Stiff Little Fingers are well known for writing and playing music that chronicles their experience of The Troubles (the violent struggles that occurred due to disputes over the constitutional status of Northern Ireland) during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The group’s single “Suspect Device” fell into the hands of UK Radio One DJ John Peel, who played the track continually and won the group a solid fan base as well as significant fame.
The band secured a deal with the Rough Trade record label and released the album “Inflammable Material” through them. The 1979 album went to number 14 on the UK album charts and sold over 100, 000 copies.
The group released a further nine studio albums between 1980 and 2014. The group was as well known for its banned performances (Stiff Little Fingers has been barred from venues as well as television shows such as Top of the Pops) as well as their played gigs, which have taken place all over the UK and Europe. Stiff Little Fingers are known for their hard-hitting tracks that tackle issues such as violence and racism head on.
The band has seen multiple line up changes over the years, but the band’s central fan base has remained strong throughout the decades. Fans of Stiff Little Fingers are struck by the group’s integrity for writing and performing music about the realities of the The Troubles in Northern Ireland despite the political forces they were up against. This fan base has seen Stiff Little Fingers continue to pack out venues today.
While mainstream success may have been modest for Stiff Little Fingers, the historical importance of their music is significant and cannot be disputed.
There are certain members of the punk old guard who quite simply refuse to go away, and Stiff Little Fingers are most definitely amongst them. They formed in 1977, but it actually wasn’t the birth of punk that was the biggest influence on them that year; instead it was the peak period of the Troubles in their native Belfast that had the real impact upon their music. They were initially only together for five years - they split in 1982, claiming that they felt they couldn’t top their latest album of the time, Now Then..., but later admitting that a series of intra-band fistfights put paid to their future - but they reconvened in 1987, and have continued to record and play live since. They tour the UK on a yearly basis, in fact, frequenting the same old rooms to many of the same old faces each time; there are, though, always a few new, younger ones sneaking in there too. Their sets, which remain remarkably energetic for men of their advancing age, tend to involve classics like ‘Barbed Wire Love’, ‘Suspect Device’ and ‘Johnny Was’, although they tend to include the odd recent cut, too; they’re still one of the UK’s most incendiary punk bands, almost forty years since they first came together.
Joeg_67
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