Jake Burns
| Jake Burns | |
|---|---|
Burns, in a 2006 promotional photo for Stiff Little Fingers
|
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | John Burns |
| Born |
21 February 1958 Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Genres | Punk rock |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Labels | Chrysalis, Rough Trade, Rigid Digits |
| Associated acts |
Stiff Little Fingers (1977–1982, 1987–Present) Jake Burns and the Big Wheel (1982–1987) |
John "Jake" Burns (born 21 February 1958, Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a singer and guitarist, and is best known as the frontman of Stiff Little Fingers.
Burns started off his career at Belfast Boys' Model School with a rock covers band, Highway Star, which consisted of Burns, Gordon Blair, Henry Cluney, and Brian Faloon. Gordon Blair subsequently left the group to join Rudi, and Ali McMordie joined, about the time the band discovered punk.
They were briefly named The Fast, but as there was already a group of that name they changed it to Stiff Little Fingers, taken from the song of the same name that had appeared on Pure Mania, the 1977 album by The Vibrators.
They recorded "Suspect Device" their first single in 1977. The single was packaged in the form of a cassette, with a cover depicting a cassette bomb, apparently causing great hilarity in the group, when one record company phoned them and asked for another copy, as they'd thrown the first one in a bucket of water for fear that it was a real bomb.
A copy of the single was sent to John Peel. He played it repeatedly leading to a distribution deal through Rough Trade.
Stiff Little Fingers' debut album, Inflammable Material entered the UK Albums Chart as the highest new entry and, coincidentally, the first ever completely independent album on 21 February 1979, which also happened to be Burns' 21st birthday.
In mid-1979, Stiff Little Fingers signed to Chrysalis Records, and in 1980 released their second album, Nobody's Heroes. 1981's Go for It followed.
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