BEING a punk rocker in the 1970s was a bit like being in a pressure cooker.

That is what Jake Burns made of that influential but tumultuous musical era when the likes of the Sex Pistols and The Clash were breaking all the rules.

But unlike many others, Jake's band Stiff Little Fingers are one of the few bands to survive when the punk scene self destructed.

"We did self destruct for a while," said Jake.

"There were four years when we didn’t speak to each other. It was the same for a lot of those bands.

"We all started when we were 17 or 18 and were playing for fun. Then all of a sudden what we were doing became incredibly popular.

"I’m not saying it turns your head but I think people do a lot of growing up between the ages of 18 and 23.

"We were having to do it under a certain amount of pressure and we split up for a short amount of time just because we couldn’t stand the sight of each other.

"We were all friends at school – apart from Ali McMordie who we met when we were 18 or 19 – and you go from maybe playing once a week in a local bar to doing tours of the world.

"You are living in each other’s pockets and minor niggles become major problems.

"That’s something you can deal with when you’re 30 because you have the life experience

"But when you’re 19 or 20 you decide you’re going to smack him around the head for it. Not the smartest move.

"I’m not saying it became poisonous but the band kind of split into a couple of camps.

"You start with a common purpose. We all basically loved the same sort of music and that’s what we wanted to do.

"But over five or six years you get exposed to a million other things and people were drifting off in different directions."

Jake, who spoke to Weekend from his Chicago home, said that the band's second chance put everything into perspective.

The 57-year-old added: "I think that’s one of reasons that we’ve hung about so long since then as getting a second bite at something isn’t a thing which is afforded to many people.

"We had no idea when we did reform whether anybody would be slightly interested and the thing that amazed me was the amount of affection that people still had for us.

"You tend to look at records and think it’s an inanimate piece of plastic that you bring out at parties and play but songs actually do affect a lot of people’s lives, mine included.

"There are artists that can move me to tears – and make me dance sadly like my dad used to."

Stiff Little Fingers were also known for singing about their own lives, growing up at the height of The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Jake said: "As far as we were concerned writing about Belfast was as natural to us as The Clash writing about London or The Specials writing about Coventry.

"You just wrote about where you came from and what you knew."

Was it also a way of getting a lot of angst out of his system?

Jake added: "In a way it was because if I’d gone out to street corner and shouted all this I’d have probably got shot!

"But being in a band you sort of got a pass for it so it was certainly cathartic and I think it helped people who came to see us at the time too.

"They all got to stand together in one room and scream their frustration at the top of their voices."

But Jake said the highlight of his career was when he played at The Factory run by Tony Wilson in Manchester during the Inflammable Material tour.

He said: "It was an incredible night. It was rammed to the doors. You couldn’t have gotten another person in there with a shoehorn.

"That sort of thing astonishes but the thing that really astonished me was at the end of the night we wandered back out on stage and Ali nudged me in the ribs as out there sweeping up was Pete Shelley from the Buzzcocks.

"Pete was mates with Tony and was bored so said he’d help clean up.

"We thought: 'Pete Shelley with a broom? Really?!' This guy was a god."

- Stiff Little Fingers perform at Parr Hall next Thursday, June 11. Visit pyramidparrhall.com or call 442345 for tickets.

DAVID MORGAN