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Stiff Little Fingers became of one of the Friars bands in
its history. Seven appearances, six of them headlining and full houses.
Friars became one of SLF's favourite venues and the live Hanx! album was
recorded at Friars in 1980. In three years they went from being voted
the best support act of the year to the greatest Friars band of all
time. No mean feat. No matter how big they got after their first
appearance in 1978, they kept coming back. SLF were one of those bands that for someone of a
certain age were a best kept secret with their singles passed
round the school playground. The secret was out though when
their debut album, Inflammable Material, went into the higher
echelons of the chart astounding many people, not least the
record industry and chart compilers who were yet to wake up to
what this band were about. A band unafraid of saying what they
had to say about their homeland, it gave the website huge
pleasure to present SLF with a well deserved Friars Heroes Award
in 2009. A true Friars band.
Jake Burns:
We always looked forward to playing Friars because it was always a
capacity audience and it was so welcoming. The other thing, was that
some audiences could be a bit hairy for a better word, you were never
sure of the reaction. But at Friars, it was run like a family club
almost. Everybody...not just backstage, but the audience too seemed to
know each other. There was a wonderful camaraderie about it. I can't
think of another venue like that. There were venues that were bigger and
may have claimed to be more legendary...the likes of Hammersmith Odeon
or Glasgow Apollo, but the atmosphere was unique to Friars and to
Aylesbury.
Jake Burns and Ali
McMordie accepting the Friars
Heroes Award for SLF,
Northampton, May 2009:
Picture: Mike O'Connor
SLF's history at Friars
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