Stiff Little Fingers is a Northern Irish punk rock band from Belfast. They formed in 1977 at the height of the Troubles, which informed much of their songwriting. They started out as a schoolboy band called Highway Star (named after the Deep Purple song), doing rock covers, until they discovered punk. They were the first punk band in Belfast to release a record – the "Suspect Device" single came out on their own independent label, Rigid Digits. Their album Inflammable Material, released in partnership with Rough Trade, became the first independent LP to enter the UK top 20.
In 1983 they split up, but re-formed a few years later in 1987. Despite multiple personnel changes, they are still touring and recording. In 2014, the band released their tenth studio album and a world tour followed its release. Jake Burns, the lead singer, is the only member to have been with the band during all its incarnations, but in March 2006, original bass guitarist Ali McMordie rejoined them following the departure of bass player Bruce Foxton after fifteen years.
Contents
History
Early years
Prior to becoming Stiff Little Fingers, Jake Burns, vocals and guitar, Henry Cluney, guitar, Gordon Blair, bass, and Brian Faloon, drums, were playing in a rock music cover band, Highway Star, in Belfast. Upon the departure of Blair (who went on to play with another Belfast group, Rudi), Ali McMordie took over on bass. Cluney had by this time discovered punk, and introduced the rest of the band to it. They decided that Highway Star was not a punk enough name, and after a brief flirtation with the name "The Fast", decided to call themselves Stiff Little Fingers, after The Vibrators' song, which appears on the album Pure Mania.
Stiff Little Fingers, especially the frontman and main songwriter Jake Burns, were heavily influenced by The Clash and Elvis Costello. According to Burns, "what [The Clash] did more than anything else was give me the confidence, through its lyrical subject matter, to realise it was OK to write about my own life and experiences." The group started to write songs about growing up in the Troubles in late 1970s Northern Ireland. Among the first Stiff Little Fingers songs were "State of Emergency" and "Breakout".
It was while doing a gig at the Glenmachan Hotel, Belfast, that they first met Gordon Ogilvie, who had been invited along for the evening by Colin McClelland, a journalist whom Burns had been corresponding with.
Ogilvie further encouraged SLF to play material based upon their experience of the Troubles. He asked the group to look at some lyrics he had drafted. They liked the lyrics and "Suspect Device" became a fixture in their live set. Around the same time as putting a tune to the "Suspect Device" lyrics, Burns wrote "Wasted Life".
McClelland arranged to get the band some recording time at a local radio station, and in the studio normally used for recording jingles, they recorded "Suspect Device". The single was packaged in the form of a cassette, with a cover depicting a cassette incendiary bomb, apparently causing great hilarity in the group, when one record company phoned them and asked for another copy, as they had thrown the first one in a bucket of water for fear that it was a real bomb.
"Suspect Device" was released in February 1978. A copy of the single was sent to John Peel. He played it repeatedly leading to a distribution deal through Rough Trade Records. The single was released on the band's own Rigid Digits label, re-released a month later with the support of Rough Trade and sold over 30,000 copies.
Breakup
In 1982 came a 4-song EP called £1.10 or Less and their fourth studio album, Now Then... (actually their fifth album, as they had released a live LP, Hanx, as their official third album between Nobody's Heroes and Go for It). Now Then was the first album for former Tom Robinson band's drummer Dolphin Taylor. In the face of low sales and concert attendances, they broke up in 1983, when Burns said: "Our last LP Now Then was to my mind the best album we have made. But it is also unfortunately the best I think we will ever make. So I have decided to call it a day". The band later revealed the original split had been somewhat acrimonious, with band members apparently having fistfights rather than talking through their differences. Burns stated in a 1989 interview that they "couldn't stand the sight of each other".
Reformation
After Burns had moved on from Stiff Little Fingers, he had a short stint at a band with former The Jam bassist Bruce Foxton. They made a couple of demos, but Foxton received an invitation to make a solo album which ended their collaboration.
In 1987 the band reformed. Despite some critics who had said "Nobody would be interested in coming to see you" the band had a successful tour including Germany with shows selling out night after night. The band changed their plan of it just being a temporary re-union and decided it was to be permanent.
Ali McMordie decided he could not commit the time to tour full-time or record and so left, being replaced by Bruce Foxton in time to record 1991's Flags and Emblems. In Britain, the single from this album, "Beirut Moon", was withdrawn from sale on the first day of release, allegedly because it criticised the government for not acting to free hostage John McCarthy, who had been held in Lebanon.
In 1993, Henry Cluney was asked to leave the band, and the trio of Jake Burns, Bruce Foxton and Dolphin Taylor continued for the next four years, joined on live shows by either Dave Sharp or Ian McCallum.
In 1994, they released Get a Life in the UK, releasing it in the US in 1996. By the end of 1996 Taylor left due to family commitments. Burns called in Steve Grantley who had played drums for Jake Burns and the Big Wheel in the late 1980s.
The trio of Burns, Foxton and Grantley recorded 1997's Tinderbox album, with help from Ian McCallum who joined as a full-time member for 1999's Hope Street. This same line-up recorded 2003's Guitar and Drum.
Lineup change
On 18 January 2006, Foxton left the band.
On 23 January 2006, it was announced that original bass guitarist Ali McMordie was to rejoin the band for the duration of their upcoming March tour. The tour was a success, with many fans writing into SLF's message board saying how much they enjoyed it, and how fired up the band seemed to be. After much discussion regarding the status of McMordie within the band after the tour, on 21 April 2006, Burns posted on the message board "For the time being Mr. McMordie is happy to continue as long as his busy schedule allows. It may be that occasionally we have to bring on a "substitute", if he is up to his eyes and we need to do something, but hopefully we can avoid that." Mr. McMordie has occasionally been unable to tour due to other commitments and on those occasions, his place has been taken by Mark DeRosa of Chicago band, Dummy.
On 25 May 2006, SLF announced Ian McCallum would not be able to join the band on its Spring US tour due to health reasons. John Haggerty of Pegboy and Naked Raygun fame would fill in on guitar. McCallum has since rejoined the band and has toured with them ever since.
On 9 March 2007, Burns announced that Stiff Little Fingers would record a new album, to be released later that year. A new song, "Liars Club", was added to their set lists that year. The track was named after a bar Burns drove past while listening to a press report about Tony Blair, George W. Bush and the Iraq War. At the Glasgow Barrowlands gig on 17 March 2011 Burns announced that the new album was being recorded – hopefully for a 2011 release – before launching into a new song, "Full Steam Backwards", about the banking crisis in the UK.
On 16 October 2013, the band launched a project on Pledgemusic to raise funds for the album to be released in March 2014. The project reached its funding goal within 5 hours. Recording was completed in January 2014 and the album, titled No Going Back was released through PledgeMusic on 15 March 2014 and to the general public on 11 August 2014. A tour in support of the album kicked off in early 2014 and included dates in the US on the Summer Nationals tour with The Offspring, Bad Religion, The Vandals, Pennywise and Naked Raygun. The album was the band's first UK chart success since 1983's "All The Best" and their first number 1 record on the BBC Rock Album Chart.
Personnel
Current line-up
Jake Burns – lead vocals, guitar (1977–1982, 1987–present)
Ali McMordie – bass, backing vocals (1977–1982, 1987–1991, 2006–present)
Ian McCallum – guitar, backing vocals (1993–present)
Steve Grantley – drums, backing vocals (1996–present)
Former members
Henry Cluney – guitar, vocals (1977–1982, 1987–1993)
Bruce Foxton – bass, vocals (1991–2006)
Brian Faloon – drums (1977–1979)
Jim Reilly – drums (1979–1981)
Dolphin Taylor – drums, backing vocals (1981–1982, 1987–1996)
Discography
Inflammable Material (1979)
Nobody's Heroes (1980)
Go for It (1981)
Now Then... (1982)
Flags and Emblems (1991)
Get a Life (1994)
Tinderbox (1997)
Hope Street (1999)
Guitar and Drum (2003)
No Going Back (2014)
Books on Stiff Little Fingers
Burns, Jake; Parker, Alan (2003). Stiff Little Fingers: Song by Song. Sanctuary. ISBN 978-1-86074-513-3.
Link, Roland (2009). Kicking up a Racket: The Story of Stiff Little Fingers, 1977-1983. Appletree Press. ISBN 978-1-84758-145-7.
Link, Roland (2014). What You See is what You Get--: Stiff Little Fingers, 1977-1983. Colourpoint Books. ISBN 978-1-78073-056-1.