We’re at a farm in the Mendips, just outside Bath. The Stranglers are here, rehearsing for their new tour, which starts tonight in Leeds. The farm, plus accompanying offices and studio, is owned by the band’s management company. Most of the group are staying at a cottage not far away, getting it together, bonding, readying themselves to go on the road. They’ve had quiet periods, but these black sheep of the punk days have never actually split up. The Pistols, the Clash, the Banshees? Long gone. The Buzzcocks? Split and re-formed and split and re-formed and soldiering on. Ditto the Damned. The Stranglers? Seventy five per cent intact after 38 years. They’ve got a new album out, Giants, their seventeenth. It’s rather good. Four
Whatever happened to the Stranglers?
After releasing 17 albums, the great survivors of Seventies punk are embarking on a 41-date European tour