 Buzzcocks
Like London, Manchester in the mid-70's had its own
bunch of bored teenagers in search of an identity. Peter Shelley (born
Peter McNeish) and Howard Devoto (born Howard Trafford) met and formed
Buzzcocks in early 1976 - spurred on after seeing The Sex
Pistols. Recruiting drummer John Maher and bassist Steve Diggle, they
rehearsed like mad in a friend's kitchen.
The Buzzcocks took a Ramones-influenced fuzz-guitar
sound and blending it with some of the purest expressions of
adolescent torment and joy that pop music has ever seen. If The Sex
Pistols were the shock troops of the new wave, then the Buzzcocks
became the dirty tricks division, using catchy, poppy tunes to sneak
into teenage bedrooms and take over the lives within. The band played
a list of seminal 1976 gigs including the infamous London 100 Club
punk all-dayer - the gig where someone lost an eye, to the delight of
the tabloid press - sharing the bill with The Sex
Pistols, The Clash,
The Damned and an early incarnation of The Banshees featuring Sid
Vicious on drums.
Pete Shelley's sawn-off Woolworth's Audition guitar
was a big hit with the influential music press of the period but the
music was strong enough in itself. It was a unique blend of sardonic
Mancunian humor with celebratory 'teenagers-forever' music, all
played as fast as possible.
Buzzcocks' debut EP release, Spiral Scratch,
was announced to the world in blotchy black and white advertisements
in the back pages of the NME near the end of 1976. One of the classic
punk records, it was self-financed by the band's own New Hormones
label, and received extensive radio airplay from DJ John Peel. Some of
the EP's lyrics declared a healthy interest in amphetamines, and it
contained an early punk anthem, Boredom. With this song, punk
developed its first cliché, as it appeared that everyone had to
address boredom: The Clash were 'bored with the USA',
The Adverts were
Bored Teenagers, and ATV were so bored that their love lay limp.
Howard Devoto's gruff, vaguely menacing vocals had
provided an essential ingredient to the Buzzcocks' overall sound.
However, after they supported The Clash on their White Riot
tour of the UK, Devoto's shock departure in 1977 - to form Magazine -
forced Shelley to replace him on lead vocals. As well as his
flawed-genius guitar solos, Shelley also wrote most of the new songs,
whose awareness of the romantic and sweaty sides of adolescence set
them apart from the more overtly political and social concerns of
groups like The Clash. Devoto's influence took time to wane, though,
as Buzzcocks continued to play the hits from their early days, and the
guitar line that carries their song Lipstick is identical to
the introduction to Magazine's Shot by Both Sides. There are
still unresolved arguments as to who wrote which of the Buzzcocks'
earlier hits.
At the end of 1977 the band signed to United
Artists, with Diggle taking on the bulk of the guitar work and Steve
Garvey joining on bass (after a brief tenure from the taciturn
Garth). Orgasm Addict was their first, attention-grabbing
release. With a gabbled high-speed vocal delivery, it was guaranteed
to be played over and over again, if only to work out what Shelley was
on about. The way he managed to fit the words 'international women
with no body hair' into a space far too small to contain them was one
of the vocal highlights of the year . . .
Buzzcocks fans' love for the band was different from
the respect accorded to The Sex Pistols, the devotion offered up to
The Clash, or the 'all-pals-together' feelings shown for
The Damned.
Boys and girls alike developed a romantic fascination with the band,
even learning the words to the B-sides.
What Do I Get?, in early 1978, was the
band's first chart hit in the UK and showed what a fine songwriter
Pete Shelley could be. Another teen anthem, its lyrics were favorably compared with the early
Kinks, and it lifted above self-pity with its
rushing guitars and irresistible enthusiasm.
United Artists wanted an LP and the Buzzcocks
delivered them a masterpiece - Another Music in a Different Kitchen
(1978), which stayed in the British charts for three months. Shelley's
half-guitar had long gone, while the second-hand general-issue
teenage-rebel clothes were ditched for a rather tasteful,
all-in-black, silk-shirt styling. The LP came with its own carrier bag
(sardonically labeled Product) and attracted universal acclaim
in the music papers.
The band's golden years - 1978-79 - saw five further
singles-chart entries, including their biggest-seller, Ever Fallen
in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't Have?) - later successfully
covered by Fine Young Cannibals in 1987. The album had shown an
interest in more experimental music but the guys were moving steadily
closer to a pop audience with their singles: the words of Ever
Fallen in Love, for example, were actually comprehensible on first
hearing.
Love Bites, their second LP, saw the rest of
the band brought into the song writing department and a consequent
widening of musical direction. Four-chord sketches like Just Lust
sat alongside longer workouts. It sold well but lacked the
exhilaration of their first album. The recordings at this stage (such
as Everybody's Happy Nowadays) sometimes had a vaguely
psychedelic feel to them as Shelley developed into a more mature
lyricist and Diggle took over the bulk of the singles work. Shelley's
influence diminished a little during this period: at rehearsal, in the
studio and on stage he was slowly beginning to release control of the
song writing and of the band.
October 1979 saw the release of A Different Kind of
Tension, which was badly received, even by die-hard fans. The band
had been on tour for the best part of five years, had produced three
LPs and seven singles, and were showing the strain.
In 1980, after three further, poorly received singles,
Pete Shelley decided that the time had come for the split. He moved on
to a solo career, collaborating with Martin Rushent - the band's
long-time producer - and had a degree of success with recordings such
as his Homosapien (1981). Diggle and Maher put together Flag of
Convenience, who did little of significance and there the story ended,
until early 1993.
To capitalize on the 'fifteen-years-on from punk'
nostalgia boom Buzzcocks re-formed, toured and released a comeback
album, Trade Test Transmission, a good effort, but by a changed
band. Shelley and Diggle were backed by master drummer John Maher and
Tony Barber (bass), making madly delicious, danceable,
punk-popper. They showed it up once again on All Set (1996)
and on tour in the UK, they showed younger bands where the 80s indie
sound had its roots as well as giving their older fans one last chance
to show they'd kept the faith.
Shelley's sardonic humor was still in evidence,
Diggle was still standing on the monitors when power chording for the
crowd and nobody even seemed to think it was clever to spit any more.
For fans who didn't make it along, the band released a live album,
French (1996), recorded at a Paris gig on April 12th, 1995.
Chronology (EMI 1997) is the 'lost tape from
the back of the cupboard' missing Buzzcocks album. Pulled out and
cleaned up at the insistence of Tony Barber it gathers together the
cream of the outtakes from the three United Artists' albums - and even
features the mysterious Garth.
| The
Band |
Pete Shelley
Guitar/vocals
Howard Devoto
Vocals
Steve Diggle
Bass/guitar |
Steve Garvey
Bass
John Maher
Drums
Garth Smith
Bass |
Tony Barber
Bass
Phil Barker
Drums
Mike Joyce
Drums |
|
