The Buzzcocks

[The Modernist]

Ah well, at least it's an improvement on the 70s showbands....or is it?

[Dr Markus]

Ah well, at least it's an improvement on the 70s showbands....or is it?

Nope.

[bobzilla77]

Less important than Chuck Berry, more imporant than 999.

[clive gash]

Ah well, at least it's an improvement on the 70s showbands....or is it?

Did you ever see McCafferty’s Ramble?

[The Modernist]

Ah well, at least it's an improvement on the 70s showbands....or is it?

Did you ever see McCafferty’s Ramble?

I tried, but McCafferty got lost on the way to the gig.

[naughty boy]

Give Buzzcocks a chance, Markus.

Too late! They've been and gone and aren't scheduled to go back to Ireland for another nine years!

They should forget about Ireland, we're lost to a tsunami of acoustic solo guitar singers, solo female singers that all sound like a cross of bat with lashes and ellie Goulding, and ridiculously bland snow patrol wannabes singing about things like their night being ruined because they had to manually enter their cashcard pin instead of it just scanning the card to pay for stuff. Shite.

Buzzcocks are the perfect antidote to that crap.

[Dr Markus]

Nah we have the likes of hozier, the strypes and the well crafted (even if a bit too twee) pop of Ham sandwich to counter the glut of acoustic solo singers and shite like the academic.

[LMG]

The elephant in the room of being a Buzzcocks fan is that they have released six studio albums and a plethora of live albums since the 90's, and the straight dope is there isn't a one of them worth playing when you have the first three albums + singles comp to further explore.

There's some mildly goodish songs on the later albums if you dig deep, but whatever songwriting muse gifted the 'cocks with SIngles Going Steady up and left town decades ago.

That the Buzzcocks are trouncing the Damned on another thread pains me deeply. At least the Damned have recorded some classic Damned songs in the last thirty years to get audiences leaping about as well as the early stuff.

I went to see the Buzzcocks Back To Front show in 2012, which featured the latest lineup, then the classic lineup that recorded the first three albums, then an encore of all of Spiral Scratch with Howard Devoto leading the band.

Looks great on paper, but the hapless new guys first up were left with a set of tunes from the recent (1993 onwards) studio output, stripped of all the classics reserved for the vintage lineup's set which followed. So many tunes that sounded a lot like a song we came to hear, but would only do later on.

I've seen them many times down the years - the classic lineup, the one with the Smiths drummer, the Barber/Barker lineup that lasted sixteen years but didn't get to play a note at the 2012 celebration shows, the current lineup. Great live band for nostalgia, but as a talented and ongoing concern? Sorry, but something's gone wrong again...

[The Modernist]

The elephant in the room of being a Buzzcocks fan is that they have released six studio albums and a plethora of live albums since the 90's, and the straight dope is there isn't a one of them worth playing when you have the first three albums + singles comp to further explore.

..

So what though? Most bands have a five year golden period (if they're lucky) and that's what they should be judged on.

[LMG]

..

So what though? Most bands have a five year golden period (if they're lucky) and that's what they should be judged on.[/quote]

Ah. The (John) Peel Imperative.

You subscribe.

That explains a lot.

[The Slider]

Nearly three pages of posts and no one has yet berated Markus for the spurious definite article?
BCB is slipping

I like the singles but have never been arsed to investigate further

[Bent Fabric]

They were my favorite band at one point (fortunately for me, they reunited and toured - with NO NEW MATERIAL - twice during that window), and they remain a firm favorite. I'll always love them, and...their impact on my own work is incalculable (the "high impact economy" of their best music really came along, for me, at just the right time).

I went to see them a year and a half back. It was great. They probably played no more than two songs that weren't from their peak - they knew why they and I were there.

Suffice to say, their reunion efforts are not something I regard in any way. Few things have been as easy to tune out.

They certainly aren't the first artist or performer I've loved whose best work resolutely belongs to a reasonably concise period.

(To Slider's remark - there is a single disc comp called Operator's Manual that represents the highlights of their initial go round with near unerring precision)

[Rayge]

Nearly three pages of posts and no one has yet berated Markus for the spurious definite article?
BCB is slipping

Correcting markus's English/grammar/typing is the 13th Labour of Hercules. We all tire of it eventually

[The Slider]

(To Slider's remark - there is a single disc comp called Operator's Manual that represents the highlights of their initial go round with near unerring precision)

There's one called Singles..Going Steady that has sufficed me for donkey's

[The Slider]

Nearly three pages of posts and no one has yet berated Markus for the spurious definite article?
BCB is slipping

Correcting markus's English/grammar/typing is the 13th Labour of Hercules. We all tire of it eventually

Of course.
But this place was built on self-aggrandisement

[Bent Fabric]

(To Slider's remark - there is a single disc comp called Operator's Manual that represents the highlights of their initial go round with near unerring precision)

There's one called Singles..Going Steady that has sufficed me for donkey's

To that end, the smart money is on Side A.

[Dr Markus]

But this place was built on self-aggrandisement

Yeah, what slider said.

[Rayge]

Nearly three pages of posts and no one has yet berated Markus for the spurious definite article?
BCB is slipping

Correcting markus's English/grammar/typing is the 13th Labour of Hercules. We all tire of it eventually

Of course.
But this place was built on self-aggrandisement

Perhaps we should all henceforth talk only about The Radiohead

[naughty boy]

The reissue of Singles was an eye-opener for me, featuring fabulous late-era singles from the original line-up such as 'What Do You Know?' (with saxophones!) and this little gem:

[LMG]

But this place was built on self-aggrandisement

I thought we built it on rock and roll?

Or am I getting this place and this city confused again?

Age is a dreadful thing...