1284. Stiff Little Fingers / Nobody's Heroes. 1980. 4/5

In February 1979 Stiff Little Fingers had released their debut album “Inflammable Material”, an album that had been heavily influenced by the band’s experiences growing up in Belfast during The Troubles. And yet, with only half of the songs that directly referenced that political situation, it showed that the band was not just a punk band that talked about political turmoil, that they could sing about other topics as well, something that immediately allowed them to stand out from the crowd.
On the back of the success they were experiencing, the band decided to move to London, which saw the departure of drummer Brian Faloon and the recruitment in his place of Jim Reilly. They recorded a new single called “Gotta Getaway” and went out and headlined their first ever tour, playing 21 dates around the UK and Ireland. Jim Reilly was quoted in Roland Link’s book “Kicking up a Racket – The Story of Stiff Little Finger 1977-1983" as saying:
"Of all the shows, one of the best, without doubt, was the first time we headlined Belfast's Ulster Hall, on the ‘Gotta Gettaway’ tour. At the height of the Troubles we packed the place and then some, and staring out at that seething mass of young people just enjoying themselves and having a great time to the music, was something that has remained a treasured memory for me all these years. That night I realised we were doing something that none of the politicians were able to do. In that hall, in the midst of a city gripped by sectarian violence, killing and hatred, we brought together the people of our hometown, regardless of religion"
The band entered Olympic Sound Studios in London on January 21, 1980, for ten days of recording time. The album was recorded by what many people consider the classic SLF line-up of Jake Burns (guitar and vocals), Henry Cluney (guitar), Ali McMordie (bass) and new drummer Jim Reilly. It is never easy to follow up a debut album, especially one that has met with a fair amount of success and which the fan base had loved. The album cover was a peculiar barcode-type design, which was supposed to say Stiff Little Fingers if you held it away from you at a certain angle. To this day there are few people who can say that they have actually seen this in evidence. The album was released just five weeks after the recording process had been completed, and was released under the name of “Nobody’s Heroes”.

Prior to the album being released, the band had already brought out two singles, “Gotta Gettaway” and “At the Edge”, both of which were re-recorded for the album. The new version of “Gotta Gettaway” opens up the album, complete with opening guitar and drum beat, before leaving Ali to play the bass riff into the true start of the song, with the other instruments joining in to push the upbeat conglomerate of the song. Track two is “Wait and See”, a song which basically tells the story of the band, and how original drummer Brian Faloon left just at the point where things were taking off for them. Lyrics such as “you’re not good enough to be a dance band, they told us, but we’re not giving up, we’re not giving up, we’re not giving up, we’ll show them!”. Some bands make a career out of dissing former members, but this one is a solid statement about a decision from their former bandmate that didn’t sit well with the other members. Next is the anthemic “Fly the Flag”, which is sung in reference to the era of Thatcherism in the UK, and is more about the masses flying the flag of freedom and justice than political parties flying their flag, with lyrics such as “Gimme a nation where people are free, Free to do and free to be, Free to screw you before you screw me, Gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme”. That era in the UK offered plenty of ammunition for punk bands and their songwriting, and this is another example of that.
The second single “At the Edge” is next, and now the band turns their frustrations and anger not against authority as such but from a young man’s perspective against their parents. It’s a real anthem for the youth of the day, with lyrics like “Think of something that you want to do with your life, Nothing that you like that's not allowed, I've no time to talk about it, All your stupid hopes and dreams, Get your feet back on the ground son, It's exams that count not football teams”. There’s plenty of revolution in the opening track of the album, but this one hits pretty hard. In an interview at the time the album was released, Jake Burns was asked what his parents thought about the song, to which he replied “I don’t know, I don’t think they’ve heard it yet. I’m sure we’ll have a conversation about it at some stage”.
The first side of the album concludes with the title track “Nobody’s Hero”, where Jake and frequent lyric composer George Ogilvie try to exhort the masses to “Get up, get out, be what you are”, to be yourself and live by your own ideals, and not live vicariously through your heroes. It’s a nicely written song, simple in output but against with the anthemic quality to steers this punk band away from the usual suspects.
OK, so the first side of the album is almost flawless, and the band has put together an amazing run of songs that are powerful lyrically and barnstorming in the best traditions of punk musically. And then you hit side two of the album, and you wonder what the bloody hell has happened.
“Bloody Dub” opens the proceedings, and is basically what the title suggests, a dub reggae instrumental. And it is so unnecessary given the amazing things they have done on the first half of the album. I’ve never really understood the fascination that punk has with reggae, and to me it just completely blows up an album when it becomes incorporated in it. After the fist pumping and chest beating of the first side, this halts and destroys all of that momentum that has been built up. Worse yet, the song that they choose to follow it up with is “Doesn’t Make It All Right”, a song which Jake merrily confesses “we stole from The Specials”. The ska revival band were on the same label and had included the song on their debut album “Specials” a few months earlier. Jake, who at the time had had nothing positive to say about The Specials, was quoted about why SLF decided to cover one of their songs. “Hmmm, yes, well it’s not exactly a cover version. It’s more than a bit different to theirs. It was exactly the opposite to admiration. We thought, ‘Jesus that’s a good song, they’ve fucken wasted that’. So we went out and decided to show everyone how it should be done, but because The Specials are everyone’s pet band we suffered for it. But again, I think given time that track will stand up easily enough on its own.” But the problem was, it doesn’t. It is awful and it further allows the second side of the album to sink in the mire. It’s such a shame.
“I Don’t Like You” brings the album back into equilibrium, rising back into the music this band does best, and back to biting lyrics that express exactly what the band wants to say to a certain breeding of people, but all without a swear word in sight. Instead we have “If a thought came into your head, It would die of loneliness, You rate absolute zero, No more and not even less. Look at you Oh, what a state? Next to you Short planks are underweight. You oughta scratch from the human race, You are a waste of a name, A waste of time and a waste of space, You've only one claim to fame, I don't like you”
“No Change” sees guitarist Henry Cluney take on lead vocals, and addresses people’s changing attitudes to the band when they went back to Ireland, which they had left for London as they sought to make it in the music industry. And the album comes to its conclusion on a high note with the excellent “Tin Soldiers”, released as a double A-side single with “Nobody’s Hero”, and remains a popular live set closer to this day. The lyrics talk about a fan who signed up to the army “He joined up for just three years, it seemed a small amount, but they didn’t tell him that the first two didn’t count. At the age of 17 how was he to know, that at the age of 21 he'd still have one to go?”. This is a great song, with Jim Reilly’s drumming, incorporating a marching beat that further emphasises the lyrics, being a highlight.

My introduction to the Stiff Little Fingers was from a mixed tape that was put together for a mate in high school by his older brother who was very much into the punk scene at the time. This tape, full of bands such as the Sex Pistols, the Birthday Party, The Clash, Dead Kennedys and others, was one I first heard at an end of year school camp in 1985, and the song I first heard was the instrumental “Go for It” that came from the album of the same name that followed this one. It was also the song that a group of my friends mimed and ‘air-band’ to at the end of camp Talent Night, to much applause and cheers. From here, the only actual album I got of the band around that time was the live album “Hanx!” that was released after this album. Eventually when I reached university and went on one of my Wednesday arvo saunters to Illawarra Books and Records, I bought the double LP best of called “All the Best”, which suited me for that period of time. Eventually, there came a time when I collected the first four Stiff Little Fingers albums and was able to not only enjoy the songs that I knew but the ones I wasn’t familiar with.
I’ve always been most endeared with the band’s debut album “Inflammable Material”. I’m not really sure of the reason. It probably comes from it being the first of their albums I owned, and that it does have two of their greatest songs that bookend the album. And yet, this album really does have more. Well, let me be clear – the first side of this album is basically superior to anything else that Stiff Little Fingers produced. It has the angst and anger, the anthemic lines and music, the call to arms and the fuck you attitude that the best punk rock has and that the time was breeding. The band has taken on everything they had learned from recording their first album, then moved to London to get wider exposure and then come into this sophomore effort with all metaphoric guns blazing.
There is a far better use of Ali McMordie here on bass guitar, the sound he gets from his instrument and where it lays in the mix on “Nobody’s Heroes” is far better and the band is all the better for it. Jim Reilly’s drumming is excellent, clean and crisp and adds to the flavour of songs like “Tin Soldiers” and “At the Edge” with its succinct rhythm. And the dual guitars of Henry Cluney and Jake Burns are forthright and chugging. And Jakes vocals with their raspy quality here leave you in no doubt of the emotion of the track as he sings it.
The second half of the album is, for the most part, a disappointment though. The first five songs are electrifying, and then the second five, apart from the excellent “Tin Soldiers’ just can’t carry a candle to them. To me, it was a mistake to include a dub reggae track and a cover of what is a ska track. It doesn’t work and really cools off the album after a terrific opening half.
I have thoroughly enjoyed having this album back in the rotation this week. It has brought back lots of great memories, not only of old school days with old friends, the majority of whom I still see often to this day, but of seeing the band live. I feared I would never see them live in concert and finally did for the first time at Soundwave in 2012. Better yet, I’ve seen them on all of their three tours since, and they never fail to deliver.
Ranking the ten Stiff Little Fingers albums is not an easy task, but the top two is not difficult. It is however hard to choose a number one from those two, and on any given day there is every chance it could change. But the lacklustre second half of this album always eventually has me ranking it at #2 behind “Inflammable Material”. And nothing much has changed this week to make me change my mind.
True punk had a small window where it was the king of the world. This album was still in that window, and it thrived as a result. With just a couple of small changes, this album in my mind could have been absolutely legendary. It instead sits in the top echelon of punk albums, a spot reserved for very few.

719. Stiff Little Fingers / All the Best. 1983. 3.5/5

The dangers of putting out an album that contains your single releases including B-side songs is that, while many of the songs will be considered as your very best - classics, in fact - a selection of songs may be seen as a waste of space, average, or just plain awful. And let's face it, the B-side (in the good old days of vinyl singles) was always either an extra song left over from the recording studio, or a cover version of one of the band's favourite artists. they weren't meant to be their best work, or else they would have been on the album in the first place!

So here we have a collection entitled All the Best, but can you really call it that? I mean, this came out after just three albums had been released, so it's tough to have a greatest hits album after just three albums. Isn't it? I would have thought so.
The album does indeed include some of SLF's finest work, songs such as "Suspect Device", "Alternative Ulster", "Nobody's Hero" and "Tin Soldiers" are still brilliant today. I have always loved "Go For It" for a performance of it at a school camp a thousand years ago. I enjoy "78 RPM" and "You Can't Say Crap on the Radio", because these are my ideas of the best kind of B-side tracks. However, there is a lot of filler, and though it is good to hear anything from these guys, if you really want to hear their best stuff you go to the shelves and grab Nobody's Heroes or Inflammable Material and put them on. This is still fun, but not quite the best.

699. Stiff Little Fingers / Inflammable Material. 1979. 4/5

Stiff Little Fingers are a punk rock band from Belfast in Northern Ireland. They formed in 1977 at the height of the Troubles, the conflict that scarred Ireland and Northern Ireland for 30 years. They had started out as a school band called Highway Star (named after the Deep Purple song), doing rock covers, until they discovered punk, which was brought to the band by guitarist Henry Cluney, and which was then taken on board by the rest of the band.
Prior to becoming Stiff Little Fingers, the lineup of Highway Star consisted of lead vocalist and guitarist Jake Burns, guitarist and vocalist, Henry Cluney, bass guitarist Gordon Blair, and drummer Brian Faloon, Blair soon departed and Ali McMordie took over on bass. With the decision to move in a more punk direction, they decided that Highway Star was not a punk enough name, and instead decided to call themselves Stiff Little Fingers, after a song by The Vibrators. The band, and especially lead singer and main songwriter Jake Burns, were heavily influenced by The Clash. He was quoted as saying "What the Clash's first album 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 political situation they found themselves in during late 1970s Northern Ireland.
Along with writing their own songs, Jake made an acquaintance in journalist Gordon Ogilvie, who became a collaborating partner lyrically with the band in their early songwriting sessions. Despite the decision to utilise the times they were living in as a means to compose songs, less than half of the album actually addresses Northern Ireland and the political situation directly. Jake was quoted after the release of the album, "Everybody refers to it as "the Irish record" but I always say to go and look at the tracks and there's probably 4 out of 13 that refer specifically to Northern Ireland. The rest of it is ... just disaffected teenagers kicking against the world"

Whether or not a majority of the songs use the conflict in and around Northern Ireland as their basis, the subject matter covered is as confronting in this way lyrically as many of the best punk songs try to be. "Suspect Device" is a terrific opening track, and still one of their best ever, if not their best. It combines everything that is great about the band - angry spitting lyrics from Jake Burns, that real punk guitar sound and riffing from Henry Cluny and terrific rhythm section from Ali McMordie on bass and Brian Faloon on drums. It is raw and aggressive and leaves you in no doubt to their emotions. Great stuff. This is followed by the less agro "State of Emergency" before the short, sharp retort of "Here We Are Nowhere".
"Wasted Life" is another the band's best known songs, a terrific track focused on anti-government and anti-war themes. This was no doubt an anthem for many young people in Northern Ireland at the time, and again Burns' vocals leave you in doubt about what the band thinks of it all. "No More of That" follows, and is of the same theme, in a shorter and punchier style.
Okay, so the next song is "Barbed Wire Love", for which I have very mixed emotions. Punk music has always drawn on several other genres of music to incorporate into its style, the biggest being reggae. But here Stiff Little Fingers has brought in an almost 1950's 'slow dance' feel to the middle stanza of the song as Burns croons "All we neeeeed, is Barbed Wire Loooooove". It's a clever song of mixed metaphor lyrics as well as music, and I still love this song despite never really knowing why. It was a brave move at the time to record a song like this, given it could have (in their own words) blown up in their face. Instead, it has become a fan favourite in the decades since its release.
"White Noise" is perhaps not politically correct in this day and age, but is indicative of the anger that was being felt at the time it was written. "Breakout", to my mind (and it's only my opinion) seems to be written about the band itself, wanting to break out of the lives they are living, and try and find a better life by the 'success' of the band. Lyrically it could equally be about general life in Northern Ireland at the time, but to me the lyrics seem to be a bit more personal. "Law and Order" spits viciously about the treatment of locals by the 'authorities', while "Rough Trade" is belligerent on how they see the dishonesty of the music industry.
Perhaps the most surprising song on the album is the extended cover version of Bob Marley's "Johnny Was". It is surprising to me, I should say, because although punk does seem to have some roots in reggae, this version successfully seems to siphon most of the reggae sound out of the song, and while it sticks closely to the natural speed of the original version rather than a faster paced full-on punk version, it still fits into the framework of the album thanks to Burns' wailing vocals. Changing the lyrics slightly in order to have it placed in Northern Island is also a winner.
"Alternative Ulster" is the other great song on this album, against shouting to the masses in wanting a change in what is happening, and while it certainly is about their native Ulster, it could translate very easily to anywhere in the world that felt under the same pressure. It has references to "You got the Army on the street, and the RUC dog of repression is barking at your feet", yet is mainly about being a bored teenager in the late 1970s. All of this is framed up nicely, before "Closed Groove" completes what is a very impressive debut effort.
The band had signed a contract with Island Records, but it fell through, leaving the group to release the album on Rough Trade. Despite the album's independent release, it reached number 14 in the UK Albums Chart selling over 100,000 copies and was the first independent album to chart in the UK.

I have loved this album from the moment I first heard it in its entirety. It may not be perfect, but its slight flaws are not hugely noticeable ones, and as a punk record I find it more entertaining and listenable that almost all others of the genre. The songs are angry, but catchy. You don't have to have grown up in Northern Ireland to feel the aggression and accountability that the band has weaved into the songs here. This stands as a monument to the punk era, and is still a great listen today.
I was not quite in a position to be in and around the punk scene when it was at the height of its power. Indeed I wasn’t even a teenager by the time that era had burned through its bright light, My first exposure to punk was in the mid-1980's as my friends and I began to gain the experience of those around us in regard to music. A mixed tape full of the best punk bands and songs that came from the older brother of one of my school friends was where I first heard Stiff Little Fingers at a high school camp in 1985, a cassette that I played to death until its untimely demise through disintegration. And while by this time I had heard The Clash and The Ramones to a certain degree, this cassette was a godsend. and from that point I started collating those bands that it held. Stiff Little Fingers was one of the first of those bands that I found their albums, the four of them in fact that they had recorded and release prior to the band’s initial break up in 1982. At the time I discovered the band they were still broken up, and I guessed I would never get the chance to see them live. This proved to be incorrect.
Of all their albums, this is my favorite. It’s the one where I feel they are at their angriest, at their furious best, shaking their fist and middle fingers at the world and doing what the best punk music does. Whenever I put the album on, it still brings forth a feeling of ‘us against the world’, that I am again the youth, fighting against authority. Indeed, songs such as “Suspect Device” and “Alternative Ulster” still send shivers down my back listening to a young Jake Burns braying out those lyrics, and me alongside him doing the same thing.
“Inflammable Material” is the band’s debut album, and is arguably their finest work. Fuelled by their youth and their anger and any number of other influences, the majority of this album is exactly as it should be, and though there are a couple of hiccups thrown in for good measure, in the long run this still stands up as well today as it did back when it was released all those years ago.

467. Stiff Little Fingers / Hanx! 1980. 4/5

In a very short space of time, the Stiff Little Fingers had risen from relative obscurity in Belfast in Northern Ireland to becoming a far bigger thing that even they probably expected. On the back of two single releases back in 1979 the band had released their debut album “Inflammable Material” in February 1979, an album that even though it had had an independent release still reached #14 on the UK albums charts. Band guitarist and lead vocalist Jake Burns and his fellow bandmates had taken a lot of inspiration from their fellow punk leaders The Clash, and had moulded their sound to the popular sound of the day. Burns had been quoted as saying that The Clash’s success gave him the confidence to write songs about his life and experiences, and present them as subjects that needed to be expressed through their music.
On the back of the success, the band moved to London, and recoreded and released their follow up “Nobody’s Heroes” in March 1980 – the episode on which you can find as Episode 26 of this podcast. Their continuing success saw them asked to appear on the popular TV program “Top of the Pops” for their single “At the Edge”. In fact, after their apparance at that time the band was told that they would never be invited back again as they had not taken it seriously, as they were not playing live and they made it obvious that it was recorded. It has been suggested that it was one of the most infamous appearances on the program. Despite this, the band did return a few months later to perform when their single “Nobody’s Hero” and its rise up the charts forced their hand.
Their success eventually led to the band deciding to tour North America, and as a lead into that tour they decided to release a live album to introduce the band to America. This didn’t go down well with the fans in the UK as they felt as though they were missing out, even though they were the reason the band had become so popular. Rather than have their UK fans pay for an expensive import of the album from America, as was the way back in the day, they then released a budget, low priced version for the UK audience, something that appeased the masses. Recorded in July 1980, the album was released a little over 6 weeks after the gig itself was played, and became the band’s debut live album titled “Hanx!”

The bonus of getting a live album from a band so early on in their career is that you are basically offered every great track that they had written to that point of their career. And you can’t argue with that on this album. Five of the 11 songs come from the debut album “Inflammable Material” and the other six all come from “Nobody’s Heroes”. If you were to put those two albums together to form one album, this would pretty much be it. Sure, I wold make on or possibly two alterations, but it's pretty close.
The one glaring song here that sticks out like a sore thumb – for me at least – is the cover of the Bob Marley song “Johnny Was”. This was done on the debut album, and that version as well for me is just problematic. Punk rock in the UK did have this slight obsession at time with reggae music, which is my least favourite infusion into punk rock. And although Stiff Little Fingers version is okay, it has never been a song that has enamoured me. What creates a further problem with the live version here is that it is a fully live extended version with some free forming in the middle of the track. This live version stretches beyond ten minutes, and that is far too long to have to put up with. The eight minutes of the studio version is too much let alone ten plus minutes live. Still, that is a personal preference, and not one shared (or so it seems) by the majority of the band’s fans.
Elsewhere, the remainder of the setlist is terrific. Full of great songs with meaningful lyrics and fast paced punk styled attitude and guitar riffs and hard-hitting drums, you can feel the energy blasting out of the speakers at you. And that is the beauty of this live album. It captures the band at its theoretical peak, playing out to packed houses on the back of two hugely successful albums at a time when the punk industry was just holding on before its decline into the years of the 80’s decade. Everything was right for this moment, and it offers the great joy this band was giving its fanbase at the time. The live versions of the songs, almost without fail, shine here brighter than their studio versions. This is the place that the band does its best work, and to have it recorded for posterity turned out to be a fortuitous event.

Back at the end of 1985, for the end of Year 10 in high school, our year all went on a week long school camp to celebrate an ending of sorts. About half of the students would leave school for good at the conclusion of the school year while the remainder of us would continue on to do our Higher School Certificate. We got to choose between three different sites. My friend group and I chose to go to a place called Bundanoon in the southern highlands, about an hour's drive from where we lived in Kiama. This week long camp, amongst many other things, was where my true awakening to heavy metal and punk music occurred, through a mixed cassette that became known as the Pommie Punk Tape, and the mimed air guitar performance of two songs by some of that friend group on the final night at a talent quest. The two songs performed by the air-guitar gods were “Run to the Hills” by Iron Maiden, and “Go For It” by Stiff Little Fingers”. The group’s taken name was the Stagnated Little Fingers. If you are interested in that entire story, you can find it by signing up to my Patreon channel at the handle @realmetalkevin where I tell the tale in detail. The Pommie Punk Tape had the song “Go For It” on it as well, and on return home I made sure I got a copy of that tape, where I discovered every great punk band in existence. I wish I still had it. It was awesome.
Having discovered this one track by the band, I wanted more, and as it turned out, it was “Hanx!” that became the first album I got of the band. Which, in a way, was the best way to go. Like I’ve said here, it really is the best songs that the band had written to that point in time. To be fair, it’s probably the best they EVER wrote! And when it comes to live albums, it is the songs in their best environment, and that is the case here on “Hanx!” Everything sounds great, you hear the passion in Jake’s voice, and the band is in top form. And while I still love the first three studio albums the band released and the way they sound, here on “Hanx!” you get the best that sound the best.
I’ve seen the band live on five occasions, all beyond the time when I thought I would ever get the chance. And each time they have been magnificent. Warriors of the road, still getting into battles with other bands at festivals who pick fights with the wrong band. And that’s exactly the way I have enjoyed this album again over the last week reliving it again, bringing back all of those great memories of the end of high school, of school camps and mimed performances, and the innocence of youth. You can’t beat it.

442. Stiff Little Fingers / Go For It. 1981. 2.5/5

What is it about punk and reggae that they almost seem to go hand in hand? It truly is something I’ve never really been able to work out.

You can hardly call this album a punk album, and maybe the band and their fans don’t want to be pigeon-holed that way anyway. I can admit to being openly surprised at the style of music contained on this album when I first got it. Surprised, and not just a little disappointed. However, I can almost pass that off as part of my close minded youth. I got the album on the strength of the title track, the instrumental “Go For It”, to which I had been introduced at a Year 10 camp almost 25 years ago. From there the natural progression was to buy the album.
Now, I am no fan of reggae, and that includes when punk or alternative bands infuse it into their own music. So the fact that songs like “The Only One” have it here, frankly, just bores me to death.
Then there is “Gate 49”, which is almost like an updated 1050’s do-wop song, and “Silver Lining” which has horns and piano through it. All of this was so unexpected. No doubt many fans love it. I found it a bit disconcerting.

When I think of all of the great songs that this band released, and I hear what they have done on this album, it seems a tad disappointing.

Rating: Not what I consider to be one of their strongest releases. 2.5/5