Jean-Jacques Burnel

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Jean-Jacques "JJ" Burnel (born 21 February 1952, London) is a French-English musician, producer, and songwriter best known for his role as the bass guitarist with the English rock band the Stranglers.

Personal life

Burnel, the current head of Shidokan Karate, is a 7th degree black belt (nanadan) in Shidokan Karate and is the seventh degree black belt (nanadan). He is also a motorcyclist and has owned many Triumph motorcycles.

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Life and career

Jean-Jacques Burnel was born in Notting Hill, London, to French parents. His father worked as a chef at a restaurant where he grew up. He was often the object of ridicule from his classmates as an adolescent, which led him to the name John to obscure his French roots. This early experience of xenophobia may have a direct effect on his youthful temperament, on stage, as well as the way he performs.

He and his parents moved to Godalming, Surrey, when he was 12 years old and attended Guildford's Royal Grammar School, then reading history at the University of Bradford and Huddersfield Polytechnic. Burnel started out as a classical guitarist but within The Stranglers, he took the bass guitar as his instrument. He has performed lead vocals on nearly half of the band's songs, but Burnel later revealed that he often sang lyrics by Hugh Cornwell (or vice versa) depending on "who had the best voice for the song."

Burnel has been a member of the Stranglers since its inception in 1974, but the Stranglers have released two solo albums, including Euroman Cometh (1978) and Un Jour Parfait in 1988, as well as a joint effort with fellow Stranglers member Dave Greenfield, Fire and Water (Ecoutez Vos Murs) in 1983. Burnel has worked as a guest musician on a variety of artists, including Lizard and ARB from Japan, Polyphonic Size (from Belgium), and Taxi Girl's album Seppuku in 1981, as well as Laurent Sinclair's "Devant le Miroir" maxi single. The Purple Helmets, a rhythm and blues covers band that appeared at a number of concerts and released two albums in the late 1980s, has also performed in a variety of countries.

Burnel, a French national serviceholder, was given his call-up papers for national service in France. He was able to escape it with a novel defense, arguing that his absence would indirectly damage the Stranglers as a unit and hence the other members' careers. This was in accordance with Burnel's assertion that only the "bourgeois" would ever commit to serving their country's military.

Burnel wrote and performed songs for the anime Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo, which included both the opening and ending themes, "We Were Lovers" and "You Won't See Me Coming" respectively.

Burnel is a fluent French speaker who writes a portion of his songs in the French language.

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