Stiff Little Fingers at Custom House Square, Belfast (16.8.2025) with Public Image Ltd and Sham 69 supporting.
I came on a pilgrimage to this event last year (2024 blog). My return was an irresistible inevitability. The thing is, these days the legs don’t want to play and let’s face it, who knows what ailments might get in the way, so every gig year is a bonus. At least tonight, at 62, I feel I’m with my fellow ageing gig-goers, looking around at the faces and bodies wearing SLF t-shirts in Belfast tonight.
As soon as we saw the line up, me and my English companions, Big Gra and Plymouth Dave, booked in for our second helping of this event, treated this time with sunshine and warmth.
Missed the first band, again, (Cherym) and got in just as Hersham heroes, Sham 69, took to the stage. I don’t know what magic potion Jimmy Pursey has been taking but aside from the excitement of hearing the chanted choruses of my youth, I was transfixed by his flexibility and knee strength. Perhaps I was just jealous as my knees appear to require some attention. Still, I made it here eh.
Sham did exactly what was required. It’s only a half hour or so slot and singalong post punk singles are a great rabble rouser. If the Kids Are United – go on punch the air and Hersham Boys – let’s hear yer “..lace up boots and corduroys“.
As a lad, I lived over the river from true Sham country but the South West London suburbs were still Jimmy Pursey heartlands. I bought Angels With Dirty Faces when it charted – I was 15 and had black corduroys, flares taken into a drainpipe with a bit of mum sewing.
The flyover near the Sunbury Record Scene record shop heralded Jimmy’s Borstal Breakout warning for many years. The record shop displayed their picture cover singles and I gazed regularly.
Yup – a good start to my evening and booked for more Sham 69 in Southampton later this year.
I found myself a place to perch and sit, in the barrier to one side , with the VIP area raised behind. That was handy and I rested for Public Image Limited.
John Lydon is an attraction in his own right but although I saw PiL back in the 80s and about seven years’ ago, I have never really absorbed much.
PiL material is hardly the instant singalong choruses of Sham and that is the appeal it no doubt holds. I was happy, sat, watching and listening curiously. All eyes on Lydon (and my pocket zoom camera).
Lydon was quick to point out that they didn’t have long – 40 minutes or so tonight. The ‘let’s get on with it then’ approach did not mean diving into a greatest hits, crowd pleasing, selection. Yes, there was Rise, the highlight, but I lacked familiarity with the set. Plenty going on in the arrangements to listen to though.
After one song Lydon noticed a chap doing a BBQ up on his smart flat’s balcony, right overlooking the Custom House Square. ‘You c@nt – you ‘aven’t paid‘ pointing up at the chinking wine glasses and smoke. To be fair the chap had ear buds in and didn’t appear to be listening. All in good humour.
Lydon gives the audience a chance to throw some feedback at himself also. ‘Whaddya think of me?’ A respectful inaudible mumble and laughter. Rise was the highlight but this was a low key, support band presence, which was understandable. We know what we are all here for.
And so to the main event. Stiff Little Fingers in their own once troubled, well once much more troubled, back yard. This is still an all-time gig-going highlight for me.
The Go For It build up and walk on music is just like the old days – my first two SLF gigs were on the that album’s tour (1981) – and there is a unique excitement generated with this 5000 strong Fingers’ crowd. There’s that loud crackle of the guitars being plugged into the amps: “Good evening Belfast, we’re Stiff Little Fingers!”.
They start with the song on my t-shirt Roots, Radicals, Rockers, Reggae, the cover version on the Go For It LP. The burst of nostalgia and sense of occasion and history is such a buzz.
Jake Burns and bassist Ali McCordie from 1977 SLF are with guitarist Ian McCallum (since 1993) and drummer Steve Grantley (since 1996), so it’s been a while as this unit.
At the Edge and the rasping Wasted Life follow, making for a blistering early section.
Jake’s tribute song to Joe Strummer – Strummerville – reminds us of the loyalty Strummer showed to performing live at troubled times in Belfast, as well has his iconic status anyway.
There’s Jake’s newer Trump song – Mary’s Boy Child. As a US resident these days, in Chicago, he got his material more in his face for that one.
As someone who’s first SLF live experiences were focused on the third LP, Go For It (Guildford Civic Hall and London Rainbow, with The Wall supporting) I loved the back to back playing of Piccadilly Circus and Just Fade Away. The former, about a friend of the band getting stabbed on a trip to London, is still my first thought whenever passing through (or under) said site.
“And they didn’t even see his face;
See him stumble, hear his cry;
They didn’t even see his eyes;
Just lashed out in passing by” [Piccadilly Circus 1981]
Jake’s reminders of his own battles with depression and genuine pleas for us old blokes to open up and talk about shit, to anyone, precede My Dark Places.
Next, one of those fantastic segments in live music that don’t come along with quite this ferocity very often: Nobody’s Heroes; Tin Soldiers, cranking up more to Suspect Device and Gotta Gettaway, with that classic opening bassline.
The band take a pre-encore breather and Jake introduces, with much adoration, bassist Gerry McAvoy, from the Rory Gallagher band – who pretty much was the Belfast live music scene in part of the 70s and hence held in high esteem by a clearly appreciative Jake. They play Gallagher’s The Devil Made Me Do It.
This was a very well-paced, ideal length set and there is still plenty of energy in the tank for Barbed Wire Love and, of course, Alternative Ulster.
A wonderful experience and for the second year running I stand there wondering how I got here, from Guildford Civic Hall in 1981.
HANX!
Gigs with Ivan 