Still with my mind on 'Live (X Certs), I thought I'd post this piece that appeared in the Record Mirror edition of 10th March 1979. This is another reason why the band were not putting there all into promotional activities for the album. It is clear that they were doing their bit to promote Anglo-Australian relations at the time. Unfortunately, they seemed to have taken their lead from Sir Les Petterson when it came to the finer subtleties if international diplomacy!
IT NOW seems possible that the Stranglers will leave Australia before fully completing their planned tour.
Record Mirror understands that there are plans for the group to fly back to Britain this week after a series of events which have included:
The Group reportedly being attacked on stage in Brisbane by local "undercover" police and their equipment damaged.
A television black - 'out after the Stranglers had used four letter words during a TV interview in Sydney.
An airport incident in which Jean Jacques Burnel dropped his trousers for the cameras after being asked to "do something outrageous." (It was later reported, Record Mirror understands erroneously, that Burnel had defaecated at the-same time!)
A press backlash after the Stranglers had used strippers (including two male strippers) on stage.
After the incident in Brisbane last week it was reported that Hugh Cornwall had been taken to hospital with head wounds. And that Jean Jacques Burnel had gone into hiding after knocking out two policemen.
The group later travelled to Sydney and - with the aid of the tour promoter - were able to patch up their equipment to continue with their shows; the most recent being last night in the Australian capital, Canberra.
But when Record Mirror spoke to the Stranglers' drummer Jet Black in Sydney over the weekend the problems were far from over.
"We were told that Queensland is a police state - and it's quite true," he said. "They apparently have a 'Task Force' - a sort of secret police - and that's who disrupted our concert," he claimed.
Black, who described the police as "disguised, and wearing what they thought were punk clothes, like purple hair, safety pins and chains," reckoned that the attack came after they had been playing for about 20 minutes.
"They seemed to have come with the intention of smashing up the gig," he said. "We thought they were local heavies, and had no idea that they might be police.
"Hugh was hit by a bottle, and Jean managed to flatten a couple of them."
After the fracas, according to Black, the group took refuge in their hotel room ... leaving Queensland the next day for the comparative safety of Sydney. As in America inter-state jurisidiction doesn't apply, and once across the border in New Victoria they were "safe" from the Queensland police.
But, Black claims, the problems didn't stop there.
"It really is very unpleasant ," he said, "and we virtually had to smuggle Jean Jacques across the border."
And he added: "People are being oppressed here, and we've been denouncing that publicly - on stage and at interviews.
"I think that's why all the trouble started. The people here are just middle - class plebs, although the kids love what we're doing.
"They're looking for somebody to help them with their demeanour."
The Stranglers manager Ian Grant flew back to London over the weekend, reporting only that the group "hoped to continue with as many gigs on the original schedule as possible."
Although their equipment was damaged during the incident in Brisbane it now appears that this has been repaired.
But just how long the Stranglers will remain in Australia is unknown. According to their British spokesman Alan Edwards : "They're going to attempt to complete the schedule - but I wouldn't stake a lot of money on this being possible.
"Once a situation like this has arisen it is bound to escalate - and it's going to be made very hard for them to finish their schedule. No matter how much they want to.
"From the moment they set foot on Australian soil they've encountered resistance from every possible quarter," he claimed.
And he added: "The only positive aspect is that they've generated a lot of interest - and despite all the problems it seems to have proved that there are a lot of kids in Australia who want to see them.”
And how times have changed. Now they are welcomed every cpuple of years
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