Stiff Little Fingers / Middle Finger Salute

All fingers and no thumbs here. Middle Finger Salute have an average age of sixteen, but sound well beyond their years. Very much into the old spirit of punk; the front of the crowd may be youngsters but the oldies at the back are laughing and enjoying the Blackburn lads.


A great cover of Step’s ‘5,6,7,8’, speeded up and much more aggressive, shows the lads age but also their sense of humour. A cover of huge influence Bouncing Souls’ ‘True Believers’ is more like it though, along with originals ‘No Future, No Hope’, ‘Sense Of Direction’ and my favourite, ‘I Hate You’, aimed at another young-un in the form of Lil Chris (‘You Smell Like Cow Shit’).


They finish off with a modest sing-a-long; encouraging the crowd to sing “You’re Shit!” at them several times. Except that they aren’t. Excellent.

From the very young to the quite old; the Stiff Little Fingers are now celebrating thirty years as a band. Looking as sharp and energetic as ever; there are still the odd jumps and ‘tomfoolery’ on stage. Jake Burns is a chatty soul; his strong Northern Ireland accent producing a few jokes about life on the road and other stories fitting nicely between songs. Some political statements, noticeably about the origins of the lyrics for ‘The Liars Club’, where Burns was listening to Bush and Blair an about the War on Iraq on the radio, whilst sat in the car next to a pub of that name.

Jake Burns, Ian McCallum and Ali McMordie are all wearing the three shirt set-up again; three shirts with what looks like bits taken and swapped about between them (Burns has white with black sleeves, McCallum and MacMordie have black with one white sleeve each). Anyway this isn’t a fashion review.


The hit most people know, ‘Nobody’s Hero’ is played second on the setlist, as it was nearly a year ago at this very venue. ‘Silver Lining’, ‘Bits Of Kids’ make an early appearance as does new song as an attack on “Simon Cowell and the X-Factor” ‘Guitars and Drums’.

Burns informs us that they are playing the songs in order, and when a request is shouted from the front he answers “they’re in order, stupid fucker!”. Don’t you love it when old punks go out on the tiles! Unlike some of the other shows here recently, the indie crap etc, there is not fear of a full pint hitting you on the head. Yes, pint pots are flying, but these well-seasoned folk have the sense to drink the beverage before lobbing a lager cup.



The setlist is long; although these are punk songs they straddle the usual three-minute rule, most of the time over; up to (shock horror) four and a half minutes. Choosing to focus on the early albums (1979’s ‘Inflammable Material’ and 1980’s 'Nobody’s Heroes’) as well as the last album (‘Guitar And Drum’) it’s a merry show, where the band are enjoying themselves and the crowd are either reminiscing or discovering (depending on their age bracket).

Set list:

Roots Radicals Rockers and Reggae
Nobody’s Hero
At The Edge
Strummerville
Just Fade Away
Bits Of Kids
Liar’s Club
Fly The Flag
Guitar And Drum
Suspect Device
State Of Emergency
Here We Are Nowhere
Wasted Life
No More Of That
Barbed Wire Love
White Noise
Breakout
Law And Order
Rough Trade
Johnny Was
Alternative Ulster

Boys Are Back
Back To Front / Silver Lining
Doesn’t Make It Alright

Tin Soldiers

FUTURE GIGS