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Friday, January 23, 2015 Follow us on Twitter @Argus_The Guide


ANDYHOWELLS chats to Baz Warne of The Stranglers


Hits and surprises at shows


FOLLOWING 2014’s spectacu- lar, sell-out Ruby Anniversary Tour and accompanying cele- bratory box set album release, Giants & Gems, The Stran- glers are now preparing for a new tourwhich brings them to Cardiff in March. “We worked like absolute


swines last year,” says vocal- ist and bass player Baz Warne. “With the fortieth anniver- sary, we had a massive Brit- ish European tour and by the time we’d got into the festivals I’d had some trouble with my


Interview


knee. We finished festivals in August and in September I had to go under the knife for an operation which put me out of action for three months. Of course after that happened it was Christmas holiday time, so we’re all looking very much forward nowto March.” Baz, who hails from Sun-


derland, joined The Stran- glers fifteen years ago after working in the music indus- try for the best part of two decades. “I first picked a gui- tar up when I was about nine and it’s never gone away,” he says. Baz rose to prominence as


VOCALIST: Baz Warne


a member of The Toy Dolls, who scored a hit in 1984 with their rendition of Nellie the Elephant. “I was actually playing bass on that record,” he laughs, “but I’d left the band by the time it came out which I was quite pleased about! I was only 19 and it gave me the thought that maybe I could do this for a living, so after that I formed a band with my brother and some other lads from


Think Floyd to play Newport Riverfront


ROCK SHOW: Think Floyd


THINK FLOYD, regarded as the UK’s number one Pink Floyd tribute, are renowned for their stunning celebration of one of the world’s greatest musical icons. Established in 1994, the in- credibly talented musicians who make up Think Floyd have managed to faithfully recreate all the atmosphere, visual magnitude and musi- cal excellence of Pink Floyd


live on stage. The new Think Floyd production for 2015 cel- ebrates the 40th anniversary of Wish You Were Here, argu- ably one of the band’s finest albums. Catch Think Floyd at the Riverfront Theatre, New- port, on Saturday 7 March for one night only. Tickets: £20 (booking feesmay apply) avail- able from the Riverfront Box Office: 01633 656757 or online atwww.thinkfloyd.net


COMING TO CARDIFF: The Stranglers are back on tour


Sunderland (The Smalltown Heroes) and had some minor success a couple of albums and a few singles. Then I met The Stranglers in 1995.” Five years later, Baz was


asked to join The Stranglers alongside long-time members Jet Black, JJ Burnell and Paul Greenfield. Along with Hugh Cornwell, Black, Burnell and Greenfield had scored over 17 chart hits in the late 1970s and early 80s including No More Heroes, Peaches, Golden Brown and Walk On By. “They were like the soundtrack of my youth re- ally,” remembers Baz, “I used to be a newspaper delivery boy and part of that was de- livering papers like Sounds, Melody Maker and NME. The Stranglers used to be fea- tured regularly in there and occasionally you’d capture a glimpse of them on Top of the Pops or you’d hear them on the radio.” Does Baz have any particu-


lar memory of his first Stran- glers engagement? “It hap- pened so fast we didn’t have time to think about it. We went out and played for the peace-keeping forces in Ko- sovo in 2000 and I had about 10 days to acclimatise, learn the songs and meet the guys. It was a real baptism of fire. I didn’t really think about it so much until the end of the first gig when we had the first unwinding beer, thinking “...I’ve just played a gig with the Stranglers! You’d remain a stone not to get some kick out of it, which I did in the early days.” Being a member of The Stranglers doesn’t give you chance to admire the scenery for too long, they continue to be one of Britain’s most suc- cessful live bands and have conquered new territories in recent years. Resisting genre tags they have played The BBC Proms. “The Proms was a thing we very much em-


Don’t miss band’s UK return visit


MULTI-PLATINUM selling band Fall Out Boy have announced that they will return to the UK this autumn for the American Beauty/American Psy- cho Tour, which kicks off in Leeds on October 3 and culminates in a show at London’s The SSE Arena, Wembley on the 11th. Tickets can be bought at Ticketmaster


and Gigs and Tours. The Chicago four piece have released their highly anticipated sixth studio album, American Beauty/American Psycho. It features the huge singles American Beauty/American Psycho, first single Centuries, which stormed the charts worldwide on release and Immortals, from the movie Big Hero 6. The current UK single American Beauty/American Psycho, produced by


UK TOUR: Fall Out Boy


French musician and DJ SebastiAn, is A List at Radio 1 and the video has al- ready picked up more than 1.8 million views.


American Beauty/American Psycho is


the follow-up album to the band’s gold- certified fifth studio album Save Rock and Roll, which debuted at #2 in the UK, and #1 on the Billboard Top 200 and #1 on iTunes in 27 countries on its April 2013 release. Catch Fall Out Boy at The Motorpoint Arena Cardiff on Wednesday October 7. Tickets available from the Box Office 029 20 22 44 88


MalvernAntiques &Collectors’ Fair


Antiques,Art Deco,collectables&muchmore Sunday,25thJanuary


Entrance: 10am-4pm - £3 Early: 8.30am-10.00am - £4


SevernHall, ThreeCounties Showground, Worcs.WR13 6NW


Tel: 01636 676531 www.b2bevents.info


braced,” says Baz, “They were trying to cross over between BBC 6 music to BBC Radio 3. They said ‘Who are a pop band with classical baroque influences?’ and they asked us to do it. We rehearsed with the London Sinfonietta at Maida Vale. It was complete- ly sold out, a bit of a culture clash, but amazingly enjoya- ble, a real cherished memory.” The organisers of Glas- tonbury Festival also gave in to fan pressure in 2010 by inviting The Stranglers to perform. “There were 85,000 people there just to see us. The post-gig reviews came out a few weeks later with The Stranglers announced as one of the top five bands to see for the whole weekend. Strangely enough, they won’t have us back.” As The Stranglers begin re- hearsals for their forthcoming tour, I ask Baz if there could be any new recordings in 2015. “There are always tenta-


tive plans,” he says. “There’s a lot of anticipation for the tour and that always fuels us, so it’s a case of striking when the iron’s hot. There’s every chance.” And what can fans expect


from the forthcoming Cardiff show? “To coin a cliché ex- pect the unexpected,” laughs Baz, “Although we’ve been together a long time it still refuses to be a nostalgia trip for us otherwise we wouldn’t bother writing and recording new material, so there will be a mix of old and new. There will be some hits in there and some surprises. Being The Stranglers, anything can happen at our gigs and often does!” Catch The Stranglers at Cardiff University on March 10. Tickets are available from www.gigsandtours.com / 0844 811 0051.


3 Music


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