JET BLACK
The Stranglers’ driving force
(1938-2022)
“WE were immediately drawn to one another,” Hugh Cornwell recalled of first meeting fellow musician Jet Black in Guildford in 1974. “He had a singular sense of purpose that I identified with. He threw everything in his previous life out, to dedicate himself to our common goal… The Stranglers’ success was founded on his determination and drive.”
Then known as Brian Duffy, Jet Black was already a successful local entrepreneur, owning an ice-cream business and The Jackpot off-licence. Previously a drummer in various jazz bands during the ’60s, Black had sought to reignite his music career by answering Cornwell’s Melody Maker ad to join Johnny Sox. Together they formed The Stranglers (initially The Guildford Stranglers) by recruiting Jean-Jacques Burnel and Dave Greenfield. Black offered the upstairs room of The Jackpot as their early rehearsal space and retained one of his ice-cream vans as a mode of transport to and from gigs.
Blessed with impeccable timing and feel, he was an integral part of the band’s progression from punk-era upstarts to something more nuanced, be it the more experimental tone of 1978’s Black And White or the conceptual reach of 1981’s The Gospel According To The Meninblack (1981).
His jazz-inflected time signature was a key element of The Stranglers’ biggest hit, 1982’s “Golden Brown”. “We were never a punk band,” he told the in 2014. “What’s punk about ‘Golden Brown’, ‘Strange Little Girl’ or ‘No More Heroes’? The key is, we can
