While a lot of original punks’ anger was artificial, rage and anguish felt too real for Belfast’s STIFF LITTLE FINGERS who burst onto the scene in times of The Troubles and channeled it all into their music. That’s why calling the quartet’s debut, “Inflammable Material” from 1979, a landmark album in the genre would seem like an underestimation. Perhaps, not the band’s best work, this record remains important on many levels, and seeing the classic get a deluxe treatment is an ultimate accolade.
Issued on November 20th as a box set the platter’s special edition includes four CDs and a DVD, where a remastered version of the album per se is augmented not only with a smattering of bonuses but also with a lot of previously unreleased material such as demos, BBC sessions and an entire concert document, plus quite a few videos from back in the day. There will also be two-CD and two-LP variants which feature only what’s on the first two discs in the media book. A feast for true punks.
Inflammable Material
CD 1 – Original Album:
1. Suspect Device
2. State Of Emergency
3. Here We Are Nowhere
4. Wasted Life
5. No More Of That
6. Barbed Wire Love
7. White Noise
8. Breakout
9. Law & Order
10. Rough Trade
11. Johnny Was
12. Alternative Ulster
13. Closed Groove
bonus tracks:
14. Suspect Device (single version)
15. Wasted Life (single version)
16. ’78 RPM
17. Gotta Gettaway (single version)
18. Bloody Sunday
CD 2 – BBC John Peel Sessions *
broadcast April 13th, 1978:
1. Wasted Life
2. Johnny Was
3. Alternative Ulster
4. State Of Emergency
never broadcast:
5. White Noise
6. No More Of That
broadcast September 12th, 1978:
7. Johnny Was
8. Law & Order
9. Barbed Wire Love
10. Suspect Device
Inflammable Material:
Deluxe Edition
CD 3 – 1978 Demos *
Island Records – May 20th & 21st May:
1. ’78 RPM
2. Johnny Was (short version)
3. White Noise
4. Alternative Ulster
5. Law & Order (no vocal)
6. State Of Emergency
Outlet Studios, Belfast – September:
7. Revenge
8. Here We Are Nowhere
9. Rough Trade
10. No More Of That
11. Breakout
12. Barbed Wire Love
CD 4 – Live In Troon – May 1979 *:
1. You Can’t Say Crap On The Radio
2. At The Edge
3. Johnny Was
4. Suspect Device
5. Nobody’s Hero
6. No Change
7. No More Of That
8. Gotta Gettaway
9. Rough Trade
10. Wait And See
11. Breakout
12. Straw Dogs
13. Wasted Life
DVD – Footage Available
1. Shellshock Rock (Hollywood Films) – October 1978
2. Alternative Ulster *
Old Grey Whistle Test – May 1979:
3. Barbed Wire Love
4. Gotta Gettaway *
Rough Trade Video – Summer 1979:
5. Suspect Device
7. Gotta Gettaway
8. Alternative Ulster
* previously unreleased
