After the death of Pete Shelley I was having a look at an old video compilation that had been put up on YouTube of Buzzcocks singles plus a few TOTP performances.
The documentary featured Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle being interviewed separately. At the beginning of the section for Harmony In My Head after a few fairly standard sentences Steve Diggle suddenly lurches headlong into Spinal Tap territory by declaring that Shelley lyrics were like a soap opera, but his were influenced more by James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Was a bit astounded by this, but then searching a bit further found this classic interview from earlier this year where as well as repeating the Joyce association he also manages to drop in references to Shakespeare, Kafka, Plato, Basil Bernstein’s Code Theory and Stockhausen:
https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/whats-on/music/music-interview-buzzcocks-hopefully-we-ve-influenced-people-for-the-good-1-9167570
Sample verse from ‘Why She’s A Girl From The Chain Store:
Why she’s a girl from the chainstore
Why she’s a girl from the chainstore
Her name was written on her coat
Her life was a miserable anecdote
Moose the Mooche says
I hope you’re satisfied, Doctor Howard Goebbels!!
Vincent says
I shared a flat with the definitive Rik in the mid-80s. He was a pain in the arse whose idea of black music began and ended with “Sex Machine”, was so leftier than thou he turned most people he met away from socialism, and whose life’s work was definitive over-compensation for the pain of having been born comfortably middle class to loving parents. His idea of revolution was to impose Wittgenstein and Habermas to the poor folks of the underclass about whom he had no genuine concern except as a theoretical entity. He once spunked our shared dig money for heating away on a single by Einstürzende Neubauten. He was a joyless cnut with no ability to laugh at himself.
Anyone else lived with a Rik?
Or BEEN one?
Moose the Mooche says
It was not me, it was the other three.
Tiggerlion says
I’m quite partial to a bit of Einstürzende Neubauten.
Moose the Mooche says
Bokko!!
fishface says
That flour they put on the marzipan gives me sore lips.
Roryks says
I am quite interested in this subject. It is fascinating because there are definitely two Buzzcocks. There is Pete Shelley Buzzcocks and there is Steve Diggle Buzzcocks and only one of those two is beloved of a generation. Thankfully in the first three albums the Diggle input was few and far between, but at some point the deal changed and it became, “If you want him you have to have me as well.”
I really believe there is a story here. Perhaps when they reformed in 1989 Diggle demanded to be given a higher percentage of the songwriting deal because when Trade Test Transmission was released of the 15 tracks 5 were by Diggle. And by Modern it is practically Shelley, Diggle, Shelley, Diggle and so on. Nobody is listening to Flags of Convenience or Diggle solo, so this was the only opportunity for Diggle’s poor songwriting to be heard. I’m guessing something happened somewhere so that neither of them could play Buzzcocks songs unless it was under the Buzzcocks banner. Although Pete probably appreciated a second singer’s presence during gigs because his songs take such a toll on his voice, nobody was at those Buzzcocks gigs to see Steve Diggle. They were there to hear Buzzcocks classics, and none of those were Diggle’s.
I’m just making all this stuff up. I don’t know what the real deal was and now we’ll never really know because Pete’s dead, and he was too nice a guy to publicly spill the beans, and you can’t ask Steve because you can’t believe a bloody word that comes out of his mouth.
He seems to lack any self-awareness, all that stuff about him being a James Joyce. He can’t seem to go through an interview without saying that Autonomy was Joe Strummer’s favourite song. Look at these two examples given with Pitchfork in which he gleefully talks about trying to take cocaine with Nirvana and none of them wanted to join him (https://pitchfork.com/features/interview/6263-buzzcocks/) or how chuffed he is with smashing up the band’s instruments (https://pitchfork.com/features/interview/7583-buzzcocks/)
With Pete Shelley’s death, Steve Diggle is over now because Buzzcocks died with Pete. It’s quite sad. They had a big gig booked at the Royal Albert Hall in 2019 with Penetration and The Skids. Don’t know what going to happen there.
fentonsteve says
Harmony in My Head was one of Diggle’s, too. A number 32 smash hit single.
dai says
And it’s brilliant (Shelley sings chorus though)
Tiggerlion says
It is interesting the chemistry in bands. Buzzcocks with Devoto were different to without and after their first three albums and a twelve year gap they were different again.
I loved Buzzcocks because they essentially sang sweet, melodic love songs but driven by pilled-up, aggressive guitars and powerful drums. For me, Diggle brought a lot of the aggression, which is an essential ingredient to my ears.
His songwriting is nowhere near the same class as Shelley’s but it brings some welcome variation in those first three albums. Plus, I like Harmony In My Head.
ClemFandango says
Definitely some shift in the balance between them – SD started to dress like a mod, throw a load of Townshendesque guitar poses and talk a lot more from the stage.
Bit of an odd dynamic between him and PS, Pete seemed to just keep his head down and let him get on with it – the comments below this review of the reunion shows tell a bit of a sad story
https://louderthanwar.com/buzzcocks-manchester-apollo-live-review/