#81: No Mercy by Stranglers

City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: August 1985
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “No Mercy”
Lyrics: “No Mercy”

The Stranglers formed in Guilford, Surrey, England, in 1974. They originally built a following within the mid-1970s pub rock scene. While their aggressive, no-compromise attitude had them identified by the media with the emerging UK punk rock scene that followed, their idiosyncratic approach rarely followed any single musical genre, and the group went on to explore a variety of musical styles, from  new wave, art rock and gothic rock to the sophist-pop of some of their 1980s output. The classic Stranglers lineup was comprised of Jean-Jacques Burnel, Jet Black, Hugh Cornwell, and Dave Greenfield. Jean-Jacques Burnel was born in Notting Hill, London, in 1952. He trained as a classical guitarist, but switched to bass guitar with the Stranglers. As a holder of French citizenship, Burnel received his call-up papers for national service in France. He succeeded in avoiding it with a novel defence, arguing that his absence would damage the Stranglers as a band, and therefore the careers of the other members.

Jet Black was born in 1938 and Ilford, East London. His birth name was Brian Duffy. He was a businessman up until the mid-1970s, owning a fleet of ice cream vans and an off-licence in Guilford called The Jackpot, that was the base for the early Stranglers. Black also had a home-brewing business. He met Hugh Cornwell in 1974 who got Jet Black to join the Stranglers.

Hugh Cornwell was born in 1949 in Tufnell Park, North London. In the late 1960s, after earning a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Bristol, he embarked on post-graduate research at Lund University in Sweden. Not long after his arrival he formed the band Johnny Sox. Cornwell, Black and Burnel were all part of the band. The Johnny Sox name was dropped, with the band adopting the name the Guildford Stranglers before settling on the Stranglers. Cornwell was the lead guitarist in the group and he also sang the majority of songs, with Burnel handling lead vocals on about a third of the band’s songs.

While in Sweden, Hugh Cornwell got to know Hans Wärmling and invited him to join the Guilford Stranglers. At this point the band began playing gigs again in pubs and clubs, mainly playing cover versions of MOR pop tunes. Wärmling was far from happy with this musical direction; in particular, he objected to having to learn and play the Tony Orlando and Dawn hit from 1973 “Tie a Yellow Ribbon”. and he suddenly left the band in 1975.

Filling Wärmling’s spot, was Dave Greenfield. Born in Brighton, England, in 1949, Dave Greenfield learned guitar from an older schoolmate. After leaving school, he played for a year in bands at American bases in Germany.tried to develop a music career in Germany, and played in bands in Britain as well as Germany while also working in his father’s printing business and as a piano tuner. In Britain, his bands included the Initials, the Blue Maxi (who covered Jerry Keller’s 1959 pop hit “Here Comes Summer”), and progressive rock bands Rusty Butler and Credo. Greenfield joined the Stranglers after responding to a 1975 ad in Melody Maker magazine seeking a new bandmate.

The Stranglers did live concerts with The Ramones and Patti Smith. As a result, The Stranglers were reviewed as a punk rock band, though some in the punk rock movement regarded them with suspicion. In 1977, the band released a single titled “Peaches”. It reached #8 in the UK. The lyrics to “Peaches” featured coarse sexual language and innuendo to a degree that was unusual for the time. The song’s narrator is girl-watching on a crowded beach one hot summer day. It is never made clear if his lascivious thoughts (such as “there goes a girl and a half”) are an  interior monologue, comments to his companions, or come-on lines to the attractive women in question. The original lyric “clitoris” was replaced with “bikini” for the Top 40 single to get radio airplay. The song was a track from the debut album Rattus Norvegicus, an album which climbed to #4 on the UK pop album chart.

A second single in 1977, “Something Better Change”, was a commentary on the punk revolution that was occurring. It reached #9 in the UK pop chart. It was the debut single from the band’s second album, No More Heroes which reached #2 on the UK pop album chart. A third Top Ten hit in the UK that year, “No More Heroes”, was a song about historical figures including Russian marxist Leon Trotsky, stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce, William Shakespeare, Hungarian painter Elmyr de Hory, fictional character (known for his ironic humour) Sancho Panza from the novel Don Quixote, and Roman emperor Nero.

In 1978, the band released a non-album single titled “5 Minutes”. It gives an account of a rape that occurred at a shared flat in London Jean-Jacques Burnel  lived in during 1977. The lyrics, sung in both English and French, convey Burnel’s frustrations over finding the five men who committed the attack. It peaked in the UK at #11. The Stranglers released their third album, Black and White which peaked at #2 on the UK pop album chart. “Nice ‘n’ Sleazy” was the debut single from the album. Late that year, the Stranglers covered the Dionne Warwick 1964 hit “Walk on By”. It peaked at #11 in Ireland.

Two more albums followed: The Raven (1979) which peaked at #4 on the Uk pop album chart, and an esoteric concept album titled The Gospel According to the Meninblack (1981) which reached #8 on the pop album chart in the UK. But it was in 1982 that the Stranglers had an international Top Ten hit with “Golden Brown”. Hugh Cornwell said of the single, “it was about heroin and also about a girl… both provided me with pleasurable times.” The song climbed to #2 in the UK, #3 in Ireland, #7 in Belgium, #8 in the Netherlands, and #10 in Australia. In 2025, it was a #5 hit in Sweden.

Later in 1982, the psychedelic pop song “Strange Little Girl” reached #7 in the UK. In 1983, the album Feline was released reaching #4 on the pop album chart in the UK. While “European Female” – in praise of European women – peaked at #9 in both Ireland and the UK.

In November 1984, the Stranglers released their eighth studio album titled Aural Sculpture. The debut single from the album was “No Mercy”.

The Stranglers bandmates wrote “No Mercy”. The song offers a stark message that we’re really on our own. We may hunt for love and comfort, but these things are fleeting and a matter of luck.

Everybody seems the same all over,
the search is on for love and comfort constantly.
If it comes your way tomorrow, count yourself lucky
life shows no mercy.

The video was shot at St. Olave’s Hospital in Rotherhithe, London. It features the band dressed as doctors and patients. One version of the ending showed a dummy of Hugh Cornwell’s body filled with tomato sauce hitting the floor in a bloody heap. Considered too gruesome, the video was never shown with this ending.

“No Mercy” reached #3 in Montreal. Internationally, “No Mercy” reached #8 in Belgium, #28 in West Germany, #32 in the Netherlands, and #37 in the UK.

In 1986, the band released the single “Always The Sun” from the album Dreamtime. During the song, after Cornwell sings “Who has the fun? Is it always a man with a gun?” he takes out a gun and shoots the Aztec Sun Calendar Wheel, which then shatters. It peaked at #9 in Italy, #15 in France, #16 in Ireland, and #21 in Australia. In 1987, a live cover of the Kinks 1964 hit “All Day And All of the Night” reached #3 in Ireland, and #7 in the UK.

In 1990, the Stranglers covered the garage rock hit by ? and the Mysterians titled “96 Tears”. It reached #9 in Ireland, and #17 in the UK. After the release of the album, 10, Hugh Cornwell left the band. He was replaced by Purple Helmets guitarist, John Ellis, who had also been part of Peter Gabriel’s backing band for his Tour of China 1984. On vocals, percussionist Paul Roberts stepped up to fill the hole left by Cornwell. Now the Stranglers were a group of five.

The band continued to have its fan base. However, the eleventh to seventeenth studio albums released between Strangers in the Night (1992) and Giants (2012) failed to crack the Top 30 on the UK album chart. While nine single releases between 1992 and 2012 failed to crack the Top 30 on the UK singles chart.

In 2021, the Strangers released Dark Matters which shot to #3 in Scotland, and #4 on the UK pop album chart.

Dave Greenfield died in hospital after a prolonged stay due to heart issues, complicated by infection from COVID-19 contracted on April 26, 2020. He died on May 3, 2020.

Jet Black wrote a short book, Much Ado About Nothing, which detailed the riots in France which were blamed on the Stranglers’ presence in 1981, and also wrote a book in 2010 titled Seven Days in Nice about the same subject. From 2007, Jet Black experienced a range of health issues from atrial fibrillation, severe chest infections and more. He was absent numerous concerts between 2007 and 2017, and officially retired from the band in 2018. He died in 2022 from respiratory problems at the age of 84.

After Hugh Cornwell left The Stranglers in 1990, he teamed up with songwriter Roger Cook (“Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress”, “I Was Kaiser Bill’s Batman”, “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing”, and “You’ve Got Your Troubles”), and Andy West to form a band called CCW (the letters comprised of the first letters of each of the bandmates surnames). Cornwell had released a solo album in 1988 titled Wolf. He returned to release nine more studio albums between 1993 and 2022. His most recent is Moments of Madness (2022). Cornwell has also released nine live albums. Separately, Cornwell has appeared on stage in London in Charlie’s Last Stand, and the 1987 black comedy Eat the Rich (which also starred Paul McCartney and Sandie Shaw). Cornwell hosts Mr Demille FM, a podcast that takes his passion for film and explores it through interviews and episodes on careers and themes.

Hugh Cornwell has also authored six books. Inside Information (1980) tells of the time he spent in HM Prison Pentonville for drug possession. The Stranglers – Song by Song (2001) guides the reader through all of the Stranglers catalogue. A Multitude of Sins (2004) is the title of Hugh Cornwell’s autobiography. His most recent book is the novel Future Tense (2020). Amidst pollution, apocalyptic climatic disasters and draconian new laws, his novel chronicles how world governments decide to get tough on obesity and set up a body mass standard (BMS) to tax those overweight.

Jean-Jacques Burnel is a seventh-degree black belt (nanadan) in Shidokan Karate and is head of Shidokan UK. He is also a motorcyclist and has owned many Triumph motorbikes. Burnel is fluent in French and writes many of his songs in the language. He has composed music for the Japanese TV series Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo. In 1988 he formed an R&B cover band called the Purple Helmets. In addition, he has released two solo albums Euroman Cometh (1979) and Un Jour Parfait (1988). He is the only original member to remain in The Stranglers.

For 2024, a 50th Anniversary Tour included dates in the UK and Europe. And in 2025 the Stranglers toured Europe, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Between June and December 2026, the Stranglers currently list over two dozen concert dates in France, Germany, Portugal and the UK.

July 27, 2026
Ray McGinnis

References:
“Interview with Jean-Jacques Burnel,” Penny Black Music, April 24, 2019.
Tim Naylor, “Independence for Cornwell,” Record Collector, November 23, 2015.
“Stranglers’ keyboardist Dave Greenfield dies after contracting Covid-19: Greenfield, 71, contracted virus after prolonged stay in hospital for heart problems,” Guardian, May 20, 2020.
Dave Simpson, “‘We were called heretics and ostracised’: the Stranglers on fights, drugs and finally growing up,” Guardian, August 31, 2021.
Adam Sweeting, “Jet Black obituary: Founding member and drummer of the Stranglers who set up the group after a business career in home-brewing and ice-cream,” Guardian, December 12, 2022.
Hugh Cornwell, A Multitude of Sins, Golden Brown, The Stranglers, and Strange Little Girls. (HarperCollins, 2004).
The Stranglers, “Tour Dates,” thestranglers.co.uk.

CKOI 96.9-FM Montreal Top Ten | August 9, 1985