On 8th October 1977 the above pictured issue of Record Mirror hit the news stands. Aside from the fact that the cover is one of my favourite front pages in the band's long career (almost an alternative take of the reverse image of the then current 'No More Heroes' album), it was the small print in the title that was responsible for the rumpus (love that word) that followed in the letters pages a couple of weeks later. 'Punks In The Money' it read... surely an idea that flew directly in the face of the whole punk, DIY, 'we're no different from our audience' mantra adopted by the first wave of British punk bands.
A front cover certainly promised more on the inside than the reader in anticipation got.
It's just a few short paragraphs of argument for and against a hypothesis that by the Autumn of 1977' with a second successful album under their four belts' The Stranglers were on the verge of being the wealthiest musicians to sport leather jackets and ripped T shirts in the whole green and slimy land. What's more, and perhaps more damaging to their hard men of punk rock image, the article attempts to spread the notion that the band (with JJ singled out in particular) had minders with them at this stage (the Finchleys maybe, but I was never aware of anything more formal than that early doors... wasn't that enough!).
It seems to me that this short piece was probably a deliberate wind up piece, intended to swell the volume of mail received by the paper's readership (already split on the virtues of punk) whilst further bolstering the band's already well established penchant for controversy, real or concocted.
Anyway, please see the mailbox sparing in the next post.
In the end, whilst I am not privy to the band's financial well being then or now, it is clear that the Piggybankinblack was not always fattened and certainly as of October 1977, some awful financial situations were ahead of them.
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