The Stranglers were back in town 2 years after their last visit, playing the same famous Parisian venue.

As in 2012, Jet Black was not on stage – age and bad health have been taking their toll on the drummer, now in his mid 70s! – replaced by a newcomer, Jim McCaulay. This was the only difference in the line-up compared to 2012, which featured Ian Barnard on drums, and naturally Dave Greenfield (keyboards), Baz Warne (guitar and vocals) and Jean-Jacques Burnel (bass and vocals).

I had deeply enjoyed the 2012 gig, strangely enough only my second Stranglers show. Surely nothing to do with the fact that my first contact with their music had left me cold, even though I had translated the first issue of the Strangled magazine in French! I had become a “fan” a couple of years later, getting to understand and love their music.

The band got on stage at 9pm sharp, with Waltz in black playing on the sound system,  and opened with Toiler On The Sea.

The second song started with JJ knocking his bass, the usual unusual introduction to No More Heroes. Great song and rendition!

First lead vocals duties for JJ with Was It You?, followed by Threatened with Baz back on vocals, before JJ took the lead again with a brilliant version of Summat Outanowt.

I had the feeling that the sound was not as good as on their previous appearance, but I am totally unsure there was any relation with the problems Dave started to experience, JJ joking in French “40 years ago it was like this every night!”.

A rather quick fix and Dave could sing Peasant In The Big Shitty, followed by the wonderful and powerful Peaches, one of the highlights of the evening!

JJ was back on lead vocals with La Folie – which has a weird impact live – and the temperature rose again with Midnight Summer Dream and the classic and fabulous Golden Brown and Always The Sun.

2 more pieces were sung by JJ  (Thrown Away, Never To Look Back), then back to Baz with Nuclear Device. I’ve never seen the “original” line-up with Hugh Cornwell, but Baz is – again – quite impressive.

And the show continued with an excellent Skin Deep, then another song by JJ (Time To Die), the recent Lowlands, and another classic and climax (no pun intended) with Nice ‘N’ Sleazy.

Baz & JJ were still sharing lead vocals duties on Walk On By, Freedom Is Insane, Duchess and Five Minutes, and the lads left after an invigorating Hanging Around.

If I was not totally convinced by the sound quality or Jim’s drumming, the commitment and eagerness of the band are undeniably genuine! Add a good dose of humour (the flying shoe episode at a later point), raw energy and great songs, add frenzy in the first rows of the standing audience, you’ll get the picture!

Off again and back again for a final song, Tank and then they left for good at 11pm.

As most of the “punk” and “post-punk” bands I’ve seen over the recent years (Peter Hook & The Light, Wire, The Fall, PIL, Echo And The Bunnymen, Section25…), The Stranglers make it clear that they are still a musical force to be counted on and a great band on stage after 40 years.

And JJ has still this almost unique way of moving while playing the bass – only can think of Peter Hook as a possible contender or Dennis Dunaway who I had not yet seen on stage at the time!

Setlist:

Toiler on the Sea
No More Heroes
Was It You?
Threatened
Summat Outanowt
Peasant in the Big Shitty
Peaches
La folie
Midnight Summer Dream
Golden Brown
Always the Sun
Thrown Away
Never to Look Back
Nuclear Device (The Wizard of Aus)
Skin Deep
Time to Die
Lowlands
Nice ‘n’ Sleazy
Walk On By
Freedom Is Insane
Duchess
5 Minutes
Hanging Around

Encore 1:
Norfolk Coast
Something Better Change
All Day and All of the Night

Encore 2:
Tank