''Euroman Cometh'' is the debut solo album by

the Stranglers The Stranglers are an English rock music, rock band formed in 1974. Scoring 23 UK top 40 singles and 20 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are one of the longest-surviving bands to have originated in the ...

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

J.J. Burnel, released in April 1979 by

United Artists United Artists (UA) is an American film production and film distribution, distribution company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, it was founded in February 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford an ...

. It is a

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

, as most of the songs concern the ideal of a united

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, both culturally and economically. Upon release, the album was a contrast to the more melodic songs of the Stranglers, containing what Pat Gilbert of ''

Record Collector ''Record Collector'' is a British monthly music magazine focussing on rare and collectable records, and the bands who recorded them. It was founded in September 1979 and distributes worldwide. It is promoted as "the world’s leading authority o ...

'' describes as "a collection of dark, atmospheric soundscapes, embroidered with Burnel's intense, monotone theorising about a united Europe."

Release

Despite a mixed critical reception, ''Euroman Cometh'' reached number 40 in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

in April 1979. The track "Freddie Laker (Concorde and Eurobus)" was released as a single on 13 April 1979, backed with the non-album track "Ozymandias". Though being the most Stranglers-like track on the album, the single did not chart.

Music and lyrical themes

Musically, ''Euroman Cometh'' was an attempt at incorporating electronic sounds into rock. "I was quite a big

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, ) is a Germany, German Electronic music, electronic band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk was among the first successful a ...

fan already by then," Burnel said in 2009. "I was also a Can fan right from a teenager. So I liked that metronomic sort of thing and I then put my own slant on it because I was playing most of the instruments in the studio." Lyrically, it evolved around the idea of a

United States of Europe A federal Europe, also referred to as the United States of Europe (USE) or a European federation, is a hypothetical scenario of European integration leading to the formation of a sovereign superstate (similar to the United States of America), ...

in the context of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. "A Europe riddled with american values and soviet subversion is a diseased sycophantic old whore: a Europe strong, united and independent is a child of the future", states Burnel on the inner sleeve. "Freddie Laker (Concorde and Eurobus)" is a rant against big business and Americans, and a homage to British airline entrepreneur

Freddie Laker Sir Frederick Alfred Laker (6 August 1922 – 9 February 2006) was an English airline entrepreneur, best known for founding Laker Airways in 1966, which went bankrupt in 1982. Known as Freddie Laker, he was one of the first airline owners to ...

, "who epitomised the lengths the Americans would go to fuck over the European," Burnel said in 2009. According to Stuart Bolton, writing for ''The Burning Up Times'' magazine, "Euromess" is not "purely an anti-Soviet rant but more a pro-European call for solidarity." It is also a lament for

Jan Palach Jan Palach (; 11 August 1948 – 19 January 1969) was a Czech student of history and political economics at Charles University in Prague. His self-immolation in 1969 at age 20 was a political protest against the end of the Prague Spring resul ...

, the

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

student who burned himself to death after the

1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia On 20–21 August 1968, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four fellow Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, and the Hungarian People's Republic. The in ...

by the

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP), formally the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance (TFCMA), was a Collective security#Collective defense, collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Polish People's Republic, Poland, between the Sovi ...

armies. However, not every song relates directly to Europe or the past. "Jellyfish" relates to having a broad mind, accommodating ideas and not being narrow. And the album's cover song, "Pretty Face", isn't linked to the European idea at all. "It doesn't really have any bearing on the rest of the album," Burnel said, "it was just a track I loved." Keeping in line with the European concept, the vocals on ''Euroman Cometh'' are sung in English, French ("Euroman", "Tout Comprendre") and German ("Deutschland Nicht Uber Alles"). The album title, Burnel believes, may have come from the 1946 play ''

The Iceman Cometh ''The Iceman Cometh'' is a play written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1939. First published in 1946, the play premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on October 9, 1946, directed by Eddie Dowling, where it ran for 136 perf ...

'' by

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of Realism (theatre), realism, earlier associated with ...

Recording

The initial work on the album began at TW Studios in London during the recording of the Stranglers' ''

Black and White Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

'' album in February 1978. Without a home at the time, Burnel was mostly spending the night in the studio, and each night after the Stranglers sessions, he would write and record. He would use a

beatbox Beatboxing (also, and sometimes, called beat boxing) is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines (usually a Roland TR-808, TR-808), using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice.rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

salsa Salsa most often refers to: * Salsa (food), a variety of sauces used as condiments * Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music * Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music Salsa or SALSA may also refer to: Arts and ent ...

, and

rumba The term rumba may refer to a variety of unrelated music styles. Originally, "rumba" was used as a synonym for "party" in northern Cuba, and by the late 19th century it was used to denote the complex of secular music styles known as Cuban rumba ...

. "All these different rhythms

here Here may refer to: Music * ''Here'' (Adrian Belew album), 1994 * ''Here'' (Alicia Keys album), 2016 * ''Here'' (Cal Tjader album), 1979 * ''Here'' (Edward Sharpe album), 2012 * ''Here'' (Idina Menzel album), 2004 * ''Here'' (Merzbow album), ...

you couldn't change the single pattern, but you could speed it up," he said. "It was a similar thing they'd put into organs at the time." With no pre-written songs, Burnel found it useful, creatively, to record basslines or guitar parts over a rhythm and building it up from there. "So very quickly I built up a little body of work and I thought, "oh God, I'm halfway to an album, I might as well carry on." The Stranglers' record label

then agreed to issue the album. Guest musicians were Peter Howells of the Drones (drums on tracks three, five and six), track nine featured Brian James of the Damned (guitar),

Lew Lewis Keith "Lew" Lewis (1955 – 16 April 2021)1 - Lew Lewis 1955 - 2021
'' ...

(harmonica) and Carey Fortune of Chelsea (drums). All other instruments were played by Burnel.

Album cover

The album cover features a photograph of the

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, which officially opened in 1977. It was chosen for the album cover because it was architecturally grandiose, representing modernity and radical new thinking. Printed on the sleeve is a tribute to the Meriden Motorcycle Co-operative that manufactured Triumph motorcycles between 1976 and 1983. The tribute reads, "The Triumph Workers Co-operative at Meriden have proved that personally motivated enterprise coupled with group interest is a necessary ingredient in successful socialism and the sham they call nationalisation could only be suggested and perpetrated by enemies of the people." The engine of Burnel's 750cc

Triumph Bonneville T140 The Triumph Bonneville T140 is a standard motorcycle with a capacity engine that was designed and built by Triumph Engineering at Meriden near Coventry. The T140 was a continuation of the second generation in the Bonneville series develope ...

, manufactured by the Meriden Co-operative, is heard during the track "Triumph (Of the Good City)", forming the basis of the song's percussion.

Aftermath

To promote the album, Burnel assembled the Euroband, containing Peter Howells, keyboardist Penny Tobin (ex-

Nick Lowe Nicholas Drain Lowe (born 24 March 1949) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer. A noted figure in Pub rock (United Kingdom), pub rock, power pop and New wave music, new wave,John Ellis (ex-

the Vibrators The Vibrators were a British punk rock band whose greatest success was in 1977–1978 with the albums ''Pure Mania'' and ''V2 (album), V2''. Their first Epic Records single "Baby Baby (The Vibrators song), Baby Baby" is considered a punk cla ...

), for a UK tour all through April. With a 45-minute set featuring no Stranglers songs, the tour suffered from poor ticket sales, resulting in three gigs being cancelled. The band's performance at the

Pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings; * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England. It is located north-west of London; nearby towns and cities include Watford, St Albans and Berkhamsted. The population at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 cens ...

on 25 April was recorded, and included as bonus tracks on two reissues of ''Euroman Cometh''. "I thought 'Euroman Cometh''was quite poppy and people said it was off the wall and leftfield but I didn’t see it in those terms," Burnel said in 2009. In 2015, he said, "It was an experiment and a way of passing the time of night. It was as also bit of a manifesto. I was a big fan of the concept of a united Europe ... I still think it's one of the great ideas of our times but I am wary of the bureaucracy and the bad elements of it but as a pure concept it's a great concept." By the 2010s, ''Euroman Cometh'' had sold close to 100,000 copies.

Peter Hook Peter Hook (born 13 February 1956) is an English musician. He was the bassist and co-founder of the post-punk band Joy Division and its successor New Order. He often used the bass as a lead instrument, playing melodies on the high strings wi ...

, bassist with New Order, considers the album to be one of his greatest influences.

Reissues

''Euroman Cometh'' was reissued by

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

in 1992 and by Eastworld Recordings in 1998. Both reissues include a 35 minutes live recording as bonus tracks.

Track listing

*"Pretty Face" is a cover of a song by 1960s British R&B group the Beat Merchants.

1992 and 1998 reissue bonus tracks

Note: The 1992 reissue did not include "Ozymandias", only the nine live tracks. *Tracks 13–21 were recorded live at the

on 25 April 1979.

Personnel

Adapted from the original album liner notes. ;Musicians * J.J. Burnel –

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

, keyboards,

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

beatbox Beatboxing (also, and sometimes, called beat boxing) is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines (usually a Roland TR-808, TR-808), using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice.drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

(tracks 3, 5 and 6) * Brian James – guitar (track 9) *

Lew Lewis Keith "Lew" Lewis (1955 – 16 April 2021)1 - Lew Lewis 1955 - 2021
'' ...

–

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

(track 9) *Carey Fortune – drums (track 9) ;Technical *J.J. Burnel – producer, mixing, sleeve concept *

Alan Winstanley Alan Kenneth Winstanley (; born 2 November 1952) is an English record producer and songwriter, active from the mid-1970s onwards. He usually works with Clive Langer. Early life He was born in Fulham in November 1952 to parents Ken and Doreen. ...

– producer, engineer (except tracks 2 and 8) *

Martin Rushent Martin Charles Rushent (11 July 1948 – 4 June 2011) was an English record producer, best known for his work with the Human League, the Stranglers and Buzzcocks. Early life Rushent was born on 11 July 1948 in Enfield, Middlesex. His fathe ...

– producer, engineer (tracks 2 and 8), mixing *

George Peckham George "Porky" Peckham (born 1942) is an English record engineer, widely recognised as among the most accomplished in the business. He has been responsible for producing the master discs from which many vinyl records have been pressed over the ...

– mastering *Allan Ballard – photography of Pompidou Centre, Paris *Tracy Gerard – inner sleeve map *Kevin Sparrow – design co-ordination ;Live bonus tracks Adapted from the 1998 reissue liner notes, except where noted. *J.J. Burnel – vocals, bass, arrangements, producer * John Ellis – guitar *Penny Tobin – keyboards *Peter Howells – drums *Alan Winstanley – recording engineer *Gareth Cousins – mixing

References

* Guinness Book of British Hit Albums - 7th Edition -

External links

The Burning Up Times issue 4 (May 2009)
{{Authority control Jean-Jacques Burnel albums 1979 debut albums Albums produced by Alan Winstanley Albums produced by Martin Rushent 1970s concept albums United Artists Records albums