A relic of rock history, the bass guitar J.J. Burnel used to record The Stranglers’ classic ‘Peaches’ with is now owned by Adam Clayton of U2.
J.J. tells Noise11.com, “The original bass that I recorded ‘Peaches’ with was bought by Adam Clayton from U2. He made an offer for it because I think U2 are starting up some sort of museum in Dublin. He made an offer and I said yes. It is unplayable. I smashed it in two. Its glued together. It is going to appear in Dublin one day”.
J.J. admits the guitar was once stained with blood. He says, “With all of its damage and blood. I nearly sacked a new roadcrew member years back because he cleaned all the blood off the guitar. There was a lot of fighting in the early days. There was almost a punch-up every night”.
While now a punk rock classic ‘Peaches’ was almost a reggae. J.J. says, “I thought I was just copying what I had heard quite recently at the time. We were commissioned to augment a Jamaican sound system because our first label was a reggae label, Safari Records. They didn’t get us any gigs or even pay for any recordings but we were signed up to them, We turned up with our little PA to add it to a Jamaican sound system. I had never heard anything like it. It was bass, drums and a lot of space. The next day I tried copying it and it came out as ‘Peaches’. When we tried copying things it was never successful and it just came out ‘Stranglered’.”
Watch the full Noise11.com interview with The Stranglers’ J.J. Burnel:
The Stranglers’ 2025 Australian tour dates are: Wednesday, March 19: Enmore Theatre, Sydney, NSW Thursday, March 20: The Tivoli, Brisbane Saturday, March 22: The Forum, Melbourne, VIC Sunday, March 23: The Gov, Adelaide Tuesday, March 25: Astor Theatre, Perth, WA The tour is called “Fifty Years in Black” and will be the band’s third tour of Australia in the 2020s. Tickets are available on Ticketek Australia.
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