| |
Whiskyfun
Home
(Current
entries)
Concert
Review
Index
(All Reviews
Since 2004)
Leave
feedback
 |
Copyright
Nick Morgan and crew
|
|
|
Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
|
 |
 |
|
THE BUZZCOCKS
Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London,
January 30th 2009 |
| I
know I saw the Buzzcocks way back in the 1970s,
but as I think I’ve explained before, and
am ashamed to confess, this distant memory is shrouded
by a surfeit of Boddingtons (still then made in
Manchester) consumed in the parlour of a pub next
door to the sadly-missed Strangeways Brewery. At
the time, the
Buzzcocks cut a bit of a dash: a frenetic
guitar-led sound touched by an unusual Pop sensibility
in their angst-laden and sexually challenging lyrics
largely the responsibility of front man Pete Shelley,
now lauded, like Martin Peters, as being somewhat
ahead of his time. Despite some chart singles, commercial
success and the more widespread recognition it brings
never greeted this Manchester foursome who went
the inevitable way of all things until the recent
new wave of Seventies nostalgia saw them re-form
in a partly changed line-up, and even record some
new material. But tonight is firmly about the past
as the band work through all the tracks from their
first two albums, Another Music In A Different Kitchen
and Love Bites (albeit in a rather eccentric order),
supplemented by a few other early ‘hits’. |
| Much
to my surprise, the Bush is packed to the rafters
– it’s even pretty full when support
act, the
Lurkers, fronted by the gloriously
unreformed Arturo Bassick, take the stage. Introducing
‘Come and reminisce if you think you’re
old enough’ he opines, “Being a punk’s
about not growing old in some home, sitting in a
chair and pissing and shitting your pants, although
frankly that’s what I do now most nights when
I’m on tour” (those closest to the stage
reeled back at this point). As they say, you couldn’t
make it up. But when they finished the set with
a two-hundred-mile-an- hour rendition of Dean Martin’s
‘Little old wine drinker me’, I got
the strong impression that, conceivably, their day
was past. The same could not be said for the Buzzcocks,
who, but for the exception of Pete Shelley’s
voice (not helped by a pretty poor sound balance)
sounded as fresh as a daisy, their material positively
vibrant, and their music a lot louder and heavier
than I recall through the beer haze. They were,
somewhat to my surprise, and the Photographer’s
(“I couldn’t take my eyes off the stage
all night”) very impressive. |
| Shelley
couldn’t have been as disinterested as he
looked. Although his vocals were strained (I think
there was some sort of echo or reverb on them, an
attempt to make them carry a little further perhaps?)
and his occasional remarks terse and indifferent,
he gave a magnetic performance. He looked an unlikely
character for the job – with a Mondrianesque
design shirt and an ill-matched well-worn pair of
baggy Jolliman
style Action Trousers (with a roomy cut and
elasticated waist). His sparring partner, guitarist
Steve Diggle (who displayed a surprising aversion
to barre chords), was sipping Moet and Chandon NV
from a pint-sized plastic glass and looked just
the part whilst clearly having the time of his life.
New band members, bassist Tony Barber and drummer
Danny Farrant turned in more than creditable performances
– in fact Farrant was a commanding figure.
Together they created a sense of energy that quite
took hold of the audience. Beer and (plastic) glasses
flew around in all directions, one girl was swiftly
restrained from lurching off the balcony into the
crowd below. In the sizeable mosh, there was a heaving
mass of bodies, crashing and crushing, sometimes
quite violently – to be truthful it was hard
to know if they were ‘dancing’ or fighting.
And it was illuminating to see, along with the kids
(who seemed to start at the age of about 16, many
a bald or grey head (and bouncing beer-belly) in
the thick of it - clearly some were more than old
enough to know a lot better. This of course only
added to the delight of many of the kids upstairs
with their Dads (and just occasionally Mums) who
were witnessing a real flashback, and a glimpse
into their parent’s past. |
 |
I
suppose it’s far too late for the Buzzcocks
to become fashionable again, but when you see a
performance like this, and realise just how contemporary
much of their music still sounds, you can’t
help thinking than they deserve a little better
than the footnote in the history of rock and roll
that they seem doomed to occupy. The current tour
is extensive, with dates across Europe, so why not
go and see them and make your own mind up, or invest
in the new series of re-released albums? - Nick
Morgan (photographs by Kate)
<- Pete Shelley in his Mondrian
shirt
Listen: The
Buzzcocks on MySpace |
Check
the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
|
|
|
|
|
There's nothing more down there... |
|
|
|
|
