A 40th-anniversary tour is nothing to sniff at in times of such disposable music, so a back catalogue like Stiff Little Fingers have is certainly nothing to sniff at. With support from the Eddie and the Hot Rods crowd, a trip to Birmingham is on the cards for a gig of two high octane punk acts, with the rather more punk n roll nature of the support being a good foil to the energy and pip of our headliners. A delayed journey later, I arrive in time to get into the venue and a drink before our support act.

It’s pretty busy as Eddie and the Hot Rods take to the stage, a pleasant enough surprise given the traffic issues outside despite the level of the band themselves. The high octane punk n rollers have been going for the best part of four decades themselves, bringing their own crowd with them. With songs such as opener Teenage Depression, a cover of The Who’s ‘The Kids Are Alright’, ‘Telephone Girl’ and set closer ‘Gloria’, they have a good standard of back catalogue of their own. With plenty of heads nodding and a good sound ringing out around the large and busy room, their infectious enthusiasm is still very present after all these years, winning over some in the crowd that seems a touch wary at first. The enjoyment keeps on spreading through the crowd as the set continues, with the busy crowd thickening up still more, the newcomers seemingly as pleased with the musical offerings as those who have been soaking themselves in it through the set, with the good sound and lighting technician adding further still to the atmosphere. A great opener who are a headline act, rightfully so, in their own right.

Even as the intro tune rings out, the crowd start going off their heads and the atmosphere from earlier seems to have intensified somewhat more before the first note has even been played. The statements, as you would expect from a Punk band such as Stiff Little Fingers, become more political as we get further into the set, with righteous (and fully understandable) anger shown at times, especially when certain subjects come to light, such as ’16 Shots’ and ‘Guilty As Sin’. Even though we have some slower tracks, that same spirit lies underneath, of taking no crap and fighting for what is right. Both Punk and solidarity at the time, one of the big things I love about the Punk scene, even when bands such as Stiff Little Fingers progress well beyond the DIY scene. The atmosphere stays at a ridiculously high level from that opening right through to the end of a sweat-drenched, high energy set, leading to the sheer reflection and outpouring from band to crowd and back.

We get the likes of ‘Suspect Device’ quite early in the set, when the band have barely been on 10 minutes, which surprised me a fair bit but enhanced the atmosphere even more than it already was, which is no mean feat when the singing and cheering is already really loud. ‘Wasted Life’ gets a massive reaction from the crowd too, both in terms of singing along and sheer energy shown around the room, dancing, fist pumping or lung wrenching levels of sound as the crowd sing along. The other obvious tracks all come, as you would expect, towards the end of the set, setting off the crowd again and again and ensuring that that uplifting spirit and atmosphere is shown by the crowd is around until the very end. As anniversaries go, I think the nightie would get dusted off after the 40 years after this performance. Even old Punks deserve some loving too!

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY DJ ASTROCREEP