Throughout this time Hugh encountered a host of other extraordinary people, who are now household names: Malcolm McClaren, Joe Strummer, Kate Bush, Debbie Harry and Hazel O'Connor, to name a few, and he will recount the outrageous times he lived through with them. His 'inside take' on the other members of the Stranglers will be of special interest to the huge fan base of the era, which enabled The Stranglers' -- Greatest Hits album to sell one million copies in the UK on its release in 1990, and which continues to be discovered by the younger music generation of today.

Excerpted from A Multitude of Sins: The Autobiography by Hugh Cornwell. Copyright © 2004. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
ON THE FORMATION OF THE STRANGLERS
Jet Black, formerly Brian Duffy, walked into my life in a squat in Camden Town in answer to an ad that I had placed in Melody Maker. Jet was a bit more ‘mature’ than we had envisaged, but we identified with his energy and resolve immediately. He had a great sense of humour and everyone gelled with him. He suggested that we all decamp to Guildford to escape from the pressures of London, and help him run the off-licence and ice cream business he had, while we were working on the band.
Summer was coming on and the idea of getting out of London was very appealing to us. The off-licence was sited at the bottom of the Farnham Road, a stone’s throw from Guildford railway station and on a main roundabout, so there was plenty of passing trade, including Trevor McDonald who would regularly drop by for a bottle of wine to take home and swap pleasantries with Jet. The building itself was huge, with large, cobbled cellars where the ice cream freezers were stored plus parking space for a fleet of vans. As it was, there was only one state of the art ice cream wagon - complete with chimes - and a couple of beat-up grey minivans which Jet had picked up for £25 each from the local car auctions. Above the off-licence there were three floors of accommodation: a large sitting room and kitchen on the first floor, then two more floors of bedrooms, mostly empty. Constant traffic meant that there was a thick layer of grime on all the windows, which never got opened. I took a bedroom on the top floor and we had a room with a piano where we could work on the music.
ON HIS BRUSHES WITH THE LAW
"Hey, Kai, how do you fancy doing an interview with a newspaper while you’re on the run? I know a cool journo who would do it, and we could get him to help the band in return. We need a PA system for our gigs and he can guarantee the loan. I’ve already tried but they need someone Swedish to sign it."
"Sure, it would be a gas," he says, "Anything to help the band."

I pick the journalist up, blindfold him and drive him out to the house. He has a camera with him so he can take some photos of Kai. The interview goes well. Kai has the ‘I’m a misunderstood criminal, and although I rob banks, I don’t mean to harm anybody, and I warned the guard beforehand’ angle down and pictures are taken of him and the journalist together, throwing all the money around like in a food fight. Afterwards, I reblindfold the journalist and drive him home. The following Sunday the interview is all over the front page of the national newspaper and they’ve used the picture of Kai throwing the money up in the air like a kid playing in the snow. It’s an exclusive interview with Sweden’s ‘No.1 Most Wanted Criminal’ and it sells truckloads. The journalist’s career is made overnight and we go into the music shop the following week and sign the papers for the band’s PA system.
ON THE END OF THE STRANGLERS
We had been continuously working together for sixteen years by the time that I left, and I remember a moment when that passage of time became a realisation. We had returned to play a secret gig at the 100 Club in Oxford Street prior to a tour, having last played there some seven or eight years previously. I was there in the afternoon while Jet was setting his drums up. I caught him laughing to himself and asked him why. He was sitting on his drum stool and had recalled the last gig there, all those years before. He remembered taking off his watch and finding a space in a brick wall beside him in which to put it. He had then forgotten about the watch until now, when he had checked the spot. Not only was the watch there, but it was still going. Passage of time is barely perceptible unless you can see that something has changed.