Photos courtesy of Paula French

Following the success of his "Songs and Stories" solo tour in May and June of 2000, JJ took to the road alone again in December of the same year.

The dates for this second round were:

On December 11th, the Guardian newspaper published the following review, which is reproduced by kind permission.

POP REVIEW

Jean-Jacques Burnel
Manchester University
***** 5/5

Jean-Jacques Burnel is one of rocks most notorious characters. In the Stranglers' authorized biography, No Mercy, 20 pages tackle the subject of "Burnel violence". However, apart from outrages such as strapping a trouserless Antoine de Caunes upside down to the top of the Eiffel Tower, the London-born Frenchman has always seemed intelligent, arguing for a united Europe on his 1978 album Euroman Cometh and becoming an internationally renowned tutor of, um, karate. A rare evening with him entitled Songs & Stories was always likely to be entertaining.

The Strangler greeted a seated audience with a bottle of wine and an acoustic guitar, with not even a bass on hand to hit anyone with. Only when an anecdote about Manchester brought a few mock aggressive grumblings did any hint of his notoriety appear, when he grinned: "Ah! Fighting talk!" In fact, JJ's main battle lies with his own myth. Hugely underrated as a musician, he delivered acoustic Stranglers songs, solo offerings and work in progress, including a song inspired by the Hatfield disaster, and some genuinely beautiful playing reminiscent of Peter Green. It was a real treat to hear Stranglers tunes played so minimally and passionately.

In between, Burnel explained how his violent past stemmed from a difficulty in keeping his temper as a youth confronted with racism. His eloquence was only matched by his hilarity, with reams of anecdotes about write-off Porsches and punch ups with the Sex Pistols. What could so easily have been a punk legend trawling the hits was an enriching two hours with a fascinating man.