aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser
# 095: Stiff Little Fingers – ‘Suspect Device’ (Rigid Digits Records ’78)
Hello friends,
name your top five punk bands of 1978, please! Finished? Thanks, let me see your votes. Hmmm, nice: Sex Pistols, Clash, Buzzcocks, Ramones, Wire … but hey, what about Stiff Little Fingers … no-one of you, really?!
You see, the point I’m trying to make with the lame intro above is: why is it that Stiff Little Fingers have always fallen under the radar so massively? Is it because the other bands of the time were really so much better? Is it because they did not come from the UK or the USA, but from tiny Northern Ireland instead? A country which was absolutely disarrayed in the late 70’s for reasons too complicated to understand for anyone not being involved by living there.
Not very long after their start Stiff Little Fingers began writing political songs as well, perhaps the difficult topic didn’t strike a chord with too many people, who knows? I mean, of course it is easier to listen to stuff like „chewin’ out a rhythm on my bubble gum/the sun is out and I want some/it’s not hard, not far to reach/ we can hitch a ride to Rockaway Beach“ than to lyrics oozing with Northern Irish politics. Probably the best example of this dilemma is that The Undertones (also from Northern Ireland, mind you), known for their poppier sound and more traditional lyrics about boys and girls, openly accused Stiff Little Fingers of exploiting The Troubles … but hey, that’s typically Northern Ireland for you, I suppose, even the punks can’t think alike! Also, it must be said, not all of Stiff Little Fingers’ songs were political throughout, a fair number of them were mainly about more general teen rebellion.
Not so today’s choice, their very first single. The lyrics were, funnily enough, not written by the band on this occasion, but by a Belfast journalist, Gordon Ogilvie. He gave the lyrics to SLF’s Jake Burns who put them to music. Ogilvie became the band’s manager and only six weeks after the song had been written, it was released as a single, 500 copies only. Peel liked it very much, which back then guaranteed quite some attention from record label executives, consequently it was repressed various times (and before you ask, yes, my copy is one of those represses).
Enough of this, here’s the song in all its glory, play it as loud as possible:
mp3: Stiff Little Fingers – Suspect Device
Right, the only question remaining is, and I have often asked it myself: was the “Sus-sus-sus-sus-pect device”-bit meant to be a reference to the highly controversial “sus laws” that were in force in the UK in the late 70s, under which, essentially, you could be arrested if a police officer merely suspected that you might be thinking of committing a crime? Or was it just some deliberate stammering done for effect, in a kind of rock tradition à la ‘My Generation’ by The Who?
We’ll never know, do we? But, does it matter? No, it does not – this is just a great record!
So enjoy,
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Loved SLF’s first four LPs, and remember being aggrieved on their behalf that the music press, ok NME, tended to be dismissive or patronising. Think that may have begun with suspicion of a single that had lyrics written by a journalist, rather than the band. “Authenticity” was a big deal back then. Harsh though. Their lyrical concerns soon got beyond Ulster, taking in racism, domestic violence, child poverty, toxic masculinity . . .
A little tubbier, a little balder (like many of their fans) they are still playing.
My copy is one of the represses too, even though I bought it pretty soon after Peel first played it. It sounded amazing listening to it on Radio 1 VHF on my parents’ old stereogram, and I was disappointed at how it didn’t sound so great on my brother’s shitty plastic box stereo. No pic sleeve with my copy either – they must have been churning out the reprints to keep up with demand.
Loved the first album at the time. Still got it but haven’t played it in years. This is still a great single, but I feel as though SLF haven’t aged as well as those other punks of ’78.
Suspect device? I suppose we’d say IED (improvised explosive device) these days …
“We’re a suspect device if we do what we’re told
But a suspect device can score an own goal
I’m a suspect device the Army can’t defuse
You’re a suspect device they know they can’t refuse
We’re gonna blow up in their face!”
I love SLF. I was only 7 when this record came out, far too young for such an aggressive and political song, but I was turned onto them years later in my early 20s by a couple of older punk friends who rated them as their fave punks. I saw them in the mid-90s at a free festival in Plymouth where they blew everyone into the middle of the next week.
(Oh, to correct your second paragraph – Northern Ireland is part of the UK (though not part of Great Britain), but let’s not go there today…)
Forgot to add… I think the sus-sus-sus-sus bit is meant to imitate the ticking of a bomb. That’s how I’ve always interpreted it, anyway…
Of all the bands mentioned Stiff Little Fingers were my favourite, probably still are.
Flimflamfan
In one of those lovely coincidences that pepper our lives, a neighbour approached me the other weekend. We’ve both lived in the same village for since the 2000s and never met.
He approached as he’d seen me mowing the lawn wearing a Bauhaus T-shirt (!) Turns out he’s currently writing a book on Stiff Little Fingers. I must buy him a pint and hear more…
Great pick, Dirk!