Stiff Little Fingers: All The Best

This was the first compilation from Northern Ireland's finest punkers. Mighty fine it is too, although it is very much a 45 rpm/'b' sides collection, on the whole. In fact, that is exactly what it is. There are a few album tracks that I feel should have made it on there, but that is always the way, isn't it? Come to think of it, it should have been marketed as "The Complete Singles" or something similar.

Listening to this just takes me back to those early Fingers gigs, pogoing and fist-pumping. I first saw them in 1978, supporting The Tom Robinson Band. I had come to see Tom, but SLF just blew me away. An electric, angry, searing wall of sound. Jake Burns sang, guitar in hand, with such a visceral intensity. Henry Cluney looked like a school nerd who somehow ended up in a band. That three guitar attack of Jake, Cluney and Ali McMordie. Wow. I was hooked from that moment. 

Anyway, Jake, Ali, Henry, Jim, the Mott The Hoople of punk - let's get us an alternative Ulster.....

Suspect Device - what an intro (to an album and a career) - all buzzsaw guitar and throaty, angry vocals is just a magnificent starter, though. One of their best tracks, undoubtedly. Even now it sends shivers down my spine when I hear that intro. Glorious stuff. One of punk's finest singles. Totally visceral.

Then we get the potency, fury and power of the mighty Wasted Life as singer Jake Burns rails about life in Belfast in 1977, the British Army presence, the bleak outlook, the waste of life. Unlike many punks, Jake and his band really did have something to moan about. This song is a raucous slab of pure punk protest.

Alternative Ulster is a fast, frantic "punk anthem". Perfect. Up there with Suspect Device as the best punk cuts on the album. I can't ever get enough of it. It also summed up the feelings of those who lived in Belfast and had simply had a belly full of it all. The single had a great cover too - it's no fake. That was real life. Its 'b' side was the frenetic, lightly home-made sounding 78 rpm. It was a proper punker.

We now get the great bass intro to the riff and catchy Gotta Getaway, from 1980's Nobody's Heroes album. It is a magnificent fist-pumper of a song, full of riffs, pounding drums and a rousing chorus. Bloody Sunday was the 'b' side to Gotta Getaway and it is a typical punky thrash, with those trademark bass runs and rolling drum fills.

Straw Dogs was a stand-alone single and it is a pretty run-of-the-mill song about mercenaries, thematically similar to The Clash's Tommy Gun. Its comparative ordinariness and position within the band's chronology makes it their equivalent of The Jam's News Of The World. It's ok, but certainly nothing special. It's 'b' side, You Can't Say Crap On the Radio is a breakneck thrash moaning about radio censorship. It "paraphrases" The Clash's Capital Radio at the end. 

The frenetic hit single At The Edge sees Jake Burns spitting out the lyrics with typical throaty venom against the back drop of that punk 1-2 drum beat. Nobody's Hero continues in the same style, but even better. It is one of my favourites of theirs, an absolute stormer of a song. The 'b' side to At The Edge contained two "silly encores" in covers of Running Bear and White Christmas. Neither are worth bothering with.

Another Fingers classic is Tin Soldiers, with its atmospheric marching beat and menacing guitars. This was only of the only clearly Belfast-related numbers on the Nobody's Heroes album. They were not quite as "one-issue" as many had presumed them to be. 

Back To Front was another non-album single, from the summer of 1980. Again is somewhat unremarkable. It just lacked that certain something, for me. On the flip side was a reggae cover in Mr. Coal Fire Man. was a track in that very recognisable Fingers-reggae style. They had mastered it to a tee.

Just Fade Away was another catchy hit single that saw the group on Top Of The Pops, somewhat embarrassingly miming, a far cry from the red-hot live act I knew them to be. I was quite annoyed by that. The instrumental Go For It is a pumping number and was used effectively as the "when the lights go down" opener to their excellent live gigs and still is today.

The band's cover of The Specials’ Doesn't Make It Alright is a triumph, with a great breakneck ending. Unfortunately, it is a live recording included here, and it cuts itself off before that great ending is complete. Unforgivable.

Silver Lining was a bit of a messy attempt to integrate a brass section. It is ok, but not the essence of SLF, to be honest. It all seemed to be getting a bit like "let's show we can diversify too, like The Clash and The Jam" about it. I understand why they did it, though. Safe As Houses was an example of that Clash-influenced reggae-rock I was talking about earlier that Fingers did really well. 

In January 1982, Fingers released an EP containing four tracks, none of which were up to much, as far as I was concerned. I remember being really disappointed by it. The Two lead-off tracks were the lumpen rock ballad Listen and the slightly underwhelming mid-pace white reggae of That's When Your Blood Bumps. I remember seeing them do Listen on Top Of The Pops and thinking "you can do better than this, lads". 

Much better is the flip side, with the new wave/post punk-ish Sad-Eyed People and Henry Cluney's catchy, vibrant rocker Two Guitars Clash. Jake should have taken lead vocals, though, but despite that this is the best cut on the EP, for me. £1.10 or less? Hmmm. How things (and prices) change. Actually, thinking about it, a single track is now only 99p to download, so the inflation is not as huge as it has been on other commodities.

We now get several tracks from 1982's Now Then... album, and, like the album, they are varied in their quality.

Talkback again saw SLF experimenting with a brass section just as The Jam had done at around the same time. It was the thing to do - get a brass section in and go all Dexy's Midnight Runners. It is a catchy song in some ways, but I remember at time thinking that I was just liking it because I felt I ought to, out of loyalty. The 'b' side, Good For Nothing, is probably the superior track, being a lively piece of melodic Fingers fare. It should have been included on the Now Then... album. 

Stands To Reason is a vaguely white reggae-ish condemnation of the media and stereotyped headlines. Bits Of Kids again starts in a low key fashion before bursting out into typical SLF. It was a good track, and a good single, but somehow by 1982 it felt like something I had heard before and it was just treading the same old water.

Touch And Go, however, is typical Fingers, with that trademark double-beat drum sound. New drummer Dolphin Taylor had now arrived from The Tom Robinson Band, but he drums in the same style as Jim Reilly, the previous incumbent. This track sounds as if it could be from either of the previous two albums, but is not as good as the stuff on there. The riffs are good, though, as you would expect. They could do songs like this in their sleep by now. 

The Price Of Admission is a somewhat clumsy song about male infidelity-fecklessness. Unfortunately, the song shows that Burns can't really carry a slow song. Although the song means well, it has never really worked for me, coming over as trying too hard to be earnest. "She loves you, so she has to open wide, she lets you in up close and blows away your pride...". Oh dear - see what I mean?

This was a disappointing end to the collection, mirroring Fingers' relatively short period of being "at the top" so to speak.

The best time for them was 1978-1981 and some good stuff from that time is included here, but in my opinion it would have been much better if Barbed Wire Love, Wait And See, Fly The Flag, Hits And Misses, Piccadilly Circus and Roots, Radicals, Rockers And Reggae had been included at the expense of some of the 1982 tracks and 'b' sides.

After all that, though, there's certainly some inflammable material planted in my head....