ALBUM OF THE DAY: Go for It -
Stiff Little Fingers
Go for It is the third album by Stiff Little Fingers, released today in 1981.
https://youtu.be/1x-gaTyH30w
Stiff Little Fingers are a punk rock band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. They formed in 1977 at the height of the Troubles, which informed much of their songwriting. They started out as a schoolboy band called Highway Star (named after the Deep Purple song), doing rock covers, until they discovered punk. They were the first punk band in Belfast to release a record – the "Suspect Device" single came out on their own independent label, Rigid Digits. Their album Inflammable Material, released in partnership with Rough Trade, became the first independent LP to enter the UK top 20.
Go for It Review by Dave Thompson
Following confidently on from the relatively straightforward punk purity of their first two albums, Stiff Little Fingers entered the 1980s with Go for It, an album whose sense of adventure was as radical as its sense of purpose, a raw affirmation of the rock and reggae hybrid that had been pioneered elsewhere (the Clash and the Ruts come most immediately to mind), but was now to be twisted through Jake Burns' own private vision of punk at its most personally committed. The opening "Roots Radicals Rockers and Reggae," of course, sets those intentions out plain as day, while "Safe as Houses" and, among the three bonus tracks, a sterling cover of the Wailing Souls' "Mr. Fire Coal Man" confirm the Belfast band's status among the era's most convincing exponents of the mélange. Two excellent hit singles, "Just Fade Away" and "Silver Lining," bolstered what was already shaping up to be Stiff Little Fingers' finest album; the addition of "Back to Front," a Top 50 smash the previous year, and a rousing live version of "Doesn't Make It Alright" (the B-side of "Just Fade Away") complete a sensational reissue.
Stiff Little Fingers
Jake Burns – vocals, guitar; piano on "Silver Lining"
Jim Reilly – drums
Henry Cluney – guitar, backing vocals
Ali McMordie – bass guitar
with:
Stewart Blandamer – alto saxophone on "Silver Lining"
Tony Hughes – trumpet on "Silver Lining"
Steve "Fixit" Farr – baritone saxophone on "Silver Lining"
