Pioneer punks set out to conjure magic

BY JULE SCHERER

In the mid-70s the Buzzcocks spearheaded the young punk rock movement alongside bands such as the Sex Pistols and The Clash.

More than 30 years on, Buzzcocks guitarist Steve Diggle hasn't lost the urge to slam the establishment.

The 53-year-old still swears a lot, enjoys playing fast and boisterous punk rock and readily says that the Buzzcocks are indeed legends.

"I'm not putting us at par with Shakespeare but people are still reading Shakespeare and the Buzzcocks' music is like that as well," he said.

"What we believed in then and the songs we wrote, still rings true with people.

"We thought about the human condition in the lyrics and we had catchy tunes but we never imagined that we would influence so many bands," Diggle says.

The band formed in Manchester in 1976 and released three acclaimed records. They split up in 1981, reformed 1989 and have since released six albums.

Before record labels jumped onto the punk rock bandwagon the group recorded their first EP Spiral Scratch by themselves and released it on their own New Hormones label in late 1976.

It didn't take long for the music industry to recognise their potential and labels started to line-up to sign the band.

A couple of months later the Buzzcocks signed with United Artists Records and released their debut album Another Music in a Different Kitchen in 1978, pioneering a music style now mostly referred to as pop-punk.

Although the BBC refused to play their first single Orgasm Addict, the band gained a big following and their next singles reached the UK Top 40.

The songs combined lyrics about romantic boredom and frustration with catchy melodies and fast, tight drums.

Over the years a lot of bands named the Buzzcocks as major influences on their work .

"It is a great compliment when young bands like U2 and REM are saying they liked our music, but we're not responsible for what they're doing," Diggle says.

"When I or Pete (Buzzcocks singer, Pete Shelley) pick up a guitar we sing from the heart and the soul about definite things we believe in, otherwise we would make that crap they show on MTV.

"We know how to write a catchy tune and could utilise that to make MTV compatible boring pop music. But we don't."

Whereas the sound of bands like the Sex Pistols and The Clash mirrored the personalities of the musicians, contemporary bands like Green Day are "just doing a performance but it's just not f*****g real".

"A lot of bands have joined the dots and said 'hey let's be a punk band and take what's there and make us sound like that," he says.

Diggle laments the modern music industry was only producing boring bands.

"We want fun and to feel the danger of things, you don't want to feel like you just bought a f*****g bag of peas at the supermarket," he says of the lack of excitement he feels when listening to new music.

"When the punk music came out, it changed your whole consciousness and how you felt about music," he says.

"In New Zealand there are a lot of sheep, but sheep don't have a consciousness, human beings do.

"Let's f*****g wake up instead of sleepwalking," he urges. 

Punk was after all about finding your own way and your own voice.

A lot has changed in the 33 years since the band mounted a stage for the first time but Diggle says people's hearts and souls weren't that different now.

"We're appealing - like Shakespeare - to the human condition, we're all falling in and out of love, we're all have comedy and tragedy in our lives.

"When we're taking to the stage, we're real and I think people can feel that.

"We're connecting with the audience and conjuring magic in the one-and-a-half hours that we're there," he says. 

It was important to feel alive and not just being "a product of the news and MTV", he says.

The members of the Buzzcocks are now in their 50s but haven't got plans to lay down their instruments any time soon.

"We aren't tired, because the songs are great to play and we like communicating with the audience more than ever."

The Buzzcocks will perform their first two albums in their entirety plus a couple of other songs.

"Although two thirds of the audience are kids who weren't even born when we started, they can still relate to us and take our songs as inspiration to start to think for themselves and if we can pass that on to people, maybe that's what makes us legend," he says.

The Buzzcocks
November 12: Southern Amp Festival, Christchurch
November 13: Bodega, Wellington
November 14: The Studio, Auckland

- NZPA