Surely this should not be happening. Here I am in the corridor on level two in the Roundhouse in London, watching the crowd leaving The Stranglers gig and I observe something I haven’t seen in a long, long time: EVERYONE IS SMILING!

It’s weird to think that I have seen this band in four different decades. In fact, The Stranglers are a couple of years older than Hot Press – which means that they are heading on for 40. I have seen bands of the same era live that are merely going through the motions just to earn the cash. Indeed The Undertones are among the few that both look like they are enjoying it – and actually sound better now than they did back in the day!

Looking back to the opening ‘Waltzinblack’ intro, there was something different in the air – after 17 albums and 23 hit singles, you think that The Stranglers have nothing to prove? Wrong! They hit the stage with the same gusto as they did back in ‘74 under the Guildford Stranglers moniker.