After 30 years, veteran Northern Irish punk band Stiff Little Fingers finally make it to New Zealand. reports Alan Perrot
In a genre that fed off anger, Stiff Little Fingers were the angriest.Sure, the punks of England had plenty to rail against - Margaret Thatcher, cultural mediocrity and anything that came to mind over a few pints down t' pub - but the boys from Belfast had a right proper war going on outside their front gates.There's no avoiding the realisation that the gravely yelp Jake Burns poured over tracks like, Suspect Device, Tin Soldiers and Barbed Wire Love, came from bitter experience rather than the tides of musical fashion. It was an attitude and ferociousness that made Stiff Little Fingers a staple for any half-decent punk collection.But their debut Inflammable Material was more than 30 years, and eight albums, ago. And still, in all that time, Stiff Little Fingers have never been to New Zealand.Well, that's being fixed this month ... "Yeah, it's a bit embarrassing really," says Burns as he packs another bag in another anonymous hotel following a five-date tour of America's West Coast. Which hints at another aspect that sets SLF apart, they never really stopped. They've been at it so long that The Jam's bass player Bruce Foxton once sat in for them and ended up staying 15 years.
"Yeah, for a while there it was just us and The Damned still going but there's this nostalgia thing going on now, so we're meeting up with all those old punks at festivals and gigs. "We're good mates with The Stranglers and Steve Diggle from The Buzzcocks - hotel bars have a lot to answer for - but it never ceases to amaze me when we travel somewhere new, I mean I wrote Suspect Device in a bedroom at my parents' house, it was the first song I wrote for the band, and I can play it now and see everyone singing the words."Especially amazing, considering music was something to kill time."We were just a bunch of friends from school, usual story, looking for some fun, something to relieve the boredom of where we lived. I mean everyone knows about The Troubles - soldiers, riots, barbed wire, and shootings, all that - but the reality was very boring, mainly because everything was closed for security. "Bands didn't play there, they were too scared, so we thought if we wanted to hear the music we wanted to hear we'd have to do it our-bloody-selves."We've had so many false dawns during the peace process, but this one looks like holding."So I've got a fervent hope those angry old songs will become like old folk songs. They transport people back to the bad days, but in a way that makes them grateful for where they are now, they're like a gentle tap on the shoulder: `See, if you're not bloody careful this is what could happen all over again.'"We never took sides, it was more the innocent people getting hurt and killed, and we were f***** sick of it." As this is their first trip south, we can expect a set heavy on the early years."We realise most people down there have never seen us, so I'd say we'll be playing our greatest hits, but we never had any, so lets just say they're our favourites. Once you get the immediacy of the crowd at a live show, it's very easy to reconnect to the old emotions, it's not like we were writing about driving a car around California or falling in love with Mary-Lou, it's stuff that had a huge impact on our lives."LOWDOWNWho: Stiff Little FingersWhere: Powerstation, 33-35 Mt Eden Rd, Auckland.When: Wednesday May 14
