Irish punk legends Stiff Little Fingers have today announced the line-up for their fifth annual Belfast all-dayer.
Putting the Fast in Belfast 5 will take place on Saturday, August 19 at Customs House Square in their home city.
Jake Burns and his band will be joined by their friends and special guests Peter Hook & The Light, Glen Matlock, The Starjets, and DJ Terri Hooley.
The one-day festival has become one of SLF’s most popular gigs, second only to their annual St Patrick’s Day shows at Barrowlands in Glasgow.
The first was held in 2017, as part of the band’s 40th anniversary celebrations. It included performances from special guests The Outcasts, Ruts DC and The Stranglers.
The event was such a success that it was repeated in 2018, with The Defects, The Buzzcocks, The Damned joining SLF, and again in 2019, with support from The Toy Dolls, Therapy? and New Model Army.
The next two years didn’t happen due to the coronavirus pandemic, but Putting The Fast in Belfast made a triumphant return in August 2022 with the help of The Undertones, The Selecter and Ricky Warwick & The Fighting Hearts.
Tickets for this year’s event will go on sale this Friday, March 10, at 9am GMT HERE. More shows in Ireland will be announced soon.
Stiff Little Fingers are about to embark on their 13-date Everyone Is Someone Tour, which kicks off at the O2 Academy in Bristol this Thursday, 8 March, winding up at the Roundhouse in London on 25 March.
Their special guests on the tour will be The Slim Jim Phantom Trio featuring the legendary Stray Cats drummer. Tickets are on sale HERE (both Barrowlands gigs are sold out).
Frontman Jake Burns, who turned 65 last month, said when the dates were announced in October that this will be the last year the band embark on such extensive tours.
He said: “It’s strange, and once again very humbling, to still be playing this music at that age, so thank you all so much for that.
“However, I am finding the traveling a bit gruelling these days, so I have suggested that from 2024 onwards we scale that back a lot. So, touring from then on will be for much shorter periods.
“I have no intention of retiring, in fact this is a step taken so that I can hopefully keep going for a few more years yet … just not at the pace we normally set for ourselves.”
As well as the Customs House Square show, SLF will also be joining Flogging Molly’s Salty Dog Cruise from Miami to Belize and Mexico from November 8-13, playing two sets.
