[ originally published 20/10/2014 ]
PLYMOUTH SOUNDWAVES
Plymouth Hoe, Plymouth - 17th August 1996
Plymouth City Council used to run a free music festival on Plymouth Hoe in the summer during the mid 90s. It ran for three consecutive years and this was the first of them. We only went down for the second day, just to see Stiff Little Fingers. Among the other acts who played that day were Eddie and the Hotrods and a Thin Lizzy tribute band who were uncanny in both look and sound.
In the build up to the headliners, I waded into the crowd. Before SLF came on, a rather inebriated old punk seemed to take exception to a group of teenage girls down the front. This, he felt, wasn’t the place for them. “You haven’t got a fuckin’ clue who Stiff Little Fingers are,” he slurred. “No fuckin’ idea. Wait ‘til the moshin’ starts.” They looked at him, bemused, amused and a little perturbed. The band came on playing Suspect Device, the moshpit kicked furiously into life and one by one, the teenage girls were lifted out of the crowd by the security crew; none of them lasted to the end of the first song. Sadly, the pissed punk was proved right.
The rest of the Stiffs’ set was generally a crowd-pleasing affair which drew largely from their early back catalogue, but also included a smattering of their more recent songs. Of course, At The Edge was the big highlight, a rousing rendition bellowed out by band and audience alike (though not, one suspects, any teenage girls).
Absolutely no footage of the Stiffs during this period, this is the closest I can find, which is from a few years later...
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