Stiff Little Fingers Re-Issue Their Debut Album On Red Vinyl

Legendary Irish band, Stiff Little Fingers will be Re-Issuing their debut album ‘Inflammable Material’ on 11th October 2019. An exclusive limited edition numbered run of 500 will be cut on red vinyl and will be available exclusively through www.Rhino.co.uk that will also include a bonus copy of ‘Suspect Device’ on 7″ single. A black vinyl version of the album will be available from all retailers.

Album Background

Stiff Little Fingers formed at school in 1977, originally a rock covers band, it wasn’t until guitarist Henry Cluney discovered Punk and in conjunction with a change of drummers, they decided that ‘Highway Star’ (their original name) wasn’t Punk enough, and after a brief flirtation with the name ‘The Fast’, decided to call themselves Stiff Little Fingers, after the Vibrators song of the same name.

Shortly after, a journalist by the name of Colin McClelland, arranged recording time for them at a radio station which was normally used to record jingles, where they recorded ‘Suspect Device’. A copy of the single was sent to John Peel who played it repeatedly, leading to a distribution deal through Rough Trade. The single was released on the band’s own Rigid Digits label and sold over 30,000 copies.

Naturally, this bought a lot of attention to the band, and in 1979, following a tour with the Tom Robinson Band, they released their debut album ‘Inflammable Material’ through independent record label Rough Trade. The album was written at the height of the Northern Ireland Conflict and most of the album’s tracks are about the grim reality of life in Northern Ireland at the time, with the songs containing themes of teenage boredom, sectarian violence, RUC (police) oppression and more urged people to “grab it and change it, it’s yours” in what became their signature song ‘Alternative Ulster’. It reached number 14 in the UK Albums Chart, selling over 100,000 copies. It was the first album distributed by Rough Trade records, and was the first independent album to chart in the UK.

Track Listing

Vinyl

LP1 Side One

1. Suspect Device
2. State Of Emergency
3. Here We Are Nowhere
4. Wasted Life
5. No More of That
6. Barbed Wire Love
7. White Noise
8. Breakout

LP1 Side Two

1. Law and Order
2. Rough Trade
3. Johnny Was
4. Alternative Ulster
5. Closed Groove

7” Single

Suspect Device 7″

1. Suspect Device (Single Version)
2. 78 R.P.M.

Links

https://slf.rocks/home-base

https://www.facebook.com/StiffLittleFingers/

https://twitter.com/rigiddigits?lang=en