Buzzcocks

Emerging amid Britain’s first punk wave, Buzzcocks distinguished themselves through crisp melodies, Pete Shelley’s biting lyrics, and the driving guitars supplied by Shelley and Steve Diggle. Largely sidestepping political themes, they infused the three-minute pop song with an intense, brilliant energy, fueled by Shelley’s lyrics that alternated between humor and anguish while exploring adolescence and romance, all supported by concise, memorable melodies and hooks. The band issued two albums in 1978—Another Music in a Different Kitchen and Love Bites—that tightened and refined their approach, then issued the more experimental A Different Kind of Tension in 1979; soon afterward the rapid career pace and record-label difficulties prompted a 1981 breakup. Re-forming in 1989, Buzzcocks sustained an extended sequence of tours and albums that retained the group’s original spirit, beginning with 1993’s Trade Test Transmissions and extending to The Way in 2014, Shelley’s final album with the band before his death in 2018. After a brief hiatus, Diggle reassembled the lineup, resumed touring, and delivered the 2022 LP Sonics in the Soul. Their potent punk-pop style proved both enormously influential and enduring, its echoes audible in Hüsker Dü, Nirvana, and the Exploding Hearts, as well as nearly every subsequent act that fused pop hooks with punk energy.

Prior to Buzzcocks, teenage Pete Shelley had performed guitar in assorted heavy-metal groups. He enrolled at the Bolton Institute of Technology in 1975. While attending classes there, Shelley joined an electronic-music society, where he encountered Howard Devoto, who had entered BIT in 1972. Shelley and Devoto bonded over a shared admiration for the Velvet Underground, and Devoto also developed a fascination with the Stooges. Still students, the pair began rehearsing with a drummer, interpreting material that ranged from the Stooges to Brian Eno; the trio never performed live and soon disbanded. Shelley and Devoto stayed in contact, and several months after their first musical project ended they read an NME live review of the Sex Pistols and traveled to London to witness the band. After seeing the Pistols twice in February 1976, the two resolved to start their own group, aiming to replicate the Pistols’ London impact within Manchester.

Both musicians altered their surnames—Peter McNeish became Pete Shelley and Howard Trafford became Howard Devoto—and adopted the group name Buzzcocks from a review of the satirical television series Rock Follies that closed with the phrase “get a buzz, cock.” The newly formed band began rehearsing and recruited local drummer and bassist Garth Smith. Shortly after forming, Shelley and Devoto secured a booking at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall in an effort to bring the Sex Pistols to the city. They succeeded, yet the Buzzcocks had to withdraw from the bill when both bassist and drummer departed before the concert. At the Pistols performance, Shelley and Devoto met Steve Diggle, who joined as bassist; the group located drummer John Maher via a Melody Maker advertisement. Within months the band played its first show, supporting the second Sex Pistols appearance at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in July 1976. By year’s end Buzzcocks had performed several gigs and helped establish Manchester as England’s second-largest punk center after London.

In October 1976 the band recorded an unreleased first demo tape. At the close of the year Buzzcocks joined the Sex Pistols on the Anarchy Tour. Once the tour concluded, Shelley borrowed several hundred pounds from his father so the group could finance its debut EP, Spiral Scratch. The record became the punk era’s first self-released, independently distributed release; issued on the band’s own New Hormones label in January 1977, it quickly sold out its initial pressing of 1,000 copies and ultimately moved 16,000 before going out of print. Soon after the EP’s appearance Devoto left to return to college; later that year he formed Magazine. Following Devoto’s exit, Pete Shelley took over lead vocals, Steve Diggle switched to guitar, and Garth Smith became bassist. By June 1977 Buzzcocks were drawing major-label interest, and in September they signed with United Artists, which granted the band full artistic control.

Buzzcocks exercised that control ambitiously on their debut single, “Orgasm Addict.” Issued in October 1977, the track failed to chart because its explicit subject matter kept it off BBC radio, yet it generated strong word-of-mouth. After its release Garth Smith was dismissed and replaced by Steve Garvey. The band’s second single, “What Do I Get?,” became their first chart entry, reaching the lower reaches of the Top 40. In March 1978 they released their first album, Another Music in a Different Kitchen; in September 1978 they followed with the second long-player, Love Bites.

The demanding schedule of recording and touring began to strain the members. Concerts and sessions were exhausting them, and alcohol and drug consumption increased. Early in 1979 they recorded the third album, A Different Kind of Tension, which revealed signs of fatigue. After its August release Buzzcocks undertook their first American tour; later that year the singles compilation Singles Going Steady appeared in the United States.

Mounting internal and external pressures peaked in 1980 when the band sharply reduced its performance calendar, though they continued recording and issued the EP Parts 1, 2, 3 as three separate singles throughout the year. During 1980 United Artists was acquired by EMI, which reduced support for Buzzcocks. The group began work on a fourth album in early 1981, but EMI blocked further recording until Singles Going Steady could be released in the U.K.; the band refused. Consequently EMI withheld funds for the new LP. Shelley chose to dissolve the group rather than contest the label, and Buzzcocks split that year.

Immediately afterward Shelley launched a solo career that yielded the hit single “Homosapien” and found him exploring electronic pop. Steve Diggle formed Flag of Convenience with John Maher, who departed soon after the band’s inception. Steve Garvey relocated to New York and played with Motivation for several years. In 1989 Buzzcocks re-formed and toured the United States. The following year Maher left, and former Smiths drummer Mike Joyce joined for live dates. By 1990 the reunion had become permanent; after Joyce’s short stint the reunited lineup consisted of Shelley, Diggle, bassist Tony Barber, and drummer Phil Barker. This configuration released its first album, Trade Test Transmissions, in 1993. Thereafter the band toured extensively.

In spring 1996 Buzzcocks issued their fifth studio album, All Set. Modern appeared three years later, followed by a self-titled Merge release in 2003. Flat-Pack Philosophy arrived on Cooking Vinyl in 2006. The anniversary live set 30 was released on the same label in 2008. In 2014 a new lineup—Shelley, Diggle, bassist Chris Remington, and drummer Danny Farrant—delivered the studio album The Way, supported by an extensive North American tour alongside their customary U.K. and European dates. On 6 December 2018 Pete Shelley’s family and management announced that the singer and guitarist had died at home that morning of a suspected heart attack; he was 63.

Interest in Buzzcocks remained strong after Shelley’s passing, resulting in several archival projects. The 2020 eight-disc box set Sell You Everything (1991–2014) collected the six studio albums recorded since the reunion along with bonus discs of demos and re-recorded hits. Another multi-disc anthology, Late for the Train: Live & In Session 1989–2016, appeared in 2021 and focused on concert and radio recordings. Also in 2021, 30 Live in London received a vinyl reissue documenting the 2006 thirtieth-anniversary concert. In 2020 Buzzcocks continued as a trio; the Diggle-Remington-Farrant configuration toured the U.K. and recorded the new song “Gotta Get Better.” In April 2022 the band released the three-track EP Senses Out of Control. Its title track reflected Diggle’s affection for mid-1960s mod sounds and previewed the first post-Shelley album, Sonics in the Soul, issued by Cherry Red in September 2022. Largely written and recorded during the 2020–2021 COVID-19 pandemic, the LP was produced by Diggle and Laurence Loveless and presented a leaner version of the style heard in Diggle’s Buzzcocks-era work and his earlier project Flag of Convenience. The group maintained an active schedule of club and festival appearances across the U.K. and Europe, preserving its sound and spirit for longtime fans.