Following several local church hall and youth club bookings playing a mixture of covers and original Hendriks/Barnes compositions, Young was replaced by "Big" John McVittie (bass guitar, vocals).

Their first single "Standard English" b/w "Brookside Riot Squad" / "DC-RIP" was released on their own Dork Records label in early 1979, now regarded as rare and collectible.

Eventually, EMI booked the band into Rockfield Studios with production duties by engineer Pat Moran and former Rockpile and Love Sculpture bassist, John David.

The band earned the respect of their London peers and were joined by Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols on stage at the Marquee Club on one occasion.

Dumbfounded as to why an original song had not been chosen, "Goodbye My Love" was released in February 1981 and declared by journalist Carol Clerk "Pop with steel toe caps".

Despite radio and press promotion and a national tour with the UK Subs and Anti-Pasti, distribution problems ensued, in addition the single was difficult to obtain and sales were not sufficient to interest Stiff Records in a follow up.

In 1982, a short lived line up emerged featuring Hendriks and Barnes with John Mayor (drums) and Nick Alderson (bass) recording a new Peel session but it lasted less than a year.

Tommy O'Kane joined this five-piece line up on some dates throughout 1985 and 1986 in a two drummer format, and John McVittie rejoined with the band back to a four-piece with Hendriks, Barnes and Mayor.

In late 1986, Liverpool drummer Mark Coleridge (Afraid of Mice, Glass Torpedoes) and bassist Steve Fielding joined with Hendriks and Barnes in a powerful 'glam punk' line up that went on to record several strong tracks and play over 250 live dates throughout Europe, finally splitting in 1988.

In 1999, The Stiffs were approached to appear in a reality TV show, the researchers interested in fractious situations relating to the reformation of a punk band.

It was decided that the EMI album, Innocent Bystanders, would focus on the band's early career up to the end of 1980, while the Angel Air project, Stiffology, would take the story from 1981 to 1988.

Phil Hendriks entered the recording studio with a revised line-up in January 2002, including Glaswegian Jim Devlin of The Carpettes on guitar, Rob Fidler on bass and Rick Cook on drums.

The event was released on DVD in July 2006 and in the same year the band were also included in Alex Ogg's book, No More Heroes: A Complete History of UK Punk from 1976 to 1980.

August 2007 saw The Stiffs appearing alongside Cockney Rejects and Sham 69 at the Antifest event in the Czech Republic to a crowd of 2,500, with Rick Cook standing in for an unavailable Tommy O'Kane.

In 2023 US label PNV Records commenced to release a four vinyl album series on their Projectile Platters imprint, covering the bands output from 1978 to 1985, including a singles collection and three discs of demos and rarities.