Hear Me Out: Why Buzzcocks are the best first-wave punk band
The conversation is usually the same. Regarding the UK, the best and most important acts of the first wave of punk are Sex Pistols and The Clash. Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but it seems a travesty that the discussion regularly forgets the band who were, in my mind, the finest of the lot, Buzzcocks.
Arguably the most boundary-pushing act of the first wave of British punk, from their music to setting up one of the first independent record labels, and even their instrumental role in bringing the Sex Pistols to Manchester – a night credited with kicking off the city’s musical boom – many aspects bolster this argument. Without Buzzcocks, punk and broader alternative music today, would lack some defining factors. This indicates just how important Buzzcocks were.
Buzzcocks were officially formed in February 1976 by college friends Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley. This pair travelled down to London to see the buzziest band of the day, Sex Pistols, and organise for them to play at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall in June 1976, one of the most consequential nights in modern British culture. They also intended to perform at this show, but Devoto and Shelley’s bandmates dropped out.
The band eventually got their wishes, and after recruiting bassist Steve Diggle and drummer John Maher, they made their debut performance opening for Sex Pistols when they returned to Manchester for their second show in the city in July. Things moved quickly, and Buzzcocks were now vital to a burgeoning movement. In September 1976, the group trekked to London to perform at the two-day bonanza, the 100 Club Punk Festival, organised by Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren. The festival was the moment punk crystallised itself as a genuine cultural force, with other performers including Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Subway Sect.
By the end of 1976, Buzzcocks had found their rhythm, and they recorded the four-track EP Spiral Scratch, which arrived in January the following year. Produced by future Factory Records alumnus Martin Hannett, it arrived on Buzzcocks’ New Hormones label, meaning they were one of the first punk groups to establish an independent record label, second only to The Saints and Fatal Records, created to release ‘(I’m) Stranded’. This also saw the group insert themselves further into the story of punk, with the song ‘Boredom’ coherently explaining the movement’s rebellion against the man. Additionally, the band demonstrated their genuinely artistic edge on the record, with the minimalism of the two-note solo in ‘Boredom’ the pinnacle of this, averting the established tradition of this guitar part. Clearly then, even at this early point in their career, Buzzcocks had made history on numerous occasions.
Despite these triumphs, Devoto quit the group only a few months later, citing his displeasure at punk’s direction. He said in a statement: “I don’t like movements. What was once unhealthily fresh is now a clean old hat”. He returned to college for a year and then formed the widely influential post-punk outfit, Magazine. They became one of the key players in the genre that would shine a light on all of first-wave punk’s flaws and start to make real artistic progress by casting aside the barriers of labels.
Devoto leaving Buzzcocks also proved to be a significant moment for the band. It saw a sea change occur, after which they would enter a more distinctive and essential area, pushing the confines of punk to the absolute limit. Pete Shelley took on the vocal duties, with his high-pitched, melodic vocals presenting a stark contrast to the gruff delivery many punks employed due to their origins in the blues-influenced pub rock. With Shelley taking over vocals and continuing to play guitar, Diggle switched over to the six-string from the bass, with Garth Davies, the original bassist rejoining. Steve Garvey eventually replaced him the following year, a four-string hero who would give the quartet the busy undercurrent needed for their increasingly dynamic sound.
Despite the undoubted importance of Spiral Scratch, after Devoto left, Buzzcocks took things up a level. Over the rest of their first chapter, which ended in 1981, they pushed back against social and punk mores, writing music for the future well ahead of its era. Arguably, it was more in line with what their heroes, The Stooges and The Velvet Underground had done, with there also taboo-busting similarities to the work of David Bowie.
When Shelley, bandmate Steve Diggle and manager Richard Boon sat down at the British Library in June 2016 to discuss their career, they explained how bands like The Velvet Underground and The Stooges inspired their iconoclasm. Shelley said: “Myself and Howard (Devoto), we were listening to… well, separately, but we had a mutual interest, things like The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, Can, I mean, a lot of the German… yeah Neu! I mean things that, really, when you put on you can clear a room.”
He continued: “In those days, it was a whole different country. It was music which nobody liked at all. Everybody was into sort of like heavy metal, but it wasn’t as widdly-widdly… I mean, things like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, there was a lot of blues, and it was all to do with how many notes you could fit into your 20-minute guitar solo. Where, I liked the things which were more on the noisy side, but were funny as well. So that’s basically what we tried to do… In fact, we were making the most uncommercial form of music that we thought possible… We even had swearing in it. Nobody did that.”
It was a much different, more creative space to that of their most prominent punk peers, Sex Pistols and The Clash, after Devoto left. Mainly inspired by the innovation of The Stooges and more experimental acts such as The Velvet Underground and Can, Shelley’s lyrics had much greater depth than almost everyone’s. A wholesale affront to the machismo of punk, he showed it to be futile, as he discussed personal feelings, sex and homosexuality in a wickedly comedic way, a complete departure from the immediate moves of Sex Pistols.
Much of this separation from the punk scene was due to Shelley. An open bisexual, his discussions of love, sex, and other taboo issues pushed back against punk’s standards and that of the mainstream. His lyrics set an example by sticking a stout middle finger up to tradition and providing solace for listeners hiding their true selves from the public. This significance cannot be overstated; 1970s Britain was a completely different time to our own. It was a much less welcoming place for anyone who dared to veer off the beaten track.
Early singles such as ‘Orgasm Addict’, ‘What Do I Get?’ and the iconic ‘Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)’ remain highlights of this approach. While the first wave of punk was mostly concerned with external issues, Shelley was an adept songwriter who could fuse the personal with outside forces such as the political, going far beyond that of other punk songwriters, including The Clash’s Joe Strummer, someone credited with addressing the most important issues of his day.
Shelley said more in one song than many of his contemporaries managed to do in their whole career; that’s how incisive his prose was. ‘Everybody’s Happy Nowadays’, ‘Autonomy’, ‘Lipstick’ and ‘Whatever Happened To…?’ are four more examples of the frontman’s lyrical flair. He was afraid of no issue, and had a knack for combining the mundane and severe, something his heroes Iggy Pop and Lou Reed were masters at that.
Of course, Buzzcocks’ music was much more impactful than their peers’ too. The guitars were more muscular, the melodies were more prominent, and the band did exciting things with their songwriting. This isn’t to say bands like The Clash and Siouxsie and the Banshees didn’t; I just think that what they were doing had more weight for the time. The likes of ‘Why Can’t I Touch It?’ with its unbelievably groovy bassline and the power pop of ‘Promises’ are two further examples of Buzzcocks’ scope. To use a football analogy, they were well-ingratiated in the men’s team when their peers were still languishing in the academy.
Musically, Shelley and Buzzcocks augmented the punk formula. They didn’t confine themselves to playing just three power chords, and because of this, it wouldn’t be excessive to label them more art-rock than punk. Ironically, there’s room for them to be described as the first post-punk band, as they were railing against the genre even when they were deeply embedded within it. Following this, there are more parallels between them and Magazine, XTC and Squeeze than with the likes of Sex Pistols and The Clash. It also says everything that many subsequent alternative heroes such as The Smiths, Nirvana, Pixies, Pearl Jam and Green Day cite as them an influence due to their creative prowess. There was real depth to Buzzcocks, and that was always their power.
