the stranglers australian tour 1979

Stranglers in strife: the 1979 Australian tour

• 1 March 1979

Brian Johnstone, one of my oldest and dearest friends, passed away in Adelaide in January 2015 after a long battle with cancer. We met in Adelaide in the late 70s, in the early days of Roadrunner , were housemates for awhile and he wrote a few pieces for the mag, including this entertaining account of the media shenanigans surrounding the Stranglers tour which was the cover story in the March 1979 edition. He went on to work for AAP in Darwin, then became press secretary to NT opposition leader Bob Collins and followed Bob to Canberra when Bob was elected to the Senate. He was director of media and marketing at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission and latterly communications director st the N.S.W. Aboriginal Land Council.

The Stranglers’ current tour of Australia has escalated into a pitched battle between ‘straights’ and ‘punks’. With The Stranglers cast (by their opponents) as the ‘punks’, they have found themselves at war with The Media. In a little over a week, they have collected a ban on TV appearances, a ban on radio advertising of a concert, and a run-in with a photographer and his union.

Shortly after arriving in Australia, the band took time out to indulge in some ‘blue’ language and strike some sneering punk poses on Channel Seven’s Willesee At Seven show. The lads downed tins of lager, leered and poked at the camera while swapping insults and barbs with aggressive interviewer Howard Gipps. They exploited the banality of his questions while he needled them with curt asides about their apparent lack of social fibre.

Gipps: Do you like the things punk rockers do, like the animal acts? Band: The what? Gipps: The animal acts … Band: Well … (bleep) … isn’t legalised here yet is it? Gipps: No…I don’t think so…at least not in public.

A short piece of the action went to air across Australia late last week, but Willesee broke into the interview and pulled it off the screen before his audience could be further corrupted. Willesee’s supposed anger and indignation can be found somewhere in the following transcript from the ill-fated Stranglers-Gipps fiasco.

Willesee, introducing the segment, said: ‘Pop groups are continually outdoing each other in their ability to find new crazes. When the punk rock invasion started we were inundated with punk rockers complete with safety pins through their ears, purple sunglasses, and lice…wherever possible. Now we’re told New Wave has taken over where punk rock left off and wouldn’t you know it… a New Wave group called The Stranglers arrived in Melbourne today from Great Britain. We’re told they’re very popular, with albums making the Top Ten. We tried to find out what makes The Stranglers any better—or more likely, any different—to anyone else. Howard Gipps was the victim we sent along to meet them’.

Cut to film of The Stranglers doing Hanging Around at an open air gig and then to interview:

THE WILLESEE SCOOP—INVESTIGATIVE SPECIAL

Gipps: How would you describe your image?

Band: How would you describe it? We’re the Stranglers. Four different people making up a composite group…

Gipps: Why do you call yourselves The Stranglers?

Band: We’re lucky and you weren’t.

Gipps: What’s lucky about being called The Stranglers?

Band: We had a choice and you didn’t. Who wants to be called Howard?

Gipps: I quite like my name and I know other people who like it, too. The Stranglers, to me, just seems like a gimmick…You are out to capitalise on the Punk Rock image…

Band: You’re talking out the back of your head. This band preceded the punk rock gimmick by about two and a half years.

Gipps: Come back to it … Why did you call yourselves The Stranglers?

Band: That’s the name we decided to use.

Gipps: What’s the attraction of being a strangler?

Band: It was a choke.

Gipps: Isn’t it just a cheap gimmick?

Band: Yeah, of course. It only cost us three bob.

Gipps: Do you like the things punk rockers do, like the animal acts?

Band: The what?

Gipps: The animal acts …

Band: Well … (bleep) … isn’t legalised here yet is it?

Gipps: No…I don’t think so…at least not in public.

Band: Well, do you call that an animal act? Look, we are just four ordinary blokes who play music. What’s all this image… (bleep)…?

Gipps: Do you make much money?

Band: Unfortunately we have to pay a lot in legal fees and the odd journalist who gets his camera smashed.

Gipps: What do you think about drugs?

Band: They’re great.

Gipps: What do you think the parents of most 13 and 14 year old kids would think if they thought they were going to see you guys in concert?

Band: No idea … I ain’t a parent…I am a 13 or14 year old.

Cut to Willesee (concerned, frowning a la Walter Cronkite): ‘Sorry Howard for giving you that assignment. We usually let our stories run through but if they want publicity they’ll have to try a little harder with their answers. Punk was punk and they’re worse…and let’s forget it … they, oh … oh, let’s forget it’.

Later in the programme, a smiling Willesee told his viewers: ‘In relation to the post-punk rock group whose story we started earlier and got out of because they were so bloody ridiculous, and whose name is hardly worth repeating… it may be interesting to know that Ian Meldrum from Countdown on the ABC called to say that having seen the group on the bit we showed on our programme, he has cancelled them from Countdown and, of course, that’s a bit of a Mecca for the…ah … for the new groups and well … good onya, Molly… that’s given them a bit of lead … and I hope we don’t ever hear from those punks again’.

MOLLY’S ANGUISH

Molly was sitting mortified in front of his television set when he called Willesee. He’d been having other problems with the boys, but the Willesee interview finished him off.

When Roadrunner phoned him a few hours after the Willesee programme went to air, Meldrum was spitting bullets. He claimed the group had continually harassed him by bickering over artistic and technical aspects of their forthcoming Countdown appearance. However, he said his decision to ban the group stemmed mainly from their attitudes on Willesee: ‘Their behaviour was deplorable and we just can’t endorse their attitude on Countdown .’

He said the band’s manager had called him after the Willesee show accusing him of creating a similar image to that enjoyed by the Sex Pistols following their now famous British TV interview two years ago. ‘I’m not trying to create that’, Molly fired. ‘I’d feel the most guilty person in Australia if that happened’.

Eisik: ‘Did they use the end of the interview where the band shook up cans of beer and sprayed them over Gipps? No? That was interesting. Instead of getting upset and angry, Gipps turned to the cameraman and asked if he got it … implying that they’d do a rerun if need be.’

Tour promoter, Zev Eizik, still recovering from the traumas of escorting Elvis Costello and his entourage of Enfant Terribles around the country, watched The Stranglers’ interview being filmed but didn’t see the finished product on the screen. ‘I haven’t seen what was actually shown. Did they use the end of the interview where the band shook up cans of beer and sprayed them over Gipps? No? That was interesting. Instead of getting upset and angry, Gipps turned to the cameraman and asked if he got it … implying that they’d do a rerun if need be. The Stranglers were amazed beyond belief at the whole thing. They were treating it as a joke and just having a good time. If he (Gipps) had asked them if they killed people on stage, they would have said ‘yeah, we already killed seven and we’ll probably kill a few more on this tour’. There were ten other people in the studio from A.C.E. (Australian Concert Entertainment — Eizik’s outfit), the touring party etc., and they were all on the floor laughing. It was so unbelievable.

‘The interview had an interesting effect on the band. After the Willesee thing they did an interview with someone from the (Melbourne) Age . I left them at that stage and came back to my office but a half an hour later I got a phone call from one of the touring party who said that during a photo session with another paper, one of the group dropped his trousers in the middle of Bourke Street (in the heart of Melbourne) and the photographer said he was going to lay a formal complaint with the Australian Journalists Association and try to get their visas revoked.

‘It’s just so crazy. The Stranglers are a bunch of genuinely nice intelligent guys who have had this reputation laid on them and there is nothing they can really do about it except utilise it. The Countdown ban doesn’t worry me at all. I’m going to sit back and enjoy this tour’.

‘YOU COULD BE SITTING ON A DUNNY VOMITING SHIT…’

Molly Meldrum, of course, was taking it all very seriously.

‘The simple fact is as long as you have a camera or tape recorder rolling or someone is writing something down in shorthand, you must always be aware that someone could set you up. Now if those guys want to act like assholes then that’s fine by them but… Yesterday I went through the most amazing amount of bullshit with them over what they wanted to do on the show. Now I didn’t want to spend hours with them working out what they wanted to do. Quite frankly, I’d rather be spending my time working out what Dragon are doing or what The Angels are doing than working on what The Stranglers are doing, because that means very little in this country.

‘I booked them three weeks before the blow-up because I liked their first two albums and Countdown showed clips of them eighteen months ago. We were approached when they decided to come over here and we said ‘sure’. We asked them what they wanted to do so we could check for lyric content and asked if they wanted to mime or play to a live backing track.

‘They chose to mime, which speaks volumes doesn’t it?

‘It was first announced they would do Nice and Sleazy from their Black and White album. We said ‘fine’. Their record company then decided they wanted them to do their latest single, which incidentally is five months old, called Walk On By — which would have to be the most aborted cover version I have ever heard in my life. So we said “OK”

‘Then their manager got into the act and said they would do a song called Threatened which is song two, side two, of the Black and White album. I looked at the lyric content and it wasn’t acceptable for our timeslot. There was then a big discussion and it was decided they would do Toiler On The Sea , but this is five minutes twenty three seconds long. We couldn’t cut it down and because of the ABC’s sporting commitments, we have only been getting 50 minutes to air—in fact we only got 35 minutes to air in Sydney and Melbourne last week. So, in those circumstances, I’m not going to show five minutes twenty three seconds of any group. Finally it was decided that they would do Hanging Around from their live album.

‘Now I don’t give a fuck what any magazine writes this up as— Nightmoves can win every television award in the country for a rock show, but it’s so easy to put that show together, it really doesn’t matter. On the other hand, we carefully sift through everything and care for the industry…’

‘Everyone agreed but then the tour manager rung me up and said they wanted a particular set designed and only wanted two cameras used. I told him to hang on—number one: I wasn’t the show’s director, and number two: We’d shoot it the way we wanted to. We finally sorted that out, but I must say I was thinking of cancelling them there and then. There are fifteen other groups in this country alone that I would prefer to put on the show at this stage.

‘Now I saw Willesee and their attitude was deplorable and by having them on Sunday night we would just be endorsing their attitude. You’ve got to realise that both Willesee and Countdown go to an immense audience in peak viewing, time.

But didn’t he think The Stranglers were set up by the Willesee interviewer? ‘No. As long as a camera is rolling and the thing could go to air people can’t act like assholes. You don’t get people like Rod (Stewart), Linda Ronstadt, The Doobies etc, acting like that…

‘It’s just not Countdown’s image. I don’t want anyone endorsing drugs … if they’re on any drugs, that’s their business. It’s like if an interviewer asked you if you slept with your best friend’s wife last night. You’d say ‘mind your own business’. They can do that with drugs. The last thing we need in this country is someone at a pop or rock level endorsing drugs’.

Molly then mentioned that The Stranglers’ manager had been on the phone, accusing him of trying to give the group a Sex Pistols image. Flatly denying it, he then turned his attack back on the Stranglers: ‘ …quite frankly the Black and White album is full of bullshit and the single Walk On By —you could be sitting on a dunny vomiting shit and you still wouldn’t appreciate those’.

Is there any real danger from the Stranglers appearing on Countdown simply in a musical context? Molly: ‘Yes, I think so … I think so … yes, there is definitely. We would be endorsing them.’

FOOTNOTE : As we went to press, The Stranglers were copping more flak in Adelaide — and getting it where it hurts. Rock station 5KA informed local promoters’ agents CBA-Sphere that it would not accept any advertising at any price for The Stranglers Adelaide concert, giving the Willesee show fiasco and ‘other press reports’ as the reason. Station manager, Ian Lane, said the decision had been taken by the management rather than the board of the station, which is owned by the church.

Tags: 1979 , Roadrunner , the Stranglers

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I bought Roadrunner because unlike other music magazines it had the bands I liked in it. The above story of the Stranglers visit to Australia is a great example of Australian media having no clue about Punk and simply following in the way of the Punk hysteria in the UK. Remember The Ramones on Countdown on their first trip to Australia in 1980 ? Meldrum made a total fool of himself talking at the band about being Punk while they tried to distance themselves from the whole situation by saying they were just a rock and roll band. Then asking Joey to introduce that weeks number one single by the Village People, it was just embarrassing. Remember Donnie Sutherland’s show Sounds in the early 80s with Siouxsie and Steve Severen the Banshee’s guitarist ? Again it was just embarrassing. He had no idea about these people he was interviewing. He could not even pronounce Siouxsie’s name. Like usual Australia just did what they saw others doing and did the same. No mind of our own. Thank Christ Roadrunner new what was going on and let us know.

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Project Description

Interview with, jean-jacques ‘jj’ burnel, the stranglers, interviewer – colin reid, “carefree fun” – independent, “the gig of the year” – the rock pit, “unexpectedly poignant – ★ ★ ★ ★ ” – the guardian, “…deeply confrontational and musically accomplished.” – bbc, amnplify :hi jj great to speak to you this morning, we are all looking forward to the upcoming tour. jj: likewise, where are you calling me from, amnplify : adelaide in south australia jj: ah adelaide, i know it well, amnplify : you are coming to australia quiet regularly in recent years, you must enjoy it here jj: well not only do we enjoy it but most importantly we keep getting invited back which is great and in times gone by wasn’t always the case, amnplify : i was going to ask if you can you remember the early tours there must be some funny stories over the years or anything that went really badly wrong jj: yeah, yeah there was one time adelaide i especially remember distinctly. it was in 1979 we got back to our hotel and the four of us were opening up a bottle of south australian wine when suddenly the bedroom door was smashed open and twenty or so cops rushed in trying to arrest all of us. the chief superintendent followed through, it was a bit like the keystone cops, he ordered the other cops out of the room and he told us that the best thing that we could do was fuck off out of the state next day first thing, amnplify : wow true jj: yeah for real, amnplify : well i’m glad it didn’t put you off coming back jj: <laughs> no not at all, on the contrary that sort of thing made us want to come back, amnplify : can you remember what venue you were playing in ’79 jj: i’m sure i could find out but what i remember it was a packed out hall and just when our lead singer hugh was about start the gig our drummer jet spoke into the snare drum mike and said “oi, all you cops at the back of the hall, why don’t you fuck off”, amnplify : that set them off then, they were waiting to get you afterwards jj: <laughing> yeah i think so, amnplify : the first time i saw the band was in the mid 80’s and you’d been going a good ten years by then jj: we’ve been around a while, amnplify : you’re still playing live which is great to see but are you still writing material is there any plans for a new studio album any time soon jj: well i live in france and just got back here only two days ago after having been in a studio in the uk. we’ve finished recording five or six tracks now. we are sort of half way through an album with another 4 or 5 that we want to record.  we might try some of them out in australia just to try and hone them a bit you know. it is just that you find out something about a track when you play it live before you record it which unfortunately isn’t something we get much of a chance to do nowadays. you learn so much more about a piece of music when you play it live before you’ve recorded it., amnplify : have you had much of a chance to play the new material live to have road tested in audiences jj : yeah we have, we’ve played a couple of the tracks live. in fact i know we will be debuting some stuff live in australia. we change the set every night so it’s hard to say just what we will be playing where., amnplify : well you have such a big back catalogue don’t you jj : yeah that we have but we also have a future catalogue with a lot of stuff we want to get out..

AMNplify : that is really good to hear because it must be around 8 years since the last studio album. JJ : That is about right, it has been far too long! In that time you know we have been around the world so many times which has been great because for so many years we were sort of in the doldrums creatively and also commercially. People weren’t too interested in us and we weren’t delivering and then we started something and it got picked up and people started to get very interested in us again and suddenly we were getting invited all over the world. When you are in a band that is all that you sort of live for, to get out there and play.

Amnplify : whenever i go to a stranglers gig i chat to people and it never seems to be people’s first or second time seeing you. most have seen you ten times or more and will travel interstate or overseas to watch you. that must be gratifying to have that sort devotion amongst your fans jj :  well yeah you say that and sometimes it is true which is great but what we have discovered recently is that we are getting younger people in the crowd who obviously couldn’t have seen us way back when and they are coming now to check out and that is great too. we aren’t just playing to the converted, to us old punks and stuff <laughs> there is a lot of interest from younger people and i think that maybe because we …err…. i don’t know actually but it is cool to have them there too, amnplify : it is a good thing to have, you don’t want to just be playing to the older audience. widening the appeal is important. jj : yeah for sure and certainly in europe the crowd is mixed and a lot of ‘youngsters’ tell me that we are considered cool because all the things we did that fucked up our careers commercially years back are now seen as badges of honour, amnplify : you toured the “black and white” album in its entirety a few years back. is that something you might do more of as the classic early albums approach significant anniversary dates or will you be concentrating on the newer stuff jj : i don’t know, i mean that is a good question. i like to take that kind of thing all over the world. it marked something in our lives and obviously in the lives of a lot of other people at the time. it < the black and white album> did mark a huge move from our previous records at the time and was seen of – dare i say it – a bit adventurous, a move away from our previous albums. we wanted to see how far we could go musically with our relatively limited talents and see where it would take us you know changing time signatures and sounds and stuff that hadn’t been done before. we were trying to be original and i know you can never be truly original but sometimes you just have that spirit of adventure and going ‘into the dark’ to see what we’d find you know it was a big change for us at the time., amnplify : i guess the stranglers weren’t ever a ‘conventional’ punk band. you got big in that 70s punk explosion but you were around before that and you weren’t confined by punk’s limitations. you always had the dave’s (greenfield) organ and your distinctive bass sound that set you apart.. jj : it is interesting that you should say that colin because originally i had always thought that punk was very liberating and that it was a broad church. as you just mentioned it became confined and a new form of fundamentalism or orthodoxy and for various reasons the stranglers were not included in that. it was beneficial for us, at least creatively, not to be straight jacketed in that way so i think it helped us to be adventurous. sometimes it worked and sometimes is doesn’t but you don’t know until you try it. if you stay in a straight-jacket and you stay in an orthodoxy then i think that is creatively suffocating you know, amnplify : thinking of fitting into the punk scene i saw you played rebellion festival last year how did that go jj :  we finally did yeah we did it last year…it was the hottest gig i can ever remember playing for 30 or 40 years, amnplify : really what was it on the one day in uk that the weather got hot jj : <laughing> no i mean it was actually hot.  it was inside and there were thousands in there ramjamed packed in and you don’t expect such a big hall to be so hot and sweaty. it was incredible and i lost half of my body weight that night how memorable is that you know, amnplify : you mentioned jet winding up the south australian police earlier, how is he how is his health jj : ah…..he’s not good. jet hasn’t played with us for 7 or 8 years but i’m in touch with him all the time and we consider him to be still very much an active member of the stranglers even if he doesn’t play. when you’ve been together and have been around for so long it becomes family doesn’t it with the hates and the loves and everything that goes on in between then like in any family all the shared experiences they really mean something and you can’t erase those things.  listen, jet had two strokes in november and he was back in hospital 3 weeks ago and doctors thought that he wasn’t going to see the end of the night through. well he said “fuck off” to the drs and he is still alive but he is not in the best spot., amnplify : he’s got his spirit, he is still fighting jj: oh yeah he sure has but he is not in a good way., amnplify : jj i know you love your motorcycles jj :  i do yes, amnplify : have you ever done something like an aussie road trip on the bike jj : i have how did you know did someone tell you to ask the question <laughs>, amnplify : no i was reading about you love for triumph motorbikes and i just thought, well come on this is the country to do a big bike trip in jj: oh man it had been an ambition for over 40 years. 4 years ago we were finishing the australian tour in perth and i contacted  a triumph dealership there and i said 3 of us who ride triumphs, amnplify : really i knew you and baz have them how is the other one jj : baz, myself and gary our tour manager., amnplify : ok jj : also i’m a bit of a wine lover being the french part of the band so i heard about margaret river and i contacted this dealership and i said ‘listen mate there are the 3 of us, can we rent some motorcycles’ and he said ‘no, we don’t rent them out’ and i said ‘oh fuck’ and he said ‘no you can have ‘em’. he was the coolest guy on the planet so we took these 3 triumphs and rode the 3 or 400 km down to margaret river and it rained all the way but i didn’t care. it was fantastic and it was one of the most memorable trips on a motorcycle ever the only mistake i made was to try some margaret river wines and after we’d been drinking them for 3 or 4 hours i decided to buy a few cases to send back to france. this was a fucking mistake not because the wine wasn’t good or anything like that – it was great – but the french are so protectionist about their wine, never try to take wine to france it was a dumb move and it turned them into the most expensive bottles of wine that i’ve ever bought the taxes were twice as much as wine, amnplify : how is your karate going is that still a big thing in your life jj :  yeah well since the band has taken off again i don’t have as much time anymore as i’d like because i’m so busy with the stranglers.  i got awarded my 7th dan in japan 6 years ago. it keeps me grounded but obviously i don’t do as much as i used to do. i’ve lost any aggression that i might have had as a younger man. i don’t know if that’s just to do with being an old bastard or else it might be that the karate taught me to kind of get rid of the aggression you know, amnplify : i guess most martial arts is a philosophy and a discipline of the mind as well as the body isn’t it jj : it certainly is., amnplify : last question for you jj. if anyone could cover a stranglers track in 2020 who would you like it to be and what song jj : <laughing> i’ve never been asked that question that’s a great question it’s really hard, you’ve got me there….., amnplify : it is a hard question isn’t it it is like when someone asks you what your favourite song is and i’m like i can’t tell you what it is because i have a 100 favourite songs. jj : yeah, yeah and it changes because you ask on a different day and it is going to be a different song isn’t it, amnplify : tell you what i’ll let you think about the cover song question and when you are on stage in adelaide before you play the track you can shout out who you’d like to cover it ok jj : are you coming to see us, amnplify : for sure jj : great if you’re there come back after the show and we’ll have a tinny or two and we’ll work out an answer. i’m all about people and love putting faces to the voice., amnplify : the would be great thanks for your time today i really enjoyed chatting with you jj..

Stranglers in strife: the 1979 Australian tour

Brian Johnstone, one of my oldest and dearest friends,  passed away in Adelaide  in January after a long battle with cancer. We met in Adelaide in the late 70s, in the early days of  Roadrunner , were housemates for awhile and he wrote a few pieces for the mag, including this entertaining account of the media shenanigans surrounding the Stranglers tour which was the cover story in the March 1979 edition. He went on to work for AAP in Darwin, then became press secretary to NT opposition leader Bob Collins and followed Bob to Canberra when Bob was elected to the Senate. He was director of media and marketing at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission and latterly communications director st the N.S.W. Aboriginal Land Council.

The Stranglers’ current tour of Australia has escalated into a pitched battle between ‘straights’ and ‘punks’. With The Stranglers cast (by their opponents) as the ‘punks’, they have found themselves at war with The Media. In a little over a week, they have collected a ban on TV appearances, a ban on radio advertising of a concert, and a run-in with a photographer and his union.

Shortly after arriving in Australia, the band took time out to indulge in some ‘blue’ language and strike some sneering punk poses on Channel Seven’s  Willesee At Seven  show. The lads downed tins of lager, leered and poked at the camera while swapping insults and barbs with aggressive interviewer Howard Gipps. They exploited the banality of his questions while he needled them with curt asides about their apparent lack of social fibre.

Gipps: Do you like the things punk rockers do, like the animal acts? Band: The what? Gipps: The animal acts … Band: Well … (bleep) … isn’t legalised here yet is it? Gipps: No…I don’t think so…at least not in public.

A short piece of the action went to air across Australia late last week, but Willesee broke into the interview and pulled it off the screen before his audience could be further corrupted. Willesee’s supposed anger and indignation can be found somewhere in the following transcript from the ill-fated Stranglers-Gipps fiasco.

Willesee, introducing the segment, said: ‘Pop groups are continually outdoing each other in their ability to find new crazes. When the punk rock invasion started we were inundated with punk rockers complete with safety pins through their ears, purple sunglasses, and lice…wherever possible. Now we’re told New Wave has taken over where punk rock left off and wouldn’t you know it… a New Wave group called The Stranglers arrived in Melbourne today from Great Britain. We’re told they’re very popular, with albums making the Top Ten. We tried to find out what makes The Stranglers any better—or more likely, any different—to anyone else. Howard Gipps was the victim we sent along to meet them’.

Cut to film of The Stranglers doing  Hanging Around  at an open air gig and then to interview:

THE WILLESEE SCOOP—INVESTIGATIVE SPECIAL

Gipps: How would you describe your image?

Band: How would you describe it? We’re the Stranglers. Four different people making up a composite group…

Gipps: Why do you call yourselves The Stranglers?

Band: We’re lucky and you weren’t.

Gipps: What’s lucky about being called The Stranglers?

Band: We had a choice and you didn’t. Who wants to be called Howard?

Gipps: I quite like my name and I know other people who like it, too. The Stranglers, to me, just seems like a gimmick…You are out to capitalise on the Punk Rock image…

Band: You’re talking out the back of your head. This band preceded the punk rock gimmick by about two and a half years.

Gipps: Come back to it … Why did you call yourselves The Stranglers?

Band: That’s the name we decided to use.

Gipps: What’s the attraction of being a strangler?

Band: It was a choke.

Gipps: Isn’t it just a cheap gimmick?

Band: Yeah, of course. It only cost us three bob.

Gipps: Do you like the things punk rockers do, like the animal acts?

Band: The what?

Gipps: The animal acts …

Band: Well … (bleep) … isn’t legalised here yet is it?

Gipps: No…I don’t think so…at least not in public.

Band: Well, do you call that an animal act? Look, we are just four ordinary blokes who play music. What’s all this image… (bleep)…?

Gipps: Do you make much money?

Band: Unfortunately we have to pay a lot in legal fees and the odd journalist who gets his camera smashed.

Gipps: What do you think about drugs?

Band: They’re great.

Gipps: What do you think the parents of most 13 and 14 year old kids would think if they thought they were going to see you guys in concert?

Band: No idea … I ain’t a parent…I am a 13 or14 year old.

Cut to Willesee (concerned, frowning a la Walter Cronkite): ‘Sorry Howard for giving you that assignment. We usually let our stories run through but if they want publicity they’ll have to try a little harder with their answers. Punk was punk and they’re worse…and let’s forget it … they, oh … oh, let’s forget it’.

Later in the programme, a smiling Willesee told his viewers: ‘In relation to the post-punk rock group whose story we started earlier and got out of because they were so bloody ridiculous, and whose name is hardly worth repeating… it may be interesting to know that Ian Meldrum from  Countdown  on the ABC called to say that having seen the group on the bit we showed on our programme, he has cancelled them from  Countdown  and, of course, that’s a bit of a Mecca for the…ah … for the new groups and well … good onya, Molly… that’s given them a bit of lead … and I hope we don’t ever hear from those punks again’.

MOLLY’S ANGUISH

Molly was sitting mortified in front of his television set when he called Willesee. He’d been having other problems with the boys, but the Willesee interview finished him off.

When  Roadrunner  phoned him a few hours after the Willesee programme went to air, Meldrum was spitting bullets. He claimed the group had continually harassed him by bickering over artistic and technical aspects of their forthcoming  Countdown  appearance. However, he said his decision to ban the group stemmed mainly from their attitudes on Willesee: ‘Their behaviour was deplorable and we just can’t endorse their attitude on  Countdown .’

He said the band’s manager had called him after the Willesee show accusing him of creating a similar image to that enjoyed by the Sex Pistols following their now famous British TV interview two years ago. ‘I’m not trying to create that’, Molly fired. ‘I’d feel the most guilty person in Australia if that happened’.

Eisik: ‘Did they use the end of the interview where the band shook up cans of beer and sprayed them over Gipps? No? That was interesting. Instead of getting upset and angry, Gipps turned to the cameraman and asked if he got it … implying that they’d do a rerun if need be.’

Tour promoter, Zev Eizik, still recovering from the traumas of escorting Elvis Costello and his entourage of Enfant Terribles around the country, watched The Stranglers’ interview being filmed but didn’t see the finished product on the screen. ‘I haven’t seen what was actually shown. Did they use the end of the interview where the band shook up cans of beer and sprayed them over Gipps? No? That was interesting. Instead of getting upset and angry, Gipps turned to the cameraman and asked if he got it … implying that they’d do a rerun if need be. The Stranglers were amazed beyond belief at the whole thing. They were treating it as a joke and just having a good time. If he (Gipps) had asked them if they killed people on stage, they would have said ‘yeah, we already killed seven and we’ll probably kill a few more on this tour’. There were ten other people in the studio from A.C.E. (Australian Concert Entertainment — Eizik’s outfit), the touring party etc., and they were all on the floor laughing. It was so unbelievable.

‘The interview had an interesting effect on the band. After the Willesee thing they did an interview with someone from the (Melbourne)  Age . I left them at that stage and came back to my office but a half an hour later I got a phone call from one of the touring party who said that during a photo session with another paper, one of the group dropped his trousers in the middle of Bourke Street (in the heart of Melbourne) and the photographer said he was going to lay a formal complaint with the Australian Journalists Association and try to get their visas revoked.

‘It’s just so crazy. The Stranglers are a bunch of genuinely nice intelligent guys who have had this reputation laid on them and there is nothing they can really do about it except utilise it. The  Countdown  ban doesn’t worry me at all. I’m going to sit back and enjoy this tour’.

‘YOU COULD BE SITTING ON A DUNNY VOMITING SHIT…’

Molly Meldrum, of course, was taking it all very seriously.

‘The simple fact is as long as you have a camera or tape recorder rolling or someone is writing something down in shorthand, you must always be aware that someone could set you up. Now if those guys want to act like assholes then that’s fine by them but… Yesterday I went through the most amazing amount of bullshit with them over what they wanted to do on the show. Now I didn’t want to spend hours with them working out what they wanted to do. Quite frankly, I’d rather be spending my time working out what Dragon are doing or what The Angels are doing than working on what The Stranglers are doing, because that means very little in this country.

‘I booked them three weeks before the blow-up because I liked their first two albums and  Countdown  showed clips of them eighteen months ago. We were approached when they decided to come over here and we said ‘sure’. We asked them what they wanted to do so we could check for lyric content and asked if they wanted to mime or play to a live backing track.

‘They chose to mime, which speaks volumes doesn’t it?

‘It was first announced they would do  Nice and Sleazy  from their  Black and White  album. We said ‘fine’. Their record company then decided they wanted them to do their latest single, which incidentally is five months old, called  Walk On By — which would have to be the most aborted cover version I have ever heard in my life. So we said “OK”

‘Then their manager got into the act and said they would do a song called  Threatened  which is song two, side two, of the  Black and White  album. I looked at the lyric content and it wasn’t acceptable for our timeslot. There was then a big discussion and it was decided they would do  Toiler On The Sea , but this is five minutes twenty three seconds long. We couldn’t cut it down and because of the ABC’s sporting commitments, we have only been getting 50 minutes to air—in fact we only got 35 minutes to air in Sydney and Melbourne last week. So, in those circumstances, I’m not going to show five minutes twenty three seconds of any group. Finally it was decided that they would do  Hanging Around  from their live album.

‘Now I don’t give a fuck what any magazine writes this up as— Nightmoves  can win every television award in the country for a rock show, but it’s so easy to put that show together, it really doesn’t matter. On the other hand, we carefully sift through everything and care for the industry…’

‘Everyone agreed but then the tour manager rung me up and said they wanted a particular set designed and only wanted two cameras used. I told him to hang on—number one: I wasn’t the show’s director, and number two: We’d shoot it the way we wanted to. We finally sorted that out, but I must say I was thinking of cancelling them there and then. There are fifteen other groups in this country alone that I would prefer to put on the show at this stage.

‘Now I saw  Willesee  and their attitude was deplorable and by having them on Sunday night we would just be endorsing their attitude. You’ve got to realise that both  Willesee  and  Countdown  go to an immense audience in peak viewing, time.

But didn’t he think The Stranglers were set up by the  Willesee  interviewer? ‘No. As long as a camera is rolling and the thing could go to air people can’t act like assholes. You don’t get people like Rod (Stewart), Linda Ronstadt, The Doobies etc, acting like that…

‘It’s just not  Countdown’s  image. I don’t want anyone endorsing drugs … if they’re on any drugs, that’s their business. It’s like if an interviewer asked you if you slept with your best friend’s wife last night. You’d say ‘mind your own business’. They can do that with drugs. The last thing we need in this country is someone at a pop or rock level endorsing drugs’.

Molly then mentioned that The Stranglers’ manager had been on the phone, accusing him of trying to give the group a Sex Pistols image. Flatly denying it, he then turned his attack back on the Stranglers: ‘ …quite frankly the  Black and White  album is full of bullshit and the single  Walk On By —you could be sitting on a dunny vomiting shit and you still wouldn’t appreciate those’.

Is there any real danger from the Stranglers appearing on  Countdown  simply in a musical context? Molly: ‘Yes, I think so … I think so … yes, there is definitely. We would be endorsing them.’

FOOTNOTE : As we went to press, The Stranglers were copping more flak in Adelaide — and getting it where it hurts. Rock station 5KA informed local promoters’ agents CBA-Sphere that it would not accept any advertising at any price for The Stranglers Adelaide concert, giving the  Willesee  show fiasco and ‘other press reports’ as the reason. Station manager, Ian Lane, said the decision had been taken by the management rather than the board of the station, which is owned by the church.

https://roadrunnertwice.com.au/2015/02/stranglers-in-strife-the-1979-australian-tour/

The Stranglers: Fifty Years in Black — The Halls, Wolverhampton — 16 March 2024 

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By Rob Hughes ( Classic Rock ) (Image credit: Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy Stock Photo) The ultimate gang of punk outriders, The Stranglers never bothered to endear themselves to the mainstream public or the music press. Early gigs often saw mass walkouts and punch-ups. In 1975, two years before their debut single, Melody Maker sneered that “the only […]

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Words: Michael Prince Photos: Michael Prince Saturday 30 March 2024 Known as “The Old Men Of Punk” The Strangers transcended the genre’s limitations and parody of itself both before and after the late 70s. Tonight was a celebration of 50 years of The Stranglers, or Guildford Stranglers as they were originally called.  It’s clear that The Stranglers […]

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23rd March 2024 By Nigel Ashman 4.5 out of 5 stars It also saw four young men meet in a pub in Guilford, Surrey, which would result in one of the most influential and creative bands of the punk/new wave era being formed. Fifty years later, The Stranglers are still going strong and are in the […]

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The Stranglers Announce 2023 Australian Tour

By Tyler Jenke

English post-punk and new wave outfit The Stranglers have announced their return to Australia. The band’s 2023 Australian tour will be their first time in the country since early 2020.

The current lineup of Jean-Jacques Burnel, Baz Warne, Jim Macaulay and Toby Hounsham will tour the country in April, playing headline dates in Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, and Newcastle. The tour will be the band’s first without keyboardist Dave Greenfield, who joined the band in 1975 and passed away in 2020.

The Stranglers – ‘Golden Brown’

The Stranglers formed in Guildford just outside of London in the mid 1970s. Punk was on the rise, but The Stranglers stood out from their contemporaries due to their eclectic musical style. Singles such as ‘Always The Sun’, ‘Skin Deep’, ‘Peaches’, as well as their biggest hit, ‘Golden Brown’, showcase The Stranglers’ multi-faceted style, while their powerful live performances added to the overall mystique.

In 2021, The Stranglers released  Dark Matters , their first new album in nine years. The record was made without the contributions of founding drummer Jet Black, who stepped aside in 2015 after 40 years with the band. The album does feature Greenfield’s keyboard playing.

The Stranglers – Australian Tour 2023

• Tuesday, 18th April, 2023 – The Gov, Adelaide, SA
• Wednesday, 19th April, 2023 – Northcote Theatre, Melbourne, VIC
• Friday, 21st April, 2023 – Princess Theatre, Brisbane, QLD
• Saturday, 22nd April, 2023 – The Metro, Sydney, NSW
• Sunday, 23rd April, 2023 – Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle, NSW

Sign up for presale now. Tickets on sale from Tuesday, 18th October.

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The Stranglers National Support Announced For Australian Tour

Iconic British rockers tour Australia in April with Sydney & Adelaide shows sold out.

British iconic punk and new wave rockers,  The Stranglers , will be in Australia, playing shows across five cities next month. The shows in Sydney and Adelaide have SOLD OUT with very limited tickets remaining for Melbourne, Brisbane and Newcastle!

Joining The Stranglers on all shows are Psych Rock trio  Heavy Amber ,  from Naarm, Victoria.

Although inspired by the 60’s and 70’s golden age of rock and roll, Heavy Amber is a wholly modern experiment fusing feelings of love and loss to create an out-of-the-box, genre-defying, fluid performance.  A sonic union of hard-driven guitars and earthy bass grooves, their smooth dynamic includes members Kasinda Faase (guitars/vox) Sienna Laycock (bass/vox) and Samuel Drew-Rumoro (drums).

Don’t miss being swept up high on the wave of  The Stranglers ’ powerful sound, pounding rhythms, soaring melodies, quirky humour and thrillingly daring musicianship for an exhilarating live experience.First forming in 1974, the band’s no bullshit attitude saw the band blaze an experimental trail, from Art Rock to Goth to New Wave Pop, inspiring a wave of prog rock guitar players and confrontational vocalists to find their roots in  The Stranglers ’ unabashed confidence. 

Promising a set that will be covering tracks from their extensive catalogue spanning over 45 years, fans can expect to hear timeless hits like Golden Brown , Always the Sun , No More Heroes , Strange Little Girl and Peaches .

Grab your tickets now before they’re all gone! https://sbmpresents.com/tour/the-stranglers-2023/

Tuesday, April 18: The Gov, Adelaide SOLD OUT Wednesday April 19: Northcote Theatre, Melbourne Friday, Apr 21: The Tivoli, Brisbane Saturday, April 22: The Metro, Sydney SOLD OUT Sunday, April 23: Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle

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• August 18, 1979 Setlist

The Stranglers Setlist at Wembley Stadium, London, England

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• Nuclear Device (The Wizard of Aus) ( Live debut ) Play Video
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• Dead Loss Angeles Play Video
• Baroque Bordello ( Live debut ) Play Video
• Tank Play Video
• Threatened Play Video
• Shah Shah a Go Go ( Live debut ) Play Video
• Ice ( Live debut ) Play Video
• Down in the Sewer Play Video
• Bring On the Nubiles Play Video
• Duchess ( Live debut ) Play Video
• Toiler on the Sea Play Video

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9 activities (last edit by borgor , 14 Nov 2023, 17:45 Etc/UTC )

Songs on Albums

• Baroque Bordello
• Dead Loss Angeles
• Nuclear Device (The Wizard of Aus)
• Shah Shah a Go Go
• Toiler on the Sea
• Bring On the Nubiles
• Down in the Sewer

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The Stranglers Gig Timeline

• May 26 1979 Loch Lomond Festival 1979 Alexandria, Scotland Add time Add time
• Jun 10 1979 Pabellón Municipal de Deportes La Casilla Bilbao, Spain Add time Add time
• Aug 18 1979 Wembley Stadium This Setlist London, England Add time Add time
• Sep 21 1979 Taunton Odeon Taunton, England Add time Add time
• Sep 22 1979 Cambridge Corn Exchange Cambridge, England Add time Add time

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