Stiff Little Fingers

I’m rather excited as I wait in the crowd for Jake Burns and Stiff Little Fingers. Not that I’ve listened to ‘Inflammable Material’ the album of theirs I own for many years. It wasn’t the fact that I was thinking Bruce Foxton (he of The Jam) would be on bass or the fact that I knew some of these tunes in their entirety.

No, it was the crowd which got my heart beatin’, for it was as though time had stood still and the faces I’d have been amongst twenty years ago at gigs in the local area were all around me once again. A real old boys re-union with numerous members of local bands dotted about the crowd. I guess you could say this was about to be one of those muso gigs. Where the great and the good had squeezed into aging leather and the Mrs had got dolled up and off we’d all gone to see one of our heroes.



Certainly the music spilling from the speakers set the era, Sex Pistols, Ramones, Sham 69, The Only Ones were setting the mood too, and there were lots of wives telling lots of husbands that surely they were too mature to get into a mosh pit now!

As the band come out in smart black shirts I realise Bruce isn’t there, I ask the guy next to me for confirmation and he tells me the diminutive guy on bass is the original bassist Ali McMordie returned after 15 years and he’s a flurry of fretwork and energy.

Jake’s looking a lot more portly than I remember him, and his voice isn’t so loud or full of the old energy. But the songs are suited to this slightly more sedate pace and there’s plenty of additional vocals from the crowd who throw silhouettes of punk hairstyles across the PA.

It seems like only a few minutes before I realise the snappy punktastic trio of ‘Roots, Radicals, Rockers And Reggae’, ‘Fade Away’ and ‘At The Edge’ have had time to work their effect on the crowd, which is pretty full now, and many of us who should know better are won over with ‘Back To Front’ and ‘Silver Lining’ which start to give the crowd some bounce.



The front of the stage is a frenzy and the band fuel the frenetic pace with ease, they are immersed in bringing us these tight punk anthems, short and punchy before slowing it down for their anthemic tribute to Joe Strummer the wonderful ‘Strummerville’ from their ninth studio album 2003’s ‘Guitar and Drum’ the title track of which they also air tonight and the newer material sits well with the old classics!

And boy do we get a lot of them! ‘Break Out’, ‘Doesn't Make It Alright’, ‘Can't Get Away’, ‘Fly the Flag’, ‘State of Emergency’, ‘Wasted Life’ and ‘Tin Soldiers’ are all spot on perfect, even if Jake sounds much less full throttle vocally these days it gives the songs a sound that’s more familiar and his guitar work is superb. Decades of practice clearly show and he plays with ease.

Scot Ian McCallum on guitar has been a regular in the line up since 1993 and sure adds depth to the tunes and even provides vocal duties on some of the songs he’s penned himself. Steve Grantley, he of The Alarm is on the skins and as good as ever, in fact the bloke’s the powerhouse of the band, providing some incredible energy and bite to the evening.

By the time Jake says they’re taking a break the place is a sweaty throng of middle aged folks catching their breath! We’re all calling for ‘Alternative Ulster’ but they return to give us all a huge adrenaline rush with old classics ‘Barbed Wire Love’ and ‘Sus, Sus, Sus, Sus, Sus Suspect Device!’ and we cheer deliriously! It’s been a fantastic night and as they’re walking off stage they turn on their heels and return for an ‘Alternative Ulster.’



Okay, they’re another ageing punk band, but there aren’t many who have stuck to their guns so well, they play incredibly well live, well they would do it’s been their job for thirty years. If only half the new breed of bands were as good as them. They show the flaw in those new NME bands of this year, fans of music today have no staying power. What’s flavour of the month now is trash in a year’s time. Bands have neither the technical ability nor the writing skills half the time. Considering nearly all their hits come from just two albums SLF are still pulling in the crowds!

Judging by the number of kids from local bands who were clearly there to try and learn something from the old hands. It might not be too long before fans start to have band loyalty again when they see how much energy they can still generate when they’re a bunch of old guys like tonight. But the bands need to have enough quality as SLF in the first place. They’ve been forged through years of playing and managing to evolve through line up changes, how many more recent bands can achieve that?

Set list:
Roots, Radicals, Rockers And Reggae lyrics
Fade Away
At The Edge
Back To Front
Strummerville
Silver Lining
Liars
Guitar and Drum
Break Out
Doesn't Make It Alright
Can't Get Away
Listen
State of Emergency
Fly the Flag
Wasted Life
Is That What You Fought The War For
Tin Soldiers

Barbed Wire Love
Suspect Device

Alternative Ulster

FUTURE GIGS