caption current_members years_active label article_title landscape past_members background genre image origin name
the stranglers performing in chicago in 2013 jet black jean-jacques burnel dave greenfield baz warne 1974 -- present united artists , emi , epic , castle communications the stranglers
 yes hugh cornwell hans wärmling paul roberts john ellis group_or_band punk rock , alternative rock rock , new wave , post-punk , art the stranglers -lrb- band -rrb- . jpg guildford , surrey , england the stranglers
the stranglers

the stranglers are an english rock band who emerged via the punk rock scene .
scoring some 23 uk top 40 singles and 17 uk top 40 albums to date in a career spanning four decades , the stranglers are one of the longest-surviving and most `` continuously successful '' bands to have originated in the uk punk scene of the mid to late 1970s .
beginning life as the guildford stranglers on 11 september 1974 in guildford , surrey , they originally built a following within the mid-1970s pub rock scene .
while their aggressive , no-compromise attitude identified them as one of the instigators of the uk punk rock scene that followed , their idiosyncratic approach rarely followed any single musical genre and the group went on to explore a variety of musical styles , from new wave , art rock and gothic rock through the sophisticated pop of some of their 1980s output .
they had major mainstream success with their single `` golden brown '' .
their other hits include `` no more heroes '' , `` peaches '' , `` always the sun '' and `` skin deep '' .
the stranglers ' early sound was driven by jean-jacques burnel 's melodic bass , but also gave prominence to dave greenfield 's keyboards .
their early music was also characterised by the growling vocals and sometimes misanthropic lyrics of both jean-jacques burnel and hugh cornwell .
over time , their output gradually grew more refined and sophisticated .
summing up their contribution to popular music , critic dave thompson later wrote : `` from bad-mannered yobs to purveyors of supreme pop delicacies , the group was responsible for music that may have been ugly and might have been crude -- but it was never , ever boring . ''
