Stiff Little Fingers will revisit their landmark 1980 album Nobody’s Heroes with an expanded series of reissues featuring a new remaster, BBC session recordings, previously unreleased television performances and a recently uncovered live concert from the Netherlands.
by Paul Cashmere
Stiff Little Fingers have announced a comprehensive reissue campaign for their second album Nobody’s Heroes, with deluxe editions scheduled for release on 18 September 2026. Headlined by a limited 3CD/DVD box set, the project also includes 2LP and 2CD editions, bringing together newly remastered audio, archival BBC recordings and a complete live performance from Rotterdam that has never previously been released.
Originally issued in March 1980, Nobody’s Heroes marked an important moment in the Belfast band’s evolution. While their 1979 debut Inflammable Material captured the raw urgency of a group emerging from Northern Ireland during the Troubles, its follow-up broadened both the band’s musical palette and production approach without abandoning the political and social themes that had become central to its identity.
The new editions are built around a fresh 2026 remaster of the original album. The deluxe 3CD/DVD version adds six bonus recordings to the remastered album, including studio outtakes and live material, while a second CD collects every BBC Radio 1 session the band recorded for John Peel and Mike Read during the Nobody’s Heroes period.
The centrepiece of the expanded package is the third disc, a complete performance recorded at Pop Met in Rotterdam in April 1980. Originally broadcast by Dutch radio, the concert has remained unheard commercially until now. The performance captures Stiff Little Fingers during one of the defining periods of their career and includes seldom performed songs such as No Change and Bloody Dub, alongside a version of The Undertones’ Teenage Kicks.
The accompanying DVD assembles five television appearances from 1980 that have not previously been released commercially. They include three performances from BBC’s Top Of The Pops, two songs filmed for the BBC regional programme Something Else, and material associated with the band’s television promotion of the album.
The box set also features an extensive booklet containing previously unpublished photographs, memorabilia from the period and archive material drawn from former manager Gordon Ogilvie’s collection.
Reflecting on the making of the album, frontman Jake Burns said the band entered the recording sessions facing expectations they had never previously experienced.
“My overriding memory of those sessions is we were suddenly under pressure, which had never been the case before,” Burns said.
“Not only had we signed to a major, but we had to follow up an album that was already being hailed in the press as a ‘classic’. Add to that, we went into the studio in November with only five songs!”
Burns recalled that those initial songs ultimately became almost the entire first side of the record before the band returned after Christmas to complete the remainder of the album.
“Amazingly, those five were almost exactly the first side of the album, recorded in 1979, the same year that Inflammable Material was released. We took Christmas off and came back in January with the final five.
“And, I remember Doug Bennett, our producer, saying to me at the final playback, ‘When we started, I never imagined we’d end up with something like this!’ And he meant it in a good way!”
Historically, Nobody’s Heroes represented a significant transition for Stiff Little Fingers. Formed in Belfast in 1977, the band emerged during the height of the Troubles and became one of the first punk groups to directly address everyday life amid political violence. Their independently released debut album Inflammable Material became the first independent LP to reach the UK Top 20 and established the group as one of the defining voices of British punk.
By the time Nobody’s Heroes was recorded, the band had signed with Chrysalis after the success of Inflammable Material. Songs including Tin Soldiers, At The Edge and the title track demonstrated greater musical sophistication while continuing to examine themes of conflict, identity and personal freedom. Elements of reggae and ska also became more prominent within the arrangements, signalling an expansion of the band’s sound that would continue on later albums including Go For It.
The reissue follows renewed interest in the band’s catalogue after the expanded edition of Inflammable Material was released in 2025. Together, the two projects document one of punk’s most influential early catalogues while making previously unavailable archival material accessible for the first time.
The deluxe 3CD/DVD edition, alongside the 2LP and 2CD versions, will be released on 18 September 2026.
NOBODY’S HEROES: 3CD/DVD TRACKLISTING
CD1: Original Album (2026 Remaster)
Gotta Gettaway
Wait & See
Fly The Flag
At The Edge
Nobody’s Hero
Bloody Dub
Doesn’t Make It Alright
I Don’t Like You
No Change
Tin Soldiers
Straw Dogs (Bonus Track)
You Can’t Say Crap On The Radio (Bonus Track)
Running Bear (Bonus Track)
White Christmas (Live) (Bonus Track)
Back To Front (Live) (Bonus Track)
Mr Fire Coal Man (Live) (Bonus Track)
CD2: BBC Sessions
Wait & See (John Peel Session, 13th September 1979)
At The Edge (John Peel Session, 13th September 1979)
Nobody’s Hero (John Peel Session, 13th September 1979)
Straw Dogs (John Peel Session, 13th September 1979)
No Change (John Peel Session, 12th February 1980)
I Don’t Like You (John Peel Session, 12th February 1980)
Fly The Flag (John Peel Session, 12th February 1980)
Doesn’t Make It Alright (John Peel Session, 12th February 1980)
Fly The Flag (Mike Read Session, 1st February 1980)
At The Edge (Mike Read Session, 1st February 1980)
Gotta Gettaway (Mike Read Session, 1st February 1980)
Wait And See (Mike Read Session, 1st February 1980)
CD3: Live At Pop Met, Rotterdam, April 1980
Gotta Gettaway
Straw Dogs
No Change
Fly The Flag
Alternative Ulster
Bloody Dub
Doesn’t Make It Right
Nobody’s Hero
Suspect Device
Wait And See
Johnny Was
Tin Soldiers
At The Edge
Wasted Life
Teenage Kicks
Barbed Wire Love
Breakout
DVD
At The Edge (BBC Top Of The Pops, 14th February 1980)
At The Edge (BBC Top Of The Pops, 28th February 1980)
Nobody’s Hero (BBC Top Of The Pops, 29th May 1980)
Gotta Gettaway (BBC, Something Else, December 1980)
Tin Soldiers (BBC, Something Else, December 1980)
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