2001
January saw the release of the "Stiffology" CD album. Rarities included the 1982 session recorded with Mott the Hoople`s Dale 'Buffin' Griffin at the drum stool. Dale also wrote the sleevenotes.
Phil Hendriks entered the sacred corridors of Abbey Rd. studios in February armed with a case full of tapes to re-master for the EMI project. One 'missing' master tape containing 3 songs produced by Mott`s Dale Griffin and Overend Watts had mysteriously turned up for sale on the internet only a few weeks before and had been quickly snapped up by a band member !
The EMI album,"Innocent
Bystanders", was issued in April 2001 ,just days after the original line-up`s
2 appearances at the mammoth "Alternative Rock weekend" at Butlin`s, Minehead...
a celebration of 25 years of Punk, featuring many of the original bands
such as the Damned, UK Subs, Chelsea etc.
The album received
a 4 K (blinding) review in 'Kerrang!" magazine who referred to the band
as "one of the (Punk) era`s best kept secrets that`s only just been let
out !".
(Phil Hendriks May 2001)
April 2001 also
played host to an unusual collaboration, when Graham Oliver ( 'guitar hero'
of Hard rock legends 'Saxon') invited Phil to sing lead vocals on 3 tracks
for his solo album,"End of an era". The album ,including Phil's 3 performances,
was issued in August 2001 by Angel Air records.
The Stiffs music also appeared on at least 4 compilation albums through 2001, including EMI`s Punk box set release "Cash from chaos" and the Japanese double vinyl album "Another bunch of Stiffs", a collection of rarities released by Stiff records.
2002
The year kicked off with yet another Stiffs track being featured on the EMI compilation "All covered in Punk", while 'Volume Control' cropped up a couple of months later on EMI`s"24 Carat Punk" compilation .
Phil Hendriks
entered the recording studios with a new line-up in January 2002, after
fruitless attempts to re-convene the original members to record new material.
The new band includes Glaswegian madman Jimmy D. (a.k.a. Jim Devlin) on
guitar, Rob Fidler on bass and Rick Cook on drums. The 4 brand new songs
recorded at the session were "Four winds","Everlasting","Terminal Crazy"
and Jimmy D`s "Trust in me".
Jimmy D.
In September
2002, '1977 Records' of Tokyo re-issued the two singles "Volume control"
and
"Goodbye my love"
on vinyl in Japan. '1977' also released two of the tracks from the January
2002 sessions as a brand new 7" vinyl single. "Four winds"/"Everlasting"
is the first new STIFFS single since 1985`s "Young Guitars", although at
this stage it is a Japan-only release.
The new-look
Stiffs played a short series of Japanese dates in November 2002.
Left to right: Phil Hendriks, Rob Fidler, Rick
Cook, Jimmy D. (Japan 2002)
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