Inflammable Material

Coming a little late to the punk scene, Stiff Little Fingers (named after a Vibrators’ song) followed in the footsteps of The Clash by writing overtly political songs, largely about “the troubles” in Northern Ireland. Their gritty sound also mirrored that of The Clash and they even included a reggae number on their first album but they were no copycat band and I loved them. If I could possibly put together a list of my favourite singles of all time, “Alternative Ulster” would be on it.

Stiff Little Fingers at Manchester Apollo May 28th 1979

Stiff Little Fingers at Manchester Polytechnic October ?? 1979

Stiff Little Fingers at London Astoria December 10th 1992

Stiff Little Fingers at London Forum March 25th 2011

I first saw them at Manchester Apollo in 1979 and have seen them several times since. When moving from London up to Sunderland I needed a gig to say goodbye to the place and out of what was available, it seemed only fitting that I picked one of theirs. I was son inspired by them whilst a student that one of my course mates even managed to get me to pen a review for the student union newspaper - my one and only appearance in a journalistic capacity. It’s rubbish but here it is anyway:

NO BLOOD OR TEARS BUT LOTS OF SWEAT

When writing about a band like “Stiff Little Fingers”, several words immediately spring to mind such as ‘dead ace’ or ‘superb’. This was definitely the case on Tuesday night at the Polytechnic.

“The Donkeys”, a Liverpool band of some repute played an excellent, but unfortunately 15 years too late, gig. The close harmonies seemed to have stepped straight out of the “Merseybeat” era and their rendition of “Please, Please Me” could easily have passed for the “Fab Four”.

Last time round, S.L.F. played the Apollo and have regretted it ever since but the Factory was too small & they didn’t know the Poly existed. The Poly is certainly the happy medium in both size & sound quality.

S.L.F. charged straight into “Alternative Ulster” and from that moment on it promised to be a great night. They played a well balanced mixture of old & new songs & the new songs seemed to have more power, more depth & more musical ability than all the old favourites, without losing the S.L.F. identity.  If the other songs off the new album are half as good as the ones they played, then it will certainly be a biggie. Finishing off with “Wasted Life”, S.L.F. left the stage to overwhelming applause, cheers & whistles.

In the usual style of S.L.F., the encore was silly, the 1st song was stupid but superb & “State of Emergency” superb. Despite 5 minutes of cheering, they failed to return for a 2nd encore, but what a fantastic concert.

The First Apollo

I wish I’d kept all my tickets but inevitably, I wasn’t thinking ahead and as a young reckless student, these things get lost. But I went to loads of gigs during my three happy years in Manchester, it’s just a shame that I can’t remember them all. I’ve got quite a few tickets and I have memories of other gigs and have managed to track down dates on the internet so I’ll go through them here, a few at a time, and remember what I can.

Boomtown Rats at Manchester Apollo 13^th December 1978

I’d always quite liked The Boomtown Rats despite them being rather too poppy for my taste. Having just had a hit with “Rat Trap” they undertook a “Seasonal Turkey Tour” to celebrate. A good night I’m sure and I think this was probably the first time I’d been to Manchester Apollo. It certainly wouldn’t be the last and was the venue for the best gig I’ve ever been to just over a year later.

Elton John at Manchester Apollo April 25^th 1979

I went back to Manchester early after the easter break just to go to this gig. I don’t particularly like what Elton turned into or the music he produced later on in his career but the early stuff stands up well. The gig started with just Elton on stage playing lots of great songs but the gig was transformed half way through when the most excellent percussionist, Ray Cooper joined him. Elton Started playing “Funeral For A Friend” with Ray Cooper joining in part way through, they then segued into “Love Lies Bleeding”. Absolutely stunning.

Judas Priest at Manchester Apollo May 15^th 1979

The first gig I ever walked out of. A friend had a spare ticket and persuaded me to go with him, against my better judgement. Too much leather, hair and spandex for my liking and that was just the audience. I should have known what I was in for after the poodle headed, leopard-skin leotarded, support band, whoever they were, came on but I stayed to see the main act. I wish I hadn’t bothered.

Manchester, the early years

I mentioned my university interview in Manchester in passing, well I did pass, they gave me a good offer and so I went. Why Manchester? I suppose I ought to say I was inspired by the course and the facilities and stuff like that but if the truth be told, it's in the north and so wasn't far for me to travel back home and being a big city was going to be a better source of good gigs than most other places I'd considered. (Actually to be fair, one of the maths professors had been to our 6th form and given a very interesting and entertaining talk on some of the quirkier bits of maths and that had a bearing on matters too)

My first gig was the Freshers' Ball. Whilst Manchester itself is known for being forward looking musically, unfortunately I'd chosen to go to UMIST which was overflowing with long haired engineers and hence the sort of bands booked by our Student Union weren't exactly my cup of tea. Lots of Dinosaur Rock, prog and folk. The highlight of the week for most UMIST students was the Heavy Metal disco on a Saturday, an event I never attended in all my 3 years at the place.

Consequently the Freshers' Ball on October 7th 1978 didn't exactly grab me when it turned out the band they'd booked was Fairport Convention but they’d also booked Brian James’ Brains as support. Having a bunch of folk rockers supported by the former Damned guitarist’s new band was a bit strange but I figured it was worth going to see the punks and then see how it went. Brian James went down like a lead balloon with most of the audience, though I rather enjoyed it of course, even if there was no real atmosphere in the place, except for the air of contempt and hatred emanating from the hairy folkies. As for Fairport Convention, I suppose it could have been worse. I liked at least one of their songs, "Cruel Felicity", but they did it as about their third number and the first couple hadn't inspired me, so after a couple more I left and went over to the Student's Union at Manchester University instead where I managed to get in to their Freshers’ Ball, though I have no idea who was playing.

My second Manchester gig was a bit more of a success. Having missed the first Stiff records tour to see The Stranglers instead, I was chuffed when another tour was announced. It didn’t have the same calibre of artists as the first one but it was worth seeing and it was playing at UMIST as well. So I traipsed all the way up to the top of the Students’ Union building again on October 16th to watch the shambles that was the Be Stiff tour. (Actually it might not have been a shambles at all but as it was Stiff records it probably was).

The line-up was Mickey Jupp, Lene Lovich, Wreckless Eric, Rachel Sweet & Jona Lewie. From what I remember, Rachel Sweet’s backing band, The Records, were set up permanently on stage and each of the performers came on and did their stuff. Plus The Records got to play a set of their own (unfortunately). I’m sure that the original Stiff Live Stiffs tour was far superior but this was decent too and I liked it enough to catch it all again at Salford University on November 6th, bumping into Wreckless Eric beforehand in the pub.