The Normal on tour with Stiff Little Fingers (Rough Trade, 1979)

In 1979 electronic music duo The Normal (Robert Rental and David Miller) toured the UK with Essential Logic and Stiff Little Fingers as a package showcasing artists on Rough Trade Records. This excerpt from a documentary on Rough Trade for ITV’s South Bank Show (shown here with Swedish subtitles) highlights the experiment to have atonal artists opening for a catchy punk band whose album was in the top 20 on the UK charts.
The first voice heard in this clip is that of Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis before segueing into footage of Rental and Miller in concert and then composing in their home studio. This is co trastes with two songs performed live by Stiff Little Fingers interspersed with interviews with the band and (mostly) manager/lyricist Gordon Ogilvie who helped propel the band’s early success by encouraging them to sing about the Trouble in their native Belfast.

[@pressureworks]

BRILLIANT!! Wonderful journey down the yellow brick memory road.

[@croiners4166]

❤

[@Tralfaz666]

very cool post... chuckling a bit about SLF signing to a larger label because that's exactly what they did after the first album.