Without Buzzcocks, independent music as we know it would never have happened. Having self-released their Spiral Scratch EP in 1977 and inspired Manchester's entire music scene by putting on a Sex Pistols gig, once original vocalist Howard Devoto left, Pete Shelley and co subverted the charts with a rush of fractured two-minute romances, then promptly split up. Since reforming in 1989, five albums of equally brisk material have seen Buzzcocks outlast baggy, grunge and Brit-pop. Now with every skinny-jeaned desperado suddenly fighting their own make-believe punk wars, this 30th anniversary tour is a teenage middle-aged dream come true. Shelley and fellow original member Steve Diggle, now accompanied by bassist Tony Barber and drummer Danny Farrant, don't, however, immediately head for the hits. Instead, they dot back and forth through more recent material, suggesting this is more than mere nostalgia. Nevertheless, Shelley's two-tone green shirt based on the sleeve of their 1978 paean to unrequited lust, What Do I Get?, lets on why we're here.
Shelley and Diggle are an odd partnership, Shelley's understated deadpan camp offset by Diggle's cheeky-chappie playing to the gallery and determination to whoop over his back catalogue. Such differences are reflected in their respective songwriting and vocal styles. Where Shelley is brisk and barbed on Love You More, Diggle's demeanour is an eager-to-please pub mod plod.
There was never anything subtle about Buzzcocks, and in You Say You Don't Love Me can be heard the roots of the entire C86 movement. While Shelley accidentally invests the chorus of Time's Up with the melody of Nelly Furtado's Maneater, most of the set points to pre-punk power-pop. Utterly, underwhelmingly now, in other words, in an old-fashioned workmanlike turn sprinkled with pop glory.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article