GROWLING out the raw-edged lyrics to Wasted Life, Gotta Getaway and Alternative Ulster, Jake Burns engineered one of punk’s landmark offerings with Stiff Little Fingers’ first album, Inflammable Material.

Burns wrote about their own lives, telling of their anger and frustration at the violence and sectarian hatred on the streets of Belfast at the height of the political Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Their lyrics, both personal and political, combined the raw energy of new wave music, and a rallying call for youth to create their own alternative in the face of hardship and uncertainty.

“We were teenagers writing about what we saw every day in our city.

“There was nothing rehearsed about what we did.

“It was raucous and full of anger,” said Stiff Little Fingers leader Burns.

“It wasn’t a bunch of po-faced music graduates showing off.

“We weren’t some manufactured bunch of pretty boys posing about in glossy magazines. It was people like you and me, and that was important.

“It was also very exciting, and a time in our lives that we will never forget.”

Burns describes hearing The Sex Pistols and The Damned for the first time as the punk revolution exploded across the nation.

“It was like an injection, a raw burst of frantic energy, and you can imagine how that felt for a teenager in Belfast,” he said.

“Then deciphering the lyrics of The Clash, and realising that Joe Strummer was writing about real issues, things that spoke directly to me and made me think that we could do something similar.”

Over 30 years later, SLF remain in huge demand on the tour circuit and Burns, who has battled depression and a divorce, is still writing his own songs about life as he sees it.

“Rory Gallagher was the reason I picked a guitar up,” he said.

“I hadn’t ever heard anything that exciting in my life before punk, but I still love writing.”

Though focused on their new material, SLF always try and play the old classics at their gigs.

“You have to strike a balance,” Burns added.

“The difficulty with a band like ourselves is to try and not make it sound like a cabaret band.

“It would be very easy to go, ‘Hey, here’s another song you may remember.

“A lot of the old songs the audience greet like old friends, though.

“Of course, there are days when we don’t want to play Alternative Ulster or Wasted Life because we’ve heard them until they’re coming out of our ears.

“But there’s always the possibility that somebody out there has never seen the band before, or never heard the songs.

“We’ve a really dedicated following, though, a die-hard audience and some of them are young kids.

“Once you’re an SLF fan, you’re a fan for life.”

  • Stiff Little Fingers, 53 Degrees, Preston, Saturday, May 18.