Jake Burns

Infobox Musical artist
Name = Jake Burns

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Img_capt = Jake, cropped from the current official line up pic of SLF
Img_size = 150px
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Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = John Burns
Alias =
Born = Birth date and age|1958|2|21|mf=y
Died =
Origin = Belfast, Northern Ireland
Instrument = Vocals, guitar
Genre = Punk, rock, pop
Years_active = 1977–present
Label = Chrysalis, Rough Trade, Rigid Digits
Associated_acts = Stiff Little Fingers (1977–1982, 1987–Present) Jake Burns and the Big Wheel (1982–1987)

Jake Burns (born John Burns, 21 February 1958 in Belfast) is a singer and guitarist, and is best known as a member of Stiff Little Fingers.

Career

Burns started off his career at school with a rock covers band, Highway Star, which consisted of Burns, Gordon Blair, Henry Cluney, and Brian Falloon. Gordon Blair subsequently left the group to join Rudi, and Ali McMordie joined, about the time the band discovered punk.

They were briefly named The Fast, but as there was already a group of that name they changed it to Stiff Little Fingers, taken from the song of the same name that had appeared on "Pure Mania", the 1977 album by The Vibrators. Burns, Jake and Parker, Alan "Stiff Little Fingers: Song By Song", Sanctuary Publishing, 2003. ISBN 1-86074-513-X]

They recorded "Suspect Device" their first single in 1977. The single was packaged in the form of a cassette, with a cover depicting a cassette bomb, apparently causing great hilarity in the group, when one record company phoned them and asked for another copy, as they'd thrown the first one in a bucket of water for fear that it was a real bomb.

A copy of the single was sent to John Peel. He played it repeatedly leading to a distribution deal through Rough Trade.

"Inflammable Material" to "Now Then"

Stiff Little Fingers' debut album, "Inflammable Material" entered the UK Albums Chart as the highest new entry and, coincidentally, the first ever completely independent album on 21 February 1979, which also happened to be Burns' 21st birthday.

In mid-1979, Stiff Little Fingers signed to Chrysalis Records, and in 1980 released their second album, "Nobody's Heroes". 1981's "Go for It" followed.

In 1981 Burns made his acting debut in an episode of the BBC's Play For Today series entitled "Iris In The Traffic, Ruby In The Rain", written by Belfast-born poet and playwright Stewart Parker, which also featured the rest of Stiff Little Fingers effectively playing themselves as 'The Band'.

In 1982 came a 4 song EP called £1.10 or Less and then their fourth studio album, "Now Then..." (although their fifth album, as they had released a live LP, "Hanx", between Nobody's Heroes and Go For It). By this time they had diversified musically, and Now Then had an almost pop feel about it in places. This led some of their more hard core punk fans to feel alienated, and in the face of low sales and concert attendances, they broke up in 1983, when Burns said: "Our last LP Now Then was to my mind the best album we have made. But it is also unfortunately the best I think we will ever make. So I have decided to call it a day." The band later revealed the original split had been somewhat acrimonious, with bandmembers apparently having fistfights rather than talking through their differences.

Jake Burns and the Big Wheel

After the breakup of SLF, Jake formed Jake Burns and the Big Wheel. The band consisted of Jake, Steve Grantley on drums, Sean Martin on bass guitar, and Pete Saunders on keyboards. Big Wheel recorded a total of three singles, "On Fortune Street", "She Grew Up" and "Breathless". They split up in 1987 when Jake reformed Stiff Little Fingers. A compilation album, also called "On Fortune Street", was later released.

In 1987, Stiff Little Fingers reformed, because they were "skint and wanted to make a bit of cash to get back to Ireland for Christmas". They released some live albums and did short tours towards the end of the 1980s, and by 1990 were thinking of reforming permanently.

"Flags and Emblems"

Ali McMordie decided he could not commit the time to tour full-time or record, and so left, being replaced by Bruce Foxton (previously bass guitarist in The Jam) in time to record 1991's "Flags and Emblems". In Britain, the single from this album, "Beirut Moon", was withdrawn from sale on the first day of release, allegedly because it criticised the government for not acting to free hostage John McCarthy, who had been held in the Lebanon.

In 1993 Burns made what he described as one of the hardest decisions of his life and asked Henry Cluney to leave the band, 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.

"Get a Life"

In 1994 they released "Get a Life" in the UK, releasing it in the U.S. in 1996. By the end of 1996 Taylor left due to family commitments, to be replaced by Steve Grantley.

"Tinderbox" to "Guitar and Drum"

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 double album "And Best of All...Hope Street". This same line-up recorded 2003's "Guitar and Drum".

Stiff Little Fingers are still performing and recording as of 2008, although Burns was the only member to be present in all line ups of the band.

As of 2008, Burns plays lead and rhythm guitar, and lead vocals, Ian McCallum plays guitar and does backing vocals, Ali McMordie plays bass guitar and Steve Grantley, formerly of Jake Burns and the Big Wheel, the group Burns formed in the five years that SLF were not performing, plays drums, and is also on backing vocals.

On 27 March 2006 his solo album "Drinkin' Again" was released.

3 Men and Black

Since 2001, Burns has also been involved in a side project with Pauline Black of The Selecter, called 3 Men and Black. This involves Black touring with three males artists from the late 1970s, early 1980s doing acoustic versions of songs they are famous for, and talking a little about how they came to write the songs etc. The line up for the concerts is fairly fluid, and has included such people as Bruce Foxton, J.J. Burnell, Eric Faulkner and Nick Welsh.

Personal life

After moving to England, Burns married and lived in Newcastle in the North East of England becoming a fan of Newcastle United Football Club, having previously supported Liverpool. He subsequently married Shirley Sexton - webmistress of the official Stiff Little Fingers website - in late 2004, and has lived in Chicago, Illinois becoming a fan of the Chicago Cubs baseball team.

References

External links

* [http://www.slf.com Stiff Little Fingers website]
* [http://www.jakeburns.com Jake Burns website]