JJ Burnel: The Brook, Portswood, tonight

STRANGLERS fans are in for a rare treat tonight as original member JJ Burnel rolls back the years with a solo acoustic appearance at The Brook, Portswood.

Known more for his hard uncompromising sound than moody acoustic numbers, JJ will be mixing reworked Stranglers hits with self-penned tunes from his imminent live album.

"I'm on the second part of a little acoustic tour," explains JJ.

"I did it in June and it was a sell-out everywhere so I'm doing it again. It's completely cool and different from what I've been doing with The Stranglers," he muses.

"It's just a laugh to turn up with a guitar doing it in little coffee bars, but that's more of an American thing, so I'm doing small evenings. I just sing a few songs, tell a few stories and porkies," he laughs.

"It's just intimate. I drink a couple of bottles of vino and imagine that people are in my front room. It's very chilled out and I can't hide behind 50 million watts of PA and four other blokes in black," says JJ, referring to his Stranglers bandmates image.

As well as material from a new solo album, which is out next year, JJ includes a handful of Stranglers classics, performing them as they were written, as opposed as to how they came out.

"I sing a few Stranglers songs the way they were originally written. The first one goes back to when I was 15.

"I wrote a song that was a rip off of the Beach Boys and Jimi Hendrix at the time which later became a big hit for the Stranglers called Go Buddy Go. Another song called Skin Deep was a hit in the mid-80s which was originally a blues song."

"If it's Stranglers material, I'm playing it's good because they are some really good songs and if it's naked but recognisable as a song then it's a song as opposed to some tarted up production work."

Although JJ is currently out on the road himself, the band are still very much together, with another live album set for release in the next 12 months.

"We only play when we feel like it and it's great. It's an ideal way of doing it because you're beholden to no-one.

"We don't sell vasts amounts of records any more, but that's never really been the point of it. We've always split everything four or five ways. If I'd written an entire song I'm happier splitting the money with my mates/colleagues than taking it all myself, because it's a crap reason to split a band up - over money."

"We've just done some stuff for Japanese TV and we'll be playing around Europe a few times.

"We did about nine festivals this year which is ok for a bunch of old farts."

And as well as bandmates after 25 years in the business, the "bunch of old farts" as JJ put them are still the best of friends, which he thinks rubs of in their music.

"Dave Greenfield our keyboard player - the acid casualty - is my next door neighbour! He chose to live next door to me. We don't get together as much as we used to but it's good."

So what is in store for JJ? "There is a live album which we won't promote too much in Britain, but we will world-wide.

"I'm playing the new material on this tour but it's taken about 18 months to get seven decent songs together. I've dumped about 30 tunes along the way!"

* You can catch JJ's acoustic show at The Brook, Portswood, tonight. Tickets are priced £10. Telephone 023 8055 5366 for more details.