Buzzcocks
The following article is actually two separate
pieces. The first originally appeared in NFH #7 in December 1981 shortly after the
Buzzcocks first split up. The title of the article was "High Performance Band Hits
Skids". It was written jointly by me and an old pal of mine named Brian Maitland
(Brian actually wrote most of it, as I recall), who lived in Vancouver in those days and
was a good friend and huge fan of the Modernettes. Anybody know whatever happened to
Brian? Haven’t heard from him in years.
The second article
was written right after the first Buzzcocks re-union tour and appeared in NFH #18 in the
winter of 1990.
Time continues to
take its toll on the pioneers of punk. The Buzzcocks, one of the brighter pupils in the
school of thought that made up England’s original punk explosion, are now part of the
past, joining their comrades: the Adverts, the Vibrators, the Sex Pistols, Generation X,
Wire, TRB, Penetration, and on and on. They are survived by the bedraggled remains of such
once mighty bands as the Clash, the Stranglers, the Damned and the Jam. Since a lot of
people know the Buzzcocks only through their US lps Singles Going Steady and A
Different Kind Of Tension, it seems worthwhile to look back at their other
accomplishments, which are by no means negligible.
The Buzzcocks were
formed by Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley after Devoto saw one of the Sex Pistols first
gigs in late 1975. They added John Maher as drummer and Steve Diggle on bass, exact
assignments being rather unimportant as none of them knew how to play when they began, but
being enterprising art-school types, they didn’t let that stop them. By July of 1976
they were opening for their mentors, the Pistols, at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in their
hometown of Manchester. In January of 1977 they released their only record with Devoto,
the four song Spiral Scratch ep, a crudely recorded piece of minimalist punk that
isn’t really top flight Buzzcocks material despite the reverence in which many people
seem to hold it. The songs themselves hold up quite well compared with their other
material; in fact the Buzzcocks retained two of the cuts in their live set throughout
their career. It’s mainly the recording quality that sets the record back. A widely
circulated bootleg of outtakes from the Spiral Scratch sessions (entitled
alternatively Time’s Up or The Best In Good Food) rounds out the Devoto
era story.
Shortly after the ep
was released the much ballyhooed but overrated Devoto split with Shelley to form his own
band, Magazine, leaving Shelley with a number of song ideas which eventually bore fruit on
the first Buzzcocks album. Under Devoto, the band had displayed a dark and artsy side, but
Shelley soon demonstrated that the Buzzcocks were better suited for his real life
pain-of-love songs. Recruiting bassist Garth (noted for his Girth), they signed
with UA in August of 1977 and began a string of incredible 45s with the October release of
"Orgasm Addict", which served notice of Shelley’s sex starved
preoccupations ("You’ve even made it with the lady / Who puts the little plastic
robins on the Christmas cakes!"). The flip, "Whatever Happened To…" is
also a classic with its great opening bass and the immortal observation "Your love is
a cashed in check". Right from the start it was obvious that Shelley would deal with
love like no one in rock before him.
After the first
single, Garth left the band, eventually winding up in New York’s Dirty Looks under a
different name. His replacement, Steve Garvey (not the Dodger’s first baseman, but
the Buzzcock’s third bassman - groan!), brought a stability to the band that lasted
until their split this year, and in February of 1978 they had another 45 with "What
Do I Get"/"Oh Shit". The 120 beat per second drums and blurry hand on the
rhythm guitar which create the trademark Buzzcocks sound were in full flower on both these
songs of heartbreak. Shelley deals with his emotions realistically…not for him the
wimpy "My woman left me, I’m so sad" drippiness that’s generally
equated with love songs, but with "Oh shit, I thought you and I were friends, Oh
shit, I guess this is where our love ends" and "What do I get, no love.
‘Cos I don’t…get you."
The singles you are
likely to have heard, but the first two Buzzcocks albums were issued in the UK only and
can only be had on import here. Too bad, because they certainly contain a heavy load of
great songs that never made it to a single. In March of 1978, the band released the
splendid Another Music In A Different Kitchen, which they supported with a UK tour
with the Slits. The Kitchen lp could have easily spawned at least four other
singles besides "I Don’t Mind"/"Autonomy". "Fast Cars",
an older Shelley/Devoto composition, is one of the few variants from the emotional
explorations where Shelley is usually to be found, but it has all the drive you’d
expect from a Buzzcocks cut. "Get On Our Own" features a warblingly adventurous
vocal and yet more speed. Another Shelley/Devoto song, "Love Battery" was also
on the Time’s Up boot in a much more raw form. Here it excels. "Fiction
Romance", "No Reply", "I Need" and "You Tear Me Up" are
all first rate, making Another Music In A Different Kitchen a stunning debut.
In May 1978 the band
toured with Penetration (whose Pauline Murray would later work with John Maher in the
Invisible Girls) and in June they released the 1:45 single "Love You
More"/"Noise Annoys". "Love You More" starts optimistically
enough with "…with every heartbeat I want you madly" but comes to the
abrupt conclusion "that after this love there’ll be no other / Until the razor
cuts".
In September, a mere
six months after the first album, the band had a follow up ready and a superb one at that:
Love Bites. Along with the lp came another single release: "Ever Fallen In
Love"/"Just Lust". The A side of this 45 is probably the pinnacle of the
Buzzcock’s style; fast, racy, filled with hooks and catchy lyrics. If you can avoid
dancing when this is on your turntable then you’re either deaf, a paraplegic, or
dead. Amazingly, this was their only UK chart single, peaking at #12.
The Love Bites
lp was loaded with more treats, too. "Nostalgia" and "Sixteen Again"
are as good as any of the band’s singles. "Love Is Lies" is an interesting
change of pace; the Diggle penned tune is a hard edged acoustic cut with Steve on the lead
vocal. "Love Bites" would be every bit as good as the first album but it fades a
little with the two instrumentals at the end, both of which are good but would be better
with lyrics. Still, another classic.
Diggle and Shelley
teamed up for the next A-side, "Promises", featuring those trademark
"oh-oh" vocals and Shelley’s pleading "How could you ever let me
down?". The flip, featuring a bass line that sounds like the approach of Godzilla,
has the same music as the Magazine masterpiece "Shot By Both Sides", for which
Howard Devoto wrote his own lyrics to Shelley’s tune.
After a November 1978
tour with the Subway Sect the band took a long pause until March of 1979 when they
released "Everybody’s Happy Nowadays" / "Why Can’t I Touch
It". The lighter pop feel of the A side and the slower flip were not appreciated; the
B side is just too long, but the A side was unfairly criticized; it certainly has fine
lyrics and a great staggering drum beat.
To support the single
the band toured with the fledgling Gang Of Four culminating in the Loch Lomond Festival in
May. Back to the studio again in July they came out with Steve Diggle’s roaring
"Harmony In My Head", one of the band’s finest slabs of sound and certainly
an un-pop response to the barbs endured by the previous single. I still don’t know
what this song’s about, but it’s great just the way it sounds. The flip,
"Something’s Gone Wrong Again" is aptly named; it’s not one of their
better B sides and drags on too long.
After
"Harmony", the Singles Going Steady album introduced the US to the band
and they arrived with Gang of Four in tow to support the record. Returning home in
September, they issued their last really good single, "You Say You Don’t Love
Me", to coincide with the new lp A Different Kind Of Tension. Despite the
promise of the 45, the album was a disappointment (1997 editorial note: I can’t
believe I wrote these words back in 1981 since for many years now I’ve thought their
last album was their very best!); too many of the songs were bloated out to four
minutes or more, whereas all the best Buzzcocks stuff clocked in around 3:00 or less. The
best cuts were the shortest; the 45, "Paradise", "I Don’t Know What To
Do With My Life", and Diggle’s "You Know You Can’t Help It".
"Hollow Inside" and the title track, both over four minutes, make a stab at a
higher level of meaning but instead become pretentious failures (although Brian would
disagree with me about "Tension"). "I Believe" was an excruciating 7
minutes long on the lp but was released in the US as a 45 edited to a more manageable and
enjoyable 3:30.
In October the band
toured the UKL again with Joy Division and returned to the US with the Fall in November
and December. Upon arrival back in the UK the members embarked on various individual
projects during the first half of 1980; John Maher with the Invisible Girls and another UK
pop band, the Things, Shelley with a solo lp called Sky Yen which as far as I know
was never released, and Diggle with some solo work on which Maher and Garvey assisted,
resulting in the industrial sound of the Comparative Wealth ep.
Recognizing that
singles were the medium for their greatest successes, the band decided on a concept
package of singles which resulted in the August 1980 release of "Are
Everything"/"Why She’s A Girl From The Chainstore" followed by
October’s "Airwaves Dreams"/"Strange Thing" and November’s
"What Do You Know"/"Running Free". Except for "What Do You
Know" this packaging of songs contained the most unlistenable Buzzcocks material ever
released (1997 note - another piece of writing that hasn’t held up as well as the
music it’s about…man, this is embarrassing!). The one good cut was aided by
the successful addition of horns to the band’s sound, but by the time "What Do
You Know" was out the handwriting was on the wall; the critics deserted the band,
sales were at rock bottom, and even the fans were shaking their heads. The Buzzcocks were
through.
So now we see Shelley
out on his own with a new and sterile sounding single; drum machines replacing the lively
Maher and synthesizers instead of Diggle’s racy licks. Diggle has had his own single
with help from the other Buzzcocks; he’s trying for a Killing Joke kind of sound.
Maher is now drumming in Wah! And of Garvey there’s not much to be heard.
But what a legacy the
Buzzcocks have left! Three of the four available Buzzcocks albums are pure electricity. Of
14 singles 10 are at least very good, and most of those are brilliant. A fabulous
heritage, one which you’ll be able to look back on in 20 years when you’re
dreaming that you’re almost 16 again and you’re wondering what ever happened to
falling in love with someone you shouldn’t have fallen in love with. The Buzzcocks
could’ve told you.
Buzzcocks First
Reunion Tour - at the Bachannal in San Diego 1989
This was a real case
of mixed emotions for me. The Buzzcocks were one of the six most important punk bands in
the late seventies as far as I'm concerned (the others being the Pistols, the Jam, the
Damned, the Clash, and the Ramones). Since they never came to San Diego during their
heyday (they did play Santa Monica once, but I didn't hear about it until it was over), I
didn't get a chance to see them then, so I was happy to get a shot now. But I also had in
the back of my mind the Stiff Little Fingers reunion lp, on which they play all their
great songs at about 75% of full speed and generally sound like a band whose best days are
behind them.
Well, one song into
the Buzzcocks set erased that. The Buzzcocks were pretty well in mid season form. Pete
Shelley's voice was great, and John Maher's drums were manic just like on record. The set
went for about an hour and a half, which for this material is a marathon effort. I really
am hard pressed to think of a song that I really wanted to hear that they didn't do...all
the obvious hits, of course, but also things like "Fast Cars" and "Why
She's A Girl From The Chainstore", which were ignored classics in their own right.
The focus I suppose was on Singles Going Steady and Different Kind Of Tension,
since those two records were their only US releases. Conspicuous by their absence were
"Nostalgia" and "16 Again", but that's OK. Shelley looked as uncool as
ever, with his shirt buttoned up to the top button, a string tie, patent leather shoes and
pants cuffs rolled up about 6 times so they wouldn't drag on the floor (no wonder this guy
has so much trouble with his love life!). Steve Diggle was energetic and dynamic, and
looked like he'd suffered the least wear and tear of all the members. John Maher, who has
reportedly been working as a carpenter in New York, played as sharp as if he'd never
traded drumsticks for hammers. Steve Garvey was a little much with his rock-star posing,
but I guess he can be forgiven for it since it's been so long since he last had an adoring
crowd to work with.
The show started
better than I expected it to, but it didn't really hit that high you get from great live
shows until they connected with a rousing version of "Promises", which although
a good song as a record isn't the one I'd have expected to key the night, but the
intensity of Maher's punishing drum rolls in this song really did it. After that there
were lots of highlights...like "You Say You Don't Love Me", which although not
their most dynamic song musically is probably Shelley's best bit of lyrics, or "I
Don't Mind". And if there was one great thing about this show, it was that it opened
my eyes up to the fact that "Why She's A Girl From The Chainstore" from their
neglected last sequence of 3 singles is as great a pop song as any they ever wrote. They
saved "Something Goes Wrong Again" for the end, where Diggle's amp blew and
reduced him to beating on Maher's cymbals with a spare drum stick. The show finally ended
because Maher's arms and back were cramping, certainly understandable given the pace and
duration of the show. Pete Shelley may be getting a bald spot on the back of his head, but
it was still an enjoyable night of reminiscing, and I spent the next morning blissfully
replaying all four of their lps and all their singles besides.
But there was also a
downside, which I guess only us depressive types will dwell on much. First of all, if you
spent a lot of time listening to the Buzzcocks in the late seventies, you couldn't help
but feel depressingly old after this show. I went back and looked at the photo on the
cover of Another Music In A Different Kitchen, and sure enough, the guys in the
Buzzcocks then were just breaking their 20's (Maher was in his teens). They look like
little kids. Tonight they looked like men, and it just felt funny as a result. In the week
following the show I kept feeling that if youth is over for the Buzzcocks, then it
probably is for me, too. And that's a depressing thought.
And I suppose one of
the things that draws people to independent music is that you can develop a feeling that
the bands you listen to are your bands...you discovered them on your own
with no help from radio, and you can easily develop a rabid sense of personal attachment
to the bands that you really like. I've certainly felt that way about the Buzzcocks, and
the fact that most of my non-musical friends act with revulsion at the mention of their
name (until I tell them about the Hard-Ons) cements the relationship further.
So there were some
extremely annoying moments surrounding this show, like when the 91X radio van rolled up
and parked itself at the front door of the club, and their smarmy dj introduced the band
with the sort of smugness that would make you believe that they must have had "Spiral
Scratch" in the top ten in 1976, when in reality the only time they would ever play a
Buzzcocks record is in the two weeks preceding their show here (they certainly won't be
playing them from here on!). This radio station is the plague of the earth...touting
themselves as "the cutting edge of rock", they couldn't even cut a warm fart.
Far from being trend setters, they sniff the air carefully and do their best to move the
way everyone else is, scampering as quickly as possible to reposition themselves near the
front of the herd whenever the herd decides to change directions so that they can appear
to be leading the way. At least the metal stations don't claim to be some kind of a social
force, even if their music sucks equally bad.
And then, of course,
there were the assholes who arrived in a limousine. Some people just don't get anything.
And then there was the creepy girl inside who kept shouting for "Homosapien" all
night, and the fool with the sixty dollar black short sides, blond long top haircut who
apparently missed the Depeche Mode gig, and who when he asked me what kind of film I was
shooting failed to interpret my response of "color" as meaning "please fuck
off, now" and persisted in asking what ASA it was.
Finally there were
$18 ticket prices, long slow moving lines outside to get in, $20 prices for T shirts
nowhere near as good as the one I bought for $6 at Zed in Long Beach years ago, and a
packed, hot house inside. I know goddamn well that if the Buzzcocks came here in 1979 they
would have drawn about 50 people. I'm sure of this partly because when the Undertones came
back then the venue was empty, and when the Tom Robinson Band came back in the days when
TRB played really hot political punk only about 20 showed, and also because every show
with a good current band that comes through draws nothing.
So excuse me if I'm
possessive of the bands I like, but I'm totally sick of people not paying attention to
great music and then moaning because they somehow missed it all when it first happened.
Good music demands a commitment from the listener as well as the band...if people want to
know about great bands when they are happening they can't expect to be spoon fed. It may
be real selfish to say it, but somehow it seems unfair that these people got a chance to
see the Buzzcocks.
