overlap

Sometimes bands end up worth pursuing purely on a musical basis, and sometimes there's some other kind of appeal that leaves them with a place in my life. In this case, Stiff Little Fingers are a band I was introduced to by a good friend of mine many years ago. By the mighty powers of the internet I managed to track him down a couple of years ago, and he wasn't really desperately overjoyed to be found, but that's the way things go. Whatever, they remain a fine musical force, and Silver Lining is still one of my very favourite songs. From the first song, Wasted Life, which the appropriate title quote is from, and for well over the next hour, it's one classic tune after another. The return of Ali McMordie to the line-up means that there are two founding members of the band on stage, and it's largely based on Jake's voice and guitar, so it's 'authentic' enough if that sort of thing is an issue. Shows how far away another time and another place is that when I checked, it turned out I hadn't seen SLF for eleven years, but I'd recommend the double album singles collection All The Best to anyone as a musically robust document of the times. And saying that, it's not just the final encore song Tin Soldier that is as relevant as it ever was. Double amusement points for support band, Merthyr Tydfil's Foreign Legion. When was the last time you saw a drummer with several inches of bleach blonde mohican trying to keep it upright while belting all manner of musical hell out of the kit? No, me neither. I would have taken a picture had I been close enough, but I knew I was in for a treat from the moment of turning up to find signs up saying 'NO OBJECTS TO BE THROWN AT ARTISTS'! Jake and Ali

Labels: Ali McMordie, gigs, Jake Burns, SLF, Stiff Little Fingers