Читать книгу Buzzcocks - The Complete History - Tony McGartland - Страница 8

Buzzcocks’ 1979 compilation Singles Going Steady is without doubt one of the greatest punk albums of all time. Released two years before the band split, it was a distillation of everything uncommonly endearing about the Mancunian punk pop quartet: their wit, their romanticism and their ability to play fast, sardonic and timeless New Wave tunes.

Sounds once said of them, ‘There’s no posing, no gobbing, no half-baked ideas of punkismo – just energy, presence and commitment. They sing because they have something to say.’ What the Buzzcocks said struck a chord with every teenager in the country. Indeed, the band – whose legendary debut EP Spiral Scratch was the first truly DIY punk record – were one of those glorious young groups that brought alive all the drama of the teenage-mag letters pages. Every track they ever recorded was a hormonally unstable youth anthem, simultaneously presenting the ups and downs of adolescent life. While other bands sang about high-society call girls, Buzzcocks were still celebrating the pleasures of a swift masturbatory indulgence. Even in 1979, when the Clash were cruising in their (borrowed) ‘Brand New Cadillac’, Pete Shelley and the boys were still waiting for a night bus to take them home.

Yet, though the characters who narrated Buzzcocks’ blistering punk pop ejaculations may have been forever sixteen (again), the maturing process of the outside world was always in danger of destabilising the band’s career. Many of the greatest groups have thrived on internal tension, but Buzzcocks never looked more dangerous than when they were in a tight, harmonious unit.

In retrospect, this didn’t happen until the recording of their first album, Another Music in a Different Kitchen in 1977. Around then, the band stabilised into the classic line-up we recognise today: Pete Shelley (vocals), Steve Diggle (guitar), Steve Garvey (bass) and John Maher (drums). Before that, two major figures had passed through their ranks – Howard Devoto (later of Magazine) and Garth Davies – but, although their stints with the group were mercurial and exciting, they couldn’t match the thrill and competence of the legendary 1978 setup. It was during this period that the band produced their best material, which capitalised on the early youth-club bluster of classics such as ‘Orgasm Addict’, ‘Oh Shit!’ and ‘What Do I Get?’ and catapulted the group into the public eye, perfectly capturing the ringing anthemic barrage of their live sets.

Pete Shelley’s camp, coquettish stage persona and dry Mancunian drawl gilded the Buzzcocks’ songs with the same magical veneer that Johnny Rotten’s snarl added to the Pistols or Joey to the Ramones. Listening to Shelley’s hiccupping about ‘butcher’s assistants and bell-hops, winos and heads of state’ was always like watching a beautiful pop-art painting materialising before your eyes – sharp, life-affirming, funny – yet underneath there was hidden frustration.

By the time the group had released their second album, Love Bites, and scored more hits with the all-time classic ‘Ever Fallen in Love?’, ‘Promises’ and ‘Everybody’s Happy Now’, the ironic truth was beginning to reveal itself. Confined by the band’s simple rock setup, each member was itching to experiment with outside projects, which within months they had embarked upon.

Their third studio album, A Different Kind of Tension, may have been a cry for help, yet the inventiveness of the music it contained overshadowed the growing unease among its creators. ‘Paradise’ and ‘I Don’t Know What To Do With My Life’ were savagely invigorating songs, though, sadly, their effortless punk majesty wouldn’t be matched again. An aborted fourth album and record company troubles brought Buzzcocks to an abrupt halt in early 1981, leaving Shelley to spiral into the darkness of depression.

But the band’s split only heightened their reputation as one of the brashest and most melodic punk bands ever, and their clear and widespread influence made them look the most relevant punk band to what was happening in the eighties. So relevant, in fact, that they re-formed in 1989, and have since become a massive live draw and a recording force to deal with, judging by their superb 1992 studio album Trade Test Transmissions. Pete Shelley once talked of ‘nostalgia for an age yet to come’ – luckily, with Buzzcocks still alive and frothing, that era still exists in the distant future.