The Buzzcocks occupy a specific place in Manchester music history: they were the band that made the 1976 Sex Pistols shows happen, and therefore the band that catalysed everything that followed. Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto – both originally from Bolton – were studying in Manchester when they saw an early Pistols show and decided to bring them to the city. The two Lesser Free Trade Hall shows that followed changed British music and produced a local scene that would generate Joy Division, The Fall, The Smiths and the rest.
Orgasm Addict and the DIY Ethic
The Buzzcocks released their first record – the Spiral Scratch EP – on their own Newmedia label in January 1977, before the music industry had developed any infrastructure for punk. It was one of the first self-released independent records in British music, selling out its pressing of 1,000 copies immediately. The DIY ethic of Spiral Scratch became the template for independent music releasing.
Ever Fallen in Love
Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve) from 1978 is the Buzzcocks song that transcends the band’s punk classification. It’s a pop song – precise, melodic, emotionally direct – built on a punk energy but aimed at something more lasting. The song has been covered by dozens of artists across four decades and was voted the greatest punk single in a Q magazine poll. It sounds as good now as it did in 1978.
Howard Devoto and Magazine
Howard Devoto left the Buzzcocks after Spiral Scratch to form Magazine – a more art-rock band that moved away from punk’s energy toward something darker and more complex. Magazine’s Real Life (1978) and Secondhand Daylight (1979) are significant records in the post-punk canon. Devoto’s Bolton origins and Manchester formation make him part of the same story as Joy Division and The Fall – the specific northern anglophile art-punk moment that happened in this city in the late 1970s.
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