IT’S A task that’s beyond daunting, but if anyone is qualified to offer advice to new Stranglers keyboard player Toby Hounsham it’s Baz Warne, who took over as the legendary punk band’s frontman almost 22 years ago.

The band decided to tour again following the sad death last year of original keyboard maestro Dave Greenfield from COVID-19 while he was being treated for a heart ailment.

After much soul-searching, they recruited former Rialto band member Toby.

Baz, who took on the vocal and guitar duties originally carried out by founding member Hugh Cornwell, says he knows exactly what his new bandmate is going through.

“Toby realises how big the shoes are he has to fill but I have to say that the first few gigs in France last year were as smooth as silk,” he says. “But the first thing I said to him was ‘Don’t read any social media’. I don’t do it, but sometimes it comes to your attention and it can be hurtful. We’re not made of stone.

“I also told him ‘You’re in The Stranglers now and it’s the four of us’. I remember I played my first gig for UN peacekeeping forces in 2000, it was well off the beaten track, out of the public gaze, but Toby was in France and there were loads of Stranglers fans there to see him. He’s been brilliant.”

Baz says return to live action by the Surrey legends in the UK is bitter sweet.

“We took stock and decided not to make any decisions for two or three months after Dave had passed,” he recalls. “JJ [Burnel, bass player and vocals] and I couldn’t entertain the idea. I just totally switched off. We spoke about three weeks afterwards, that’s how shell-shocked we were.

“Then we thought maybe he’d have wanted us to do this. A crucial member of the band dies and we discussed it around for a bit.”

At first it was suggested the find someone to do just the already planned British tour and big names like Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson were mentioned. But Baz says “We didn’t want that. In the end we found Toby, who JJ had worked with before and I sent him a list of about 40 songs.

“It turns out he was he was a Dave aficionado, he was a Stranglers fan but specifically a Dave Greenfield fan. Once we got to rehearsing it was the weirdest thing. JJ was unable to come over from France but we went to our drummer Jim Macauley’s house and met Toby.

“Once he started playing I thought ‘this is the guy’. Those sounds coming out were sounds I never thought I’d hear again. I had to stop and sit down.”

As for keeping the band going, the frontman says: “We got love and support from Dave’s widow Pam, which is very important to us, and the messages we have had in the weeks leading up to tour have been very heartening. People understand that it’s our lives and our livelihood as well.

“Obviously you have to be very respectful of what went before and of course it isn’t the same, it will never be the same. But if you want to see The Stranglers in 2022, this is what it is now.”

The Stranglers original line-up came close to being banned by the borough council from playing at Woking Centre Halls in 1977 because it was said they had spat at audience members and used four-letter words at previous gigs.

The council relented and allowed the performance to go ahead – and the band behaved impeccably.

Baz Warne and his fellow Stranglers have embarked on The Final Full UK Tour 2022 in memory of Dave Greenfield. They play at G Live in Guildford on Thursday 3 February.