The Stranglers

Despite forming ahead of the punk explosion and sounding quite unlike its standard bearers, The Stranglers were still swept along with the genre’s early momentum. Formed in 1974 in Surrey – when drummer Jet Black decided to sell his fleet of ice cream vans to start a band – The Stranglers already had a reputation around the UK before support slots with Patti Smith and The Ramones tied them to the punk scene while also taking things up a level.

Their 1977 debut Rattus Norvegicus featured enduring hit single ‘Peaches’ which combined the band’s un-punk levels of musicianship with a decidedly punk attitude. And while The Stranglers may have been a cut above your average punk band in ability and tunefulness, but they were also one of the more fearless bands of the era, arrested in France for starting a riot, targeted by Swedish gangs, getting into altercations with both The Clash and The Sex Pistols and, in one famous instance, gaffer-taping a trouser-less French journalist 400 feet up the Eiffel Tower.

The Stranglers’ second album No More Heroes followed later in 1977 – scoring the band another hit with the title track – with Black And White following in 1978. A tumultuous period followed, with the band’s UK label United Artists shuttering, while they also left their US label A&M. The band righted their ship in some style with 1981’s La Folie, which gave them their biggest hit via the single ‘Golden Brown’.

The rest of the decade saw the band embracing new trends, employing synthesizers on their 1983 album Feline and including a programme for the ZX Spectrum with 1984’s Aural Sculpture. Even as punk died away, The Stranglers continued to enjoy widespread success, landing hits in the UK and US with 1986’s ‘Always The Sun’ and 1990’s ‘Sweet Smell Of Success’.

Through various changes of line-ups and labels, the band persevered. In 2021, they released Dark Matters, their critically acclaimed 18th studio album. As evidence of the band’s enduring the popularity almost 50 years into their career, Dark Matters reached No.4 in the UK album charts. In 2023, they announced a UK tour for March 2024 to mark 50 years of The Stranglers.