| It’s been 30 years since Pete Shelley met Steve Diggle at a Sex Pistols gig made famous in 24-Hour Party People, Michael Winterbottom’s flawed yet enjoyable film about Manchester, England’s music scene in the ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s. As documented, it was a sparsely attended gig, but the majority of the audience was so inspired by what they saw that they went on to form bands.
"Me and (original Buzzcock) Howard Devoto arranged the Sex Pistols gig, hoping we’d have a band ready to play, but we didn’t," Shelley recounts, probably for the millionth time, but with the enthusiasm he likely had three decades ago. "So I was taking tickets and money in the box office. Malcolm McLaren came down and there was a blackboard outside on an easel. Hand-written in chalk was ‘Tonight, live from London: The Sex Pistols’ and so, Malcolm was going out and trying to get people in, you see, to increase the audience."
Diggle picks up, "And I was stood outside, meant to meet this other guy I was going to form a band with. I was talking to Malcolm McLaren and the next thing, he introduced me to Pete."
"Then he said, ‘here’s your new bass player.’ And it was Steve," Shelley adds.
"And I don’t know anything about this, really," continues Diggle, who became the Buzzcocks’ second guitar player after Devoto’s departure. "I was meant to meet this guy. It was a bit confusing. (Pete) was collecting tickets, so I said, ‘I’ll see you in the bar.’ We had a chat for about 20 minutes. Some of it didn’t make sense. Some of it did… being in a group and that… but I kept thinking, ‘I didn’t say that on the phone.’ But we got on really well and the next day we rehearsed.
"I didn’t meet my guy and they didn’t meet the guy they were supposed to meet. They’re probably still standing outside the place waiting for us."
While McLaren probably counts this meeting among his many moments of musical genius, the connection has lasted well beyond most of Malc’s projects. The Buzzcocks recently released their seventh studio album, Flat-Pack Philosophy, on True North in Canada. Few married couples are as different, yet perfectly matched, as Shelley and Diggle.
Diggle’s ever the agitator, dressed in a polka-dot shirt and Sgt. Pepper-style jacket. Shelley’s more subdued in a drab jacket declaring "Vive Le Rock" that might have been designed by McLaren’s old partner, Vivienne Westwood. Diggle is loud, gregarious and funny, vigorously fanning the smoke from his numerous cigarettes away from me. Shelley, who may no longer sport the trademark fringe of his youth, still has gigantic blue eyes that alternate between crinkling with humour and seeming to still be on the lookout for that evasive thing called love.
Early hits like "Ever Fallen in Love?" and "What Do I Get?" were full of the minor chord angst of unrequited passion. Even though Shelley was still a young man at the time, the feeling in these songs goes beyond adolescent moping.
"I never wrote about ‘lurve,’" Shelley says, indignant at the suggestion that he writes songs of love, while his bandmate tackles the political world. "We both write about relationships and the human condition."
That may be true, but while Diggle has his moments of vulnerability (most predominantly in "Promises," a song that Shelley added to, lyrically), the first single is Shelley’s and it’s called "Wish I Never Loved You." He doesn’t write songs custom-made for weddings and graduation, but he continues to describe genuine human emotion surrounding matters of the heart. Simultaneously, Diggle continues to be the social commentator – he gives credit to his girlfriend, who was studying consumer culture, for inspiring Flat-Pack’s "Sell You Everything."
Today, Tony Barber joins the duo on bass and Danny Farrant on drums. Classic lineup members Steve Garvey and John Maher left following the band’s 1989 reunion. Onstage, Barber looks like he’s always been in the band, counting off songs and attacking his bass with fierce determination. In many ways he seems like the lynchpin of today’s Buzzcocks, with Diggle and Shelley handing over set list duties to him.
"It’s easier to give it to him," Diggle jokes. "Otherwise, we’d be arguing about it all day."
"So we give it to Tony," Shelley adds, "and we go down to the pub and have a drink."
"We’re like two old mountain climbers going up the hill," Diggle philosophizes. "If one of us falls, the other one goes, too." |
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