Stiff Little Fingers - At The Edge & Wasted Life (11.03.2025)

Stiff Little Fingers are a Northern Irish punk rock band from Belfast. They formed in 1977 at the height of the Troubles, which informed much of their songwriting. 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.

After six years and four albums, they split up. They re-formed five years later, in 1987. Despite major personnel changes, they are still touring and recording. In 2014, the band released their tenth studio album and a world tour followed its release. Jake Burns, the lead singer, is the only member to have been with the band during all its incarnations, but in March 2006, original bass guitarist Ali McMordie rejoined them following the departure of bass player Bruce Foxton after fifteen years.

LYRICS:


AT THE EDGE

Back when I was younger they were talking at me
Never listened to a word I said
Always yap yap yapping and complaining at me
Made me think I'd be better of dead
I don't want to talk about it
I don't want to hear no lip
Take your share don't shout about it
That's your lot remember you're a kid

They would always teach me that to swear was a sin
Always speak your mind but not aloud
Think of something that you want to do with your life
Nothing that you like that's not allowed
I've no time to talk about it
All your stupid hopes and dreams
Get your feet back on the ground son
It's exams that count not football teams

(Chorus:)
And I'm running at the edge of their world
They're criticising something they just can't understand
Living on the edge of their town
And I won't be shot down

Taught me to defend myself and to be a man
How to kick someone and run away
Gave me everything that any young man could need
But don't understand why I won't stay
Here's your room and here's your records
Here's your home and here you'll stay
Here's somewhere I don't believe in
Wish someone would take it all away




WASTED LIFE

I could be a soldier
Go out there and fight to save this land
Be a people's soldier
Paramilitary gun in hand
I won't be a soldier
I won't take no orders from no-one
Stuff their fucking armies
Killing isn't my idea of fun

(Chorus)
They wanna waste my life
They wanna waste my time
They wanna waste my life
And they've stolen it away

I could be a hero
Live and die for their 'important' cause
A united nation
Or an independent state with laws
And rules and regulations
That merely cause disturbances and wars
That is what I've got now
All thanks to the freedom-seeking hordes

(Chorus)

I'm not gonna be taken in
They said if I don't join I just can't win
I've heard that story many times before
And every time I threw it out the door

Still they come up to me
With a different name but same old face
I can see the connection
With another time and a different place
They ain't blonde-haired or blue-eyed
But they think that they're the master race
They're nothing but blind fascists
Brought up to hate and given lives to waste