When Stray Cats first made their indelible mark, they had it all. That magic number of three achingly cool, rakish twenty-somethings, heavily armed with an arsenal of rockabilly, as raw as it was accessible. What’s more, niftily side-stepping the retro clichés, they recast the sound for a new generation of hungry adolescents.
When the hard-slapping incendiary snarl of debut 45 Runaway Boys clawed its way into the Top 10, it was the sorest of thumbs, amidst a mainstream landscape of Abba, Spandau Ballet… and school kids singing There’s No One Quite Like Grandma. In short, with the punk insurgency now watered-down for the high street, Stray Cats were a much-needed pocket of rebellion. Of course, like all proper bands, they rose, they fell – and then they fell out. But now, 40 years since their inception, the trio return to our stereos fully formed. Inside, we break bread with frontman Brian Setzer to chat about the past, the present and the future of a band vital to the rockin’ scene.