(Self-)Erased from History (1 of ?)

Bands no one ever mentions today (a potential series....)

Stiff Little Fingers

I remember a boy at my school whose binder was covered in logos for TRB, but he also had the SLF logo

On the basis of that first album Inflammable Material, with all its songs about the Troubles, they were seen as political punk at its rawest. 

Hence the bracketing of SLF by my schoolmate (Sandford!) alongside Tom Robinson Band.

Punkest of the punks - aurally, if not image-wise - for a brief moment, Stiff Little Fingers were. 

Spearheads indeed of a second-wave of punk that included the Ruts, Angelic Upstarts, and what would soon be called Oi! 

...  and then almost immediately Stiff Little Fingers became more of a mainstream rock band. 

Jumped from Rough Trade to Chrysalis. 

Cleaner sound and cleancut image. 

Second album Nobody's Heroes cracked the Top Ten, got to #8. 

Modest-sized hit singles and a surprisingly large number of appearances on Top of the Pops.  

Only Jake Burns's pained rasp really connects it to punk.

No, I don't think anyone would mention them nowadays.

Even though in some ways they presage the American hardcore sound  - Jake Burns's vocals as paint-stripping as the dude in Negative Approach. You can virtually hear the nodules forming on his larynx. Every note sounds like it's at #11 on special Spinal Tap style amplifiers.  By empathetic projection, similar to the way that air guitar works, hearing his voice causes pain in your own throat. 

Nor would anyone think of them alongside the Rough Trade groups like Raincoats, Scritti, Essential Logic, Young Marble Giants, et al, despite having scored a signal triumph for the label by being Rough Trade's first record to make the charts - SLF's debut Inflammable Material went in at #14 which at that time seemed like an impossible feat for an an independent label.

Well, the sound is not postpunk but punk at its most straightforwardly blasting. 

SLF carried on for years, putting out albums deep into the Eighties, touring up and down the UK playing mid-size concert halls.  

This advert is from 1982

Broke up in '87....  Burns hooked up with Bruce Foxton for a while.

Then they reformed and they carry on still, playing to their fanbase.