Stranglers Keeping to Their Dark Sound and Look : The English band with the punk reputation will perform in Ventura.

Are they the soundtrack for that big snake in “The Jungle Book,” all the bad guys in “Gunga Din,” my old girlfriend? Or are they just a bunch of rockers in black from Scary Olde Englande? Maybe all of the above, but for our purposes now, the Stranglers are an English quintet who have a million albums and a date Saturday night at the venerable Ventura Theatre.

The Stranglers got it going in 1976 and in their black clothes that go so well with their frowns, they have often been associated with the punk rock movement.

In fact, their current bio describes their dark sound as a “carnival from hell,” even though most Stranglers songs are melodic and hypnotic. Either way, this is a band that gets about as much airplay as you did the last time you crooned in the shower and scared the termites into growing thumbs to stuff in their itty-bitty ears.

The Stranglers have always been big in Europe and recently played in Eastern Europe, but they don’t tour much in the United States. The last time was 1986 or so; and rock fans’ ability to forget is boundless. The path from the Next Big Thing to Huh? is just a blank blink away.

Also, longtime singer/guitarist Hugh Cornwell packed up his black shirts and left the group in 1990, and it took two guys to take his place. Paul Roberts has taken over the vocals and John Ellis is the new guitarist on the Stranglers’ latest--which Frank Sinatra probably won’t cover--”Stranglers in the Night.”

In a recent phoner from a motel room in Salt Lake City, bassist J. J. Burnel waxed eloquent about his favorite band in black.

How many Stranglers albums are there?

Legal ones? Official ones? Studio ones? There’s eleven studio albums, two live ones, an album of B-sides, several 12-inch releases and a million bootlegs. Our new one, “Stranglers in the Night” seems to be picking up quite a few radio stations.

When was your last American tour?

It was six or seven years ago when “Aural Sculpture” came out. We’ve been staying in Europe lately because we’ve had a few changes. We had to go back and think what we wanted to do; so we started playing in pubs again to see if we were a real band. We never assume anything, really. Also, touring too much could burn you out, so naturally, we’ve been touring since September. We’ve been in England, all over Europe and even to Japan. We were the only British band to sell out all over Europe. Things are bad over there. Let’s see, shall I pay the rent or go to a Stranglers gig?

There are Stranglers fans in Japan?

There certainly are. In fact our drummer for this tour is Japanese. You couldn’t pronounce his name--he goes by Keith. Our regular drummer is sick. He’s sick a lot.

What was it like playing in Estonia?

Oh, fantastic. There were 100,000 very drunk people there. Someone passed me a beer on stage and it nearly knocked me over--it was 15% alcohol. This gig was right before the Russians packed their bags and went home. The Estonian flag was illegal, so naturally, they were flying everywhere.

What do you think about Stranglers’ music?

It’s unclassifiable. And that’s your job.

How come there’s no funny Stranglers’ songs?

They’re all funny.

Yeah, right. So, how has the music changed since the new guys arrived?

Well, the new guys really aren’t quite so new. This band has been in existence for four years. Our guitarist, John Ellis, has been in the Stranglers off and on for 15 years. I saw him with a band called the Vibrators in 1976. Our singer, Paul Roberts, has been following us around for about that long basically waiting for Hugh to die.

Since Cornwell took the easy way out by not dying, then losing him wasn’t such a traumatic experience?

The Stranglers were never known as a personality band. The sum is greater than all the parts. There are no individuals and no ego trips. The publishing for our songs is always credited to the whole band, the Stranglers.

Why has it been difficult for the Stranglers to hit the big time in the U. S.?

Well, there’s a lot of reasons. One, we’re never there, and if you don’t play, you have to rely on hype. We don’t get no hype. The only other thing is to get your records played, and that’s difficult. Maybe we need to make more of an effort.

What’s the secret of the band’s longevity?

Maybe it’s because we did it to play music, not to become famous or rich. If that did happen, OK. Also, we haven’t burnt out yet, and we try to stay one step ahead of our public. One of our old songs, “Something Better Change” pretty much describes us. We’ve had big successes in Europe, then there’s pressure for a follow-up. For example, after one of our European hits, we followed it up with a ballad in French, which wasn’t the best commercial policy.

Do you guys all still wear black?

Let’s see, at the moment, black shirt, black boxers, black pants--yep. Everything always matches, you see.

When the band first began in 1976, it was tied to the punk and New Wave movements. Is there a connection there?

We had a bit to do with it, yes. The guys in the Sex Pistols and Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders came to see us and liked us because we had short hair and we did short, fast songs. But we really weren’t on the same bandwagon because we had a synthesizer and keyboard player who had long hair and a goatee.

There have been a lot of strange Stranglers gigs. Name one.

Yeah, there’s been a lot of strange ones, and some very surreal ones. Here’s a surreal one. We played at a wet T-shirt contest in Texas. The gig before, we had played to 20,000 people in England. At this gig, we played to about 20 people with about 500 cowboys playing pool waiting for the wet T-shirt contest.

Who goes to Stranglers’ gigs?

Well, from what I’m gathering from this tour, and this warms the cockles of my heart, we have punks from 15 years ago with their kids. But now, they stand in the back.

What’s next?

I want to come back to North America because we’re really enjoying ourselves on this tour.