NEWS: Stiff Little FIngers set to release live DVD/Blu-Ray and re-release No Going Back with added extras

GOT your ticket to see Stiff Little Fingers at Custom House Square, Belfast on 26th August? Ya better have as it is set to be one of the shows of the year.

Not only will SLF be celebrating 40 years going strong with their usual excellent, superb and generally top notch show, but there is a great line-up.

The Stranglers, Ruts DC and our own, The Outcasts, will be playing in what will be the sort of show that will be talked about for years to come.

To help you prepare the band are releasing 'Best Served Loud - Live at Barrowland' on CD, double LP, DVD and Blue-Ray on 23rd June on their new label earMusic.

On the same day SLF is re-releasing their storming 2014 Top 30 album 'No Going Back' on vinyl and CD with a bonus disc of demos.

It is an album that re-established SLF as the punk rock act - no equals. And, that's not biased in any way because we're a Belfast site and they are from Belfast. Simple fact is that you listen to any of the so-called punk/pop punk bands playing on Scuzz or Kerrang TV you can hear all the riffs and melodies that the pretenders have stolen from the Stiffs as well as the influences they draw from Jake and co. Let's not even go to how Green Day basically even 'borrow' stage moves from Ali...

The live album is from the St Patrick's Day show at the iconic Barrowlands in Glasgow, a date SLF always seem to manage to book and storm. Not since St Columba established a monastery on Iona and brought whiskey to the Scottish has there been a Northern Ireland presence so influential in Scotland.

If you're any sort of rock music you shouldn't need any introduction to Stiff Little Fingers. Anyone who doesn't know of the band, their music, their politics and their passion needs to go now and check out the 40-year back catalogue right now. And, make sure you read the lyrics to each and every track., which the band have helpfully put on their website.

You'll find anger, rejection and whimsy married with a music sensibility few can match. And on 'No Going Back' there is the pure honesty from Jake about his battles with depression as well as numerous inspired tilts at the dishonesty and corruption we witness in this foul world.

So as you prepare for the August 26th show here's what you can expect from the live release and re-release:

“BEST SERVED LOUD – LIVE AT BARROWLAND” TRACK LIST
1.     Go For It/Wasted Life
2.     Just Fade Away
3.     Roots, Radicals, Rockers And Reggae
4.     Guitar & Drum
5.     Nobody’s Hero
6.     Back To Front
7.     Barbed Wire Love
8.     Listen
9.     Doesn’t Make It Alright
10.  Silver Lining
11.  Guilty As Sin
12.  At The Edge
13.  Strummerville
14.  My Dark Places
15.  Fly The Flag
16.  When We Were Young
17.  Tin Soldiers
18.  Suspect Device
19.  Gotta Getaway
20.  Alternative Ulster

“NO GOING BACK” VINYL TRACK LIST
Side A
1. Liar's Club
2. My Dark Places
3. Full Steam Backwards
4. I Just Care About Me
5. Don't Mind Me
6. Guilty As Sin

Side AA
1. One Man Island
2. Throwing It All Away
3. Good Luck With That
4. Trail Of Tears
5. Since Yesterday Was Here
6. When We Were Young

The “No Going Back” CD reissue comes in a 2CD Digipak edition with 12 exclusive demo songs, an acoustic version of “My Dark Places” and a live version of “When We Were Young“.

NEWS: SLF hit lucky 13 in Rock Album charts

THEY are influential, they are radical, and they are among the best in the world at what they do. They are from Belfast, and they are Stiff Little Fingers.

Their stunning album, 'No Going Back' was funded via a very successful Pledge Music campaign.  Now with worldwide distribution through Mondo Recordings/INgrooves the band have hit the UK rock album chart at Number 13.

Our review (here) discusses the background of the SLF release, but we feel that the most powerful message is hope. From the challenges to the economic and political elites, and to religious abuse and crass media scaremongering Jake Burns lashes lyrics against the norm and offers an alternative future..

But the real message of hope comes in the track, 'My Dark Places'. Jake has spoken of how he has suffered from severe depression - a courageous move in front of thousands fans.

The words of the song are worth it, such as "Well, I got there in the end, With the help of many friends, Some who helped by simply just believing."

Burns opens his heart on this song. Anyone who has - or is - suffering from depression should take the message of hope from 'My Dark Places'

"And the days look brighter now
Yet I know someday, somehow
I could end up back there in an instant
Some days I really feel like laughing
Some days I realize I must stay on my guard."

Listen to the album, listen to the messages, buy it.

We have colleagues and friends - reviewers from other sites (Carolyn from Planet Mosh) - all have taken hope, all have gained yet more respect for Stiff Little Fingers, a band who have always provided Inflammable Material.

Served loud, and served with intent, - Stiff Little Fingers' tour de force release No Going Back

IN the darkest days of Northern Ireland's Troubles the many attempts by movements such as the Peace People to bring it to an end to the fighting proved futile, but punk rock became a unifying force amongst young people.

And, one band in particular articulated the frustration and anger at a land dominated by bigoted politicians and murderous paramilitaries of all shades - Stiff Little Fingers, with their overtly political lyrics and inflammable music.

But 33 years later, are Stiff Little Fingers still relevant? Is the lyrical anger and musical fury still present?  Yes, and much, much more.

No Going Back, their first new release in more than six years, is an honest punk rampage, delivered with panache that touches raw nerves, deals with the current world economic crises and is a rallying cry for young and old.

While the first movement of punk was quickly hijacked by the fashionistas, the voice of political punk such as SLF has never really been silenced, despite the best attempts to keep it quiet by the mainstream twaddle on TV sets across the world. When we interviewed Jake and Ali before the band's triumphant returned to Belfast they spoke about how punk was more about attitude than a specific packaging. And attitude is delivered here in spades.

Nor have SLF ever been one chord wonders so prevalent in some of the more inane 'punk' acts. As in previous releases the music is rock music.

And, this album is also something very personal. In SLF's previous appearance in the Ulster Hall Jake Burns spoke openly on stage about suffering from depression. The totemic track on No Going Back - My Dark Places Burns tells the story of that time of pain in his life. It is furious musical tour de force, which deals sensitively with the issue of depression. It is a triumph and it is something that anyone who has, or is, suffering from depression can relate to, and hopefully draw strength from.

That song also relates back to the final concluding track 'When We Were Young'. As young men SLF were often told to literally 'wise up' and not bother with a musical career. They defied that, and despite line-up changes since then the ignorance of musical media towards them means that SLF are still proving themselves to doubters. The reprise of one line of 'At The Edge' is a nice coda for the album and a rigid digit pointed at those who ever wished ill on the band.

However, these personal messages are only one fraction of the strength of this album. Contemporary themes are throughout, with the politicians firmly in the sights, as are bankers on 'Full Steam Backwards' and 'I Just Care About Me'.

No Going Back also reflects the mounting musical maturity of SLF. 'Guilty As Sin' is delivered as a traditional Irish tune, its haunting subtlety making the lyrical theme - institutional child abuse at the hands of the church - a more potent thrust at the hearts of those who scoured the innocence from the young in their care.

Jake Burns personal love of Thin Lizzy is reflected on 'Trail of Tears' a song which harkens to the time of the Troubles but looks towards the future.

Production of the album by the band, with engineering and mix at the hands of Jason Donaghy, keeps the spikiness of SLF's sound but also allows breath for Ali's bass to roam, McCallum's rhythm guitar to maintain momentum and Grantley's drums to anchor but not overbear.

While the music still keeps the Stiff Little Fingers sound alive it serves the lyrics well, such as on 'One Man Island', which deals with newspapers and network TV's penchant to find targets to provoke a nation's ire, often without facts. It is a reflection of the band's often used challenge to young and old: "assume nothing, question everything'.

There is no doubt that this is a fantastic album, but as Jake sings at one point of his worry about being a lone voice in the crowd, are such overt challenges against the tides of corruption, greed and feeding the masses a diet of mediocrity a mere tilting at windmills?

The penultimate track 'Since Yesterday Was Here' answers that by assuring protestors and those that refuse to accept the dogma of the norm that their voices are still to be heard and will always be joined by those that are willing to - in the title of another SLF song - to 'Stand Up And Shout'.

This is an album that, perhaps more than others, placed more pressure on Stiff Little Fingers. Jake has reflected on this when he said that the Pledge campaign meant fans were paying for music the band had still to deliver. That pressure has merged with a sheer force of will to produce a masterclass in what punk should be, and what good rock music must be.

Alternative Ulster may be the unofficial national anthem for Northern Ireland;  No Going Back should be the rallying call for all who refuse to toe the line peddled by bankers, politicians, media and those prepared to accept a beige, vanilla, mediocre life. Put it on the national curriculum and see what resonance the music and words will have on the young, and the old, who refuse to accept the so-called 'music' of today.

In short - buy this album. Stiff Little Fingers. As relevant now as they were 33 years ago.