Sneering at social inequalty, glorifying sleaze and making more enemies than friends, it's more than three decades since THE STRANGLERS brought about a much needed distintegration of order to the UK music scene with hits like 'No More Heroes', 'Duchess', 'Something Better Change' and 'Peaches'.
The punk attitude may have been set in stone as far back as 1974, but musically, once they'd established a firm fan base, they abandoned punk music with the loyalty values of a frisky gnat. Delving deeper into the Sixties was far more important, as most inspiration came from the likes of The Doors, particularly the psychedelic swirl of Dave Greenfield's keyboards.
According to bass player Jean Jacques Burnel all four original members brought something to the table. Singer Hugh Cornwell, who left left the ranks in 1990 liked both The Doors and The Velvet Underground. Drummer Jet Black, now 70, who recently spent time on life support because of heart palpitations and who still occupies the drumstool whenever he's fit enough was originally a jazz drummer into The Beatles. Burnel, himself soaked up his influences by listening to Jukebox Jury and Alan Freeman on a Sunday night.
"Every band starting out has their influences that are pretty evident in the early days," explains Burnel, who incidentally is also an esteemed 6th Dan Shidokan karate expert.
"If you continue to develop your sound, your influences become more camouflaged. We had a song called 'Go Buddy Go', which I wrote when I was 15. I just stuck Jimi Hendrix's version of 'Hey Joe' and The Beach Boys together - and I think that's how it all evolves."
Burnel believes it was the media that polarized opinion about the band in a way that made them look like punk rock's first enfantes terrible. Then again, they liked to stir things up. Indeed, legend has it that one NME reporter was once tied to the Eiffel Tower for daring to write a negative review. Burnel recalls that he was subsequently "gaffer-tapped to the first floor" and "de-bagged."
Much worse than that though, Burnel reveals how in 1976 he assaulted Paul Simonon of The Clash for allegedly spitting at him.
"Me and Paul had a massive punch up," he recalls, "And it was in front of everyone, including the press in the courtyard of Dingwalls in London. On one side of the fence there was Dee Dee Ramone and on the other side, the press and other people."
Back then, tensions had been running high for quite some time. Punk pioneers, The Clash and The Sex Pistols were fighting for supremacy, but things came to an ugly head later in 1976 when The Stranglers were chosen above them to represent London for the American bi-centiennal celebrations. "As a result of that," says Burnel, "we had a punch up and a few noses were out of joint, because we were chosen over The Clash and The Sex Pistols to play with The Ramones."
All of that is history now, as is the time when they committed commercial suicide at the televised 'Rock Goes To College' event in their hometown of Guildford in 1978. Burnel picks up the story:
"We were returning to Guildford which had never done us any favours," he says. "We smuggled in lots of kids who couldn't get into the gig, because it had been sold only to members of the university. We didn't want just the students to get the tickets, but on that particular day to add insult to injury , we found out that the tickets had been sold to the rugby club and the Cheese and Wine Society."
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Alas, those they managed to get in by illegal means were immediately thrown back out again. And much to the dismay of the BBC bosses singer Hugh Cornwell had no hestitation in making his feelings felt. An unexpected bill for £20,000 landed on their doorstep soon afterwards.
Despite all the adversity, The Stranglers enjoyed massive success during their 1980's heyday with songs like 'Skin Deep', 'Always The Sun', 'La Folie' and 'Golden Brown', a song about succumbing to the lure of a class A opiate, one which fooled everyone into thinking it was simply a classy, slightly arty pop song.
Cornwell's departure was probably the most traumatic event in the band's history to date, so it was in agonies of apprehension that they decided to carry on without him. Infact, it took two new recruits to replace him - ex Vibrators guitarist John Ellis and Paul Roberts (vocals).
"Anyone who was going to replace Hugh was going to have to fill a big pair of shoes," reflects Burnel, who had an almighty big row with him in the late 1980's. "I'm not quite sure what it was about," he continues, pausing before adding, "Hugh was a few years older than me and I looked up to him, and he taught me a lot of things. He was more worldly than me, and musically more advanced."
"But as the years went by, I deferred to him less and less," he continues.
"I wrote more and more, and then my opinion was sought increasingly, so journalists were just as interested in talking to me. Maybe he needed a creative break. He wanted to get into films and stuff and got bit parts in stuff, and I think he probably wanted to do a Sting," (laughs), "I tried to make it up with him in the mid-Nineties, but he just put the phone down on me. Now he's playing to 20-30 people in pubs."
Bitterness aside, since Paul Roberts took over most vocal duties and since subsequently being replaced himself by another in Baz Warne, commercial success may not be quite the same as it was in the past, but albums like 'Norfolk Coast' and 'Suite XVI' are by no means lacking in lyrical depth and musical diversity.
The band return to Prague during the week of our chat for the first time since their 2001 appearance at the Lucerna Music Bar. It's the final leg of what has turned out to be their biggest and most extensive tour since the 1980's. And, according to Burnel, their most successful.
"For some reason you now have pictures of Kate Moss appearing in the newspapers wearing a Stranglers t-shirt," he muses, "We've had the best reviews in our existence. We've doubled and trebled figures, so we must be doing something right."
"We're carrying on with our Greatest Hits tour when we come to Prague. Although we've had over 40 hits, we obviously can't play them all, so we always change the set. That covers every period from the start until now."
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