tracks on LP: Nobody’s Hero / Gotta Getaway / Wait And See / Barbed Wire Love / Fly The Flag / Alternative Ulster / Johnny Was / At The Edge / Wasted Life / Tin Soldiers / Suspect Device
tracks recorded at the Rainbow, London 20/07/80
and Friars, Aylesbury, 25/07/80
Record Label: Chrysalis CHR 1300
Producer: Doug Bennett
Released: 12/09/80
Purchased: 21/03/81
Stiff Little Fingers | Hanx! | Chrysalis | 1980 | ANYONE who’s ever witnessed the intensity and the thrill of Stiff Little FIngers on stage will inevitably find the transfer to vinyl something of a lesser event. It’s the usual problem, of course.
Time has proved that the mightiest, most powerful rock ‘n’ roll show burns a lot less brightly when you’re listening to it on a grey autumn morning. Away from the crowd, the smoke, the humidity and the collective excitement, it’s not the same.
There’s nothing like the real thing: being there. And that’s why I’d rather listen to a studio set than a second-hand, doctored live album.
Take “Wasted Life”. You need to have been there to really feel those power kicks, to find yourself reeling from them and willing Jake Burns to holler even harder.
You’d need to have been there to find yourself trembling through the subdued intro verse of “Tin Soldier”, anticipating the bunting volume that leads into the body of the song.
And you’d need to have been there to enjoy the middle section of “Fly The Flag”, complete with snatches of “Rule Britannia”, as a tease, a time of feverish nail-biting before the surge that takes the number galloping off to its conclusion. On record, that middle passage sounds thin.
If these moments aren’t the same in the daylight, there are others that suffer from the change of circumstances – but for a different reason.
Live songs tend to move along a lot quicker than they do on the studio album, and that’s often OK when you’re at the gig, caught up in the atmosphere. But sit in your armchair and listen to this “Suspect Device”. In the original form, it’s one of the ten discs I’d have under my arm as I waded toward, that desert Island. Now, it’s stripped of it’s awesome ferocity simply through speed. Just another rock n’ rolling whip-it-up encore.
Stiff Little Fingers | Hanx! | Chrysalis | 1980
So much for the bad news . . . now for the redeeming features, and I’m glad there are some. In parts of the set, some stirring stuff is to be heard. “Nobody’s Hero” makes a forceful opener, ideally followed by the robust “Gotta Getaway” which is marred only momentarily by the intrusion of the singing crowd. But perhaps that’s just a personal niggle.
“Wait And See” throws a hefty punch, leading into “Barbed Wire Love’ where Jake alternates his growl with an intriguingly normal vocal delivery, and a clear fly along version of “Alternative Ulster”, closing the first side in fine style.
“Johnny Was” takes more than a third of side two. “This is a song written by Bob Marley about a guy getting shot for being in the wrong place at the wrong time . . . “ I’d say its reggae-based excursions take up a couple of minutes more than they should.
Then “At The Edge”, “Wasted Life”, “Tin Soldiers” and “Suspect Device” and the curtain comes down.
It’s only fair to add that this isn’t seen as an “official” album. It’s intended, were told, as a stop-gap. a present for fans who aren’t going to see the band on the British stage in the foreseeable future due to their other commitments. As such, I’m prepared to accept it in the spirit in which it was meant . . . spots and all. (Melody Maker, 13/09/80)
Leave a Reply