Buzzcocks
Editor's Note: This was supposed
to be a really great interview that I did with the Buzzcock's
Steve Diggle after their set opening for Pearl Jam. But I
accidentally taped over it after I submitted my article to
the magazine that originally assigned me this story. What
was once Steve Diggle telling stories about the early days
of punk and gigging around with the Sex Pistols is now the
sound of a subway ride and my knapsack bouncing off my shoulder.
It sounds kinda cool in a pretentious, John Cage kind of way,
but it's not exactly what I had planned. So instead here's
a revised version of the original article I wrote. Oh well,
circle of life.
 Before
Sum 41, before Blink 182, even before Green Day or
the Descendents, there was the Buzzcocks. Part of the punk
revolution of the mid-1970s, the Buzzcocks were pop-punk’s
originators, having pioneered the sound that so many would
emulate in more than one subsequent generation. They brought
their show to Toronto's Molson Amphitheater in support of
Pearl Jam on June 29.
The Buzzcocks' set was cut by 15 minutes
so Pearl Jam could also end earlier - an edict from the Ontario
Place folks who were planning a fireworks display later on
in the evening. A drag for Pearl Jam's fans, yes, but the
Buzzcocks lost the chance to display their newer songs to
a whole new audience. As it was, their set was primarily pulled
from their 1979 collection "Singles Going Steady."
"Normally, when we do our own shows,
they're about an hour-and-a-half," explained guitarist
Steve Diggle in an interview after their set. "But [today]
we were cut down from 45 minutes to a half hour. In the extra
15 minutes we try and fit some of the new songs in. Today
was kind of an emergency set."
When they hit the stage they were met
by a fawning Eddie Vedder, who quickly got the crowd's attention
by strapping on an acoustic guitar and emoting his way through
a cover of the Beatles' "You've Got to Hide Your Love
Away" before stepping aside as the Buzzcocks plugged
in their guitars and launched into "Boredom", a
peppy single from their 1977 EP “Spiral Scratch”.
Clad in jeans and t-shirts, Pete Shelly and Steve Diggle,
the two remaining founding members looked every part the aging
punkers as they traded off vocals through their 30 minute
set. Trotting out old treasures like "Harmony in My Head",
"Oh Shit", and "Ever Fallen in Love?",
they showed that they can still overpower the pop, which is
particularly important when the much-younger competition is
so brazenly ripping them off. It's a tribute to their songwriting
skills that the only new song they played from their new untitled
CD (Merge), "Jerk", didn't sound at all out of place.
It was a little disappointing that they didn't mix up their
set more between the old and new. But those are the things
you have to think about when playing a shorter set than what
you're used to, I guess.
In another way, the louder-faster-shorter
punk ethos that their set displayed has been around since
the Buzzcocks were a bunch of scruffy young kids intimidating
old ladies in their native Manchester. So in that context,
the show was a success. What's more, the largely indifferent
crowd that was still calling for more Eddie at the beginning
of their set, was giving them a standing ovation when the
band walked off at the end. It must be weird to be so "respectable",
particularly when you think about the road the band has traveled
in the past 27 years.
The Buzzcocks were formed in
early 1976 when a 21-year-old Pete Shelley hooked
up with Steve Diggle, Howard Devoto and John Maher after being
inspired by a Sex Pistols show in Manchester. While they got
off to a shaky start, most notably with Devoto leaving six
gigs in to start another band, which eventually became Magazine,
they managed to get quite a sizable following around England
at the time and are one of the bands you could argue is the
third of punk's holy trinity that also includes the Sex Pistols
and the Clash. Diggle describes this as being a magical time.
"Those were very fantastic times,
very magical times,” he remembers. “To me, it
was like seeing Elvis Presley and the birth of rock n roll.
I remember thinking 'Is this music going to last for only
a few weeks or are we witnessing history?'
As it turned out, they were not only
witnessing history, they were becoming an important part of
it. But ultimately they became frustrated and disillusioned
with the whole thing, especially their lack of success in
the U.S., and they broke up in 1980. But that same mischievous
spirit that got them going in the first place, got them back
together in 1989. "We heard a rumour that we were reuniting,
so we said 'why not?'", Diggle recalled with a laugh.
The band returned with a string of tours, a tribute album
"Something’s Gone Wrong Again", and a record,
"Trade Test Transmission" that came out in 1993.
But unlike some other original-era punks like the Sex Pistols,
Sham 69 or the Vibrators who still tour, the Buzzcocks has
managed avoided becoming labeled a nostalgia act.
"I think it's because we've always
toured when we've had a new album out,” he says. “We've
never been out saying 'Hey, remember us?' In fact, even in
the early days when we had our first album out we still had
three new songs in the set. We always had plenty of songs
we had lying around that moved things forward, really. I mean,
apart from tonight when it's been enforced. Sometimes we get
called and get asked if we want to go on these punk packages
and a lot of the time, we don't do it. I wouldn't want to
do that."
But how do you feel about being called
an elder statesman?
Diggle laughs. "I suppose I don't
have much choice do I? [We wanted to] make music that was
direct and urgent and mattered to the generation at the time.
So you didn't envision that would we have that influence over
people or that we would be called 'legends'. I always think
of it in the third person, really. You can't wake up in the
morning thinking 'Wow, I'm a legend.' We just always kept
on ahead"
-- Keith Powell
Related:
Buzzcocks - http://www.buzzcocks.com
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