Many thanks to Mark Hodgson for sending me the missing section of Angie Errigo's review of the second album. The completed review cam be found here. Cheers Mark!
Friday, 8 January 2021
Tuesday, 5 January 2021
Stiff Little Fingers The Inflammable Material Story BBC Radio Ulster 2009
Yes I know, Jim Reilly appears on this cover when it was Brian Faloon who played on the album! In my defence, Jim came in straight after and played on all of the post album release dates and as such is certainly a part of the 'Inflammable Material' story.
FLAC: https://we.tl/t-s6h5BpHjLg
Artwork: https://we.tl/t-PylSlpOxcx
Jake Burns Interview New Musical Express 17th February 1979 (Incomplete)
Hugely enamored by his new discovery, having waxed lyrical in his review of the band's debut album, Paul Morley tracked the band down on tour in Cardiff for an interview with Jake. Here in what must have been one of their first major interviews in one of the big circulation music weeklies, Jake talks of the reasons for the band taking up the subject of #'The Troubles' in their songs when other Belfast bands chose to sing about anything rather than the day to day futility of the sectarian violence.
Jake Burn's at work... "Killing isn't my idea of fun"...
BELFAST’S RIPPED BACK SIDES
STIFF LITTLE FINGERS is a rock ‘n’ roll password to the ultimate teenage wasteland. It’s a message. And it’s also a way to escape. After hearing the definitive album statement on Ulster, PAUL MORLEY picks up on the facts of life behind the music.
Jake Burns sits next to me in a Cardiff pub. He’s the singer, lead guitarist and main songwriter for Stiff Little Fingers, who just completed a soundcheck for a gig at the Grannies Club – another sell out date on the current Rough Trade tour along with Essential Logic and Robert Rental and the Normal.
Burns is small, wears glasses. If he forgets to shave for a couple of days the gentle fluff around his cheeks only breaks into the harder stuff near his chin. His hair is a coy, curly mass of black. He’s wearing a thick ribbed sweater with a deep polo neck over and awful C&A large collar shirt, and a pair of shapeless jeans.
He laughs nervously, talks intelligently and perceptively and is 21 this week. Not long ago he was an accounts clerk. On a stage even at a soundcheck, when he goes 1/2/3/4! He’s somebody else, something else, somewhere else. Possessed. It’s dramatic.
“That’s the black leather jacket! It’s true…. It’s a thing I’ve talked about with my girlfriend and close friends and we’re convinced that there are three people within me.
There’s the serious, normal person who’s talking to you now, just two people in a pub, then there’s me being silly with my girlfriend y’know, then there’s The Black Leather Jacket, and The Black Leather Jacket is the guy on stage and he’s totally removed from the other two and I’ve a lot of time for him and he’s me at work and he’s probably 80 per cent of me.
“The Black Leather Jacket is what I’ve always wanted to be. When The Black Leather Jacket’s up there he’s working, and when The Black Leather Jacket’s working he’s got to be rock ‘n’ roll and he’s got to be everything rock ‘n’ roll’s gonna be.
“So up there it’s like Clash, Dr.Feelgood, The Tom Robinson Band, Culture, Bob Marley, Graham Parker and everyone else I’ve ever admired in rock ‘n’ roll, shoving them in a jacket, putting the guitar in the hands, sticking them on stage… he’s got to be like that, he’s got to be everything, and it’s bang!... the minute it goes bang!the hairs in the back of my neck stand on end… maybe with the 1-2-3-4’s it’s me counting myself out of one thing and into the other…”
... and play... "the serious normal person talking to you now"
Stiff Little Fingers are the best rock ‘n’ roll group in my world.
Jake Burns, Ali Mc Mordie, Henry Cluney and Jim Reilly come from Belfast, where teenage life is an alienating and alien thing that provokes much passion amongst those many new new pop groups (representing the cities’ youth?) who’ve emerged over the last 18 months.
Fun-loving funny bands like Protex actively attack Fingers for their flawed but committed concentration on the events and environments of an intense, absurd civil war of conscience.
Listening to Stiff Little Fingers’ powerful and moving debut album ‘Inflammable Material’ and talking to the band, you realise it’s an absolute insult to accuse them of anything so extraordinarily ludicrous as exploiting the situation over there. It’s not knocking Protex or The Undertones, who make great pop music as the Fingers will quickly point out, to say that Stiff Little Fingers have a right, or the right, to report and reflect direct experiences from a most resounding and atrocious contemporary predicament, and do so with great emotional courage and selectivity.
It seems an aspect of the distorting confusion and bitterness over there, and the way that inhabitants have become used to and tolerant of the tragedy, that the Fingers can provoke often quite hateful accusations and dismissals of their intentions and integrity. The group have long been aware that they tread a fine line, and it’s easy to appreciate how people can become suspicious of the group’s motivations.
“We just wanted to point out to people what was happening. Obviously you’re going to get people saying aw fuck off you’re making it up, but that shouldn’t make you stop.”
And significantly the widespread unsureness of the group’s position on a pure political basis is deep enough (such as Protex announcing that the group are caught up in the Troops Out Movement, a review in Melody Maker last week deciding that the group are for the troops staying in) to suggest that they’ve succeeded in impartially screaming out that this is what it’s like and they’ve had enough.
Belfast people claim that kids don’t want the troubles rammed down their throats, they’re sick of living it, but that hardly explains away the facts that apart from reporting the emergency there is plenty of hope and yearning in the songs, that the group play original, stunning rock ‘n’ roll dance music and that they’re incredibly popular in their home town.
Belfast has given Stiff Little Fingers the force to make them justifiably the angriest and most determined rock ‘n’ roll group anywhere. They had the desire, the emotion, the experience, the concern to justify their early music, and readily understand that that period is now at an end, or at least ending. It wasn’t exploitation. It was a need.
“It’s like Ian Hunter once said something about Northern Ireland, which is absolutely ridiculous. He basically said you’d have to take a whole generation of kids out of Northern Ireland and let everybody else die out and then put that generation back in. He said it sounded barbaric but it was the only solution that he could see.
“It’s the only solution that I can see too! Truly… it’s because like the older people really do say hit him! But they don’t give a reason… what crime has he done against me?... he was born… he went to a different sort of church from me… and you’re supposed to hit him for that!!! It comes down to something as stupid as that… both sides are as bad as each other.
“And the point is the kids all group up like that, and form gangs and throw bottles at each other. Which I used to do – just ‘cos everyone else was doing it. I didn’t want to feel left out or mocked. Then I stopped. I thought it was fucking stupid. I didn’t want to do it anymore. I mean, it scared the hell out of me.
“It was fucking frightening. I thought why the hall should I go out there so someone can hit me over the head for something I don’t believe in. Fuck it, I became sick of it… but you can become part of it. There’s some people who keep going, and they’re the people I feel sorry for. Like my mate…
“There’s a game we used to play back home called ‘cribbie’. We used to play that all the time. One day we were just at the edge of the kerb, it was summer, just the two of us, and it was at a time when ‘the organisation’ around our area had just started, and they didn’t have guns but they still used to march around the area with like broomsticks over their shoulders, which I thought was fucking stupid.
But the minute they walked past my mates eyes lit up – and I won’t tell you the actual line he came out with till later – but he went out and joined the thing… and he was out on a ‘glorious mission ‘ for ‘the organisation’, and he was on a bus, that was the ‘glorious mission’ robbing a bus for funds… and his colleague got off, and he didn’t but as he was trying to get off the driver closed the automatic doors and caught my mates ankle and he was pulled out under the wheels of the bus, he had his insides crushed and died next morning.”
....
Inflammable Material (Stiff Little Fingers) Review New Musical Express 10th February 1979
Stiff Little Fingers exploded into the consciousness of young punks beyond he confines of Belfast in early 1979. That process would have been helped to no small degree by Paul Morley's review of 'Inflammable Material' that appeared in NME on 10th February 1979. See for yourself, but it is possiby one of the most glowing album reviews I have ever read!
STIFF LITTLE FINGERS
Inflammable Material (Rough Trade)
I was hardly expecting it but . . . even more so than "Never Mind The Bollocks" which turned out to becomedy - much more so than "The Clash" - which turned out to be quaint – as astonishing in its impact as "The Ramones", "Inflammable Material" is the classic punk rock record. A crushing contemporary commentary, brutally inspired by blatant bitter rebellion and frustration, that supplies neither questions nor real answers but consistently explodes Fuck off; Leave me alone! in the most scalding, dirty way since the set slogans "Anarchy In The U.K." and "White Riot" were laid to rest.
Straightaway, it hits hard, shakes the speakers, leers, leaps and dazes. "Suspect Device", a known classic song. that managed to transcend limp production when released on Rigid Digit Records last year, has been cleaned and organised by producers Geoff Travis and Mayo Thompson (see Penman's Rough Trade article, page 21) so that the two guitars of Jake Burns and Henry Cluney strike out in such fiery fashion you can't help wondering why such an 'outrageously nasty sound hasn't long been a rigorous necessity in rock'n'roll. The album’s guitar sound is not for the squeamish. Merciless and malicious, it has both depth and barbarity ; the guitars fight and feud , the battle is wild and selfish. You don’t just feel and hear the guitar, you almost see it. Makes The Clash sound tender.
Yeah, but if that isn't enough, coy-looking bespectacled Jake Burns' diabolically bloodthirsty vocals make Joe Strummer sound like a crooner and match Lydon move for move in terms of agile malevolence and extreme retaliatory intimidation. The lashing, vitriolic combination of voice and guitar is so profound it would only require a competent commitment from Ali McMordie on bass and Brian Falcon on drums and there'd be one classic rock'n'roll sound.
As it is, McMordie has a witty, scurrilous range of runs and Falcon's control is a lot more doggedly beneficial than has been suggested.
After "Suspect Device" just the whole side is glorious. Eight songs coagulated with spite, soaked with antagonisation, smarting with resentment, driven by real anger much more than faint petulance. Remember, these four guys lived slam in the middle of an environment that none of us can ever fully comprehend. I can only imagine that the forbidding atmosphere in Belfast must drip with tension, rancour, jaundiced confusion, fear and frustration, a kind of frustration none of us can understand; and much of this record, especially side one, comes unnervingly close to capturing and conveying a picture of the grey outrage of life over there, whilst the rampage and roar of the rock immaculately complements the aggression and vengeance of the songs.
Three of side one's outbursts, and four of side two's have words written by Daily Expressman Gordon Oglivie, a spot of peculiarity that debases "Inflammable Material" with a little of the feeling that can ruin the Pistols and Clash for some the suggestion of a presence of cynically motivated svengalis using the group for mischievous or disturbing ends.
Oglivie came to the group along with fellow newspaperman Colin McClellan, and it was at their suggestion that the group concentrated on expressing emotion and experiences from within their unique and atrocious predicament. Both are journalists working at an infamously foul form of reporting, and although the group readily disclaim accusations of puppeteering, prejudiced suspicions are unfortunately-easily aroused by the involvement.
Certainly it may be coincidence but Oglivie's lyrics, ("Suspect Device", "Barbed Wire Love" and "White Noise" on side one, "Law And Order" , "Rough Trade", " Alternative Ulster" and "Closed Groove" on side two) do seem a little glib, especially "Noise" and "Groove".
Yet ultimately, in the same way that even if "Anarchy In The U.K." was written by John Betjeman or Alan Bennett, Rotten's stinging, sly vocals made it totally uncontrived and his own - in the same way that Rotten was just too 'good' for McClaren's plans Stiff Little Fingers, by sheer virtue of their obviously genuine indignation and virulence, surpass any such manipulation here. If McClellan and Oglivie, and likely enough I'm doing them a disservice, are 'up to something', then the snarls and sourness in Finger's execution wreck it all. There is just no sign of lack of commitment or identification with the words, this again superbly typified on the awesome, “Suspect Device" where Burns delivers some twee couplets like it's the last thing he's ever going to do.
For me, it's the four apparently self-penned tracks which follow that vividly evoke and provoke more than anything on the record. "State Of Emergency", is hard and unbelievably embittered, fuelled by swirling, surging guitars:
"So please don 't just sit there
Let's try to break but
From all the hatred, suspicion and doubt
Try to change your life
That is no life at all. "
"They wanna waste my life
They wanna waste my tine
They wanna waste my life
And they've stolen it away"
All through the album "they" remain elusive and anonymous, something that somehow intensifies the feeling of anguish and alarm. Fury is directed everywhere and nowhere. "No More Of That" is a short and definite retort to the distant "they", sung determinedly by Cluney.
"Barbed Wire Love" ironically sets a teenage romance within harsh imagery (kneecaps, booby traps and bombs), although there's a better song to be written about romance and this kind of war. Emphasising the irony, the song does overtly reveal a unique, penetrative pop sensibility that leaves every Fingers song with a discreet but memorable hook. Burns' vocals can do subtle, magical things with a melody, too, as on "Breakout". "White Noise" has a particularly finely balanced Oglivie lyric – a crudely pedantic attack on bigotry, but great musical dynamism.
Side Two lacks the obvious fluency of the first, but still has plenty of memorable moments. " Law And Order" is the most obviously Clash-derived track – and again, Burns gives the words life and reason. An interpretation of a reggae tune, Marley's "Johnny Was" invites vague comparisons with Clash's debut album and their "Police And Thieves" , but whereas Clash went into it as structure and rhythm, the Fingers approach it as sound and spirit "Johnny Was" rolls out an incredibly mature, totally justified eight-minute epic, that splutters and bursts into view, then settles into an easy, absorbing rhythm, guitars inevitably causing the damage, with Burns proving the versatility of his voice.
"Rough Trade" is a passionate comment on the Island affair (a recent mess where the label seduced and then foolishly dumped the group), Burns sneering the lyric with extraordinary distaste. "Alternative Ulster" is presumably a remnant from the Island period; it's produced by ex-Hot Rods manager/producer Ed Hollis. Again, it may be my imagination but it starts off sounding a little like the Rods or at least has a separate, uncomfortable pop slant – a shade smooth occasionally.
"Closed Groove" is a bizarre, tight-lipped, stiff-rhythmed piece - a sadly understated if adventurous way to finish the record. The ringing tone of an unanswered phone stuck at the end of the album, and you're left feeling numb after all the rage and remorseless intolerance.
Jake Burns at Friars Aylesbury 3rd February 1979
Let's just say in terms of the guitars, Burns' staggering voice, tile sensitivity and unbridled passion, the
genuine, sullen concern, some thrilling moments of drama, the strong evocations of life in Ulster, the perceptive production, the severity and variety - even, in a way, the imperfections - this is a classic. Nothing since “Spiral Scratch" and "The Ramones" have struck me as possessing such immeasurable intuition.
Of course, now that they're isolated from the tragic ingredients of their inspiration (and maybe that means the music is a success in the only way it needed to be, that it dragged them out of 'the emergency' as their songs unashamedly admit is 'the way'), now that they're immersed in the rock'n'roll world, they'll probably never again communicate similar grievances and discontent with such raw exasperation.
But to have made this record and to have done it so positively, is much more than most can be expected to do, For such an achievement can cause problems. Their future is entirely up to them.
Without this in any way being a throwaway statement, it was perhaps always inevitable that Belfast would throw up the viral punk record. There are parts of "Inflammable Material" that are not just exciting or stimulating but quite humbling. It is a remarkable document.
Paul Morley
Sunday, 3 January 2021
Stiff Little Fingers Declare A State Of Emergency In 1979
In an earlier post I have described my live baptism to Stiff Little Fingers but like so many of their contemporaries (The Undertones. The Ruts, The Members etc etc) their Year Zero could be said to be with good reason 1979.
At that time record companies were casting their nets far and wide, beyond punks capital in London and the Northern HQ of Manchester, in search of the next big thing. A&R men cast their eyes to the west and the as yet untapped talent that was present in Northern Ireland. At a local level with 'Good Vibrations' record shop and subsequent label, Terri Hooley had created openings for several Belfast bands as well as Derry's The Undertones. By 1979, the Patron Saint of Unsigned bands of Distinction, Radio 1 DJ John Peel, had each of the bands of the Good Vibrations' stable on rapid rotation on his late night show that informed the nation about what was up and coming. John Peel's patronage was a gateway to success or at least recognition for so many bands. Air time from Peel invariably meant that a band's career gathered pace with a momentum that often left the musicians involved floundering in their efforts to keep pace.
Such was the case for Stiff Little Fingers.
As all familiar with the band's history will know it was through a Jake Burns initiated affiliation with the journalist Gordon Ogilvie that the band initially came to the attention of a broader audience. Whilst The Clash sang of White Riots and the Pistols roared their clarion call for 'Anarchy In The UK', here were a band that on paper had far more to gripe about that their English counterparts..... the risk of internment, evening curfews, paramilitary pressures and don't forget the bombings. The writer in Ogilvie recognised that here was an opportunity for youth to express what life was like at what turned out to be the height of 'The Troubles'. As such he co-wrote the first two singles 'Suspect Device' and 'Alternative Ulster' both of which were full on reflections of daily life in certain parts of Northern Ireland.
Acknowledging the ever increasing interest in the band in England SLF (together with fellow Belfast band Rudi) travelled over for their London debut in September 1978, appearing at Camden's Electric Ballroom.
This new political expression emanating out of Belfast was not lost on Tom Robinson, singer and bass player of the political punk band the Tom Robinson Band (TRB). TRB were a big draw in the UK in 1977/1978 and so when Tom invited SLF as support on their 'Out Of The Darkness' national tour, the momentum was ratcheted up a further notch for the Belfast fourpiece. Propelled into a mix of big halls and university venues SLF had arrived and proceeded to stamp their name in the consciousness of UK punk fans.
Take a look at this Bushell penned review of TRB and SLF at the Hammersmith Odeon where the support band are commanding almost as many column inches as the headline act.
Sounds 10th October 1978
Causes without effect.
Tom Robinson Band/Stiff Little Fingers
Hammersmith Odeon
STIFF LITTLE Fingers are a punk band from Northern Ireland, a good punk band with promise and character. That said, their set was too long and paced wrong (which lessened their impact), but they still hit hard enough to more than justify their encore. No wonder, they write good songs with instant hooks and just the right amount of justifiable anger.
'Alternative Ulster', the new single, is the best example, though it's just one of a fistful of instantly accessible numbers (‘Suspect Device', '78 Revolutions', 'Breakout ', 'Wasted Life' .. . ).
Cashing in on their situation? I don't think so. People in that war-torn hell-hole have more reason than most to shout about things.
Mouthy Burns has got presence and a gravel-pit growl of a voice. The group are tight and confident (if a bit incongruous in that size hall) and they've got a sense of humour - see 'Barbed Wire Love' or the silly encore version of Merle Haggard's 'Proud To Be An Oke From Muskogee'!
Yeah, good group, could go far etc.
TRB play non-pretentious competent hard rock , simple and direct , built on Danny Kurstow's excellent trad-rock guitar workouts. They also stand for a lot of things that are unimpeachable (at what other rock concerts do you find Ford workers collecting strike money outside?).
The band's a rallying point for a lot of people involved in a lot of battles personal and collective, none of which are illusionary, as you might find out if you were black and outside the Blade Bone at the wrong time, Rab (now, now lads - Ed).
But tonight, at least, he wasn't challenging or provoking. He was re-inforcing, a morale booster, and from the start he couldn’t have put a foot wrong.
In truth, a lot of the songs are ordinary (including most of the new ones) and the lyrics just wouldn't convince the unconvinced. Only a handful work really well : 'Martin' which is always moving, 'Glad To Be Gay', convincingly angry, 'Motorway' a classic rock single, 'Up Against The Wall' (which Tom didn't play bass on and it didn’t matter which says a lot) and of course, 'Power In The Darkness'. First encore showcased the possible new single, 'You Turn Me On' a dull ballad, musically almost identical to 'I Shall Be Released'.
Second encore was an embarrassing 'Waiting For My Man' with a prolonged and unfunny dialogue section.
The sentiments are great, but I rarely got off on the music. It didn’t excite me. Got to wait for Harlesden this Saturday for that.
GARRY BUSHELL
Stiff Little Fingers were on the map, reaction to the band in the UK beyond Ulster was good and there was indeed a receptive audience for their message of barbed wire love conducted over the barricades here too. Such was the interest that the band took the decision to leave Belfast for London in order to maximise the opportunities that lay before them.
In the following week I will post some audio and written posts on Stiff Little Fingers in 1979, the year that the UK (except Newcastle perhaps!) took the band to heart.
Stiff Little Fingers Tor 3 Dusseldorf Germany 7th December 1987
On the subject of the 'Go For It Again' tour, here is a nice recording from Germany that preceded the UK dates by a week or so and here they sound more polished than they do on the Kilburn gig album.
FLAC: https://we.tl/t-X9lxVNl4X2
Artwork: Inside the down load folder.
Stiff Little Fingers - Going For It Again in 1987
It was sometime in the Autumn of 1987, midweek. I had spent part of the morning in the dentist's chair having a rare filling. Job done, I called by WH Smith's to pick up this week's 'Sounds', my music paper of choice at that time. Once back home, over a cautious cup of tea (I was still numb from the dentist's attentions) I sat down to thumb through the paper.... only to jump up again in disbelief. There on page 3, in black and white, an announcement.... Stiff Little Fingers to Go For It Again in a series of gigs scheduled for the end of the year. This was completely unexpected, I was going to get to see SLF!
There was only one obstacle that needed to be overcome here..... parental protest. This wasn't a real life 'At The Edge' situation. This was to be expected and to be fair it wasn't altogether unreasonable on their part. In the summer, I had royally fucked up my 'A' levels and was at that time in the process of relearning stuff to take a resit of the Chemistry 'A' level in London. And here was the rub. The Chemistry practical exam was scheduled for 9 am on 18th December in Bloomsbury in Central London whilst SLF were to play at the Kilburn National on 17th December. Living at the time in Mid-Sussex, London gigs were possible provided that you were prepared to forego a night's sleep! The midnight train out of Victoria only stopped at Haywards Heath and Brighton. This meant that the journey's end would involve a two hour hike on dark country lanes from Haywards Heath to home in neighbouring Burgess Hill. So, all being well the tired gig-goer would be able to fall into bed at about 3 am. In order to get to this exam in good time on the 18th, I would need to leave the house at around 5.30 am! I cannot recall what assurances I was able to give my Mum and Dad that caused them to relent, but relent they did and soon I had a ticket in hand.
The last tour that SLF did in 1983 ended acrimoniously with a few punches thrown in for good measure according to Jake Burns. With the same line up (Jake, Henry, Ali and Dolphin) that split and the end of that 'Now Then' tour it would be interesting to see how the chemistry would play out just four years further down the line.
For my part in '83 Stiff Little Fingers were not a band on my radar. It was only after borrowing 'Go For It' and 'All The Best' in 1985 that they became a big thing in my world and went right up there along with The Stranglers and The Damned.
At the age of 18 I was not particularly familiar with London with only about a dozen gigs in the capital under my belt at that point. NW6 and Kilburn High Road were a complete unknown. A few years later I was living there and the National was just a two minute walk from my front door.
The anticipation for these new dates was immense. Inside the venue it was heaving and the balcony was creaking (if I remember from my years in Kilburn, the National was closed as a venue since the fabric of the building had become structurally unsound. I think that 17th December 1987 may have been a significant contributing factor in the Borough Council's decision!). Back in those days I would always make for the front. With the opening bars of 'Go For It' the crowd really started to surge forward and things began to get a little uncomfortable. With the first chord of 'Alternative Ulster' the inevitable happened and the place lurched, almost as if NW6 had been hit by an Earth tremor! Excitement momentarily gave was to fear as I genuinely believed that I was about to break a bone close by the barrier!
The gig felt like a spontaneous release of tension and energy for the several thousand within the listing walls of the National that night.
I think that the review that appeared in 'Sounds' the following week was a good appraisal of what I saw and experienced at that, my first SLF gig.
As a footnote, even in the zombie state that I found myself in on 18th I managed to do enough to raise my Chemistry result up from an N to a C which was just sufficient to take me to Uxbridge and Brunel the following year.
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