Interview conducted by M.J. Van Dongen.

The Stranglers were headlining the Osschotse Feesten in a place called - wait for it - Aarschot (yes, 'aars' also means 'arse' in Dutch!) on August 6th. I'd just seen the band play in Rochester on a double bill with Blondie and was dying to know what the band's future plans were, so I thought I'd try and get an interview with JJ.

To cut a long story short, I managed to worm my way backstage after the gig. The Stranglers' tour manager, Chris, passed on my request for an interview to JJ and he immediately agreed to do it (to my surprise he'd recognised me from my previous interview with him, enquiring if I was still teaching).

JJ was as charming as ever during the interview even though he was clearly shattered (the interview was recorded at about 2am!). What I wanted to find out first of all was how JJ looked back on the last 6 months in which the band had released a new album, had a hit single and done a sell-out tour.

JJ: "It's been very exciting because the album has been proclaimed worldwide. It's led to a lot of new appraisal of the band so that's kind of satisfying professionally."

I then remarked to JJ that I was surprised that the album hadn't achieved a higher chart position with all the positive criticism it had received.

JJ: "If it had sold half of what it has sold up to now it would have been top 10 for several weeks. When it was released it was OK, since then it's been selling slowly but steadily. In Britain alone it's sold 30 times more than the last album. I suppose there was some reticence before people decided to invest in a Stranglers record."

At this stage JJ surprised me a bit when he enquired: "I'm talking rubbish, aren't I?" I assured him he wasn't and went on to ask him about the choice of 'Long Black Veil' as a follow-up to 'Big Thing Coming'. I personally found it a strange choice as there are more obvious contenders such as 'Norfolk Coast' and 'Mine All Mine' on the album. JJ told me that a lot of people had said that. So my next question was who decided which track gets chosen as a single.

JJ: "Everyone puts their oar in and sometimes you make wrong decisions! It's a band decision eventually. If the record company really were against it, they wouldn't have released it. They were quite respectful. They said 'Long Black Veil' was one of their favourite tracks. So we tested it through the radios and it was said 'Long Black Veil' was going to be played a lot. Which it was, it was our first record to have been playlisted on the BBC for 22 years. The fact that it didn't sell doesn't really matter because it got played so much it's in people's consciousness. As a lot of Stranglers' songs are. Not necessarily huge hits initially, but over time they enter people's consciousness. Waltzinblack for instance has earned more money for the Stranglers now than it did at the time - the album Meninblack was completely slagged off! And yet over time it's entered people's consciousness. At the time it was a complete and utter turkey. Over time some people discovered it, which is great!"

Indeed 'Long Black Veil' was very well received when it was played live that night. I must admit that even though it's not my favourite Stranglers' track, it sounded brilliant live! The CD-single contains a previously unreleased track called "Life's Too Short". It's a fantastic number written and sung by JJ. I wanted to know why it hadn't been included on "Norfolk Coast".

JJ: "It could have been. It was a contender but there were lots of other good tunes. I don't know what we'll do with them, it was such a wonderful session though. There were over 30 strong tunes so it was rather arbitrary which songs made the album. We chose them instinctively."

I then asked JJ whether he thought the image of the band had changed as a result of the success of "Norfolk Coast".

JJ: "I'm sure it has. Lots of the new commentators of the records are guys who listen without prejudiced ears because they are younger. And all the old guys who were pissed off or who were on the side of The Pistols and The Clash or people we did terrible things to are not so involved in reviewing and opinion-making anymore. So the perception of the band has changed. And the line-up also is probably the strongest we've had. At the moment no-one can touch us live. We've got a good body of work to choose from and it stirs things in some people. Younger people who probably haven't heard any of it are amazed to see an old bunch of critters who can cut it."

At this point I mentioned the fact that young people actually do know a lot of The Stranglers stuff as I found out after their Puurs' gig in September: everybody knows "Golden Brown" and "Peaches", for example, was used as the Belgian Match of the Day theme tune!

At this point Chris (the tour manager) came along to finish the interview. I thanked JJ for the interview and Chris for setting it up and managed to ask one more question: what are the band's future plans?

JJ: "We're going to finish the [Norfolk Coast] tour and we're going to finish the year at Shepherd's Bush. We're going to do a different set then with a lot of the older stuff and some ballads. There will be a new album out next August which will sound heavier than anything we've ever done!"

Great news then: no new 5 year wait for the next album! I left Aarschot shortly after 2 am feeling rather pleased with myself: not only had I witnessed another brilliant Stranglers' performance, but I'd managed to get an interview with JJ as well. Many bands with a back catalogue and a history far less impressive than The Stranglers treat their fans with far less respect than they do.