Live Review BY ALEC SMART 21/02/2020
February 27, 2020
Stiff Little Fingers, aka SLF, performed at Metro Theatre in Sydney on Fri 21 Feb, supported by veteran Sydney band Rocks and North Shore street-punkers Rust. SLF appeared in five capital cities in Australia before flying to New Zealand, as part of their Ignition Tour. The band celebrated the 40th anniversary of their 1979 debut album, Inflammable Material, performing old songs that remain fan favourites.
Rust hit the stage with the zeal of a sledgehammer shattering a rock, belting out hard and fast numbers that laid waste any stereotypes that seaside dwellers are laid-back beach-bums.
With new guitarist Jake Hepher wielding second axe, Rust launched into their song, 1970s Child. Hepher fits well in the line-up and shows promise after the sad departure of guitarist Bevyn for life on the west coast.
Vocalist Garry Campbell is one of Aussie rock’s most compelling front-men, pacing the stage like a caged tiger, alternately roaring and growling, seldom still, and occasionally spraying a mouthful of water like a whale coming up for air.
Rust’s songs bring to mind Rose Tattoo meeting Mötörhead and 4Skins for an all-in brawl on the school playground, whilst Campbell’s lyrics read like the journal of a wandering troublemaker, often consisting of amusing observations and lists.
Rocks cranked the tempo up another notch, firing on all cylinders as they machine-gunned their timeless songs, including the crowd-pleaser You’re So Boring.
The story behind that song’s original release is amusing: Firstly, it was recorded in Kogarah by a blind sound engineer named Ross McGregor, who despite his lack of sight was reportedly a deft hand adjusting levels on the mixing desk.
Then the band’s manager, Laurie Brown, infamously miss-spelled the song’s name on the cover of the six-song EP, so that when he presented the artwork the band pointed out that ‘You’re’ was wrongly written as ‘Your’.
Changing the design would have proved expensive and difficult – this was early 1978 – so a minor amendment was made and an apostrophe was stuck in between the U and R without having to extend the text spacing and thus compromise the design. Versions of this original EP, You’r So Boring, are now limited collectors’ items fetching hundreds of dollars.
Rocks, who pre-date SLF in the year of their formation, still consists of childhood friends Peter Davie and Bill Webb (aka Bill Posters – a witty pun on that ubiquitous ‘Billposters will be prosecuted!’ sign attached to unblemished walls the world over), two-thirds of the original trio, with Colin ‘Bibs’ Bible the more recent addition on drums. Although Davie now resides in Brisbane, the band still reform occasionally to affirm their 40+ years vintage quality.
The SLF line-up comprises founder and principle singer-songwriter Jake Burns; original bassist Ali McMordie (who re-joined the group full time in 2006 after the departure of Bruce Foxton of The Jam); guitarist Ian McCallum; and drummer Steve Grantley. The latter two have been with the band over 20 years.
They performed all the songs from their career highlight Inflammable Material, except the album closer, Closed Groove, because, as Burns revealed recently in an interview with GongScene, “we were never terribly keen on” that song.
This saw crowd favourites Alternative Ulster, Suspect Device, the rarely-performed State Of Emergency, and this reviewer’s all-time favourite, Barbed Wire Love get the dance floor heaving.
As Burns told GongScene prior to this tour: “Obviously, our first record when you play it is only 28 minutes – it’s not a particularly long album! So, there will be an hour’s worth of filling the rest of the set with what we think and hope are favourites from other records.”
That additional material, all from the band’s first few years, included: Nobody’s Hero, At The Edge, Tin Soldiers and Gotta Getaway – the latter two as the barn-storming encore – from their 2nd album, Nobody’s Heroes, plus the night’s opener Roots, Radicals, Rockers and Reggae with Just Fade Away and Safe As Houses from their 3rd album, Go For It.
A highlight of the concert was a new number, 16 Shots, which sits comfortably in the band’s canon and tells the story of Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old black youth killed by 36-year-old Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke in October 2014.
Background: Police were called to investigate McDonald, whom it was later found had ingested some PCP, after reports that the academically bright and reportedly ‘respectful and reserved’ youth was acting strangely. When officers confronted McDonald, he used a collapsible knife to slash a tire on their vehicle, which he then folded and walked away.
Officer Van Dyke, who had 20 citizen complaints filed against him, 10 of them alleging he used excessive force, two involving the use of a firearm and one racial slur – none of which resulted in disciplinary action – decided to kill McDonald for the vandalism.
With his 9mm semi-automatic firearm, Van Dyke shot McDonald in the back. McDonald fell to the ground where Van Dyke fired more shots into him: nine more into his back and one each into his neck, chest, both arms, right leg and a graze wound to his left scalp. 16 shots in total over 15 seconds, using all the bullets in the gun.
Chicago Police then claimed McDonald lunged at them with the knife, so Van Dyke was not charged.
When a court ordered Chicago Police to release dash-cam video footage 13 months later, it showed McDonald walking away from the police when he was shot from behind. Van Dyke was charged with first degree murder, although he was found guilty of the lesser crime of second degree murder, which in Australia would be defined as voluntary manslaughter. Three Chicago police officers, tried for allegedly attempting to cover up the shooting were subsequently found not guilty.
With 16 Shots, Burns reaffirms that SLF are not a band to shy away from controversial topics or standing up for the underdogs. In the past this has included songs like Beirut Moon, critical of the British Govt for not acting to release journalist John McCarthy, held hostage in Lebanon for five years; and Each Dollar A Bullet, condemning Americans and Brits for fundraising weapons for paramilitary organisations in Belfast, to perpetuate their killing each other in Northern Ireland. Both songs appear on their 1991 Flags And Emblems album.
Among those performed at Metro Theatre was White Noise, which I recall on its release was wrongly interpreted by Nazi skinheads as a white-power song. Burns told the Sydney crowd, “This was never about white power – it’s always been an anti-racist song!”
When Burns, a Belfast Irishman, wrote comically anti-Irish words, it should have been obvious to most that he was spreading truckloads of irony and sarcasm when he composed the song.
The lyrics include: “Paddy is a moron, spud-thick Mick, breeds like a rabbit, thinks with his prick, anything floors him if he can’ fight or drink it.. round them up in Ulster, tow it out and sink it! Green wogs, green wogs, our face don’t fit… And if the victim ain’t a soldier, why should we care? Irish bodies don’t count, life’s cheaper over there.”
Although the early-era SLF songs are typically short and fast with abrasive guitar and acerbic lyrics, which perfectly encapsulated the zeitgeist of the then-emerging late 1970s punk rock movement, SLF’s characteristic strong melodies and Burns’ soulful voice set them apart from their thrashy contemporaries.
Although a few critics told me post-concert that all of SLF’s set sounded similar, I pointed out that most of the songs they performed were written when the band were teenagers. The fact that audiences still request and enjoy them 40 years later demonstrates their longevity, relevance and craftsmanship.
But, as Burns told GongScene during a recent interview discussing the Inflammable Material album: “It’s like a double-edge sword. Yes, it was lovely that everybody took to it so quickly. And, like you said, it has had a longevity which has given the band its life. But equally it’s bit of an albatross around your neck! People can say, ‘Well the first album was great but it’s all been downhill from there!’ I think it depends whether you’re a glass-half-empty or glass-half-full kind of guy!”
For those unfamiliar with SLF’s more recent output, I suggest investigating these songs, which stand out as highlights of Burns’ remarkable 43-year song-writing career with the band: Fly The Flag, Each Dollar A Bullet, Talkback, Bits Of Kids, Beirut Moon, Guitar & Drum, Dead Man Walking, Trail Of Tears and My Dark Places.
SLF’s Sydney show coincided with Burns’ 62nd birthday. As Burns told GongScene recently, “I think three out of my last five birthdays have somehow happened in Australia. The things I have to do to avoid buying people a drink just because it’s my birthday: travel half way around the world!
“When we started if you’d said we’d be doing a 40th anniversary we’d have laughed in your face.. Nobody, I think, joins a band thinking it will be a long-term career, certainly not a punk rock band! The very idea of it is supposed to be youthful rebellion, which seems strange when you’re 62!
“But the bottom line is we’re still actually having a ball doing it. Obviously, there’s an audience that want to see us, and the original songs still seem to be relevant to the current day. And I’ve certainly got enough fire in my belly to keep writing songs.
“We said we would stop when it stopped being fun and people didn’t want to come and see us.
But for the moment, people still want to come and see us and we’re still having fun.
So, I don’t see any reason to stop – unless my knees give out!”
Let’s hope Burns – and McMordie, McCallum and Grantley likewise – collective knees don’t give out so they return here again.
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SLF set list, Metro Theatre, 21 Feb 2020
Roots, Radicals, Rockers and Reggae
Nobody’s Hero
Just Fade Away
Safe As Houses
16 Shots
Suspect Device
State Of Emergency
Here We Are Now
Wasted Life
No More Of That
Barbed Wire Love
White Noise
Breakout
Law And Order
Rough Trade
Johnny Was
Alternative Ulster
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Tin Soldiers
Gotta Getaway
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View Alec Smart’s full gallery of images HERE
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Read Alec Smart’s interview with Jake Burns HERE
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