Tour de force of British new-wave, The Stranglers marked their 50th anniversary in 2024, and it has been full throttle ever since.
The Stranglers’ 50th anniversary year was packed with celebratory sell-out tours across the world and headline slots at festivals worldwide, including a sell-out performance at London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall. The ‘51 tour celebrates making it past the big five-o, and takes in major towns across the UK.
Reflecting on the band’s milestone anniversary, bass player JJ Burnell said: “Well, it’s quite rare, isn’t it, for a band to last without reforming or disbanding or last continuously for 50 years – despite changes of personnel, which is inevitable, isn’t it? And it’s like a football team, I suppose. But yeah, it’s quite a rare thing. So, we did celebrate it.” He continues: “When we started, we just thought, if we were lucky,
we would have a single. There wasn’t a history of music lasting for so long. Because if you think about it, in ‘76, if we’d gone back 50 years, we’d been playing trad jazz or something before.”
The beauty of The Stranglers’ discography is that their hits still sound as fresh today as they did upon release. In that sense, their music is timeless. “It’s more by luck than design. But I’m grateful for that. So, it still gives us some kind of relevance,” remarks JJ.
Having celebrated their milestone 50th anniversary last year, the band is incrementing their celebrations by one year with the ‘51’ tour. “By the time you reach our stage, you count every day as a bonus,” explains JJ. “We’re celebrating every moment of life we have left, as a band and as people. We’re going to change our set quite fundamentally this time and play some stuff we’ve never played live.” He elaborates: “For us, you’ve got to maintain the interest, let alone an audience. And I don’t think The Stranglers have ever gone
through the motions, just through the motions. So, I think it’s incumbent on us to keep ourselves and our audience stimulated.”
The band released a live album recently titled Fifty Years In Black, which became the group’s 20th Top 40 album in the UK. Speaking about the decision to release a live album, JJ said: “I think we’ve always recorded a lot of our shows, and every now and then we release what we think is the best example of where we’re at the time. So, it marks the time, the occasions. A live album is more like putting it down in your diary as a dear diary – just what we did then.”
Coming out of the mid to late 70s, The Stranglers were present during the golden era of punk rock. “Bands who became known as The Pistols, The Damned, The Clash, they were all coming to see us before they had formed their bands,” he said. “There was a circuit that we were coming in at the end of -the pub rock circuit. It’s a shame, because I think we’re losing so many pubs in the UK for a start. And they were a great circuit for bands to develop their art. It was a university for bands. All the best bands in the world come out of bars. So that’s your training ground.”
JJ vividly remembers encountering some of the greats on the grassroots circuit. “I remember Joe Strummer coming to see us when he was in an R&B band called the 101s. And all these guys coming to see us, Steve and Paul from The Pistols. The guys from The Damned, all coming to see us before they’d even started their bands. And so, we were kind of accepted for a while until we had success. And also, because we were the first band to be chosen to play with Patti Smith when she finally left the USA to come over to Europe, and the Ramones.”
The early days of The Stranglers saw the group release an impressive three albums within a 13-month period. “What happened was that it took us three years to get a record deal. So, in that time, we were still trying to play pubs or play anywhere, and also accumulating material. So, when it came to recording, finally recording an album, we actually did the first two albums in 10 days. We knew it off by heart; we didn’t have to do any dubs or anything. And so, Rattus Norvegicus and No More Heroes were recorded during the same session,” he says. “We had that amount of material building up. So, we were very happy to get it off our backs. Then Black and White, the third one, we spent that winter of ‘77 together, and we had so many ideas. I suppose there’s a collective energy which builds up – momentum and everything.”
JJ is responsible for perhaps one of the most instantly recognisable basslines of all time – that being the opening to the song Peaches. “I’m very proud of that. It’s been voted, I think, the most iconic bassline. I’m sure there are loads of others, but it’s nice to be recognised for that,” he explains.
Looking ahead, beyond their upcoming dates, the group doesn’t have any UK touring plans for 2026. “I don’t think we’ll be playing next year in the UK anyway. I just think we need a year to contemplate and see if there’s anything creative stirring,” he concludes.
The Stranglers will tour the UK throughout Oct and early November. For ticket information and further details, please visit www.thestranglers.co.uk.
Words by Adam Kennedy
Photo Credit: David Boni
