In The 1970s Stranglers

Time to go back to the punk era in the 1970s and one of the best punk groups to come from that time. The Stranglers were formed in Guildford in the mid-70s as the Guildford Stranglers. It is fair to say the group were very aggressive and would probably not have agreed with punk label that they got at the time.

The original members in the first couple of years consisted of Jet Black the drummer, Jean Jaques Brunel on bass. Hugh Cornwall use to be in Fairport Convention, Hans Warmling was the founder member of the group  and died in a boat accident in 1995. Dave Greenfield was the last member.

The group had its first top twenty hit in 1977 with Peaches with one of the most famous intros in the 1970s.. The song had so many sexual terms that the single was highly edited for radio play and in some cases was banned.

This was followed by a top ten hit in the same year called Something Better Change from the album No More Heroes. This became the very next single too and the song even mentions Shakespeare in the lyrics. 

1978 saw the group remain high in the British single charts with a fast moving song called 5 Minutes which peaked at No.11. The song is about a real rape that took place in 1977 at one of the band members accommodation.    

Staying in the sleazy area they came up with another single in the same year called Nice And Sleazy from the album Black and White. The last single of the year was Walk On By.

Moving on to 1979 and the last top twenty in the 1970s was Duchess. The video was banned by the BBC because the band had dressed up as choir boys.