Stiff Little Fingers
11/11/2012 | The Slade Rooms
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Punk legends Stiff Little Fingers return to Wolverhampton to help celebrate 35 years of punk.
Often described as the "Irish Clash", Stiff Little Fingers were Northern Ireland's answer to the punk scene of the late 1970's, they incorporated a raw and cutting edge form of punk.
Jake Burns formed Stiff Little Fingers In 1977 after seeing the Clash play in his hometown Belfast. (The band's name was taken from a 1977 Vibrators lyric "If it wasn't for your stiff little fingers nobody would know you were dead"?) Gordon Ogilvie, a local journalist, caught their live show and was impressed. He encouraged them to write their own songs about what they knew best--life in Belfast. Jake came back twelve days later with "Suspect Device" and "Wasted Life". In November of '77, with Ogilvie's help, they released those two songs on their own Rigid Digits label, with an initial pressing of only 350. Ogilvie sent a copy to BBC Radio One DJ John Peel, who started playing it every night. The interest generated resulted in a distribution deal through Rough Trade in England.