The Stranglers are a punk/rock music group, formed on September 11, 1974 in Guildford, Surrey, England. They were originally called The Guildford Stranglers and operated from an off-licence in the town. They began as a sinister sounding, hard-edged pub rock group, but eventually branched out to explore other styles of music. The Stranglers were, beginning in 1976, tangentially associated with punk rock, due in part to their opening for The Ramones' first British tour. They were also associated with new wave music as well as gothic rock, but their idiosyncratic approach never fit completely within a musical genre.
