Ever Fallen in Love?

Interview with Steve Diggle from the Buzzcocks

Oh Valentine’s Day, how I love thy!? People giving and receiving presents at the expense of their wallets with the shops gaining more cash than before (not that I’m cynical about it at all!). But this year, my Valentine’s Day was slightly different than usual. I was excited the week before to learn I was to have an interview with Steve Diggle, guitarist and song-writer for the Buzzcocks. Catching a train to Preston, I was to see them on that Sunday. Getting to the gig, with plenty of time with me, I waited for that ominous phone call of “come now”. I waited, saw the support act (who were ok), waited a little longer, got a drink and waited. 10 minutes before they were due to play onstage I received “the phone call”: “come backstage NOW!”. Being escorted down a corridor the road-manger asked one of the fellow band-mates, current Bassist Chris Remmington, where Steve was; jokingly he replied “we never know where he is”.

To the band-managers surprise, Steve was waiting in the large empty room where the interview would take place. Steve was sat to the side of the room; he stood up on my arrival, shook my hand and the interview commenced.

We first talked of how Steve first met fellow band-mate Pete Shelley. Talking of the infamous Manchester Sex Pistols gig (1976), which countless bands have said to have been there, including Joy Division (later New Order),The Smiths and, of course, the Buzzcocks. Steve said it was here that he met Pete for the first time. Steve said it was the late Malcolm McLaren, Sex Pistols manger, that introduced them to one another, he continued: “well we were talking at the bar and there were some things that made sense and other things that didn’t. The next thing we’re all plugged into the same amp and this, well to quote Yeats, a terrible beauty was born. (Laughter)”.

It’s clear to see that the Buzzcocks sound was defined from the start; I went to ask Steve about the Buzzcocks first single, Orgasm Addict, their first single released under UAI. The BBC banned the record and was met by a lot of negative publicity due to the fundamental content of the song. I asked if he felt it was risky of them to release such a single as their first, or if it was a necessary step.

Steve responded with: “We never really thought about it that much in a way; it was just like an immediate gut-instinct and reaction and actions to things. The reason we signed to United Artists we was suffering from alienation; we was like “let’s go to the pub. We can’t put out any more of these and so we realised we didn’t wanna become a record company; we just wanted to make music”. He went on to speak of how Malcolm McLaren said to them, while on the Anarchy Tour ’76 with the Sex Pistols, how they should “sign now before it’s too late”. Steve continued talking of the release of Orgasm Addict with “the people at the pressing plant said “we can’t print this filth” (Laughs) they all went out on strike, but we persuaded them by saying it was a piece of art”.

That was the one thing that took me by surprise meeting Steve, throughout the interview he quoted countless scholars, authors, poets including Yates, D.H. Lawrence, George Orwell, Jackson Pollock, the list continues. I think it was wrong of me to be surprised as I obvious had a stereo– type of what to expect.

I queried with Steve of the origins of the band’s name. I quoted to Steve of how they got it from an article from Time Out magazine entitled “it’s the buzz, cocks!”, “buzz” meaning excitement and “cock” being Manchester slang for Youngster. My question to him was what modern day artists had got him excited of late? His answer: “Not this immediate moment. I hate to say that because i keep thinking now the landscape is almost as if the same as when we started. But I do have faith in new kids and new bands and I do see that people are thinking now about like it’s time for a resurgence. Let’s use this energy like we used the energy at the time”.

Although Steve Diggle doesn’t have any bands to mind, I began to see more and more where his view came from the more I spoke to him. He spoke of he felt the likes of MTV were censoring us from the world and how many others did the same; a very punk-rock attitude I felt, however to see him perform with the band, and to talk personally to him, his passion comes through so naturally.

The gig itself, 10 out of 10! Opening with an explosive rendition of Boredom really gave a taste of things to come. It was during Moving Away From the Pulsebeat, after Shelly’s solo at the end, placed his guitar back on its stand and walked off stage, with Diggle still harmonising his own raunchy solo accompanying his band-mates still on stage. To all the audience’s surprise Diggle threw his guitar to the floor face down, started picking it up from neck and thrusting it back down to the floor, where there was a lot feedback from the enormous amplifiers bellowing behind him. Throwing his alcohol into the air, covering him as it returned, stormed off stage. The audience, stunned with amazement, just clapped in awe.

Coming back out for their encore, Steve and Pete took a bow where Steve made a quick speech where he said “this isn’t the f##king X-factor; this is the real deal!”. He was right.

The Buzzcocks: definitely in a class of their own.

Short URL: http://newbeatsmedia.com/?p=2979

Writen by Danny Cronin

Posted on Mon 2nd August 2010 and filed under Interviews.

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