LIVE: THE STRANGLERS with Merryn Jeann – Perth, 25 March 2025

LIVE: THE STRANGLERS with Merryn Jeann – Perth, 25 March 2025
The Astor Theatre, Perth, Western Australia
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
Photography by Pete Gardner

Touring to celebrate their 50th anniversary, The Stranglers originally formed in Guildford as The Guildford Stranglers in early 1974 and were registered as a business concern without the ‘Guildford’ by September of that year. The line-up has changed dramatically over that half-century: J J Burnel is the last original member standing, Hugh Cornwell having gone solo many moons ago, and Jet Black and Dave Greenfield both having passed in recent years. Replacing them are drummer Jim Macauley and Toby Hounsham on keyboards, whilst frontman/singer Baz Warne has been onboard since 2000, front and centre since 2006.

Burnel leading the band now is appropriate – his bass is a pulsating throb at the heart of The Stranglers, his inventive and melodic playing at the forefront of many of their greatest songs in a way that perhaps only New Order’s Peter Hook mirrored.

The other key factor is Hounsham’s keyboards, and the interplay between keys and bass here is even more integral to their sound than the rhythm section or any so-called punk guitar noise. Not that The Stranglers ever sat too comfortably alongside much of the UK punk movement – theirs was a post punk sound before punk was even punk.

Talking of punk, New South Welshperson Merryn Jeann opened the show with manic pixie energy and it’s fair to say she was not what many Stranglers fans expected. As she sings – and sometime screeches – plays guitar, tambourine and cavorts like she’s forgotten to take her ritalin for a couple of days, her two sidekicks contribute low key trumpet, beats and what not in a unique and difficult to pigeonhole fashion. One old Stranglers fan nearby noted sage-like, “this is probably how people reacted to The Stranglers when they first started.”

The Stranglers follow intro tapes of Edith Piaf’s Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (‘No, I Regret Nothing’) and their own instrumental Waltzinblack, taking a tight four-some configuration at the centre of the all-black stage bathed in blood red spotlights for Toiler On The Sea and early highlight Get A Grip On Yourself.

Classics The Raven and Nice ‘n Sleazy are next – no sign of strippers like in the old days, of course, but Burnel’s throbbing bass makes up for that as best it can. The intense bassist also takes lead vocals on Freedom Is Insane and Don’t Bring Harry, and it’s all well received but the biggest singalongs and cheers by far are the better known classics – Skin Deep, the anarcho groove of Peaches, Strange Little Girl, the swirling and hypnotic harpsichord of Golden Brown and an absolutely epic Always The Sun, the Astor choir in full voice for the choruses.

Baz teases those remaining seated upstairs, but it’s all good natured fun and he’s genuinely appreciative for a spontaneous rendition of Happy Birthday, given it’s his 61st birthday today. “I’ve been looking forward to my fourtieth,” he jokes.

Breath and White Stallion are the only newish tracks to get an airing, both from Dark Matters – their 2021 album which is their only new material since 2012. It’s a shame This Song didn’t crack a guernsey as it easily stands alongside their early classics. If there’s a negative at all here it’s that they rely all too much on Cornwell’s era with the band rather than the thirty five years hence.

Hanging Around and Something Better Change lead into the raw Tank – three very early tracks from ’77 and ’78 – to close out the main set before JJ beings the encore with some thanks and an acknowledgement of their anniversary. He describes Go Buddy Go as the “first thing we got together,” admitting that “we stole it – little bits from here and there,” then a blistering No More Heroes – probably the only song to name check Leon Trotsky, Lenny Bruce, Sancho Panza, Shakespeare and Nero – finishes an epic night.

Set List:

Toiler On The Sea
(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)
The Raven
Nice ‘n’ Sleazy
Sweden (All Quiet On The Eastern Front)
Just Like Nothing on Earth
Freedom Is Insane
Don’t Bring Harry
Skin Deep
Breathe
Peaches
Strange Little Girl
Golden Brown
Always The Sun
Genetix
White Stallion
Walk On By
Hanging Around
Something Better Change
Tank

Go Buddy Go
No More Heroes

 

Category: Live Reviews, Photo Galleries