Classic Album Review: Buzzcocks – Singles Going Steady (1981/2001)

I was listening to this album today trying to convince myself that forking out a small fortune to see the Buzzcocks in Wellington was a worthwhile exercise. Here’s a review I wrote for another site a few years back:

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Probably one of the best Punk-pop compilations you’re ever likely to find, the original 1981 edition of Singles Going Steady, initially released as a taster for the yet-to-be-converted American market, comprised of 16 tracks, and it represented a comprehensive overview of the Buzzcocks’ brilliant singles career to that point – the band’s eight A-sides and the eight accompanying B-sides. However the 2001 digitally remastered edition surpasses even that, with the inclusion of a further eight tracks, including three subsequent A-sides.

It is often stated that the Buzzcocks’ debut release – the Spiral Scratch EP – was the first genuine so-called “punk” release (in the UK, at least), beating the likes of the The Clash and the Sex Pistols to the punch, and if I can fault Singles Going Steady in any way then it is only because this album fails to include any of the four tracks included on Spiral Scratch (my choice would be the raw and mildly witty ‘Boredom’). It therefore largely overlooks the early influence within the band of Howard Devoto – who left to form Magazine just as the band started to make it “big”.

 

Singles does however open with the Devoto/Pete Shelley-penned classic, ‘Orgasm Addict’, the band’s first “official” 45 (not one for mainstream radio), and something of a DIY bedroom anthem for many a pre-pubescent boy in 1977 (if you’ll excuse the imagery/pun). We then get a run of a further seven utterly fantastic tracks which will already be familiar to most: ‘What Do I Get?’, ‘I Don’t Mind’, ‘Love You More’, ‘Ever Fallen In Love’, ‘Promises’, ‘Everybody’s Happy Nowadays’, and ‘Harmony In My Head’ …

The best of the rest include the B-sides ‘Oh Shit!’, ‘Autonomy’, and ‘Something’s Gone Wrong Again’.

While the Buzzcocks were considered very much a “punk” band at the time, quite probably Manchester’s finest example of such, and very influential in the development of the post-punk scene, without the attendant punk movement in London and the emergence of a host of other bands with a similar sound and ethos around the same time, they’d just as likely have been regarded as a power-pop four-piece throwback to the Sixties garage scene. Although Shelley’s vocal contained the requisite amounts of anti-establishment sneer and the band’s style could be classed as moody and aggressive, their fast and furious style wasn’t radically different or overly experimental in the purest sense of punk.

And while there was plenty of wit and large doses of cynicism within their lyrics (mostly Shelley compositions), they weren’t especially political, and their focus was geared more towards problems associated with teenage issues such as growing up and dealing with the opposite sex rather than anything too subversive.

In fairness they weren’t just a singles band either, but there probably isn’t any need for newcomers to explore any of their other albums in any great depth, since all of the best stuff (and more) can be found on here. Enjoy!

 

 

 

What Do I Get?

Standing at the back of the Cat Power gig at the Wellington Town Hall on Saturday night I was reminded of just how much a live performance can change the way you feel about a band (or an artist). Especially if your only previous exposure to their music was of the recorded and tweaked variety. A live show leaves an indelible impression in a way that dozens of encounters with recorded output can’t. Loud and up close has a certain magic about it, a particular way of getting in, under the skin, for the long haul. If they turn it on live, chances are they’ll have you for life, no matter how patchy the discography may turn out to be.

I’ll get back to the Cat Power gig in a future post, but it got me thinking about the upcoming visit to these shores (in April) of post-punk stalwarts, the Buzzcocks, and my own feelings about that particular band.

On one hand, I was thrilled to see the Wellington gig (of four across NZ) scheduled on the only Saturday night date of the short tour, a date that also rather conveniently coincides with a couple of birthdays. And I was excited that I could actually choose to see the Buzzcocks for the first time, live, after so many years of following from afar, should I wish to do so.

 

On the other hand, I’m highly sceptical about reunion or nostalgia tours. More so when it comes to a band from an era so firmly associated with my wide-eyed youth phase. Not so much because of the idea that the band is now just cashing in, or because of the (usually) extortionate ticket pricing. No, nothing quite so high-horsed or noble, but more out of concern that the gig may change the way I feel about the band.

What happens now that the tinted eyewear has been removed and I’m forced to confront the band through grown up eyes? What if they’re way past their best? What if the gig is a steaming pile of dogshit and onetime idols are publicly outed as try-hard chumps? Gasp!

In recent years I’ve passed up opportunities to see The Cure and New Order precisely because I couldn’t come up with answers to those sorts of questions. Or because I couldn’t come up with an answer in time to secure a ticket.

Recall of my first New Order gig is special to me and I want to preserve it. By some reasoning – decipherable or otherwise – I felt that seeing them again would risk tarnishing how I felt about the band going forward. I also had issues with the absence of Peter Hook (but let’s not go into it too much).

As for The Cure, the thought of watching the onetime Prince of Goth, Robert Smith, heave his aging overweight frame across a stage, all the while trying to convince us that his own unique variation on teenage angst was both heartfelt and genuine, well, let’s just say it was more than I could bear.

I did however make an exception for The Specials in Auckland back in 2009. That was an experience, a roadtrip, an extended weekend with friends I hadn’t seen in yonks, something that went well beyond the notion of simply attending a gig. So I don’t really count that one, I see it as an exception to the rule.

Which brings me back to the Buzzcocks … what to do? One of the true genre pioneering bands of my generation and I pass up the chance to see them? But what about that awkward moment when I realise I’m standing in front of a 60-something balding Manc git screaming at me about teenage masturbation? Or when he’s reminding us of how hurt he was that time he fell in love with someone he shouldn’t have fallen in love with … I mean, really?

Or I could just live in the moment, have a night out, and have some fun. Disconnect from that baggage and have a good night out watching a band I once adored …