The Stranglers, Roundhouse

A mere forty years after they formed, punk-rock survivors The Stranglers defy the creeping years with their Big Ruby UK tour.

Four decades on, their sound remains distinctive.They were the only punks around who could actually play their instruments. Their 1977 mega-hit No More Heroes. The snarling vocals chugging rhythms are there, but there is real melody and songcraft -a punk rarity- and Dave Greenfield's keyboard is nothing short of virtuosic.

Outside punk-squaddy circles, The Stranglers are best known for Golden Brown, their beguiling 1981 paean to opiates. Three decades on, its allure endures. Hugh Cornwell’s vague lyrics paint a torpid dreamworld, strangely embroidered by the waltz of a Tudor-sounding harpsichord.

But their feirsome back catalogue extends far beyond this hit single. Since their debut record Rattus Norvegicus in 1977, the band have produced a further 16 albums, with consistent critical success.

Their latest effort, 2012’s The Giants proved that the band still have what it takes to make a great record. The bass and keys heavy opening track Another Camden Afternoon buoyed by a a whinnying guitar is an atmospheric opening for an album brimming with a punk statesmanship. On songs like Boom Boom, with its straight-talking vocals, or Mercury Rising, where a synthesiser duels a freewheeling guitar over a deceptively simple drumbeat, the sound is of a band both in touch with their roots and alive to the fact that it is actually year the 2014.

There’s a reason The Stranglers have far outlasted their 80s contemporaries. Let these grandees of punk-rock show you how it’s done.