Despite hints they might call it a day, The Stranglers — one of the longest-surviving bands to emerge from the British punk scene of the mid-’70s — this week announced plans to continue into the next decade, with a 17-date UK tour booked for early 2010.
Featuring a core lineup that has remained since 1975 — singer-bassist Jean-Jacques Burnel, drummer Jet Black and keyboard player Dave Greenfield — plus nine-year vet (and former Toy Doll) Baz Warne on guitar, the band will launch its Decades Apart Tour on Feb. 26 in Glasgow and wrap up March 20 in Manchester.
In 2008 and 2009, the band mounted an extensive greatest-hits tour of Europe and Australia, celebrating its 20-plus U.K. Top 40 singles in the late-’70s and ’80s (“Peaches,” “Golden Brown,” “Skin Deep,” “Always the Sun”). At the time, Burnel told Metro.co.uk that that the Stranglers’ touring days likely were coming to an end, in large part because of Black’s age: He turned 71 this past August.
Burnel added:
“We could still record, but this is our last big tour, I think. … I think all things have to come to an end at some point, and this would be a good way to mark it, although we’ll do one more album. I would love to think it will be the most beautiful album we’ve done.”
That was a year ago, and while there’s no announcement of a new Stranglers record — their most recent is 2006’s Suite XVI
See full tour dates after the jump…
The Stranglers tour dates:
Feb. 26: Glasgow Academy, UK
Feb. 27: Dunfermline Alhambra, UK
Feb. 28: Aberdeen Forum, UK
March 3: Nottingham Rock City, UK
March 5: O2 Academy Liverpool, UK
March 6: O2 Academy Sheffield, UK
March 8: O2 Academy Bristol, UK
March 9: Brighton Dome, UK
March 11: O2 Academy Leeds, UK
March 12: O2 Academy Newcastle, UK
March 13: O2 Academy Birmingham, UK
March 14: Southampton Guildhall, UK
March 17: O2 Academy Oxford, UK
March 18: Cambridge Corn Exchange, UK
March 19: London Hammersmith HMV Apollo, UK
March 20: Manchester Academy, UK
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