Project Description
Interview with
Jean-Jacques ‘JJ’ Burnel
from
THE STRANGLERS
Interviewer – Colin Reid
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“Carefree fun” – Independent
“the gig of the year” – The Rock Pit
“Unexpectedly poignant – ★ ★ ★ ★” – The Guardian
“…deeply confrontational and musically accomplished.” – BBC
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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.
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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
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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.
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THE STRANGLERS
Australian Tour
February 2020
Provocateurs and ultimate purveyors of Brit-punk THE STRANGLERS return to Australia next month!
Hailed for their highly original sound, combining a brilliant melodic touch with a genuine dark aggression and effortless cool, The Stranglers are now recognised as one of the most credible and influential bands to have emerged from the punk era.
Now over 45 years on, with 24 top 40 singles and 18 top 40 albums under their belt, The Stranglers are still finding the time to hit the road, making their return to Australia this February 2020 hitting up Peth, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide.
General public tickets are on sale NOW HERE.
First forming in 1974, the band’s no bullshit attitude saw them 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. Their longevity and impact solidified with hits like Golden Brown, Always the Sun, No More Heroes, Strange Little Girl and Peaches – all establishing the legend of The Stranglers.
Australian fans are in for a treat when punk rock rabble-rousers The Stranglers return February 2020 to deliver a set for the ages, drawn from their eloquent and extensive catalogue spanning over 40 years.
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PRESENTED BY SBM PRESENTS
THE STRANGLERS
AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2020
TICKETS
HERE
WED 5 FEB – ASTOR THEATRE, PERTH
FRI 7 FEB – THE FORUM, MELBOURNE
SAT 8 FEB – ENMORE THEATRE, SYDNEY
SUN 9 FEB – THE TIVOLI, BRISBANE
TUE 11 FEB – THE GOV, ADELAIDE
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