The Stranglers at Rock City

Date: Mon 10th Mar
Time: 20:00

THE STRANGLERS 40th ANNIVERSARY ‘RUBY TOUR’ 2014

A FULL COLLECTION OF COMMEMORATIVE RELEASES

AND REISSUES TO COME

“On this, the occasion of our Ruby Anniversary, I would like to take this opportunity to stick my fingers up to everyone who wrote us off and dismissed us. However I would like to thank those who saw beyond the words of the critics and drew their own conclusions. He who laughs last, laughs longest AND loudest. Next year we will make a lot of noise with our friends…" JJ BURNEL – The Stranglers.

2014 marks a remarkable chapter in the life of new wave icons, The Stranglers. Very few bands survive to celebrate their 40th Anniversary, and even fewer bands have a history, indeed a notoriety, to compare to these titanic figures, who emerged from various blues, jazz and classical movements, became figureheads of punk and then transcended genres to become one of the most revered alternative bands of the last four decades.

To commemorate this huge achievement, The Stranglers are embarking on a major world tour, kicking off in the UK in late February and rolling through Europe, North America and the Far East, before a series of festival appearances and very special events still to be announced (full details of the British dates are below).

A comprehensive series of anniversary reissues, rarities and collectors items are soon to be revealed, essential for fans old and new, continuing to mark their long, pioneering and often controversial career, which has seen these enfants terrible go from being the quintessential anti-establishment scourge of the music industry who were banned by the BBC to becoming pillars of said establishment with their performance at the 2012 6Music Proms at the Albert Hall with a full orchestra.

The Ruby Anniversary Tour of the UK runs for 28 dates, including London’s Hammersmith Apollo, which the band first played in 1976. The set will see The Stranglers playing tracks from all of their 17 studio albums in a special 40th Anniversary set, starting with their debut and now iconic album Rattus Norvegicus.

They will play the following shows, with special guests still to be announced.
27-Feb-14 Inverness Ironworks
28-Feb-14 Glasgow O2 Academy
01-Mar-14 Dunfermline Alhambra
03-Mar-14 Liverpool O2 Academy
04-Mar-14 Lincoln Engine Shed
06-Mar-14 Brighton Dome
07-Mar-14 Folkestone Leas Cliff Hall
08-Mar-14 London Hammersmith Apollo
10-Mar-14 Nottingham Rock City
11-Mar-14 Leamington Spa Assembly
13-Mar-14 Southend Cliffs Pavilion
14-Mar-14 Newcastle O2 Academy
15-Mar-14 Sheffield O2 Academy
17-Mar-14 Oxford O2 Academy
20-Mar-14 Cardiff Uni Solus
21-Mar-14 Leeds O2 Academy
22-Mar-14 Birmingham O2 Academy
24-Mar-14 Portsmouth Pyramid Centre
25-Mar-14 Guildford G Live
27-Mar-14 Bristol O2 Academy
28-Mar-14 Cambridge Corn Exchange
29-Mar-14 Manchester Academy

THE STRANGLERS – 1974 to 2014:

Formed in 1974 as The Guildford Stranglers, the band were initially based in The Jackpot, an off-licence run by their drummer Jet Black. Quickly developing a pub-rock following they were soon swooped into the punk movement, opening for both Patti Smith and The Ramones on their British tours.

Releasing their first three albums – ‘Rattus Norvegicus’, ‘No More Heroes’ and ‘Black And White’ – within 13 months of each other and scoring hit singles with the likes of ‘Peaches’, ‘Something Better Change’ and, of course, the track ‘No More Heroes’ itself, The Stranglers quickly trademarked their sound; a swirling, heady concoction of psychedelic keyboards, growling vocals, hard-edged bass and an almost jazz-like drum sound.

But it was their attitude to the music press that really set them apart. Accused of being both sexist and racist by critics who didn’t see the patent absurdity and sarcasm in their lyrics, The Stranglers chose the path of most resistance and went to war. Notorious spats included punching the journalist Jon Savage at a public event, leaving another journalist strapped to a wheelchair in Reykjavik airport while his plane departed and gaffer-taping a third writer to a girder on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower with his trousers round his ankles. The list of misdemeanors is endless.

While these ‘japes’ hardly endeared them to the press, they didn’t harm the band’s popularity as they racked up more and more hit singles and broke box-office records including the most consecutive nights played at London’s Roundhouse, beating records set by the Rolling Stones and The Who. So it was no surprise that the 80’s saw The Stranglers spring to even greater heights of commercial success all around the world with the likes of ‘Golden Brown’, ‘Strange Little Girl’, ‘Always The Sun’ and ‘European Female’, amongst many others.

Having released their 17th studio album in 2012, ‘Giants’, to across the board critical acclaim from their once-loathed adversaries in the press, The Stranglers are now revered as one of the most exciting, credible and influential bands to have emerged from the British new wave scene. Proof that the original meninblack, The Stranglers, are as essential today as at any time in the last 4 decades. And showing that they do indeed laugh longest and loudest.

www.thestranglers.net

www.facebook.com/thestranglers‎

Rock City

Talbot Street
Nottingham
Nottinghamshire
NG1 5GG

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The Stranglers

 www.stranglers.net

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Would you like to see more information about The Stranglers?
Let us know here and we'll do our best to get them listed and inform you when they are.