Seeing Stars - November 1979
If you were going to see anybody this November week in 1979 then it had to be the Buzzcocks
Led by singer/songwriter/guitarist Pete Shelley, this energetic punk band had first got together in Bolton three years previously.
The Post’s Stuart Lawrence was at the Colston Hall to see them perform.
“Despite recent criticisms, the Buzzcocks are still one of the best British bands to survive the punk explosion and its aftermath” he wrote.
“Peter Shelley is writing some of the sharpest and incisive pop songs of the 70s – witness What Do I Get? Ever Fallen in Love with Someone and You Say You Don’t Love Me – classics of their kind.
“That said, it’s a pity their delivery last night was hampered by drum troubles, a tendency for over indulgence and a fuzzy PA which had you straining to catch the lyrics.
“Not that the problems bothered the mixture of mods, punks and skinheads who made up the audience.
“They knew the words by heart and were out for a good time – no matter what.
“And what’s wrong with a little experimentation when the shadow of maestro Howard Devoto still lurks in the wings.
“Next time, though, let’s have a longer set and a return to the more intimate atmosphere of the Locarno where the kids can enjoy a good bop.
And the name, “Buzzcocks?”
It was chosen by Pete Shelley after reading the headline, “It’s the buzz, cocks!” in a review of the TV series Rock Follies in Time Out magazine.
The “buzz” is the excitement of playing on stage; “cock” is Manchester slang for “youngster”.
Also on stage at the Colston Hall the same week was singer/songwriter Steve Hackett.
Once a member of Peter Gabriel’s Genesis, Hackett had left the band to pursue a solo career.
“Steve Hackett and his band are dazzling instrumentalists who produce weird and wonderful hypnotic sounds” reported the Post’s Nigel Adlam the next day
“And last night they held their audience spellbound with a trip through a magical world of intoxication music.
“Their sounds are often violent, nearly always metallic, but haunting.
“”Every Day,” a beautiful but overlong piece, was an early highlight.
But the band displayed an ability to niftily change step with the romantic “Virgin and the Gypsy” dedicated to D.H.Lawrence
“There was a complete absence of lyrics in their numbers – but when Pete Hicks was called on to earn his pay he excelled.
Hackett’s brother John enchanted on the flute but it seemed odd to hear such an instrument on stage with a volcano of drums and symbols and a mass of electrical tricks.
“ The concert built up to a violent, enthralling climax which left everyone light headed.
“I found it an overwhelming experience.”
It neither band grabbed you then how about Bristol’s very own Fred Wedlock, then on an 18 gig tour promoting his new album “The Oldest Swinger in Town.”
Failing that then there was singer/guitarist Steve Payne, then spreading his considerable talents between the Stan Arnold Combo, Good Jelly with Jim Reynolds and a new creation, The Painkillers.
Steve and Fred are, happily, both still gigging today.
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