BIOGRAPHY
The Stranglers: A short history - Part 1
1973
The story of how The Stranglers came into existence in the first place is perhaps atypical within the music industry. No less surprising then, that its history too, is unusual. It begins in late 1973. By this time, Jet Black had reached a point in his life when he found himself involved in several business enterprises.
Located in Guildford, Surrey, he was founder and owner of one of Britain's first retail domestic brewing equipment companies. Domestic brewing in Britain had been effectively illegal before the seventies without payment of Excise duties, which, when abolished in the 1963 budget, incentivized a whole new industry.
Involved in both wholesale and export distribution, he pioneered many new products in the industry and more famously, he also owned a fleet of ice cream vans and ran a retail Off Licence.
By the late part of 1973, and perhaps inexplicably, he began to lose interest in the routines of the business world, and the enterprises he had nurtured during the preceding decade. Jet began to look to music again as an escape.
In his teens, he had been an amateur and then semi professional drummer working the pubs and clubs located mostly on the east side of London. Many London pubs at the time routinely featured live music - far more than is normal today - which became the basis of his early gigging experience.
But by this point, he realised that he needed to re-establish for himself whether he could still cut-it as a drummer and during late 1973 and early 1974, he was to spend many months working the semi-pro circuit.