2nd March 2016

11th January 2015

UK:

Spain:

France:

Monday 7th April	Olympia	Paris
Tuesday 8th April	Ziquodrome	Compiegne
Wednesday 9th April	Transbordeur	Lyon

Italy:

Friday 11th April	Vox Club	Modena
Saturday 12th April	New Age	Treviso

Germany:

Sunday 13th April	Longhorn	Stuttgart
Monday 14th April	Theatrefabrik	Munich
Wednesday 16th April	Fabrik	Hamburg

Holland:

Thursday 17th April	Hedon	Zwolle
Friday 18th Aprii	Patronaat	Haarlem

France:

Saturday 19th April

Splendid

Lille

Belgium:

Monday 21st April

CC Rene Magritte

Lessines

For all details of live dates: www.thestranglers.net

Polyphonic Size are on first. Words fail me: two lead singers, one is an Elton John lookalike, the other is Shirley from Eastenders. Apparently JJ produced an album for them in the 80s which is why it reminds me a bit of a poor man’s Euroman Cometh. Their ‘gems’ such as Mongoloid (the Devo song? Ed.) and lyrics of ‘he’s a mongoloid, mongoloid and he’s happier than you and me’. Shirley apologises for her Belgian (!) accent, even though it’s French accent which makes the song Happy Couples sound like Happy Kippers. Their most apt title is The Night Goes On And On (thought it would never end), complete with what I can only describe as orgasmic screeches during the chorus. Oh dear. My three young companions are looking a little bewildered… But all this is soon forgotten by the time The Stranglers climb (literally) onstage. The giant next to me is chanting Jet’s name: ‘Zjet Blaaack! Zjet Blaaack!’ I have to say I am also pleasantly surprised and touched that Jet has made the trip to Belgium. The set is pretty much the same as on the last acoustic tour in 2007, which means a number of songs get rare outings such as opener Instead Of This (still can’t believe it was just a B-side!), Old Codger, Cruel Garden, English Towns, In The End, Southern Mountains, Sanfte Kuss, Dutch Moon and an especially good version of North Winds. The classics, namely European Female, Golden Brown, Always The Sun, No More Heroes, Princess Of The Streets, All Day & All Of The Night all get wonderful new arrangements too – and not an electric guitar in sight – with Neil Sparkes adding some… spark (sorry, couldn’t resist) and a new dimension to most of the re-vamped numbers.

There’s a great atmosphere among the crowd. At one point, though, I think JJ is trying to start a riot when he demands to know who wants to be called Flemish, Belgian or Walloon… ‘English’ shouts out one fan. ‘Yes, I know YOU’RE English, because I can hear you!’ replies JJ. In fact, I estimate that one quarter of the crowd is French-speaking (from Brussels or the Walloons), one quarter from England, but the loudest cheer comes from the predominantly Flemish crowd. ‘Ooh they’ve come across the border!’ is JJ’s reaction. ‘We’ve been across the border many times,’ says Baz, ‘but we’ve never come back!’.

The band are in great spirits. JJ informs us that I Hate You now refers to ‘almost everybody’, and not just his ex-wife’s lawyers! Baz gets Dave to come to the front of the stage to play acoustic guitar ‘from behind his swelling organ’… Baz promises to play on, but only when he’s polished off his bottle of red. ‘I bet you can’t do it’ JJ goads him. ‘I bet you I can!’ retorts Baz. ‘I bet you WILL!’ calls out one fan. Sanfte Kuss is the last number in the set. ‘I’m going to attempt to sing in French and German now, ladies and gentleman. Baring in mind I’m from the north of England where we have great difficulty in speaking English, this might prove to be difficult.’

The encores are a great new version of Skin Deep and a cracking Walk On By. I’m really happy introducing three new (and young!) fans to The Stranglers. Even my 19 year-old nephew swallows his pride and admits to enjoying tonight, as does his girlfriend. One couple brought their newborn baby to the gig! A fact which doesn’t go unnoticed by Baz. ‘Can you hold him up for us?’ he asks. ‘The Stranglers have fans of all ages, ladies and gentlemen. Aah, look, lovely – especially between a sandwich.’ Followed by grunting noises from JJ… All pretty surreal (the centre is named after René Magritte after all), but wonderful nevertheless.

Stranglers live:
ACOUSTIC TOUR
All 6 dates: Holland-Belgium 06.04.11 - 11.04.11
Dale Farrow’s diary…
 

I caught three gigs on the last Euro acoustic tour – if you weren’t there, there’s always The MeninblackinBruges CD – and I remember a thoroughly enjoyable time: on European dates, the atmosphere differs from UK gigs and there is so much camaraderie. This time I decide to do all the Euro-dates which means a handful of gigs in as many nights, making a very pleasant long weekend. Suddenly it’s six gigs in six nights as a repeat Lessines is added after the first sells out in record time. So, after painting a tempting picture of what to expect to my long-suffering Susie, we organise our itinerary and soon discover whoever planned the tour hasn’t prioritised any convenience in travelling between gigs – hopping alternativelky between Holland and Belgium – and a good few driving hours in between. First date was Zwolle, northern Holland on Wednesday but we set off the day before via Eurotunnel, France and on to Ghent where we stay overnight.

Day 1: one Zwolle doesn’t make a summer…

It’s early afternoon. Our hotel is a minute away from tonight’s venue where I bump into Fading Dutch Moon and Joeri. The band are inside, soundchecking. I go in: Dave strikes up the intro to Outside Tokyo - I’ve never heard this live – and it’s really good - but not on the set list and doesn’t get aired live on this tour. Apparently the band aren’t happy with it. Perfectionists to the last! I soon work out I must look like part of the band’s entourage as the caterer keeps telling me dinner is ready in ten minutes… ready in five minutes… dinner is ready! I explain I have important things to sort out on stage first! Soundcheck over, I can’t resist announcing to the band that dinner is served. I exchange greetings with my old mate Neil Sparkes on percussion and we agree to hook up over a few beers one night and it turns out that one becomes several. I pick up Susie from the hotel and head off into the old town looking for refreshments. I run into Charlie and Jez who’d get the train from Amsterdam. Outside a typical Dutch bar, an Essex couple who live here join us with their friends who have never seen The Stranglers. Nine o’clock at the venue and LadP, NMH1965 and The Strangler are down at the front. It’s all-standing - unlike the previous tour (as are all the rest) - full to the approximate 350 capacity. The set is as per the previous acoustic tour and goes down really well. The audience love it, singing along and joining in the banter which, unlike the less intimate surrounds of a big venue/electric gig, is frequent, funny and has the band and audience in stitches most of the time. It’s interesting hearing Golden Brown on ‘fairground organ’ sound until after about 30 seconds no one in the band can keep a straight face before starting the song proper when Dave selects a more appropriate sound . Shame, as it could have been rather interesting if they’d done the whole song like that! A really enjoyable evening and everyone leaves with smiles on their faces.

Day 2: a good Turnhout…

We’re in the Belgian town of Oud-Turnhout, which in English means ‘Old Turnhout’, although the nearest hotel is a couple of kilometres away in Turnhout itself. At the hotel we find NMH1965 and his car-load – and the band are here too. No sign yet of Bazza-in-black, Paul In London, The Man They Love To Hate or AdrianA who are due here until a text from Paul explains that their car has a puncture. Didn’t think The Man They Love To Hate organised anything wonky this year! On to the gig itself: a largish municipal building attached to the town hall by the looks of it, about 450 tickets sold and I can't imagine that the capacity can be any more than that but with lots of people around the edge sitting and standing on the tables allows a bit more space on the floor. Support act Newtown seem like perennial support for anyone who plays here judging by the posters. The Belgians are famously polite and undemonstrative and unlike at a UK gig where those in first would be right up to the front of the stage, and there’s a good five yards between stage and crowd during the support act. At the end, the Brits edge in front careful not to offend sensibilities and local custom before a final mad dash as the final note rings out. The missing fans with the puncture arrive just in time after terrible traffic woes. As well as last night’s familiar faces, we see locals Hansinblack and family and friends, Daniella, Thierry Ghislain, Dominique and plenty of others. A right royal reunion!

Once again the atmosphere is very chilled; in fact JJ is as relaxed as a newt by the end, thanks to a bottle of Chardonnay and is very funny as a result! Slightly different set from last night with ADAAOTN, Skin Deep and as JJ announces, ‘a mystery song for Baz…’ who clearly has no idea what is coming although the rest of the band are in on it: JJ launches into the familiar and award-winning opening to Peaches - JJ reminds us it’s voted the most memorable three-bass-notes ever by Bass Guitar magazine readers – and Peaches is brought into the set as a replacement for Don’t Bring Harry; it is felt that there are too many younger members of the audience to be singing drug-related songs, although who knows if that was the actual reason…First-timers to Stranglers acoustic gigs abroad are amazed and delighted by just how relaxed, funny – and fun - for both audience and band. You see a different side to the band on these occasions. Two gigs in, two different sets. Any more changes planned, I wonder. Zandaam next…

Day 3: Zaandam, thank you mam…

Zandaam’s a suburb of Amsterdam. It’s a long drive from Oud-Turnhout and we are sold a dummy by the signs for the hotel. We are sent to the site of the now demolished building whilst the actual place is now the other side of the road and called something different - we were not the only ones to be bemused by this wild goose chase as the band, who are again staying in our hotel (I accuse JJ of stalking us!) which is a suitably weird building, looking from the outside like a 12-storey Lego construction with beach huts at the very top. But it’s immaculate, with modern décor inside. Again, just as we arrive we bumped into another familiar face, this time NBM who’s just flown in from the States and trying to find a different hotel to meet up with the NMH1965 party with whom he is travelling with for the next four days. After a warm and sunny afternoon taking in some sites and smells of Amsterdam (and boy, was there plenty to smell!) we wandered down to the venue, De Kade, which is a bit of a Tardis: a pub on top and concert hall beneath with the downstairs being much, much larger than the pub you enter through, much in the way of Ed Straker's filmstudio offices/SHADO HQ in the Gerry Anderson series UFO (there's one for the teenagers!). The usual faces are joined tonight by more travelling Brits, one of whom, a big, burly, bald six-footer from Harlow, who frightened the life out of Baz by throwing a pair of Y-fronts onto the stage for him and although, as we later discovered, they are clean, aren’t quite fresh out of the packet either! The set is as per the previous evening but the absolute highlights for me are the ‘hot club’ numbers - Cruel Garden, Sanfte Kuss and to a lesser extent, Old Codger – and Dave on guitar is a real Django Reinhardt, with all those particular songs gaining a completely new life of their own. We wander back to the hotel for a nightcap or two and a chat with those in the bar before a relatively early night in preparation for the long drive down to Lessines and the sold out gig with Polyphonic Size tonight. The pants-thrower and some of his mates are meeting band members up-close and personal for the first time in thirty-odd years of following The Stranglers and they are all so amazed at how open and friendly the conversation is. Sparkes and I had been planning an afternoon bucket of mussels session on this tour ever since his exploits in 2007 and we decide on a nice quiet, Belgian country town is the ideal time and place: tomorrow in Lessines.

Day 4: world of shit…

The fourth day starts very badly, for the crew still in Zandaam. Kevin Allen, the onstage sound guru, is tasked with fetching the van from the car park it had been left at after the previous night’s gig. Unfortunately when he gets there, there’s no sight of the van, and the car park had suddenly become a flower market. Well, it is Holland! Not knowing quite what to do, he phones Louie Nicastro and utters an immortal line: ‘World of shit - the van’s gone!’ Meanwhile, the van has been removed to a police car pound, as nobody had read the signs warning of the Saturday flower market. After careful negotiations and the intervention of Baz’s Dutch girlfriend Inge, the van is released without charge and the tour continues. Lessines is a very odd little town, and the venue is named after surrealist painter Rene Magritte. You would, therefore, expect it to be an inspirational and artistic town although it soon becomes clear why Magritte produced the sort of work that he did. It’s early afternoon, and it’s closed. Saturday afternoon, and the whole town is almost completely closed. It’s like the sleepy little South Lincolnshire town of Holbeach - on half-day closing - but without all the excitement! A drive around the town and we eventually found the venue which resembles a glorified scout hut. Goodness knows how they expect to get 500 crammed in here! The excellent weather continues as many of the Britpack bask in the town square at the only open bar. We get advance warning of just what sort of facilities the venue has (tent-marquee and a bar-refreshments van) but there is no inkling that if you strayed past the loos, you’d find a basketball match in the sports hall in full swing. The venue is pretty well full for Polyphonic Size, the Brussels-based new wave band known to many Stranglers’ fans through their connections with JJ. They go down well, and soon those 2-300 outside are shoe-horned in. The atmosphere is tremendous, maybe because it was so rammed, and banter between band and crowd is very friendly and relaxed. Then JJ asks the locals if they consider themselves Belgian or Walloonian (or even dare he say it, Flemish) and I sensed another Nice University! But it was all in good humour with plenty of pantomime-booing at the various suggestions. The band are on top form, rattling through the set with plenty of ad-libs and false endings, all lapped up. The youngest baby-in-black, 6-month old Colleen is here with happy parents Laurence and Thierry and Laurence - right at centre stage front – as JJ and Baz take it in turns to coo at Colleen in her own tiny Black And Blue shirt and ear-plugs. The only unsavoury point comes when JJ offers to breast feed! The Baz-in-black tour party leave just before the end of the gig to make sure they make the ferry, but not before they had perfect their MGM lion-style tribute to Dave during Always The Sun.

So, unpromising first impressions of the town and venue aside, it’s a great gig. Possibly the best so far. With the lack of local facilities, the band and fans share the same hotel which means another late night with Dave, Baz, Sparkes, tour manager Gary Knighton and various crew members. There are many interesting stories told; I learn The Wurzels covered Golden Brown.

Day 5: did someone say Winkel?

Holland again, the town of Heerlen in the southwest, at the ultra modern arts centre. But the venue bit is bizarre. The stage is bigger than they’re probably used to, and the auditorium is about 25 yards deep, with a bar running almost the length of the room. Despite being a Sunday night with virtually no publicity (posters at the printers) there are 2-300 here. Audiofeel support, all epic songs (not a good thing!) with a cover of Joy Division's Atmosphere. The Stranglers are in fine form and are clearly obsessed by the word ‘winkel’ found on many signs, and buildings locally: it means shop! So there’s European Winkel, Strange Little Winkel, No More Winkels… Had they done a quick crossover to Germany like us, they may have seen signs on the Autobahn indicating an exit, or ‘Ausfahrt’!

Day 6: Lessines more…

A return to a rammed Lessines on Monday tonight should give Health & Safety kittens had they been here. It is incident packed all the same: one bloke gets onstage to conduct for a good minute or two; there’s a good old-fashioned punch-up necessitating intervention from Baz, JJ and Sparkes in the absence of security; a woman dramatically faints and is unceremoniously dragged out; plus there’s a curtailed set thanks to some ignorant twats smoking. Jet orders the lights being aimed at the miscreants so they can be dealt with. But in the absence of anyone to deal with them, the band play on. That is, until Jet vacates the drum stool for some fresh air… and the gig is terminated prematurely. Six gigs in consecutive nights is tough for anyone but for Jet it must be a real strain on his constitution having played for nearly an hour and a half, with a lung-full of Gauloise. Shame, Jet is the proverbial Duracell bunny.

In the end…

Due to the relatively late arranging of the second Lessines gig, Susie and I are the only ones able to do all six gigs. Although the venues are all-standing, none compare to the splendorous Stadschouwburg in Bruges. But we enjoy a great time, see some interesting (on the whole) sights and meet up with some great, great people. The number of travelling Brits (and one American) is extraordinary and I know that the band really appreciate. For those fans who either don't fancy the acoustic stuff or who have seen them do it over here and didn't take to it, I would say that the complete package of location, very different attitudes of both band and audience on the continent (one or two idiots in Lessines excepted) make the experience just so very enjoyable and helped to make it a truly memorable week.

 

Stranglers live:
BLACK AND BLUE TOUR
Norwich UEA 21.03.11
Photographer Brian Johnson was there…
 

Stranglers live: BLACK AND BLUE TOUR
HMV Picture House, Edinburgh 06.03.11
Eric Vonk was there…
 

MY FIRST TIME in Edinburgh and expectations are high seeing The Stranglers. There’s Red Stripe in the old Playhouse bar, and support act Wilko Johnson is onstage. It’s short and sweet, no frills Feelgood energy and attitude, great songs, and Norman on bass looking like Catweazle. I Spy For The FBI - the DJ plays - Harlem Shuffle too as well as other Northern Soul classics (well, this is the north!) before Jock the Box walks on with his accordion. The crowd go crazy for his version of Waltzinblack. Our four heroes enter the stage. It’s a menacing start with I Feel Like A Wog and the heat rises as the crowd sway to Baz snarlings with his hand in a bandage (he hurt it in the hotel shower). Was It You? derails slightly after Dave’s siren-sound comes in but stops after a couple of bars. Maybe Jet didn’t hear it on his monitors? After two false starts, it’s good to hear it although JJ seems a bit narked. ‘Forgive our human errors,’ he says later.

This set list is intriguing with Two Sunspots and my all-time favourites, the beautiful Baroque Bordello and Never To Look Back. New song Freedom Is Insane starts off really moody. Is it Tuckers Grave?! But it evolves into a nice rock song that could become a winner. Of course, we also get the greatest hits – and some die-hards moan when they do – but they are well-received, proving why they were hits for good reason: they’re still brilliant as fuck. I switch from JJ-side to BW-side where I can absorb the band from another angle, every move, every note. Relentless is flawless, a classic. Dead Loss Angeles sounds brilliant musically, although I suspect the wrong key for Baz’s voice. Sweden is the biggest surprise – but falters in the second part of the song – timing? Maybe they’re not hearing the same thing at the same time? Soldiering on, their experience prevails with storming encores of All Day… Duchess, Hanging Around and No More Heroes before it’s over all too soon. The sound isn’t perfect and the keyboards go astray a bit but still a good 7½ out of 10.

© Photos Eric Vonk

SWEDEN: It's all quiet, in Edinburgh!

Stranglers live: BLACK AND BLUE TOUR

O2 Academy Glasgow 05.03.11

Willie-in-black was there…

FREEDOM IS INSANE: New tune captured on camcorder - Quite possibly a Toiler or Raven or Relentless in the making?

 

The Stranglers tonight are on top form, cracking, blistering, brilliant. Aye the set is full of surprises and I’m not the one to spoil it for you if you don’t wanna know the set! But you simply cannot miss it! That’s all I’m saying! Support band Wilko Johnson are amazing and bring back all the Dr. Feelgoodness of my past. The Stranglers come on and the crowd go drunken mad – although it’s hard to get too pished at this bar’s tariff – and it’s not all Glaswegians on the pop here but some travelling southerners too which is great to see the effort they’ve made. Together we sing our hearts out to the band we’ve known and worshipped since our teens (and The Skids!) – like I say, the songs you will have to witness for yourselves – but all too soon it’s over and we’re all going home. Some tracks tonight I’ve not seen played live for years, or even ever at all. My night is made complete by a couple of concessions I will make to a set list spoiler: my favourite song off The Raven (probably my favourite Stranglers song of all time) is performed with perfection tonight – see below – as well as the single off the La Folie LP that never was. My appetite is well and truly whetted now for the convention in November in London. I cannot wait!

 

BAROQUE BORDELLO: Beautiful album track!

 

 

TRAMP: Why wasn’t it a single?

 

Stranglers live: BLACK AND BLUE TOUR O2 Academy Newcastle 04.03.11 Dale Farrow was there…

 

Next and earlier in the set than normal we get Always The Sun, Golden Brown and Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, the last sustained nod to their greatest hits packages of the past until the encores because we are then greeted with one of the most memorable intros to any Stranglers’ song and the place goes wild as Baroque Bordello caresses our senses and from that point on for the next 45-odd minutes it’s classics-a-go-go! Tramp! Never to Look Back! Two Sunspots! Dead Loss Angeles! Threatened! Something Better Change! Sweden! Nuclear Device! and finally my own personal favourite song of the last 32 years, Relentless! What a set! We are left breathless and sated to the extent that even starting the encores with All Day and All of the Night doesn’t get the usual ‘Oh, here we go again’ looks from the faithful. This is followed by Duchess which as usual has the whole place on its feet – that really is a very popular live song. But due to a curfew to allow for a club night in the venue after the gig, the encores are cut short but we are given a blistering Hanging Around and No More Heroes as parting gifts.

Afterwards the talk was of what a great gig that had been - and having obtained JJ’s set list - we then ascertain there is likely to be at least one more debutant on the tour Giants and that the options for encores includes at least 4 more songs that they didn’t play (as this is written I can confirm that Lost Control was also played in the encores at Glasgow the following night). It really looks like the balance of this set will please everyone and the packed and indeed sold-out in some cases, crowds will be in for an absolute feast of Stranglerdom. The Meninblack have delivered the goods once again!
 

Wilko Johnson: Holmfirth Picturedrome, Yorkshire 13.11.10

Dale Farrow was there…

 Top draw R&B

Welcome Wilko and Co…

I’m at Holmfirth Picturedrome. The scene of Starbase 109, an outfit who impressed The Stranglers enough to get on the 4240 Tour. And now here’s Wilko Johnson - former Dr. Feelgood guitarist and stalwart of the British music scene since the mid 70s and mate of JJ’s - who will be the very welcome opening act on the Black And Blue UK Tour.

Tonight he’s on form. Wilko proves he’s lost none of his originality as one of Britain’s most influential guitarists: fronting a tight R&B band with fellow ex-Blockheads Dylan Howe on drums and the great Norman Watt-Roy on bass tonight, the 3-piece romp through Wilko originals, R&B classics, and crowd-pleasers in the shape of Feelgoods’ numbers like Roxette, She Does It Right and Back In The Night… and the packed venue goes potty. Letting rip with that familiar old black and red Fender Strat and playing like no other guitarist; a left-hander self-taught right-handed but contriving both lead and rhythm a la Mick Green of The Pirates and by default inventing his own distinctive style. The old pudding-bowl haircut might be gone but Wilko’s frenzied stare is still there, machine-gunning his guitar at the crowd, both barrels. White head, clad in black, is this a future echo of Baz Warne?! I recommend you get to The Stranglers UK tour early to catch him play support.

The exciting mixture of 3 minute pop and some longer numbers showcase the talents of the other two band members – and when it’s time for The Stranglers tour, we will get to appreciate two of Britain’s most outstanding bassists of their generation; Norman Watt-Roy and JJ. Whereas JJ is the undoubted king of the plectrum-driven rock bassists, Norman is a blur of finger-picking jazz and blues styles that cannot help to make you wonder in awe. Black And Blue might as well be Bass Player’s Masterclass!

Sadly tonight, Norman suffers the effects of some sort of bug. Ashen faced, he makes for the wings. Wilko follows him, concerned. Norman suddenly, very noisily and very visibly, throws up. But Five minutes later they are Back In The Night – although the gig is cut short – they play an hour - and Norman is helped off. But what an hour!!! Get Julien Temple’s ‘Oil City Confidential’ before the tour comes along. It will surprise you for sure.

Stranglers live: Glastonbury Festival, Pilton, Somerset 25.06.10

Gary Indiana was there…

JJ: ‘Is it hot enough for you Glastonbury? I hope you brought some protection!’ and then bangs out those famous opening notes to 1977’s summer anthem. I can’t help notice the band are really into this and deliver an inspirational performance like a band in their thirties, not fifties and sixties. Jet Black must be almost seventy surely? And I’m already beat after just three minutes of pogoing... they certainly got me going up and down!

Backstage at Glastonbury with JJ HERE

But at the warm-up gig the night before,

there’s drama in the air…

Stranglers live: Cheese & Grain, Frome, Somerset 24.06.10

Dale Farrow was there…

Frome was a blast...   Danger UXB!   STRANGLERS IN BOMB SCARE SHOCK HORROR!’   Bu more of that later. An absolutely stunning June day greet those of us fortunate enough to attend this pre-Glastonbury warm up for the boys and from as early as the previous afternoon, the family-in-black were gathering in and around the old market town of Frome. By mid-afternoon on the day of the gig, the pre-arranged meeting point of the Blue Boar was fills up nicely. Rodders and Claire had already been and gone off in search of victuals, something that would prevent them returning due to unforeseen circumstances! I arrive via taxi from the camp site just outside of town with the Ravenlunatics who are caravanning on the same site. Already out in the garden are Brian The Strangler, Chaos Kay, Litre Lips Lou, Shazza, Ravenette, Ian, Rikki, Pigeon, Bag Lady, Miserable Woman, Billy and Judy and many other well-known and welcoming faces, soon to be joined by Mr and Mrs AdrianA, Owen and Jackie, Paul B and Rachel amongst others.

For once the family-in-black are very much to be seen in their summer plumage, mainly camouflage shorts of various lengths plus the obligatory band T-shirts for the boys and a variety of summer frocks, jeans & tops etc for the ladies, although there was an element of glamming up for the actual gig, especially from the ladies!

Around 4pm one of the pub bar staff enters the beer garden telling us to move out to the car park behind as there is a bomb in the Nat West just up the road! We trudge out of the garden only to be met with the site of various others, including Rodders, stuck on the bridge the other side of the river that runs next to the pub where they’re halted by the police cordon. Jolly banter ensues, mostly revolving around Rodders and a barrel – I’m sure someone with knowledge of naval history will be able to explain fully..! Joking apart, we realise at this point that there really is an incident and gradually word gets round that the whole of Frome town centre is cordoned due to a suspect package. Traffic havoc ensues hindering those still on their way, and for those on the wrong side of the barricade to both venue and Blue Boar. Fortunately, there’s a M&S the other side of the car park which enables the thirstier members of the crowd to get refreshments (Litre Lips with the bottle of Cava springs to mind!) and one of the hotels is accessible which means that toilet facilities are available.

It is a greatest hits package but surprisingly minus Strange Little Girl, instead with All Day And All Of The Night re-installed for the festival set. It’s interesting to see what the non-regulars make of songs like Lost Control and Spectre Of Love, ands while unfamiliar to them, go down an absolute storm; Spectre in particular has one of the highest BPPM (Bouncing People Per Minute) of any song they do. At one point Baz, a former Frome resident and very obviously a local favourite even now, tells us about the bloke who went up to him in Tucker’s Grave earlier in the week and explained that his 95 year old mum was very upset with the band because they usually have bingo on a Thursday in the Cheese and Grain and they had to move it to Wednesday!   Retro Rockets also goes down very well and it just goes to show that with a bit of airplay both Retro and Spectre may well have made been big hits.

Speaking of hits, we are also treated to Duchess, Golden Brown, Always The Sun, Nice ‘n’ Sleazy and Walk On By until the unusual sound of JJ pounding his bass in the traditional way to introduce No More Heroes followed by the audience almost taking the roof off after the final notes died away and that was the first hour over and done with – at this stage we know the Glastonbury crowd are in for a treat tomorrow.

The clock ticks well past 10.30 and the band return for Time To Die, Nuclear Device, London Lady and following what seems to be a brief band meeting maybe to discuss what time’s left before the curfew (no - they don’t play that!) but we are treated to a thunderous version of Down In The Sewer which again has the venue’s foundations vibrating… despite JJ finishing eight bars early! And that was it. Rumour has it Genetix, amongst others, are omitted due to time constraints but regardless, everyone leaves happy.

At this point after a gig, many people make their way home or accommodation for the night but a party of between 50 and 60 made up of those already mentioned plus Gizzard, Blackbeard, the Taylor brothers and Rattus as well as quite a few I don’t know and/or haven’t mentioned (forgive me!) head for the Blue Boar where it is karaoke night till 1am. Notably, the landlady has arranged for a few extra Stranglers songs to be available. The beer garden is once again full to bursting and the actual bar is a riot of song: one of the first songs was by a local performing The Wurzles’ classic, I am a Zuider Drinker, just to prove what we all suspect! This is followed later by a rousing version of Always The Sun - Ravenette treating us to her Bitch - and yours truly having downed possibly too many pints of England Expects doing things to The Smiths This Charming Man!

It’s gone 1, karaoke over, and people make their way into the barmy night air and head for bed in the knowledge that they had been part of one of Frome’s most memorable days for years and years!

© Images courtesy of Mike Jones, Colin Mace and Mark Paul     Duchess, Frome 2010 HERE Time To Die, Frome 2010 HERE

Stranglers live: Het Depot, Leuven, 26.03.10

Mark Van Dongen was there…

 Loving it in Leuven...

Stella performance!

This is Flanders’ answer to Oxford and Cambridge – but more importantly - home to Stella Artois. More about that later. Tonight, though, the city is home to the Meninblack. The venue is pretty weird. First of all it’s tucked away on the corner of a square (Martelarenplein). Once you get inside you have the feeling of being in a poor man’s Tardis. I don’t think the place has seen a lick of paint in years. In fact the whole place seems to be stuck in a 1950s time warp. Originally the building was a warehouse - hence Het Depot - with about 300 seats and room for 400 standing. The place fills up. Partygoers down the front, boring old farts in the seats at the back and a bus load of Brits on the Wonky tour; last year, faulty hydraulics caused their coach to lean to one side en route to Ghent. I get to speak to few of them before the gig – all genuinely nice people.

Finally the lights are dimmed and we hear Waltzinblack. I am absolutely thrilled that Time to Die is the opening number. In fact, I believe that should have been the single off Decades Apart. Even though it’s not a new song, it just deserves to have ‘single status’. Everyone gets a chance to show off their skills in the song. JJ sings the song differently live, in a higher pitch, a bit like when he’s singing Curfew. Baz is in good form, as is Dave. Unfortunately though, there’s no Jet tonight. He’s replaced by Ian Barnard, who puts in a sterling performance. The song really works well and it’s got the crowd pogoing in front of me.

The set is structured perfectly in my opinion. Six storming numbers to start things off (Time to Die, Go Buddy Go, Grip, Curfew and Norfolk Coast), followed by the holy trinity of mellow numbers (Always the Sun, Strange Little Girl and Golden Brown). Baz squeezes in a saucy little alteration to the lyrics in Always: Who gets the job / Of pushing my knob. Ooh er, missus.   This is followed by an amazing Walk on By and a rocking Retro Rockets. I have to admit Retro works well live, but I still think it shouldn’t have been a single…   Then we move on to what I would call a trio of songs with a ‘nautical’ theme (Toiler, Nice ‘n Sleazy and Peaches). The absolute highlight for me being Toiler (which together with Go Buddy and Curfew I hadn’t heard live before).

JJ finally addresses the audience… in French. ‘Bonsoir Louvain’, French for Leuven. The crowd appreciate JJ not speaking English to them, although he’s sipping Corona instead of the local brew. Faux pas maybe, and Baz namechecks Stella all the same during Peaches: …a lot worse places to be, even in a town where they brew fuckin’ Stella Artois. Charming! This is followed by a fuelled-up Spectre Of Love and a high-octane Lost Control. The final pre-encore number is an enthralling Down In The Sewer – another live first for me – and then stomping renditions of Nuclear Device and Duchess, interspersed with Stella-fuelled stage intruders! We’re coming to the end as Hanging Around creeps in with more shenanigans by the time No More Heroes gets totally invaded. Fair play to Baz who refers to the errant stage security: whatever happened to… all the security..? In fairness, they do their best, but two of them look as though they haven’t started shaving yet. They get help from someone who could pass as a Baz Warne lookalike (guitar roadie) and at one point it all gets too much for Baz who shins yet another intruder: Sunderland could with a defender like that! The sell-out crowd leaves sweaty, but satisfied. More Stellas and some post-gig chats with fellow fans before I’m heading home praying this wasn’t the last time I’d get to see the best band on Earth.

© Images courtesy of Anne-Marie Mondan of Rock-interviews

See the mad onstage antics during No More Heroes HERE

Stranglers live: Hammersmith Apollo, 19.03.10

Gary Kent was there…

 Unfettered Meninblack brilliance at the Apollo

Rocket men!

It’s the penultimate night on the Decades Apart UK tour - the sole London gig - and it is perfectly executed by the Meninblack. Just as well, seeing as the technical gremlins struck the last time cameras captured a London gig by The Stranglers!

Front men JJ and Baz pout, stretch and play to the swaying crowd as Dave and Jet get on with it at the back. You can see – and hear - they clearly love the show: they play not like old codgers, but like an agile bunch of newcomers: this summer’s Glastonbury mob won’t know what’s hit ‘em! And as a Stranglers fan since 1977 – my first gig was at Battersea in 1978 – I’m wondering how can this band ever wind down after seeing them perform like this? Never!

Armed with a greatest hits set list to please the populace – as well as the discerning hardcore – the band bang away brilliantly to a near capacity crowd. Time To Die broods, Go Buddy Go rawks, Grip grips and the gorgeous Curfew from 78’s Black And White album is refreshingly resonant, sounding even better than the last time it sounded refreshing and brilliant! Same for Norfolk Coast, stamping ownership on that old black magic brand of menacing Meninblack melody. 80’s pop tones of Skin Deep, Always The Sun, the delicate elegiac Strange Little Girl and their biggest hit, Golden Brown warm the cockles.

Walk On By gives the band their first retro work-out proper – punchy newie Retro Rockets rocks the Apollo’s rafters - and Genetix resumes the instrumental side of The Stranglers with Dave’s customary synth work and of course, vocals here.

Sleazy is always a cool track, and Peaches too, to a degree. But Lost Control deliciously ignites, particularly in the middle where bass and keyboard bass combine in one sub-bass run that vibrates spleen, stomach and thorax. Talking of cavities, Down In The Sewer is (un)adulterated organ-filled psychedelic claustrophobia, especially during end-coda Rat’s Rally! On the way home, I secretly check the platform for vermin afterwards! The crowd sing their hearts out to the end, and even a snapped string fails to deter the finale as Baz carries on, nonchanantly flicking the offender, and resumes with another axe in time for the guitar solo. JJ comes over to Baz in his solo, and says something like: that’s cool. The Stranglers are cool. Cool as fuck. See you in the sewer!

No More Heroes HERE

Stranglers live: Guildhall, Southampton, 14.03.10

Matt Brown was there…

  Sound issues ensue – JJ makes a surprise announcement to the crowd

Toilers by the sea!

The impressive façade of Southampton’s Guildhall gives no hint of what to expect inside: it gives way to a long narrow concert hall with high ceiling and small balcony looking like it is hewn out of the back wall. But as fans slowly but surely fill the venue, chattering drowns out the puny output of songs from the PA… and sonic suspicions should have been raised at this point!

Meanwhile, support band Max Raptor are impressive: their hard hitting and well structured concoction of songs comes through loud and clear. After a brief pause for resetting the stage gear, there’s a welcome 3/4 time signature oddness which signals The Stranglers’ presence Time To Die starts the show, although something is amiss with the sound balance: bass growls away just fine but drums are thin - keys are slightly muddied – and guitar is way up in the mix, as is JJ’s voice. Never mind, I think to myself - after all, this is just the first number and the soundman will no doubt settle things down soon enough... Go Buddy Go – and still no resolution – as sound levels vary wildly. All the elements are here, and when you can hear the bass and keys, it sounds absolutely brilliant. Unusually for both Jet and Baz, their respective instruments are struggling in the mix and it’s clear to me that the hall’s acoustics are playing havoc. The soundman is riding the faders and obviously knows the material really well, as he’s respectively turning up the bass, keys or guitar whenever they have a prominent part in the song, but ultimately he’s chasing his tail due to insurmountable problems with the acoustics of the venue.

Both band and crowd do their best to shrug it off with JJ and Baz doing their menacing best at the front with JJ’s karate kicks and Baz’s cool showmanship. Baz is like some Tasmanian Devil offspring of Nosferatu, and breaks the ice with his ‘good evening - it’s an honour to be playing at Southampton’s premier echo chamber and wind tunnel!’ Enough said.

Undeterred the band play on and the classics keep coming; Grip, Norfolk Coast, Curfew… but the venue seems to be winning in the battle of the sound. The band toil away, the crowd get enthusiastic and odd moments of absolutely golden sound get through, teasing us with what we should be hearing.

‘Jet Black - still alive!’ says Baz cheekily as the Genetix intro rolls out, while the mud cruelly obscures this finely crafted jewel. But it’s a fantastic bass solo. In Walk On By, JJ interrupts Baz’s intro to point out Dave’s tech trouble which forms a cue for some Baz gags for the crowd. With keys now fixed, Walk On By is stonking - and Dave’s keys sound awesome. But the highlight of the night is Down In The Sewer, and with extra venom, perhaps due to the sound frustrations? Now the sound is back and the band are tight. Thankfully staying in the set, Sewer is a truly stand-out moment - well worth the admission price on its own! But all too soon we’re at the encores, and it’s a manically fast rendition of Nuclear Device: how Dave and JJ avoid spontaneously combustion here is no-one’s guess!

Then there’s Duchess and JJ’s bass-beating start to No More Heroes before the PA plays us off with Meninblack. In summary, it’s a tough night sonically although the band toil away admirably at Southampton’s Guildhall. But the final words must go to JJ:   ‘I promise you once thing. We’ll come back to Southampton…’ The crowd cheer, ‘…but we will never ever play in this place again…’ It’s certainly a gig to remember (aren’t they all?) and all I can add is… roll on Hammersmith!   Thanks to Cola Can, hear what JJ said on the night HERE © Soton images courtesy of Darrell Kavanagh

Stranglers live: 02, Birmingham, 13.03.10

Mike Jones was there with his camera…

© Brum images courtesy of Mike Jones

Stranglers live: Brighton Dome, 09.03.10

Gary Kent was there…

  The Stranglers’ first Brighton gig for years – and tonight they make up for lost time

Brighton Rocks!     THE PLUSH DOME is pretty much full. The stage is black and the scene is set as mental instrumental Waltzinblack counts in the band. On they walk, plug in and play to a crowd they’ve not played to for quite a few years.   About time - I join the band precisely halfway through the British tour - Time To Die is top of the shop: it’s no storming starter – for it twangs and broods away in metered menace, Meninblack style. Cinema undoubtedly missed out on a chance for this to soundtrack a Blade Runner follow-up. Nonetheless, I can’t help regress to the start of Stranglers In The Night (if you don’t know, it’s the first Stranglers CD to emerge in the wake of Hugh’s 1990 departure and track one is Time To Die…) and wonder at how time has shifted like sands on an ocean’s bed. Or something like that. It seems only yesterday when the altered line-up of The Stranglers chartered through partial obscurity of the so-called wilderness years (1998’s Coup de Grace being the murkiest) when just about every co-worker or relative said those cringing words:   ‘The Stranglers? Are they still going?’   Then there was the semi-return-to-roots sonic wake-up of Norfolk Coast ( - was that really six years ago?) and then the sans-Roberts follow-up Suite XVI in 2006 safely and soundly tuned in to the same route of menace and melody. Elsewhere, amid a steady plethora of compilation releases, it’s the festival crowd that have got the old black magic in recent years, and none more prestigious than upcoming Glastonbury. Who’d ‘ve thunk it? The Stranglers must be doing something right. And how many TV ads feature Stranglers tunes? Only this week, Hovis have No More Heroes, although the brown bread link is lost on me. Golden Brown might be less tenuous (burned toast?) but all the same, the brand name is back in the frame. The Stranglers. not Hovis! And as a brace of bright new tracks are tacked onto current compo, Decades Apart, there’s wind of a new album sometime soon-ish… But will it be their coup de grace… sorry, I mean, will it be their last? Who knows? So let’s enjoy the party while it lasts! At least before anyone dare says: ‘The Stranglers? Are they still going?’

Back to tonight, cue Go Buddy Go – belting out, picking up the pace punk ‘n’ roll style the very same way it did in my schoolboy bedroom back in June 1977. It’s been yonks since they played this. Two songs in at The Dome, and these are tangible milestones in the bands elastic history, which is testament to their spirit and tenacity. You’ve only got to see them play. They’re buzzing, and so are we: I’m with my friend Bez having a good time. The crowd are not overly animated in general, though. Perhaps you gotta look cooler in Brighton? Although small pockets of activity surface later.

Earlier, I bump into Mr. Warne. He’s in beanie hat and all smiles as he steps in from the cold into our pre-gig bar. He has that glint in his eye when he asks if I’m going across the road to watch the show (of course!) before adding; ‘yeah, I’ll be there too.’ And he is in fine voice tonight, and is quick to remind us that Brighton is Dave Greenfield's home town, and even quizzing the audience for anyone who went to school with him! Some say tonight’s sound is far better than last night's, although we get the impression that it wouldn’t do any harm if they tweaked it up every time. Sleazy also goes down especially well, as does Strange Little Girl. Noticeably, Retro Rockets is sounding stronger on each play, producing a valiant feelgood factor that will doubtlessly permeate throughout the rest of the newies in the future.

I don’t think it is the fault of the venue, but Genetix, and Norfolk Coast to a degree, are a little muddied. But Curfew is nice and crisp and powerful, slotting into the set seamlessly. Five Minutes, Something Better Change and Hanging Around are marvellous, and both Duchess and Nuclear Device get the crowd singing at the top of their collective voice. I always think songs like Golden Brown, Skin Deep and Walk On By – and Always The Sun – are for the tourists although I’m sure the sold-out Glastonbury mob will love any of these. But tonight’s highlight is surely Down In The Sewer, reintroduced to the set, and like Go Buddy Go, it’s a rare live track. As I watch the years turning back, JJ is incredibly dynamic: moving, creeping, stretching out the JJ leg-cock like some twenty-something. I too, am transformed back to youth, while salivating at each phase and twist of the song. A fantastic addition to the bands revamped live set.

The party is over and we’re all going home. For the band, it’s a quick getaway followed by a day-off from their itinerary. For us, it’s Time To Dine! It’s been great meeting other fans, none more so than Edinburgh’s finest ex-pat Griff, over from Aus. So we all head off post-gig to the ubiquitous Indian to compare notes and chew the cud, pleased we all made our trip to Brighton.

© Baz image courtesy of Colin Mace

Stranglers live: The Fuzz Club,

Athens, Greece 21.01.10

Strangled reader Stavros Striligas kindly sent us a link to a review with images of the Athens gig which was the second of three nights over in Greece HERE

Stranglers live: Pinkpop Classic Festival, Megaland, Holland. 15.08.09

Thierry Ghislain and Laurence Cruquenaire were there…

	Under a blazing sun – and 28°C - The Stranglers give us the classics of 5 Minutes and Peaches by which time there’s an attempt at a mini-stage invasion by a certain bloke in a tartan kilt! Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, Always The Sun, Golden Brown - Walk On By too – as well as Spectre Of Love plus Unbroken. The MiB are in fine shape, if a little tired. The heat? Perhaps. Only the most ardent fans are here in Holland, and as usual, No More Heroes brings the show to a close with Dave’s party piece with the glass, ending a really good concert. And Jet was there too. Thank you!     No More Heroes at Pinkpop HERE

There’s talk in the air of a change to the ‘hits’ set list… at least for UK concerts…   Stranglers live: 53 Degrees, Preston, Lancs. 13.08.09 Mattinblack was there…     Having been lucky enough to catch the show at Holmfirth the previous night, expectations here are high… and ably met! The set is much the same as the previous night which itself had been a pleasant surprise to those of us expecting the ‘hits’ set. In an attempt to be as brief as possible here are the highlights: Musically, the whole show. But forced to narrow it down, then the best moment for me is Curfew. Unbroken, Sometimes, The Raven, Genetix, Death & Night & Blood, Walk On By, Lost Control, I Hate You and Who Wants The World? complete my Top 10. Personal highlights: the whole show… but seriously, bringing Will, my nephew, along making for 3 generations of my family to see The Stranglers live and also kicking off our summer hols with two Stranglers gigs.   The Stranglers are on good form, relaxed and performing tight, with a good rapport with the crowd. Some minor technical problems with the sound fail to dampen the bands spirit or crowd enthusiasm. I spare a thought for the poor sound man though, with steam coming out of his ears trying to get the balance right on Dave’s keys (plus he very kindly gifted me the set list from the desk). Player of the day goes to JJ: not only for his superb musicianship but also for jumping into the crowd to the rescue an errant pick from the floor which he had gifted to a fan. Strangeness of the day goes to the sticky floor at the rear half of the venue which seems to be by design rather than as a result of years of spills! Highlight of the following morning is sharing experiences of the gigs with the fans in black from Merthyr Tydfil and Edinburgh (one of whom being the lucky recipient of JJ’s pick) at breakfast in the Claremont Hotel.       Time To Die at Preston HERE

The Stranglers live: Le Mans 24, 13.06.09. Ava Rave was there!     Boys, toys and noise   © Images courtesy of Ava Rave   From Florida’s Daytona Speedway to Watkin’s Glen, New York. From Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve to Silverstone in Blighty. And now Le Mans. Incredibly, I've been to all these legendary motor race tracks with not even the slightest interest in motor racing!   It’s Saturday night - this noisy, dusty venue at the impeccably organised 24 Heure du Mans 2009 marathon sees the Meninblack headline a cracking gig to a crowd (behind the racing grandstands) of well over (estimated) 20,000 race fans - temporary distraction from the monotony of watching the mega-motors roar. The Stranglers come out with Jet Black on his rightful drum-throne, not having played any of the gruelling Euro leg of the 4240 tour earlier this year as anyone who knows anything would know.   Not sure what the saying is - half the fun is the journey? - whatever it is, we have a fab time getting here, from the drive to Portsmouth to the 5+ hour ferry ride over to Caen/Ouestreham, the calmest channel crossing ever as attested by everyone on the boat, even had a cushy hotel room-like cabin to pass the time in when not at the bar, oops, I mean the lounge - a landlubber like me has no experience on the sea-lingo matey – while Toiler On The Sea runs through my head. Don't know why...

Once on the continent, an impressive array of vintage sports and luxury cars alight the ferry. A show-off in an egg-yolk yellow Lamborghini makes sure he tests the disembarking queue's patience revving up. But he’s really screaming: LOOK AT ME, I'M REALLY RICH OR I'M A TWAT OR SOMETHING. Cars are what it was all about though, so you can't really blame him. Le Mans has approximately 250,000 spectators today; the race is underway we arrive at 9.30 - the noise is amazing, like a symphony of loud tigers purring or lions roaring relentlessly – and the motors are a spectacular sight. I manage to check out some souvenir t-shirts – yes, Steve McQueen on my chest for 40 Euros - but return empty-handed to the testosterone scented air amid the relentless cacophony.

The Stranglers hit the stage to the strains of Waltzinblack, kicking off with Grip. You can’t help but marvel at the perfect blending of the noise of the race cars throughout the entire set, just the coolest thing I've ever heard at a Stranglers gig! Here’s the set list… no point in going on about it: The gig is fabulous, as always!

Onstage! Waltzinblack and Grip HERE

Quality! Golden Brown HERE

Stranglers live: Roundhouse, Sydney, Australia. Saturday 14.03.09

Chris Baker was there on the final night of the tour…

Baz is a great showman and looks at ease playing someone else’s songs. Ian plays a blinder on drums, Dave is Dave and JJ’s bass is massive – but he’s pre-occupied with a young Japanese girl standing up against the barrier (as I was too!) The band are tight and the mix, on the whole, is good. A minor criticism is the keyboards can be more prominent, particularly in solos, while the vocals sometimes burst out at you and get muffled. Sound issues aside, it’s an amazing gig with both the band and the crowd clearly enjoying themselves. The only gobbing I can see is done by Baz (not sure who was copping it at the side of the stage).   Highlights include Nice ‘n’ Sleazy (with Baz and JJ doing the walk…), Always The Sun (with the crowd singalong), Golden Brown (with Baz playing the solo properly – see video clip below!), The Raven (best live version heard for yonks), Thrown Away (with the jig, and what is that all about?), Walk On By (the best of the show), Hanging Around (and seeing the mosh with 50-60 year old guys and girls pogoing - truly surreal – as security give up intervening), Nuclear Device (‘Sydney men stay at home at night…’), and No More Heroes (with an amazing extended ending). A great set - but where are Toiler, Sewer or Punch And Judy(?) It’s the most sober I’ve been at a Stranglers gig because I want to remember as much as possible… it may very well be the last time I ever see The Stranglers play, leaving a tinge of sadness as they have been such a big part of my life for the last 30 years.

Thanks to Jeremy for photos/video and to Gary for transport.

Golden Brown solo HERE

Stranglers live: the last night of the Eurotour…

Thanks to Pete Howells for supplying us with these excellent Ghent images courtesy of Evy Ottermans

Stranglers live: Paris/Ghent coach trip 5th & 6th February 2009

80-odd fans went…

Eurobus was getting near!     YOUR EDITOR-IN-BLACK is a last minute sub on the Eurobus – replacement for someone less fortunate with out of the blue work commitments. So it’s all aboard for Owen’s two-day trip across the English Channel to Calais, onto Paris for the first gig with an overnight hotel stay, before setting off for the Ghent gig and straight back to London. Sounds simple doesn’t it? But it doesn’t go without hitch! The coach’s hydraulic suspension will dysfunction causing us to lean in the direction of the next lane of traffic!

Day 1 - Having missed the planned soiree at PaulinLondon’s the night before due to my own extended work obligations, I rise at the unearthly hour of 03.00 the next day to drive to the Boys of Finchley. Here, Paul’s transport for London sets off in the ice to the Victoria Station rendezvous for the coach. I make a mental note to myself to brush up on my French; so what is the French for ‘rendezvous’..? And soiree, for that matter? Soon, just under 80 rucksack-wearing MiBs (and the odd WiB) line up on the steps of the Apollo, ready and waiting.

The supersize executive double-deck rolls up at 07.00 and sticks on its air brakes, bouncing about. In we load. Excitement is escalating as Martin Yellowcake and I take up the back seats of the top deck and kick back. Allegedly this charabanc is equipped with tea and coffee making facilities and a toilet. We set off. Both the Cakester and I sing Heatwave’s classic 1975 hit, Boogie Nights. Nether of us are quite sure why, but it seems to pass the time. Out of the smoke, we stop at Maidstone en route to the ferry. News reaches us of bad weather conditions across the UK, leaving one Jet Black snowed-in, unable to join the band for the Paris concert. Mr. and Mrs. Ravenlunatic pile on with Paul B. Ravenluney has his own icy story:

‘We step out of our front door at 03.30 to find several inches of snow had fallen in the last couple of hours and the roads are all but impassable - always a good start to a 97 mile journey on a tight schedule - but not to be discouraged by minor details, we set off and collect Paul B en route (I wonder what the French equivalent would be? ‘On la way…’?) We embark on a journey from hell through blizzard conditions until we get near to London when it turns to rain and we are able to get a move on, but realising we were not going to make it to Victoria on time, we arrange to carry on to the Maidstone rendezvous (‘la meeting place’ as they prefer in Gallic circles) which actually worked out great: we arrive in plenty of time for the coach – an executive continental roadliner or heapushitticusinblack to give it its correct Latin name – to find Crass and Yellowcake keeping the back seats warm for us. And so in fine company, the team-in-black’s invasion force set off for foreign shores.'

‘It’s a very fine post-gig pizza in the very fine company of Blackbeered, Gizz, Crass, Yellowcake, PiL, Saminblack, Pigeon AdrianA, Michel - plus birthday boy Paul B – who gets increasingly louder as the evening continues, until we engage the services of a trio of taxis manned by drivers for whom the Paris road system appears something of a new and mysterious challenge - and whose tariff system or ‘mortgage agreement’ is nothing, if not optimistic!’

Back at the hotel around 02.00 I check the room for any sign of Rodders after I hear he’s in pain during the gig due to a pleural condition. Or maybe it’s a plural condition, like, he wants more booze? I open the door find an unexpected empty room – but more importantly, there’s an empty bed with my name on it. Zzzzzzzzzz. Ghost-like Rodders arrives in the middle of the night following some liquid self-medication but I fall back to sleep mid-chat. Next morning I wake in a fright – but in the nick of time - to devour a scrummy Continental breakfast downstairs with the Ravenlunies with copious cups of coffee. I forgot how much I like croissants. Aaah, human again.

Day 2 - After an emergency mission to the supermarche opposite for replacement hair care products, I prepare for our lunchtime excursion to the Pompidou Centre where we all re-enact the famous Euroman Cometh stance on the sleeve a la Burnel. Locals look on typically nonplussed. Do we give a fart? After the blizzards back in Blighty, we’re enjoying the luxury of 10 degrees in the sunshine and Seine-side lagers. But on the metro, I get my foot ensnared briefly in the lethal weapon of a full-length exit turnstile when my ‘billet’ fails to open the correct side. Luckily, I have Amanda to liberate me from my Parisian hell to make my escape to the platform for connecting trains. So far, so good…

Back on the bus – this time for the Belgium date. Yellowcake and I continue our rendition of Heatwave’s classic 1975 hit, Boogie Nights – and still we’re none wiser why we’re doing this - but it really does seem to pass the time. It has to be said though, that this is the biggest larf ever. However, it’s not long before the coach driver makes an announcement concerning the fullness of the chemical toilet downstairs, at the very point we need a piss. We have to stop at a recognised depository, and not just any old roadside hole in the ground. This is France, after all. Not Essex. So we pull into a nearby lay-by to discover firstly, we’re not allowed outside for fags. And there’s no aroma of 82 samples of waste – nor the welcome splashing noise of chemical bog fluid. Something is up. Or down, at least, on one side of the coach: we discover the hydraulic suspension on the nearside has collapsed, accounting for the leaning angle we’ve noticed, but answered away by the booze. Chins are scratched and the announcement over the Tannoy confirms we are fucked. But we drive off, and stop in the next lay-by. I overhear a fellow MiB diagnosing the problem as bags are moved from the hold. ‘It’s the airbag… on the hydraulics gone … you’re lucky though as the makers are actually based in Ghent.’

And lucky it’s a Friday night. Twenty miles from Ghent. One and a half hours from band time. More chins are scratched as the bus is viewed from every angle possible. We even thought about Google Earth-ing it. And yes – it really is leaning to one side. So I text Jamie Organ Grinder back in Blighty who breaks the news to the forums. It’s dramatic to say the least! Will we – or won’t we – get to see The Stranglers in Ghent? Jamie texts back to say this is as exciting as ITN, and he didn’t mean the In The Night album! I then text both Dom and my wife, fearing that in our present predicament, we could find ourselves being forced to eat each other on the bus. I know – can you imagine eating a real live Pigeon?! But then, suddenly, an executive decision is taken for our executive coach (with no tea or coffee making facilities or fully functional chemical toilet) to carry on regardless, while the coachmen move the luggage over to the other side. Similarly inside the bus, all the fat bastards have to sit on the left, and all the emaciated lightweights on the right. Of course, it makes absolutely no difference whatsoever, but it’s the thought that counts. Yellowcake wonders why no one was overtaking us: ‘The bastards couldn’t get past us we’re leaning to one side so much…’

‘One of the nice things about the journey was that if you were inattentive enough to miss anything, then the drivers were kind enough to do several circuits of pretty much everywhere and approach any given destination from several different angles rather than the more commonplace method that I have experienced before where you simply arrive somewhere and get off the bus.’

We eventually snake our way out of the narrow cobbled roads and kerbs to pull up close to the venue. Here we catch up with Nick and Doug who have trekked 400 miles from Sheffield via Kidderminster to Ghent, and only catch traffic just outside Ghent. Probably us in the bus? In we go. If last night’s venue was grand – this beats it. Palatial, I’d say. We go in with less than an hour before Grip to find Az and his beautiful new fiancée at the merch stall - and a giant queue for the bar! You have to purchase drink tokens – or drankgettones – before you can order your drink. It’s Braintree Rocks 2006 all over again! But tonight it’s worth the wait – as the Pils tastes great at just under 2 Euros!

The barmaids are nice too. The locals are really friendly – and readily come up and chat about The Stranglers. We all like this place – and the women too. Grip does the honours and opens up, as per usual, and ends on an almighty stage invasion. It’s banged out with 1,000 punters before it’s back on the bus, across the ferry (behind the band’s bus, no less!) on to a blizzard-like Saturday morning Victoria Station at 06.45, a quick coffee and a 30p piss before black cabs take us back to PaulinLondon’s, the scene of the start of our crimes. Despite the breakdown that threatened our second gig, it has to be said Owen’s coach trip was hugely successful and well-received by all. Personally, I found myself to be extremely witty and immensely good company to be with – as were my fellow coach buddies-in-black. In truth, I made some fantastic new pals and had the most amazing time. Ravenluney sums up:

‘Both the Paris and Ghent venues were brilliant, with the acoustics particularly good at The Olympia I thought, and a very interesting bouncy floor that I found quite invigorating. At 7 quid a pint it was no surprise to find a notable lack of beer being thrown around. Nice to meet up with a very good showing of independently travelling forumites at both gigs. The band were on fire, and as tight as a canard’s derrier, and put on maybe the best performance I have ever seen from them, looking and sounding so fresh and energetic that as several of us discussed later, rather than looking like the twilight years, you could see them going on for a very long time yet!’

Big thanks to organiser Owen and all who sailed and survived!

 © Trip photos courtesy of Martin Hussey, Martin Penny, Simon Kent, David Higginson, Owen Carne, Adrian Andrews, Simon Lunatic and Sam Holliday.

Golden Brown in Ghent HERE

Låt mig berätta om Sverige!

This being my first trip to Scandinavia gave some cause for concern: opting for gigs in Oslo, Gothenburg and Stockholm and travelling by car – I’d totally ignored the fact that the elements may present some problems – and this is the middle of the Nordic winter, don’t forget! But once in Norway, fears melted away despite some white stuff on the ground. First stop – Sentrum Scene…

The Stranglers: Sentrum Scene, Oslo, Norway 09.01.09

It’s a big venue (1200 capacity) with only 30-odd here an hour before stage time. Found out that locals go out right at the last minute as alcohol is so expensive! When the band hit the stage, there’s more like 700. Slipping into the now familiar set - with Ian behind the kit – they go down well. Audience response is great - which seems to surprise Baz in particular.   The first deviation in the set comes in the final song prior to the encores - Tank is dropped for Toiler – and European Female heads the encores. Az has a busy night on the merch stall. Chatting to the band afterwards, it’s clear spirits are high, especially with the crowd response. Comments are made that Toiler is in the wrong place – despite it maybe the one and only time it‘s aired on this tour. Now for a couple of hundred snowy miles drive to Gothenburg.