Stiff Little Fingers with Spear of Destiny – at The Barrowland Ballroom – Glasgow, UK

This was the 35th anniversary tour for Stiff Little Fingers, and the 21st time in a row they’ve played in the Barrowland on St Patrick’s day. As usual the gig was a complete sell out and the crowds poured in the doors at opening time.

Coming on as support were Spear of Destiny, who appeared to a chorus of orchestral music. It seemed a bit out of place but they kicked their set off with “Land of Shame” and soon got the well oiled crowd jiggling along.

                     Spear of Destiny

Much of the set was quite mellow but there were plenty of lively or well known songs to keep the crowd interested. There was a fantastic moment during “World Service” where the band stopped playing and Kirk conducted the crowd’s sing along! They finished with the well loved “Liberator”, leaving a happy crowd ready for the main act. 



SLF started as they meant to go on by coming on with “Wasted Life”, which of course sent the crowd into a frenzy. The band seemed genuinely happy to be there and gave it their all. That was until the beer got thrown directly at Jake Burns - it caused a brief but annoying pause and a stern word from him. It took a little while to get back to things but they soon settled back into the swing of the set and we were treated to a fantastic show


They belted out their familiar riffs and lively songs, still with the same energy from decades ago. The first few songs were full on including “At The Edge” and topped off with “Nobody’s Heroes”, after which then they mellowed it down a little with some newer material. Jake told some good anecdotes in between songs. Despite the hall being filled with many drunk people (it being a Saturday and St Patrick’s Day) the crowd were a happy bunch with little aggro. During the set everyone was grinning, jumping up and down and cheering their heads off to the band. Great fun!! “Strummerville” went down well as well as the classics “Suspect Device” and “Tin Soldiers”. There was another (barely) tolerated pint thrown at the stage which was a shame, this time everyone boo’d whoever it was very loudly.



For the first encore Steve Grantley came back onto stage and started up the marching beat of “Johnny Was”. This alone got a big cheer and the band proceeded to play the best version of the song I’ve ever heard. They built it up and up to a fantastic climax where the crowd went berserk. Fantastic!



For the second encore Jake told us about how they owe much of their success to the fact they supported Tom Robinson at the start of their career. As a tribute to this they started up an SLF version of “2468 Motorway”. It promised to be great but unfortunately some knob decided that they’d chuck their beer at Jake despite the earlier warnings. The song was stopped immediately and you could tell Jake was highly un-amused. The encore continued with “Alternative Ulster” and “Gotta Get Away” but lacked the enthusiasm from the rest of the set. It was such a shame as the evening had been so good but for the last few songs you could tell Jake was just singing to get the set done and head off.

All in all it was another amazing gig by a superb band. I’d been told that the best place to see SLF is at the Barrowland and they weren’t wrong. Great crowd, great venue, great atmosphere and of course a great band. It’s just a shame it was tainted by beer, and not in a good way.


             More photos of the show can be seen HERE

 

-Sally Morrison-
Big Wheel Overseas Correspondent

 

 

 

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