| The Stranglers |
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| The Stranglers started out during the first years of the Punk era. During the period treated here
the personell was made up of Hugh Cornwell, Jean-Jaques Burnel, Dave Greenfield and Jet Black.
They started out in 1974 and played on until 1990. |
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 They all came from different backgrounds. Hugh Cornwell started a band called Johnny Sox
during his visit in Sweden were he studied Biochemistry. Research, Cornwell discovered, was no
fun, instead he took Johnny Sox to London for the ultimate purpose of making it big. |
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| Jet Black had a successful business selling ice-cream, but thought playing the drums was
a more satisfying occupation. He used to play with different bands in his early days and joined
Johnny Sox who'd left their drummer in Sweden. |
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| Jean-Jaques Burnel was a classical guitarist with a passion for karate. When Johnny Sox split up
Burnel joined Cornwell and Black to start the group who was to be known as the Stranglers, named after the
Boston strangler. In 1974 the fourth member was the swede Hans Warmling, but he got tired of endless
touring but no breakthrough. |
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| Instead, Dave Greenfield answered an ad in Melody Maker in July 1975. With him on keyboard
Stranglers got their characteristic sound which was to follow them through the years and separate them from
other bands during the period. |
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| They were almost constantly on the road and got their first break in 1976 signing a contract
with United Artists. They recorded a long list of albums and gathered a growing and faithful group of fans.
Stranglers, with their sound, their somewhat provocing lyrics and screw-all attitude, was categorized Punk,
or New Wave, but was always a little bit odd even in that context. |
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| They continued to develop and to experiment musically with the same group members until 1990
when Cornwell felt that Stranglers could go no further musically. The last gig was at the Alexandra Palace in
London the 11 August 1990. Stranglers has after that regrouped and are still doing their thing. But that is a completely different story... |
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