The Stranglers' early sound was driven by Jean-Jacques Burnel's melodic bass, but also gave prominence to Dave Greenfield's keyboards.

[7] The remaining band members completed a new album recorded with Greenfield, Dark Matters, and confirmed that they would proceed with their "Final Full UK Tour", initially announced in January 2020, in his honour.

[8][9] Prior to forming the band, Jet Black (Brian Duffy) had run various businesses, including a fleet of ice cream vans,[10] and later ran The Jackpot,[11] a Guildford off-licence that would serve as the base for the early Stranglers.

After attaining a degree of financial stability due to his business successes, by 1974 he decided to return to drumming and assemble a band.

[4][15] The other original personnel were bass player/vocalist Jean-Jacques Burnel, guitarist/vocalist Hugh Cornwell and keyboardist/guitarist Hans Wärmling, who was replaced by keyboardist Dave Greenfield within a year.

Black is from Ilford, Cornwell from Kentish Town and Greenfield from Brighton, while Wärmling came from Gothenburg and returned there after leaving the band.

Cornwell was a blues musician before forming the band and had briefly been a bandmate of Richard Thompson,[17] Burnel had been a classical guitarist who had performed with symphony orchestras,[18] Black's musical background was as a jazz drummer,[19] and Greenfield had played at military bases in Germany.

"[26] These albums went on to build a strong fan-following, but the group's confrontational attitude towards the press was increasingly problematic and triggered a severe backlash when Burnel, a martial arts enthusiast, punched music journalist Jon Savage during a promotional event.

[27] In February 1978 the Stranglers began a mini-tour, playing three secret pub gigs as a thank-you to those venues and their landlords for their support during the band's rise to success.

The first was at The Duke of Lancaster in New Barnet on Valentine's Day,[28] with further performances at The Red Cow, Hammersmith, and The Nashville Rooms, West Kensington, in early September.

The Stranglers were the only foreign band to take part in a landmark scene focused around S-KEN Studio in Roppongi and The Loft venues in Shinjuku and Shimokitazawa from 1977 to 1979.

The songs on The Raven are multi-layered and musically complicated, and deal with such subjects as a Viking's lonely voyage, heroin addiction, genetic engineering, contemporary political events in Iran and Australia and extraterrestrial visitors, "Meninblack".

The Hohner Cembalet which saw prominent use on the previous three albums, was dropped and Oberheim synthesizers used instead whilst acoustic piano was used on "Don't Bring Harry".

It was also named as "record of the week" on BBC Radio 2, despite the station not previously playing music associated with the punk genre.

"Tramp" was originally thought to be the ideal follow-up single to "Golden Brown" but "La Folie" was chosen after Burnel convinced his bandmates of its potential.

[44] The track listing for The Collection 1977–1982 included the new single "Strange Little Girl", which had originally been recorded on a demo in 1974 and rejected by EMI.

In August 1990, Hugh Cornwell left Stranglers to pursue a solo career, following the band's failure to attain a tour in the US.

[47] In his autobiography, Cornwell stated that he felt that the Stranglers were a spent force creatively and cited various examples of his increasingly acrimonious relationship with his fellow band-members, particularly Burnel.

Feelings were mutual; when Cornwell phoned Jet Black to say he was leaving the band, the drummer's response was blunt "OK, fine".

The Stranglers achieved something of a critical and popular renaissance in 2004[49][50] with the album Norfolk Coast and a subsequent sell-out tour, together with their first UK Top 40 hit (No.

The album also included Tuckers Grave about a Somerset cider house named after the victim of a suicide in a nearby farm which members of the band now occupied.

In 2007 it was reported that drummer Black was suffering from atrial fibrillation, an ailment which subsequently forced him to miss several shows, particularly where extended travel was required.

[51] On 4 November 2007, the band (with Black) played a sell-out gig at the Roundhouse in Camden, North London, marking the 30th anniversary of their headline run at the same venue in 1977.

[52] The Stranglers started 2010 with an extensive UK tour, including a sold-out return to the Hammersmith Apollo in March, their first visit there since 1987.

The download version of Decades Apart included an unreleased recording from 1978, "Wasting Time", inspired by the band's Rock Goes To College experience earlier that year;[31] this track, originally titled "Social Secs", was never released, and the music ended up being reversed and released as "Yellowcake UF6", the B-side to "Nuclear Device" in 1979.

Across the summer the band played a number of festivals, including Weyfest and Glastonbury and T in the Park in the UK, Oxegen 2010 in Ireland and concerts in Japan, Greece, Poland, Slovakia and Bulgaria.

A proposed gig in Moscow was announced and then cancelled due to visa difficulties, but a mini-tour of the UK took place in July.

[59] Jim Macaulay appeared in a promotional photograph alongside Burnel, Greenfield and Warne for the first time in 2016 and has since been named as an official member of the group.

[71] "Peaches" has appeared on adverts for Adidas, HSBC, Tesco and JBL speakers[70] while "Waltzinblack" has been used for Vodafone and the Carphone Warehouse.

[70] In 2002 "Hanging Around", a track from the 1977 debut album Rattus Norvegicus which was never released as a single, was used in several French Wonderbra commercials[70] featuring model Inna Zobova.