On April 5th, Paul did an acoustic gig at the Milestone, Ipswich. During this show, he was joined by Dave for informal renditions of "Strange Little Girl" and "Golden Brown", both of which were recorded. Thanks to Chris Lammiman (webmaster of the official Paul Roberts page), and with the permission of both Dave and Paul, the Rat's Lair has been provided with these recordings, for posting on this site.

Real Audio versions of these renditions can be found on our "Audio Files" page, which is part of our "Reference Articles" section.

For more information on Paul's activities outside the Stranglers, go to: www.paul-roberts.co.uk.

A new Baz Warne site is set to go online tomorrow (6th April). The address is: www.bazwarne.com.

Some time ago, Stranglers management approached the original SIS team (now operating voluntarily in their free time as "SIS UK") to take on the arrangement of a Stranglers convention, in the tradition of previous "grand days out". They were happy to oblige and, after meetings with management, Marian Shepherd has forwarded two flyers for the convention, which can be accessed via the links below (these have been compressed for ease of down-loading, and we suggest you print them out).

The pertinent details of the convention are:

September 14th, 15th and 16th, 2001, at Pontins Leisure Centre, Brean Down, Somerset. The weekend will include two Stranglers' sets (one "unplugged" and one electric), the "JJ Solo" show, an acoustic set with Baz and the Sun Devils, plus other special guests and much more. Tickets are from £89 per person, including two nights on-site accommodation. See the flyers for more details.

Booking details are now available at: https://secureserve.co.uk/thestranglers/Pontins/PontinsWeekend.htm.

This will be the ONLY headline show for the band in 2001, so all involved look forward to seeing you in Somerset this September and to making this as much a success as past events have been.

This just in from Channel 5 News (with our apologies for the short notice). An interview with Paul and JJ will be broadcast on Channel 5 tomorrow (Thursday 22nd March) between 6 & 7am.

JJ recently did an interview/session for a new internet radio station, NET FM. We have been informed that this session will be broadcast on Wednesday 14th March on the station's late show, which goes out between 10pm and 1am. JJ should be on for about an hour from 10.30pm. NET FM's address is: www.netfm.com.

Marian Shepherd of SIS UK has informed us that the information phoneline (in the UK) is temporarily unavailable. This is due to the telephone company changing the number for this service without notice. As soon as the phone company confirm if the change is permanent (and provide a number), we will post the pertinent details.

According to Yasuo Sugahara (aka Momoyo) of the Japanese band "Lizard", JJ did production duties for them when they came over to the UK in 1979. One of the tracks from that session, "Guyana" (re-mixed in 1999) has been posted as an MP3 file at: http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/1009/1009366.html. JJ can be heard on backing vocals.

We've had a number of emails about the apparent appearance of the Stranglers at this year's "Holidays in the Sun" festival. Contrary to postings elsewhere on the web, management inform us that the Stranglers will NOT be appearing at this year's event. The band wish to concentrate all their efforts on the "Stranglers Weekend" in September at Pontin's, Brean Down (see below) as their only Major Headline appearance this year.

We have added two gig reviews from the recent European tour, with thanks to Paula French and Manfred Oppdehipt.

The new live version of "5 Minutes" from "5 Live 01" appears on the cover CD of the February 2001 issue of "Classic Rock Magazine".

The magazine's websites are: www.thefuturenetwork.plc.uk and www.intermusic.com.

We've had a number of enquiries regarding the release date of the new live album (see below). The official release date from SPV recordings is 29th January. However, the distributors in each territory have the discretion to push this date back a week without notice. Consequently, the in-the-shops release date for the UK is now February 5th.

"Self Discovery", the second Paul Roberts solo album will be released on Tuesday, 30th January, 2001. This 9 track CD includes the studio versions of "Fried" (which was previewed last year) and "My Father's Bride" (previewed at the "Solar Live" charity event) as well as 7 unreleased tracks.

The tracklisting is: Intro; Dreams; Fried; Grateful; Soul Alive; Heaven; My Father's Bride; Candy; Self Discovery.

More information, and two audio samples, can be found at: www.paul-roberts.co.uk.

On a more personal note, Paul will be going in for an eye operation, probably some time in March. Again, more information can be found at the official Paul Roberts web site, www.paul-roberts.co.uk.

We have been alerted to two interviews:

The first is a one page interview of JJ in the February 2001 issue of "Bizzarre" magazine (which has a Punk special). Although a UK magazine, this publication does appear to have some international distribution (we've spotted it here in the US).

Secondly, the UK's Radio 5 will air an interview of Jet and Paul by Dave Mason on "Radio 5 Live" this Friday (26th January) at around 2:30 pm. For those of you outside the UK, Radio 5 broadcasts live on the web at: www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive. A webcam from the studio can also be found at: www.bbc.co.uk/radio5live/live/studiocams.ram.

We have just added a review for JJ's Manchester University solo gig. This article first appeared in the Guardian newspaper on December 11th, 2000, and appears on this site with kind permission. The review is available here and forms part of our Reference Articles section.

The latest live offering from the Stranglers will be "5 Live 01" (note that this has changed from the early pre-release/promo copies, which had the title "Live"). This double-CD package features recordings with Baz Warne as the guitarist, after John Ellis had left the band and will be released on the SPV label (catalogue number: SPV 085-71052-DCD).

This is slated to be a world-wide release (with distributors varying, depending on location): the UK release date will be January 29th, followed by Europe and North America on the 30th. Other territories should follow shortly thereafter.

The track listing for 5 Live 01 is:

Disc 1:

5 Minutes; Always The Sun; Money; (Get A) Grip (On Yourself); Nice 'n' Sleazy; Lies And Deception; Northwinds; Paradise Row; Straighten Out; Something Better Change; Golden Boy; Goodbye Toolouse; Duchess.

Disc 2:

Sinister; 96 Tears; All Day And All Of The Night; English Towns; Nuclear Device; Princess Of The Streets; European Female; Genetix; Golden Brown; Never To Look Back; Hanging Around; No More Heroes.

We have the following dates for the 2001 tour, just in from management. Please note that these are preliminary dates and are subject to changes beyond the control of the Band and their agents.

For those of you who have contacted us regarding finding contacts for these venues and obtaining tickets, we have now added contact information, as we know it, to the list below (with thanks to Maaike Uijthoven).

13th Jan: Please note the update to the Berlin gig information (with thanks to Dave & Lynne Southworth).

More information will be posted as we get it.

Date 1st Feb 2nd Feb 3rd Feb 4th Feb 5th Feb 7th Feb 8th Feb 9th Feb 10th Feb 11th Feb

Country Germany Switzerland Germany Germany Germany Germany Germany Czech Republic Germany Germany

City Karlsruhe Bern Stuttgart Darmstadt Köln Bielefeld Leipzig Prague Berlin Hamburg

Venue Substage Mohle Hunziken Villa Berg Centralstation Prime Club Elfenbein Anker Lucerna Razzle Dazzle, Stehplatz Fabrik

Contact www.substage.de/www/index1.html http://www.muehlehunziken.ch www.centralstation.de www.centralticket.de www.primeclub.de http://www.elfenbein-entertainment.de wilder.osten.de/anker/ www.leipzig.de www.lucerna.cz www.prague.cz www.ticketonline.de www.fabrik.de www.ticketonline.de