Stiff Records - The Stiffs Tours

The Stiffs Tours

Robinson and Riviera had arranged package tours ‒ such as the 1975 Naughty Rhythms tour ‒ for acts they managed before forming Stiff. The first tour, known as the Live Stiffs Tour or 5 Live Stiffs (3 October – 5 November 1977), comprised five bands: Elvis Costello and The Attractions, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Wreckless Eric and The New Rockets, Nick Lowe's Last Chicken in the Shop and Larry Wallis's Psychedelic Rowdies. Having signed all the named artists as individuals, bands had to be formed in order to tour: these were largely based on the session musicians used for the artists' solo records. There were 18 musicians on the tour, several doubling up, e.g. Dury playing drums for Wreckless, while the last two "bands" had the same line up (Nick Lowe, Larry Wallis, Dave Edmunds, Terry Williams, Pete Thomas and Penny Tobin). A documentary of the tour, titled "if It Ain't Stiff..." (directed by Nick Abson, produced by Angela Saunders, photographed by Mike Miles with sound by Neville Wills) was made by Rockflicks and has been used extensively by the BBC and others.

The original idea was that the running order would rotate each night, but Dury and Costello were clearly the strongest acts. Costello played mostly new material and covers, rather than numbers from his recently released album My Aim is True, so the gigs usually ended with most of the artists on stage performing Dury's "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll". A live album entitled Live Stiffs Live and a video of the tour were produced, but the tour only covered the UK.

After the departure of Riviera, Robinson arranged a second tour, the Be Stiff or the Be Stiff Route 78 tour, from October to November 1978 (UK), again comprising five acts: Wreckless Eric, Lene Lovich, Jona Lewie, Mickey Jupp and Rachel Sweet. The UK tour was undertaken by train, and then continued on to the USA, without Jupp, who was afraid of flying. The artists contributed to an EP with covers of the Devo song, and early Stiff single, "Be Stiff".

The final tour, the Son of Stiff Tour 1980, comprised Ten Pole Tudor, Any Trouble, Dirty Looks, Joe "King" Carrasco and the Crowns, and The Equators. Undertaken by bus, this European tour was not successful. The tour led to a 12" EP Son of Stiff Tour 1980 (SON 1) and a short movie directed by Jeff Baynes. The movie has not been released for sale, but was shown on BBC4 in September 2006.