They started out as a schoolboy band called Highway Star (named after the Deep Purple song), doing rock covers, until they discovered punk.

They were the first punk band in Belfast to release a record – the "Suspect Device" single came out on their own independent label, Rigid Digits.

Their album Inflammable Material, released in partnership with Rough Trade, became the first independent LP to enter the UK top 20.

[3][4] Stiff Little Fingers, especially the frontman and main songwriter Jake Burns, were heavily influenced by The Clash and Elvis Costello.

It was while doing a gig at the Glenmachan Hotel, Belfast, that they first met Gordon Ogilvie, who had been invited along for the evening by Colin McClelland, a journalist whom Burns had been corresponding with.

The single was released on the band's own Rigid Digits label, re-released a month later with the support of Rough Trade and sold over 30,000 copies.

[12] SLF built up a big following among young people in Belfast: "As a 14 or 15-year-old schoolboy back in the late Seventies, I wasn't at all concerned with who had written (or contributed to) the lyrics of their songs.

(Sean O’Neill, co-author of It Makes You Want To Spit - The Definitive Guide to Punk in N.Ireland) [13][14] John Peel arranged for the group to record a session for his Radio One show.

[17] SLF performing "Alternative Ulster" at a gig in Belfast at the end of October 1978 can be seen in Shellshock Rock, an independent documentary on punk in Northern Ireland, released in 1979.

[3] The band had signed a contract with Island Records, but it fell through, leaving the group to release the album on Rough Trade, their existing label.

However, of the 13 tracks, only 6 were directly about Northern Ireland and the political situation - "Suspect Device", "State of Emergency", "Wasted Life", "No More Of That", "Barbed Wire Love", and "Alternative Ulster".

Even "Alternative Ulster", which has references to "You got the Army on the street, and the RUC dog of repression is barking at your feet", is mainly about being a bored teenager in the late 1970s.

Paul Morley, in a contemporary review for NME, stated that "Inflammable Material is the classic punk rock record.

At the height of the Troubles we packed the place and then some, and staring out at that seething mass of young people just enjoying themselves and having a great time to the music, was something that has remained a treasured memory for me all these years.

In that hall, in the midst of a city gripped by sectarian violence, killing and hatred, we brought together the people of our hometown, regardless of religion".

[3] In Britain, the single from this album, "Beirut Moon", was withdrawn from sale on the first day of release,[25][26] allegedly because it criticised the government for not acting to free hostage John McCarthy, who had been held in Lebanon.

In 1993, Henry Cluney was asked to leave the band,[7] and the trio of Jake Burns, Bruce Foxton and Dolphin Taylor continued for the next four years, joined on live shows by either Dave Sharp or Ian McCallum.

The trio of Burns, Foxton and Grantley recorded 1997's Tinderbox album, with help from Ian McCallum who joined as a full-time member for 1999's Hope Street.

[citation needed] On 23 January 2006, it was announced that original bass guitarist Ali McMordie was to rejoin the band for the duration of their upcoming March tour.

Mr. McMordie has occasionally been unable to tour due to other commitments and on those occasions, his place has been taken by Mark DeRosa of Chicago band, Dummy.

[citation needed] On 25 May 2006, SLF announced Ian McCallum would not be able to join the band on its Spring US tour due to health reasons.

The track was named after a bar Burns drove past while listening to a press report about Tony Blair, George W. Bush and the Iraq War.

At the Glasgow Barrowlands gig on 17 March 2011 Burns announced that the new album was being recorded – hopefully for a 2011 release – before launching into a new song, "Full Steam Backwards", about the banking crisis in the UK.

[29] Recording was completed in January 2014 and the album, titled No Going Back was released through PledgeMusic on 15 March 2014 and to the general public on 11 August 2014.