City return for punk favs SLF
THERE are myriad reasons why after achieving longed for success musicians leave these fair shores and set up camp across the pond.The Cribs' Gary Jarman and our very own Johnny Marr both plumped for Portland, Oregon because it's independent spirit perfectly compliment their own, while one of a number of reasons Charlatans' evergreen singer Tim Burgess settled in Los Angeles a few years back was for "those Hollywood moments" - he's subsequently written yet-to-be released material with silver screen heartthrob Joaquin Phoenix, fulfilling one such moment.
For Still Little Fingers' engaging frontman Jake Burns his current residency in Chicago can be put down to an all too familiar explanation though.
"Well in common with all these things there was a woman at the bottom of it!
"My then girlfriend who is now my wife, was living there and it was costing a fortune in telephone bills and air fares, we didn't think about settling in the UK, but she'd just gotten a new job and I can basically live anywhere that's near a major airport."
A US resident for three years now, Belfast ex-pat Burns is enjoying his new life - getting up at 6.30am to watch his beloved Newcastle United and unavoidable election coverage withstanding, but a few things still weird him out.
"I think it was George Bernard Shaw who said 'We're two people divided by a common language' and he was absolute right.
"I had to re-take my driving test recently and one of the question in the written exam started 'you are driving at 70mph when one of your wheels goes off the pavement…' - and I was thinking why the hell would you be driving along the pavement at that speed for?
"Of course the pavement is the road surface there and the sidewalk is their pavement!"
The punk veteran and his band are - like the live music itself - currently in rude health and arrive back in the city on March 15 to kick-start the St Patrick's Day festivities two days early in typically feisty and frenetic fashion.
Stewardship
Last year marked the quartet's 30th anniversary and despite several line-up changes over the years, including a 16-year stewardship on bass by former Jam man Bruce Foxton, it turned out to be quite a celebration.
From his snow hit home in the Windy City, Burns' thoughts quickly turn to home when I ask him to look back on 2007.
"The main highlight was getting back to play Ulster Hall in Belfast, it's our spiritual home and where I saw my first gigs.
"It was the pinnacle of what you could achieve growing up in the city as kid, so to sell it out, and sell out with ease amazingly, was really gratifying."
The highlights are set to continue in 2008 with the another long held ambition on the wish list about to be ticked off with a flourish.
"We're undertaking our first ever trip to Australia later this year, it's always been an expense thing preventing us in the past, but this time round things have panned out well.
"So I'm sowing cork on my hat as we speak - it beats the eight or nine inches of snow that are currently piled up outside my back door that's for sure and an ex-tour manager lives there now so he's going to show us around, it should be a great trip."
With the man who laid down those pulsating basslines on seminal 1979 LP, Inflammable Material, back in the ranks on bass, there's now a real authentic feel to the four-piece again, I wondered how Ali McMordie's return after an acrimonious split in 1991 has worked out.
"It's been a lot of fun having him back. It took a while to get back on to the same footing again - for the first couple of tours we were incredibly, professionally polite you could say before it got round to the eventual - 'isn't it about time you about bought a f**king round?!'"
Skills
"But now it's going great, apart from the fact he's an old and dear friend, in the intervening years he got himself a really good career as a tour manager for people like Rufus Wainwright, so those skills and contacts have been great too."
Like fellow punk upstarts The Undertones when Burns and McMordie were starting out in Northern Ireland, the support of the late Radio 1 DJ John Peel proved vital, the singer's memories, like so many others, are nothing but warm.
"I met him quite a few times because I ended up working at Radio 1 for a year, but the first time I ever met him was in the back room at Rough Trade."
After nervously approaching Peel, the doyen of BBC radio pointed to The Ruts badge on his lapel and asked Burns if he'd heard of him.
Burns continues the anecdote: "I said I had and then he predicted they'd be the next Stiff Little Fingers, we hadn't even released our first album yet and he was already on the look out for our successors - I was like 'how about letting us be the next Stiff Little Fingers'! But that was Peel, he was always pushing new acts - getting recognition from him was a real rubber stamp."
Now 50 himself, Burns is a long way from being done yet and as well as thoroughly revelling in their touring commitments, he's also found inspiration from hitting such a hefty milestone.
"I did have quite a bit written for a new record but I sat back and listened to it and I realised most of it was very good. As this year is such a watershed though I realised that by taking stock of my life and reflecting there was the new record right there - so I'm trying to put 50 years experience into 10 or 12 songs, which will be a nice trick if I can pull it off!"
Stiff Little Fingers play Academy 1 on Saturday, March 15. The Men They Couldn't Hang support. £16. Click here to buy tickets.
YOU can also listen to audio clips below.
Published: Wed, 27 February, 2008
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