The Burning Up Times - Strangled.co.uk

Burning Up Times Issue 3
In your book, you
name The Stranglers
in your Famous
Five Punk bands
alongside the Sex
Pistols, Clash, Jam
and The Damned.
Were The Stranglers
really Punk? And why is it, three decades
on, the Punk literati consistently sideline
them in their Punk recollections?
Those fi ve bands were all totally different
musically. The Stranglers were part of
the core movement at that time and were
far and away the best musicians. Their
musicianship was just fantastic. Live, they
were sensational. The structure of their
songs, the way they performed them, the
way they moved. Plus, they were older
than the others – especially Jet… How old
is he now?
Sixty-nine.
Wow! And he’s still going strong. The
Strangers were as important to the
movement as The Clash and the Pistols
because they were just as responsible
for, and at the forefront of, the whole
new order. Simply by the way they were,
particularly with journalists – which I
thought was great! After all, there were a
lot of arseholes amongst journalists then,
there really were.
Do you want to name names?
No, I don’t like to, really. It wouldn’t be
fair because maybe they’ve since turned
into nice people. I guess it’s inverted
snobbery on my part. I came from a
different background than ninety percent
of the other music journalists. I was a
working class guy born and bred in the
Angel, Islington, and they were middle
class who’d never felt the touch of a threepiece
mohair suit on their fl esh.
And The Stranglers baited these middle
class rock writers.
I don’t think class had anything to do
with it. I mean, The Stranglers were a bit
more middle class than a lot of the bands,
weren’t they? Graduates, backgrounds
with solid structures. The Pistols were
defi nitely the most working class guys
of all the bands. The Clash – apart from
Strummer – were working class. The
Damned? You never really knew. They
came from Croydon way and that whole
area is a mystery to me. Hugh went to
William Ellis school on Parliament Hill
Fields and grew up in Kentish Town which
wasn’t as salubrious in those days. But
you get the impression his was a fairly
comfortable upbringing. The Jam were
working class made good from Woking.
The Stranglers music was so different,
so in tune to that era, that I can’t
understand how people would dismiss
them. They were an integral part of Punk,
and by Punk I mean not just the music,
I mean the feel, the attitude. They were
as responsible for that as anybody else,
despite John Lydon’s protestations that
they were bandwagoneers. Maybe they
were at the outset, but it wasn’t long
before they were sharing the reins. I mean,
what about that ‘Fuck’ T-shirt Hugh wore
at the Rainbow in the very early days?
That got so much publicity and helped
Punk evolve.
The Stranglers were classed as a
Punk band then so why shouldn’t they
be classed as a Punk band now? Punk
wasn’t just spiky hair, ripped tee shirts
and sulphate. It was a moment – one of
the most magical moments in pop history.
For me It was a moment made up of the
Famous Five bands (six when Johnny and
his Heartbreakers got it right), a moment
forged on the streets of London, my city,
my manor. I guess those bands meant
more to me than anything. I was never
really a big Who or Stones fan. They were
London but they were showbiz. This was
something different, more real. And The
Stranglers were an integral part, taking the
fl ak for a lot of others. I mean, Hugh went
inside. I don’t recall any of the other bands
doing time.
Yeah and The Clash got fi ned for shooting
pigeons…
Yeah – but what members of the Punk
club went inside?
Only Sid Vicious when he was up for
murder…
Shit, Sid. He was on remand though so it
doesn’t count… Hugh was banged up for
heroin, and they made an example of him
because of the whole Punk thing.
On that subject, Hugh told us in last
year’s BUT interview he hadn’t taken
heroin when he was found in possession
of it. Is that true?
Maybe. When I wrote Inside Information
with Hugh he said he dabbled in smack
but certainly wasn’t addicted. He didn’t
use needles but snorted it. It wasn’t as if
he was dealing or having loads of it on
him at the time. He wasn’t a junkie, he
was a pop star. It was a total miscarriage
of justice when they banged him up.
Of course now I’ve seen him [Barry
interviewed Hugh in January for his book]
he’s really changed his act, hasn’t he? He
hasn’t touched drugs for donkeys years.
Do reformed drinkers and drug users
become less exciting, in your eyes?
Only because I’ve become less exciting in
my eyes. Hugh’s all right, y’know. He’s a
charming man, a lovely guy. I always had
a lot of time for Hugh. He freely admits to
the whole drug thing at the time and he’s
quite open about it. But we are talking
thirty years ago. We’ve all got skeletons
dangling on hangers alongside our suits.
When I interviewed him for RM a lot of it
was about drugs. Hugh laughs now when
he reads it, and he doesn’t care about
admitting it.
Well, he’ll live longer, longer than Joe
Strummer.
Hugh told me when he stopped. He
smoked some skunk about fi fteen years
ago in America. He’d never tried it before
and he hated the experience and he’s never
dabbled in any form of drug again.
I last saw Hugh live at The Scala. Did
you see that?
November 2006, yes.
He was great. I was surprised. I’d been a
bit wary. He had a lot to live up to in my
mind – I’d never seen a bad Stranglers
gig. I’d seen a bad one by The Clash and
several from The Damned, but never The
Stranglers or The Jam or The Pistols. The
bad Clash gig was also their biggest up
until then – the Mont de Marsan festival
in August 1977 alongside The Feelgoods,
The Damned, The Jam and The Boys.
I’ll always remember The Clash coming
onstage and pausing for about a minute,
just staring at the crowd, psyching them
out. It was really cool, but then they went
into one of the worst gigs they ever played.
I told them the next day and they agreed.
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