Stiff Little Fingers

Stiff Little Fingers
Live in Chicago 2012 L-R: Ali McMordie, Jake Burns, Ian McCallum
Background information
Origin	Belfast, Northern Ireland
Genres	Punk rock
Years active	1977–1982, 1987–present
Labels	Rigid Digits, Pledgemusic, Rough Trade, Chrysalis, Kung Fu, EMI, Mondo Recordings/INgrooves
Associated acts	The Jam, Jake Burns and the Big Wheel, Tom Robinson Band, Spear of Destiny, Ruefrex, Casbah Club, Friction Groove, Dan Donnelly, The Alarm, Rudi
Website	www.slf.rocks//
Members	Jake Burns Ali McMordie Steve Grantley Ian McCallum
Past members	Henry Cluney Brian Faloon Jim Reilly Dolphin Taylor Bruce Foxton

Stiff Little Fingers are a punk rock band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. They formed in 1977, at the height of the Troubles. They started out as a schoolboy band called Highway Star (named after the Deep Purple song), doing rock covers, until they discovered punk. They split up after six years and four albums, although they reformed five years later, in 1987. Despite major personnel changes, they are still touring and recording. In 2014 the band released their tenth studio album and a world tour followed its release. Jake Burns, their lead singer, is the only member to have been with the band during all its incarnations, but in March 2006, original bass guitarist Ali McMordie rejoined them following the departure of The Jam bass player Bruce Foxton after fifteen years.

Prior to becoming Stiff Little Fingers, Jake Burns, vocals and guitar, Henry Cluney, guitar, Gordon Blair, bass, and Brian Faloon, drums, were playing in a rock music cover band, Highway Star, in Belfast. Upon the departure of Gordon Blair (who went on to play with another Belfast group, Rudi), Ali McMordie took over on bass. Cluney had by this time discovered punk, and introduced the rest of the band to it. They decided that Highway Star wasn't a punk enough name, 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.

It was while doing a gig at the Glenmachan Hotel that they first met Gordon Ogilvie, who had been invited along for the evening by Colin McClelland, a journalist who Burns had been corresponding with.