INTERVIEW: J J BURNEL, The Stranglers – February 2018

INTERVIEW: J J BURNEL, The Stranglers – February 2018
By Shane Pinnegar

The Stranglers need no introduction: bristling with punk attitude they sounded like no-one else but themselves, yet were swept up in the first wave of UK punk, spawning cult favourites Peaches, No More Heroes and Nuclear Device before scoring big chart hits with Golden Brown and Skin Deep.

Bass player and occasional lead vocalist for the band since their 1974 formation, JJ Burnel, was an intimidating figure in the ‘70s, all thousand-yard-stare and street fighter’s stance, but it is a jovial and chatty man who answers the phone on a chilly London morning, eager to laugh and gentle of tone.

With the tour coinciding with Warner Brothers re-releasing the first six Stranglers studio albums and their 1979 live album X-Cert, I start by enquiring how much involvement the band had curating the bonus tracks for the reissues.

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW AT AROUND THE SOUND

 

Category: Interviews