Radio Exile | Outloud – Get Your Buzz On

Outloud – Get Your Buzz On

By Dan Berkman October 17, 2008 Post a comment | Email the author

Howdy friends, welcome to your weekly dose of rare videos, awesome music and “unique” insight that I call Outloud. In case you are new to the column or simply haven’t dropped by in a while, the last couple of “go-rounds” have been all about great punk and proto-punk singles. In the last month, we have covered a lot of exciting bands and heard some fantastic music. This week we are going to feature a selection of songs so great and important that we will break the rules and cover the whole EP.

What music could be this important you ask? Easy. The Buzzcocks‘ Spiral Scratch.

This piece of music created a scene, put a city on the map and gave teenagers an important call to arms. Music wouldn’t be the same without it and the same goes for you. If you have yet to listen to it there is no better time than right now.

Before there was Joy Division, before there was a Factory Records and long before the “Madchester” scene of the 90s, there were two young lads Peter McNeish and Howard Trafford. The pair met while attending Bolton Polytechnic; McNeish saw an ad on a cork board at the university center calling for musicians interested in electronic music, Brian Eno and hard rock. They bonded over their disappointment at the state of music, the city in which they lived (Manchester) and the fact that there was nothing to do. One day while hanging out the boys read about the first performance of a group called The Sex Pistols in the NME. Figuring that this band was new, cool and most importantly exciting they ventured into London to check them out.

Here they ran head long into London’s punk rock scene. In it McNeish and Trafford found all they were looking for fun, freedom of expression and the free exchange of ideas. They were so impressed with the scene and The Sex Pistols that they invited the band to play a gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester and the pair changed their names; Peter McNeish became Peter Shelley and Howard Trafford became Howard Devoto. They founded the Buzzcocks to open the Pistols show. You might be wondering why I am telling you all this. To put it simply the show that would take place would forever change rock and roll history.

The only people that attended this shambolic gig (the Buzzcocks didn’t end up playing due to “not being ready) where the artistic, weird and lunatic fringes of Manchester. These people in attendance were people would later go on to start Joy Division, New Order, Simply Red, The Buzzcocks, Factory Records and The Hacienda, just to name a few. This was the first time that many of them had seen actual punk rock before. Many of them were fans of The Ramones and The Stooges but being locked away in a nowhere town you never got to see them. This show also acted as a gathering spot for kids that thought they were alone in their music tastes.

I could go into even more detail and try to paint the image for you but why bother when someone has already done the work for me. The film 24 Hour Party People, which is about the rise and fall of Factory Records, has a scene where they document this legendary gig and give you a taste of what it might have been like.

*Viewer’s note: The show doesn’t start until a minute in. The narration begins at around the two minute mark.

The Buzzcocks emerged from the show as heroes. After they rounded out their line up with bassist Steve Diggle and drummer John Maher the band began to play shows. They played with many of the era’s biggest bands: The Sex Pistols, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Subway Sect, The Clash, The Vibrators to name a few. More importantly than all that they played in active role in supporting music in their own city, their debut Spiral Scratch was exciting not only for the music within but by the very fact it existed. The band pressed their own records, did their own cover art, handled distribution and played shows all without the help of a major label. This helped inspire countless indie bands and labels to go out there and do it themselves nearly a decade before Ian MacKaye and company would give similar advice.

The only footage of the band that exists in this original line up is a silent clip of them opening up for The Sex Pistols at the second Lesser Free Trade Hall Show. Luckily, someone has dubbed in the great track “Breakdown” over the clip. So sit back and enjoy.

Just as the band was beginning to hit their stride Devoto decided to leave the band. The reasons vary but more often than not he says that punk rock was becoming just another over bloated scene. He later went on to start the controversial Magazine. After that group split in 1981, Devoto ended up making music sporadically and devoted a lot of time to a job working in a photo archive. His words in the classic song “Boredom” proved to be oddly prophetic:

“I’ve taken this extravagant journey
So it seems to me
To arrive from nowhere
And to go straight back there”

Why don’t you give a listen and sing along at home:

“Boredom” [mp3]

The rest of the Buzzcocks continued on (with new bassist Steve Garvey and Diggle switching to lead guitar) and released three fantastic LPs before they split up. Although they released many fantastic singles “Orgasm Addict”, “What Do I Get?”, “Ever Fallen In Love”, “Harmony In My Head” and many others, this EP is loved and prized just as much as their better known material.

I hope you enjoyed the rant this week and that I can bank on seeing you next Friday. Have a great weekend.