On September 11, 1974, Brian Jet Black" Duffy, a professional businessman in Guildford, England registered his punk rock band "The Stranglers" as a business. By 1975, Jet Black recruited a stable lineup with himself on drums, Hugh Cornwell on guitar, Dave Greenfield on the keyboard, and Jean-Jacques Burnel on bass. Cornwell, Greenfield, and Burnel all served as vocalists. These four released ten studio albums before Cornwell departed in 1990. Paul Roberts and John Ellis replaced him with Ellis being replaced by Bez Warne in 2000. As a five-piece unit, The Stranglers released eight more studio albums. The band's eighteenth studio album, "Dark Matters" (2021), was the first not to feature Jet Black, who retired from music in 2015. In 2020, Greenfield passed away followed by Jet Black in late 2022.