STILL HANGING AROUND

The Stranglers have been taking it Nice 'n' Sleazy since the days of punk rock. MARION MCMULLEN looks at the group as they celebrate their 50th anniversary

- MARION McMULLEN

GOLDEN BROWN was one of The Stranglers' biggest hits, but their record company thought it was destined to be a flop.

Bassist JJ Burnel says of the 1982 release: "Who would have thought of bringing in a harpsichord to a recording studio and doing a 13/4 (time signature) piece of music and insisting that it should be released despite the record company saying 'Oh, no, you can't dance to it. It doesn't sound funky. It's horrible.

"So you invoke clauses in your contract and force them to release something.

"They released it just before Christmas thinking it'll drown in the tsunami of releases and lo and behold it just developed legs.

"And then, at the end of the whole process of the success of that particular song, they said, 'Oh, can we have the same thing again? Something similar" The group behind hits including No More Heroes, Hanging Around and Nice 'n' Sleazy first formed 50 years ago in Guildford, Surrey, in 1974.

They were embraced by the punk movement, but differed from many of the New Wave bands that emerged at the time because they could actually play their instruments and their musicianship and skill transcended the genre.

They created their own sound and achieved more than 25 top 40 singles and 18 top 40 albums.

They made their mark early on releasing four albums in the 1970s Rattus Norvegicus, No More Heroes, Black and White and The Raven.