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THE STRANGLERS
+ Merryn Jeann
@ The Gov, Adelaide,
23rd March 2025
(Live Review)

Review by Colin Reid

Photos by Michael Selge – (@oz.craftypics)

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THE STRANGLERS / Photo – @oz.craftypics

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The Gov welcomed back The Stranglers on Sunday night for their Fifty Years In Black Anniversary Tour.  Hard to believe isn’t? Half a century of The Stranglers, 50 years of JJ Burnel’s thunderous basslines and so many well-loved, anthemic songs.

Opening up was Merryn Jeann playing a number of tracks mostly from her 2024 album Dog Beach.  This is the second Australian tour in a row that The Stranglers have opted for a very left field opening band.  I’ll wager that next to no one in the audience was familiar with her music or even with her style of music, which is pretty hard to define other than a mix up experimental indie rock, folk and performance art, but they were attentive and respective as she gave it her all.  She seemed really happy to be playing to a large crowd and was certainly interesting but was probably more suited to an art house event rather than opening for punk rock show.

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MERRYN JEAN / Photo – @oz.craftypics

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The strains Edith Piaf’s of ‘Non, je ne regrette rien’ merged into the more familiar entrée music of the ‘Waltzinblack’; the stage lights dimmed and The Stranglers wasted no time launching into ‘Toiler on the Sea’.  The crowd’s anticipation was immediately fulfilled! The band sound better than ever and they are looking great too.  The ever-youthful JJ is rocking back and forth on those old faithful ‘Stranglers’ Doc Martin boots.  Baz Warne is prowling the stage, engaging the crowd making faces and joking around.  ‘Get a Grip on Yourself’ and ‘Duchess’ follow before Baz addresses the crowd “Welcome to the front room of wherever this award-winning venue is. We love being here!” He singles out someone on the front row “you’ve got school tomorrow”, “I’m thirty” she replies.  Baz mouths “sorry” to her as he no doubt considers a visit to specsavers!

The back catalogue gets a solid workout with tracks played for 11 of their studio albums including two from the most recent offering ‘Dark Matters’.  The big singles and the anthems sit alongside a few lesser-known numbers but the die hard fans on the front row sing along with all of them.  ‘Skin Deep’ is brilliant and the chemistry between Baz and JJ is great to see as they share jokes and camaraderie with each other.

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THE STRANGLERS / Photo – @oz.craftypics

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The opening bass riff on ‘Peaches’ nearly tears a hole in the roof and the biggest cheer of the night so far comes when Bazz substitutes a lyric with ‘I can think of a lot worse places to be like anywhere in the USA’.  ‘Golden Brown’ and ‘Always the Sun’ are perfectly coupled together.  The crowd are singing along with Golden Brown and Baz leaves us space to complete the refrain in the latter.  There is so much energy, passion, and crowd involvement now.  JJ takes a beer from a roadie, has a couple of swigs and then passes it to fan in the crowd.  Baz is on his favourite joke routine about Australian’s and mullet haircuts!

The cover of Burt Bacharach’s ‘Walk on By’ is an absolute treat.  If what has gone before has fugitively torn a whole in the roof then ‘Walk on By’ lifts it off completely! Toby Hounsham’s keyboards swirling and crushing with such gusto. They round out the set with the absolute classics ‘Hanging Around’ and ‘Tank’.  For my money it hasn’t been a Stranglers gig unless Tank gets played, so much energy in that song transferring back and forth between band and crowd.

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THE STRANGLERS / Photo – @oz.craftypics

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After the shortest of breaks the band are back. JJ addresses the crowd and he talks about the significance of fifty years in black and thanks us for joining the band for their celebration party before launching into ‘Go Buddy Go’.  This sounds every bit as good today as it does on the Live (X Cert) album the band released way back in 1979.  Baz returns to the lead vocals and they finish with ‘No More Heroes’.  The band form up, take a bow and Baz jokes “we’ll see you in another 50 years!”.  Let’s hope it is sooner than that!

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THE STRANGLERS / Photo – @oz.craftypics

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Check out Michael Selge’s (@oz.craftypics) full gallery of this event HERE

Check out Alec Smart’s (@alecsmart_fotos) full gallery of the Brisbane event (The Tivoli 20th March 2025) HERE

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THE STRANGLERS / Photo – @oz.craftypics

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Follow THE STRANGLERS
Website – Instagram – Facebook
Spotify – YouTube

Follow MERRYN JEANN
Instagram – Facebook – YouTube – Spotify – Bandcamp

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THE STRANGLERS / Photo – @oz.craftypics

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Press Release 19th February 2025 (below) HERE

THE STRANGLERS
‘Fifty Years In Black’
The Anniversary Tour 2025
Australia & New Zealand

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AMNPLIFY – DB