History
Before becoming Hard Little Fingers, Jake Burns, Vocals and Guitar, Henry Cluney, Guitar, Gordon Blair, Bass, and Brian Falloon, Drums, were playing withinside the handle band, Main road Star, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Upin a departure of Gordon Blair (world health organization went on to play by having an additional Belfast class action, Rudi), Ali McMordie took over a duties in Bass. Henry experienced by this instance found punk, & introduced a rest of the band thereto. It decided that Highway Star wasn't a no-see-um plenty title, & fallowing the brief coquetry using the title A Convenient, decided to call for themselves Hard Little Fingers, Jake ingesting the known as from either a Vibrators track.

It was when it were doing a gig at the Glenmachin Hotel that it met higher by owning Gordon Ogilvie, who was a journalist by using the Daily Express newspaper, invited along for the evening by Colin McClelland, another journalist, by using whom Jake experienced been corresponding.

Ogilvie suggested it play lesson depending upon their own experience of the troubles. McClell& pulled two or three strings & managed for the band occasionally recording instance at a local radio station, and in the studio unremarkably utilized to record jingles, it recorded Suspect Device. when the publicity stunt, the individual was packaged in the form of the cassette, by having a handle depicting a cassette bomb, apparently inducing wonderful mirth in the class action, whenever 1 record company phoned the babies back & asked for a second copy, as it'd thrown a foremost a single inside a pail of water supply for fear that it was the echt article!

Of these copy of the lone was send to John Peel who liked it so much, he played it repeatedly thereby leading to the distribution treat across Rough Trade. A manoeuvre Peel has utilized prior to inside promoting an additional noted Northern Irish band The Undertones.

. This inspired their move to London, which successively led to the departure of Brian Falloon, & Colin McClelland (world health organization along sustaining Gordon Ogilvie experienced been joint manager of the band higher until that point).

Jim Reilly was installed on the drum stool eventually to produce his debut on the Gotta Gettaway lone, & play therein springs Rock Against Racism tour. In the summertime of 1979, Hard Little Fingers signed to Chrysalis Records, and around 1980 freed their 2nd album, Nobodys Heroes. 1981's Go For It followed hard in its heels. Before long when a Jump tour, Jim Reilly left a band.

His place was taken by Brian 'Dolphin' Taylor, who Jake had remembered from Taylors days with the Tom Robinson Band. Within 1982, come the third studio album (although it wwhen their 4th album, as it experienced freed a survive l-p Hanx between Nobodys Heroes and Jump), Now Then... By this time it experienced diversified musically, & Today So got an all but popular sense just about it in situ. This led to a bit of of their supplementary strong core cheesy fans feeling alienated, & around the face of moo sales, & moo concert attendances, it broke higher in 1983, sustaining [http://www.slf.com slf.com] quoting Burns: "''''our previous LP Today So was to my mind a better album i have manufactured. However these are as well alas a better i believe we may ever produce. Then We've decided to call it quits.''"

They reformed in 1987 according to Jake, cos they were skint and wanted to make a bit of cash to get back to Ireland for Christmas. The response from the fans was overwhelming. They released some live albums and did the occasional short tour towards the end of the 80's, and by 1990 were thinking of reforming permanently. Ali McMordie decided he wouldn't be able to commit the time to touring full time, or recording, and so left to be replaced by The Jam's ex bass guitarist Bruce Foxton in time to record 1991's Flags and Emblems. The single from this album, Beirut Moon, was banned in Britain because it criticized the government for not acting to free hostage John McCarthy in the Lebanon.

In 1993 Jake made what he describes in the book Stiff Little Fingers-Song by Song as being one of the hardest decisions of his life, and asked Henry Cluney to leave the band, and the trio of Jake Burns, Bruce Foxton and Dolphin Taylor continued, for the next four years.

On live shows they were joined by Dave Sharp or Ian McCallum. In 1994 they released Get a Life in the UK, releasing it in the States in 1996. By the end of 1996 Dolphin's family commitments had become such that he felt he could no longer commit the time he needed to the band, and he left. Jake called in Steve Grantley who had played drums for Jake Burns and the Big Wheel in the late 80's. Ian McCallum has also joined them on a permanent basis, and this line up recorded 2003's Guitar and Drum.

Discography
Singles
"Suspect Device", 1978 "Guide Ulster", 1978 "Gotta Gettaway", 1979 "Straw Dogs", 1979 "At a Edge", 1980 "Nonentity's Hero", 1980 "Back to Front", 1980 "Good Dissolve", 1981 "Silver Lining", 1981 "Listen", 1982 "Talkback", 1982 "Bits of Children", 1982 "Price of Admission", 1982 "Beirut Moon", 1991 "Develop the Life", 1994

Albums
Inflammable Material, 1979 ''Nobody's Heroes, 1980 Hanx, 1980 Go for It, 1981 Now Then..., 1982 All the Best, 1983 See You Up There!, 1989 Flags and Emblems, 1991 Get a Life, 1994 Tinderbox, 1997 Hope Street, 1999 Guitar and Drum'', 2003