I think probably the Now Then period. The band were pulling in four different directions, Punk had run its course as far as the public were concerned and so our audience was dwindling so that made any strife within the band become major. The whole New Romantic thing had happened and even 2 Tone was passé at that stage. We were on the same label as Spandau and they were doing really well as it was all about big production and lavish videos as opposed to the nitty gritty that Punk and 2 Tone brought to the table. It wasn’t just The Clash themselves, it was more specifically Joe and the more I saw him interviewed and then seeing him in the flesh talking to people, the more I felt his influence. The first time I came across him The Clash were meant to be playing Belfast but they couldn’t get insurance for the hall and they were a lot of angry people in town who had come to see them. A few of us found out they were staying at The Europa Hotel and Joe and Paul took the time to come out and talk to us. At the time, The Europa was surrounded by wire and guards and they were standing at the wire explaining why the gig was cancelled and I often think to myself, “I can’t see Phil Collins doing that”. It was a genuine respect he had for the audience and the connection that he made that made a big impression on me. Stiff Little Fingers formed in 1977 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Their first album, Inflammable Material, made the world aware of The Troubles -- the sectarian civil war happening in Northern Ireland at the time -- and is generally considered to be one of the greatest punk albums of all time. marked the first release of XSLF, a band featuring both Cluney and Reilly ex-SLF (hence the name) as well as two other musicians. Reilly has since left due to health reasons, although the band still appears to be active. Show more

Inflammable Material - Wikiwand

Life in the Irish provinces was crap to say the least. Catholics had no chance of work, same white skin pigment different religion are or were the display signs of confrontation between indigenous populations and the Protestant hordes. This song like the opener full of lyrics concerning teenage depression no solution because as the song lyric goes hate has made you blind. You make no secret of the influence Joe Strummer has had on you, and say as much onstage when introducing Strummerville. Can you just expand on his importance to you? The Wild Rover (" The Wild Rover", " Love of the Common People", "Johnny Was" - live 1 March 1988), 1989, (UK No.83) Or Less ("Listen"/"That's When Your Blood Bumps"/"Sad-Eyed People"/"Two Guitars Clash"), 6 January 1982, (UK No.33) [29]Produced at Spaceward Studios, Cambridge (except for "Alternative Ulster" produced and remixed at Olympic Studios). A tongue in cheek racist lyric that in 1979 SLF could get away with because the whole subject of race was thought of by white people as something to be joked about. White people were not disposessed to these racist insults and jibes so does that make it alright? I doubt that very much!. Race was embedded into the English psyche and its foulness permeated society especially through television. SLF were making an anti racist statement but looking at the lyrics they could be interpreted as pure racism. They used racism to make a joke about themselves calling the Irish as green wogs with faces not fitting into this white world. Even though the Irish skin is whiter than white life was cheap in Northern Ireland at the time.

Stiff Little Fingers – Suspect Device Lyrics | Genius Lyrics Stiff Little Fingers – Suspect Device Lyrics | Genius Lyrics

A great slow opener to a nexus of massive in your face simple punk guitar chords. All there is to live for estranged teenagers is to be a martyr for an impossible cause in an ongoing political confusion, hostility and turmoil. Yet, violence has to be questioned what a waste of life, this song is driven with powerful guitar riffs and guitar solo that are a highlight of side one of the album. Jakes sorethroat vocals must have been painful after the recording at Spaceward Studios by the leafy streets of Cambridge. Moving to London in 1979, the band lost Brian Faloon who was replaced on drums by Jim Reilly. They recorded the LP "Nobody's Heroes" for Chrysalis, an LP which was more pop than "Inflammable Material" but continued exploring similar themes. A cover of The Specials'"Doesn't Make It Alright" was included, though less successfully than "Johnny Was". "Nobody's Heroes" was followed by the live LP "Hanx" as well as the pure power pop of the LPs "Go For It" and "Now Then" (featuring new drummer Dolphin Taylor, previously of Tom Robinson Band), which failed to satisfy their fans. In 1983 the band decided to call it a day. Suspect Device" is the debut single by Northern Irish punk band Stiff Little Fingers, released on 17 March 1978. Ogilivie showed Burns draft lyrics for a possible song. "Gordon asked me if I'd written anything pertinent where I'd grown up [at which juncture] he literally handed me the finished lyric of 'Suspect Device'. I couldn't believe it. Here was a guy who was thinking along exactly the same lines as I was. I'd go so far to say that from the moment he handed me that piece of paper, the band changed." ( Jake Burns) [1] Northern Irish punk band formed around 1977, the original members being Jake Burns, Ali McMordie, Henry Cluney & Brian Faloon.But I knew that wasn’t always going to be an option as it knew it would hit me at times when I couldn’t do that, like on a tour bus in the middle of Kansas or somewhere. I wouldn’t necessarily be able to go and find a park on my own and walk about for hours so the song was basically written as a coping mechanism for me but if it can help other people then I’m only too happy about that.

Stiff Little Fingers - Inflammable Material (album review Stiff Little Fingers - Inflammable Material (album review

The end song of many songs on side 1; 8 in all is a thought provoking discharge of dropping out of society. The troubles are too much for one to bear so what can one do? Powerful guitar punchy chord shapes emphasis from despair to where! This guy is leader if i can breakaway so can you! Nihilism is the word, if you can win you win if you loose you loose. He dont care if he is on the dole or not, no worries because life in the Irish province is really very worrying indeed. Another record that accuses SLF of being Clash copyists. The Clash wrote a song called Complete Control about the meddlings of a selfish record company. So did the Sex Pistols write a song about the anti heroics of EMI. So why cant SLF write a song about a record company, their record company ironically Rough Trade. Very fast punky beat as fresh as it is now than when the day it was recorded all of 30 years ago. Punk classic could and should have been a single maybe the record company were scared of this anti record company baiting. Strange thing at the time both factions need each other in recording market. Betrayal being the buzz word for an untruthful record company lying about false promises. Joe certainly was an inspiration but the other huge inspiration in my life around that time was Gordon Ogilvie. He encouraged us to write more and more about our own lives and having that sort of validation from someone who wanted to write with me made a huge difference. Gordon gave me the finished lyric of Suspect Device on the second day I met him and said “do you think you can do something with this?” I’ve said before it was like a ‘60’s Sci Fi shows where the rest of the room disappears and all I could see was that piece of paper and I knew exactly what I could do with it. It needed trimming as it was something like 16 verses long. I don’t think Gordon had grasped the idea of the 3-minute punk song at that stage. So we put Suspect Device together and I’d written Wasted Life around the same time so it was lift off for us. Filename H:\My Rips\Stiff Little Fingers\Stiff Little Fingers - Original Album Series (2014) [FLAC] {5CD Parlophone 2564636166}\CD4\09 - Silver Lining.wavThe result of all that was I spent the next 75 minutes watching the monitors and dreading them breaking down again. People actually said to me that when we first came on we all looked really focused and determined. I had to tell them that it wasn’t determination, it was worry as we were all terrified of it going wrong again. It took away all the stage nerves as we were just worried about the equipment and it probably gave our playing an edge I imagine. We rattled through the whole set in 60 minutes which left perfect time for encores. 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. [ citation needed] Filename H:\My Rips\Stiff Little Fingers\Stiff Little Fingers - Original Album Series (2014) [FLAC] {5CD Parlophone 2564636166}\CD5\03 - Love Of The Common People.wav I’ve actually written two and I’ve got a load of ideas so we are gearing up to write another album, assuming that they’re all half decent.

Stiff Little Fingers – Inflammable Material (1979, WEA

Filename H:\My Rips\Stiff Little Fingers\Stiff Little Fingers - Original Album Series (2014) [FLAC] {5CD Parlophone 2564636166}\CD1\11 - Johnny Was.wav In 2006, original bassist Ali McMordie returned to the fold, and the line-up has settled to the best ever; Jake Burns on lead vocals and guitar, Ali McMordie on bass, Ian McMallun on guitar, and Steve Grantley on drums. Though focused on their new material, they always play the old favorites at gigs. Jake said, "You have to strike a balance. The difficulty with a band like ourselves is to try not make it sound like a cabaret band. Obviously, it'd be very easy to go, 'Hey, here's another old one you may remember.' A lot of the old songs the audience greet like old friends. I suppose it's the same as any band that's been around for any length of time. And yes, there are nights that we don't particularly want to play "Alternative Ulster" or "Suspect Device" because we've heard them 'til they're coming out our ears. But there's always the possibility that somebody out there has never seen the band before, never heard them." It was a big thing; it was a chart record and it basically set up our career. When we were making it, we didn’t think we’d get the chance to make another record as we’d been turned down by everyone but Rough Trade very kindly said they would do it and I really thought it was just going to be something that the four of us could keep and play to our grandchildren to show what we did when we were young. Filename H:\My Rips\Stiff Little Fingers\Stiff Little Fingers - Original Album Series (2014) [FLAC] {5CD Parlophone 2564636166}\CD2\07 - Doesn't Make It All Right.wav Swenson, John (1983). "Stiff Little Fingers". In Marsh, Dave; Swenson, John (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Record Guide (2nded.). Random House/Rolling Stone Press. p.491. ISBN 0-394-72107-1.To coincide with the release of "Gotta Gettaway", SLF headlined their first tour with 21 datesacross Britain and Ireland. The highlight of the tour was the gig at Belfast's Ulster Hall on 21 May 1979. For anyone doubting SLF's popularity in Northern Ireland, this was the first time a local punk band had headlined what was at the time the biggest music venue in Belfast. The group were welcomed home with a sell-out crowd. They wrote initially about their own lives, growing up at the height of The Troubles in Belfast, in songs like "Suspect Device" and "Wasted Life". In November of '77, they released those two songs on their own Rigid Digits label and sent a copy to BBC Radio One DJ John Peel, who started playing it every night. 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. November 1, 1978 - November 13, 1978 at Spaceward Studios, Cambridge. (Apart from "Alternative Ulster" recorded Island Studios, London May 1978.) That was definitely the low point and when we reformed four years later we were all aware that it had been a mistake and since then it hasn’t been plain sailing, there has been arguments but we’re older now and we can talk things through. I think also we’ve realised that it’s not just that Stiff Little Fingers mean a lot to us, and I don’t just mean that it’s our living though obviously it is, but we also realise how much it means to other people and you bear that in mind when you’re making decisions.