creating it’s own space.

RG: Not so much difference now to when you started.

JJ: No not really. It’s great for us as it makes The Stranglers sound edgy and Modern. Some of our old records sound positively undated. Which is wrong, sorry it’s wrong. I’m sure our stuff from the late seventies shouldn’t be sounding modern, but it does.

RG: Good music is good music and it can stand the test of time. As I said Stax, Atlantic stuff, you listen to some of that now and it still stands up. Anyway I’ve taken up enough of your time for now. I’m coming to the gig in Oxford in March to do a review and take photos so I hope we can catch up again then.

JJ: Yes absolutely I look forward to it.

RG: Thanks JJ

Photo courtesy of Chuff Media