by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Even if they never really fit into the punk scene, the Stranglers were at one point punk's biggest hit-makers, with tunes like "Peaches," "Golden Brown" and "(Get a) Grip (On Yourself)." Concert riots, karate fighting and kidnapped journalists cemented their surly mythology.

That was a lifetime ago, though, and after founder and singer Hugh Cornwell's somewhat acrimonious departure in the early '90s, the band sort of fell off the radar. Now they're back, and in fine form, with Norfolk Coast. Cornwell's absence is little hindrance - in my book anyway. Paul Roberts handles the mic just fine these days, and besides, the band's strength was always the tension between Dave Greenfield's baroque organ motifs and Jean Jacques Burnel's simple, ferocious bass lines.

That tension remains intact on Norfolk Coast, as does the band's penchant for eloquent expressions of grim, gothic darkness. Achieving that this time had a lot to do with location. The album was recorded at Chateau Strangler, the band's headquarters out in the west-English sticks.

"It's 25 minutes from Stonehenge, 20 minutes from Glastonbury," says Burnel, "a very ancient part of England, less Anglo-Saxon, more Celtic in tradition. It's a fantastic area of England, very mysterious - the whole Arthurian legend comes from around that area."

Cider-delic suicide note

Another local legend is that of Edward Tucker, a 17th-century suicide. "Above my bed, apparently - it was a barn previously - this guy Tucker hanged himself. In those days, if you committed suicide, you'd committed a crime. It was sacrilegious, so it was best that you succeeded. Otherwise you might've mutilated yourself but you'd still be put behind bars. You couldn't be buried in consecrated ground, because you'd defiled yourself, so your body was just chucked into the nearest crossroads, which happened to be where this pub Tucker's Grave is now - which is where we repaired to most evenings for a pint of cider. I don't recommend you having more than two pints, it's fucking strong stuff. So we coined the term ‘cider-delic.' ‘Tucker's Grave' came out of that, nothing more, nothing less, a lovely little anecdote based on our personal experience and a true story as well."

Another contribution to the CD's creep factor came from the other side of England, the titular eastern Norfolk Coast, where Burnel had rented a cottage.

"It's a desolate piece of coastline full of sand dunes. The second week I was there, the dunes lowered more than usual for some inexplicable reason. They revealed a circle, a wooden of ancient oak tree trunks, in the middle of which there was an upturned oak trunk with the roots pointing upwards to the sky. Within weeks, government scientists had come and carbon-dated it - two and a half thousand years, therefore druidic, therefore roughly the same period as Stonehenge. It's now been named Seahenge.

"While I was there, the government decided to take it away, take the whole site away for analysis or whatever. In its stead, and not even in the same place, they put an artificial one. There was a huge local furor - you can't do this, this is a sacred site! It's like, two and a half fucking thousand years old! I got involved in the local politics of it - I was scandalized! And I hadn't written a thing in years, and suddenly I started writing tons, about 30 pieces. I wrote ‘Norfolk Coast' and ‘Big Thing Coming' in the same day. So something happened you know, though I'd like to know why they did that."

Saucer full of secrets

Ah, conspiracy! Religion, government, God knows what else! Familiar turf for our Stranglers. "We've been fascinated by this for many a year. Our first great failure, commercially, as a musical group was an album called The Gospel According to the Meninblack. It was an attempt - ham-fisted, but an attempt nevertheless - to interpret, in some Van Daniken kind of way, some of the phenomena, especially in the Old Testament. Until someone proves to me otherwise, I shall still leave the option that the missing link will never be found, that ancient fables and legends are based in fact, and that we are not alone. I keep a healthy skepticism about it. I think that religion is the best way to coerce people and control them, but I don't think it actually explains where we're from. Until then, I'll keep the flying-saucer option - and all the other options! - open."

With guests at Club Soda on Wednesday,
Oct. 20, 8 p.m., $22.50, all ages

>> Music Listings