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‘The army were on the streets – and we were bored’: Stiff Little Fingers on making Alternative Ulster

‘There wasn’t time to sit down and discuss politics and the future of the world, or your aims and aspirations. You just did stuff’

He wanted to put a flexi-disc on the cover and said: “Can we use Suspect Device?” That was going to be Still Little Fingers’ debut single so I told him he couldn’t have that, but I would write him a song. We started to feel a bit of pressure in terms of needing something to raise our profile, and then the Rough Trade label suggested it put out Alternative Ulster. Rough Trade had The Cartel [a record distribution organisation] and the idea was to bypass the existing conventional mechanisms and let the independent sector grow.

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