ROADRUNNER, MARCH 1979 -P a g e 5
STRANGLERS
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 them selves at war with The Media. In a little over a week, they have collected a ban on T V appear ances, 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 A t Seven show. The lads downed tins of lager, leered and poked at the camera while swapping insults and barbs w ith aggressive interviewer Howard Gipps. They exploited the banality o f his quest ions while he needled them w ith curt asides about their apparent lack o f social fibre. A short piece of the action went to air across Australia late last week, but Willesee broke into the interview and pulled it o ff the screen before his aud ience could be further corrupted. Willesee's supposed anger and indignation can be found somewhere in the following transcript from the ill-fated StranglersGipps 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 w ith punk rockers complete w ith safety pins through their ears, purple sunglasses, and lice...wherever possible. Now we're told New Wave has taken over where punk rock left o ff and w ouldn'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, w ith albums making the Top Ten. We tried to find out what makes The Strang lers 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 Strang lers doing "Hanging A ro un d" at on open air gig and then to interview:
yet is it? Gipps: No...I don't think so...at least not in public. Gipps: 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...! am a 13 or 14 year o ld ..."
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 b it we showed on our programme, he has cancelled them from Countdown and, o f course, that's a bit of a Mecca fo r the...ah...for the new groups and well...good onya, Molly... that's given them a bit of lead...and I hope we d o n 't ever hear from those punks again". _________MOLLY'S ANGUISH_________ M olly was sitting m ortified in fro n t of his television set when he called Willesee. He'd been having other problems w ith the boys, but the Willesee interview finished
the stranglers’ blues The " w e lc o m e " th e S tranglers have received fro m the A u s tra lia n m edia is n o t u n iq u e . R e c e n tly / the E nglish ro c k press has started giving c o n s is te n tly bad review s o f th e ir live p e rform ance s and s tu d io re cordings; and ever since H ugh C o rn w a ll was re p o rte d as saying th a t it was a " w e ll k n o w s c ie n tific fa c t" th a t A m e rica n s have sm aller brains than Europeans, th e A m e rica n press has been less tha n frie n d ly . A re cent issue o f C raw d add y gave up one w h o le p a g e 'to v ilif y a S tranglers c o n c e rt in L .A ., callin g the m p re te n tio u s , in c o h e re n t and, o f course, sexist; a lth o u g h th is tim e th e y had le ft the strip pers at hom e. W ith ail the bad press, it is easy to lose sight o f the fa c t th a t The S tranglers are one o f the m ost successful and p o p u la r groups in England at the m o m e n t. T h ey have released three LPs, every one o f w h ic h has shot in to the T o p Five on the M e lo d y M aker cha rts, and a host o f singles, all successful. T h e y have developed ^a to ta lly o rig in a l sound th a t defies com pariso n w ith any o th e r c o n te m p o ra ry band. T h e y inspire great lo y a lty in th e ir fans and, m o re u n u s u a lly , th e y re tu rn it. F o r exa m ple, fo r various reasons. The S tranglers fo u n d them selves unable to get gigs in L o n d o n . T hey had to tra vel some distance to the N o rth to get b o o kin g s at all. ThTs le ft th e ir L o n d o n fans — m o st o f w h o m had been w a itin g nearly a year to see th e ir fa v o rite band and d id n 't have th e tim e o r m o ney to travel — d is a p p o in te d . Learnin g o f the s itu a tio n . The S tranglers organised cheap bus excu rsions up N o rth
fo r all w h o w a nted to go. The S tranglers also have a fan magazine ru n by a gentlem an called T o n y M o o n . A c c o rd ing to all re p o rts, the band c o n trib u te s a rticle s o f a p o litic a l n a tu re , e x p la in in g in sim ple language to those w h o m ig h t n o t o th e rw is e ' read such s tu ff, w h a t the band th in k s is going on in the real w o rld . W hich brings us to a p o in t th a t's usually to ta lly ignored by re porters fa llin g over th e m selves to en um erate the n u m ber o f people Jean Jacques B u rn e ll has engaged in fis tic u ffs , and th a t is, th a t The S tranglers are very in te llig e n t and o rig in a l ly ric is ts . T h e ir p re o ccu p a tio n s as w rite rs are unusual and w e ll o u t o f the m a in stream fo r a ro ck o u tfit. T h ey ten d to lo o k to E uro pe, ra th e r tha n A m e rica , and m o s t o f th e ir songs are concerned w ith c o n d itio n s p e rta in in g to th e ir native E ngland, o r w ith C o n tin e n ta l figu res like T ro ts k y , and c o u n trie s lik e Sweden. T h ey are also capable o f w ritin g very personal songs, a lth o u g h the o n ly song on th e ir latest LP th a t is in th a t category is th e strange "D e a th A n d N ig h t A n d B lo o d " . The title is take n fro m "C on fession s o f a M a sk" by V u k io M ish im a — the Japanese n o velist w h o , in 1 9 70, had h im self r itu a lly beheaded in p u b lic . The song is da rk and m enacing, c o n ta in in g reference to " to r c h lig h t pa rade s", death pacts and Spartan self-d iscip lin e : " / w ill fo rce m y b o d y to be m y w eapon a n d m y s ta te m e n t". It is a very deca d e n t-a n d surprising song — ro c k 'n 'ro lle rs a re ' never usually th a t sop histicated . - M I C H A E L HOPE
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 animals acts? Band: The what...? Gipps: The animal acts... Band: Well...(bleep) ..isn't legalised here
him after the Willesee show accusing him o f creating a similar image to that enjoved by the Sex Pistols following their now famous British TV interview two years ago. "I'm not trying to create th a t", Molly fired. " I'd feel the most guilty person in Australia if that happened". Tour promoter, Zev Eizik, still recover ing from the traumas o f escorting Elvis Costello and his entourage of Enfant Terribles around the country, watched The Stranglers' interview being filmed .but d id n'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 o f beer and sprayed them over Gipps? No? That was interesting. Instead o f getting upset and angry, Gipps turned to the cameraman and asked if he got it...im plying 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 o u tfit), 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. A fter the Willesee thing they did an interview w ith 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 w ith another paper, one of the group dropped his trousers in the middle o f Bourke Street (in the heart of Melbourne) and the photographer said he was going to lay a formal complaint w ith 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 to u r". "YOU COULD BE SITTING ON A DUNNY VOMITING SHIT..."
Cut to Willesee (concerned, frowning a la Walter Cronkite): "Sorry Howard fo r giving you that assignment. We usually let our stories run through but if they want publicity they'll have to try a little harder w ith 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 W ill esee 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
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 harrassed him by bickering over artistic and technical aspects of their forthcom ing Countdown appearance. However, he said his decision to ban the group stemm ed mainly from their attitudes on W ill esee: "Their behavior was deplorable and we just can't endorse their attitude on Countdown". He said the band's manager had called
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 frank ly, I'd rather be spending my time w ork ing 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 blowup 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, dot^sn't it? " I t was first announced they would do 'Nice and Sleazy' from their 'Black and White' album. We said 'fine'. Their (Continued next page)