Suspect Device (song)
"Suspect Device" was the debut single by the Belfast punk band Stiff Little Fingers.
Stiff Little Fingers - Jake Burns, vocals and guitar, Henry Cluney, guitar, Ali McMordie, bass, and Brian Faloon, drums - made their first public appearance as a punk band on 16 August 1977 when they played Paddy Lamb’s pub in Ballyhackamore, East Belfast.
Their fourth gig was at the Glenmachen Stables on 14 November 1977. At this gig, SLF met Gordon Ogilivie and Colin McClelland, two journalists following the local music scene, who would soon become the group’s management team.
The band had already started to write two songs, "State of Emergency" and "Breakout", about growing up in Belfast during the Troubles. Gordon Ogilivie showed Jake Burns draft lyrics he had written for a possible song.
“Gordon asked me if I’d written anything pertinent where I’d grown up (at which juncture) he literally handed me the finished lyric of ‘Suspect Device’. I couldn’t believe it. Here was a guy who was thinking along exactly the same lines as I was. I’d go so far to say that from the moment he handed me that piece of paper the band changed.” (Jake Burns, SLF)[1]
“I asked him (Jake Burns) if he/they had ever thought about writing songs about the Troubles. He said they had, but had made the positive decision not to because it was too obvious and they didn’t want to appear to be exploiting the situation. I said that if it was done properly it was no different from the Clash singing about London and that I had always thought that the best rock music was made by people who wrote from the heart about the life they lived and knew”. (Gordon Ogilivie, SLF manager) [1]
Jake Burns put a tune to the lyrics and "Suspect Device" was born. In the same evening as finishing "Suspect Device", Jake wrote "Wasted Life" which would become the single’s b-side.
Footage of the group performing "Suspect Device" at Belfast’s Pound Club on 17 January 1978 - the first time the group played the song live - appeared on an Ulster TV programme It Makes You Want to Spit about the emergence of punk in Belfast. [2]
Stiff Little Fingers recorded the single on Saturday 4 February 1978 at Downtown Radio studios. This recording studio was normally only used to produce advertising jingles and was very basic. The versions of "Suspect Device" and "Wasted Life" recorded were very basic and little more than demo quality recordings.[1][3]
The two new managers had put up the £500 to record and press the single. The presence of the new management team attracted some criticism. The local punk fanzine, Alternative Ulster, wrote “the shadowy berks that bedevil the SLF backroom will inevitably hinder, cramp and the shorten the career of this excellent band”. [1]
Jake Burns replied in an interview with Hot Press in September 1978: “All the bands (and punks) that slag Colin off are jealous because they don’t have a Colin McClelland. Without Colin or Gordon we would never have released ‘Suspect Device’”. (Jake Burns, SLF) [1]
"Suspect Device" was released on 17 March 1978 on Rigid Digits. The release of the record required a record/publishing company and Rigid Digits was formed with the band members and two managers all owning an equal shares.
The front cover of the record sleeve is a photograph of a number of explosive inflammatory devices which were at the time being used by the Provisional IRA for fire bombing commercial premises. The back sleeve was a black and white photo of the group taken on the ‘peace line’ between the nationalist Falls Road and the loyalist Shankill Road.
One controversial publicity stunt linked to the release of the single was a number of cassettes of the single, with a cover depicting a cassette suspect device, were sent to record companies in London. “Putting them in the cassette with the wiring printed and things on it, obviously it’s a publicity stunt. But coming from Belfast at the time we thought, “It’s either gonna get you noticed or it’s gonna get you into trouble”. So, we thought, “Well, what have we got to lose?" Looking back on it now, okay, it’s a bit corny, but it was like, you gotta use what you’ve got that you can use. And that’s what we did.” (Henry Cluney, SLF) [3]
A vinyl copy of the single was sent to John Peel and within days of its release he was regularly playing it on his influential late night Radio One show.
Rough Trade’s Geoff Travis heard "Suspect Device" on the John Peel show and ordered copies for sale in the Rough Trade shop in London and distributed the single to other independent record shops across the UK. Rough Trade had only recently set up a skeleton distribution network of independent record shops.
On the back of the popularity of "Suspect Device", John Peel got the group to record a session for his show. "Alternative Ulster", "Wasted Life", "Johnny Was" and "State of Emergency" were broadcast on 13 April 1978 as the band made their debut ‘John Peel session’.[4] [5]
By April, the initial 500 copies had sold out and another 1,500 were pressed. Further re-pressings took place as sales took off. By July 1978, Sounds was reporting that over 10,000 copies of the single had been sold. In October, Melody Maker estimated sales had reached 12,000. [1]
After a proposed contract with Island fell through, the band signed with Rough Trade records. Following the release of the second single "Alternative Ulster" in October 1978, "Suspect Device" was re-released on Rough Trade on 17 March 1979. [5]
The popularity of "Suspect Device" among punks and fans of alternative music was reflected in the annual Festive Fifty voted for by listeners of the John Peel show. In 1978, it was voted in at number 4 ahead of the likes of "Pretty Vacant" (Sex Pistols) and "(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais" (The Clash). In following years, "Suspect Device" would become a regular fixture in the Festive Fifty. It reached no.8 in 1979, no.24 in 1980, no.32 in 1981 and no.31 in the reshaped All-Time Festive Fifty in 1982.
The single’s B-side, "Wasted Life", appeared in the 1979 Festive Fifty at no.18 and in 1980 it reached no.27.
A re-recorded version of "Suspect Device" was the opening track on the debut SLF album, "Inflammable Material", which was released on Rough Trade records in February 1979. "Wasted Life" also appeared on the album.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Link, Roland (2009). Kicking Up A Racket - The Story Of Stiff Little Fingers 1977-1983. Appletree Press. ISBN 978-1-84758-145-7. Search this book on
- ↑ Ulster TV, Revue, It Makes You Want To Spit (Broadcast 6 March 1978)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Bailie, Stuart (2018). Trouble Songs - Music And Conflict In Northern Ireland. Bloomfield Press. ISBN 978-1-5272-2047-8. Search this book on
- ↑ Stiff Little Fingers - The Complete John Peel Sessions (Strange Fruit – SFRSCD110) CD, 2002.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Sean O'Neill & Guy Trelford (2003) "It Makes You Want To Spit - The Definitive Guide to Punk in Northern Ireland 1977-1982", Reekus Records, ISBN 0-9546057-0-5
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