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30 years on, they play even better, I mean, I assume its better, I wasn’t there when the Buzzcocks played their inaugural shows. I don’t really have any first person perspective on what were the goings on in the cesspoolian confines of a first-wave British punk gig (pop-punk in this case, but I assume this differences are minimal in context). But I am willing to make the leap of faith that even if the band members appearances where slightly ‘dour’ so to speak, everything we could ‘hear’ sounded like yesterday wrapped up in danceable pop-punk confection. Loud, angular, tight and well, rambunctious, there seemed to be 30 years unaccounted for. If you asked me on the night, I’d say that Another Music From A Different Kitchen and Love Bites were released last year and this is their international tour, well if I closed my eyes, but I do that at most gigs anyway if the music inspires the loss of mind and awareness that keeps me going back.

While Pete Shelley may be rather stout, overly confined in his movement and showing a few signs of not being in peak physical form, these symptoms are the only true indications of time having passed. His guitar playing is unbelievably well-formed, notes aren’t missed and the sound is as pure as it was when the Buzzcocks first played punk guitar as if it was a worthwhile art form unlike the myriad of Anarchistic shredders who were style over substance, volume over skill. In slight contrast Steve Diggle the slightly younger original-ish member had a bit of bounce and verve to him as he bowed his guitar up and down with regularity across the gig. To summarise, this was pop punk at its best. Fiery without being stupidly aggressive and danceable while still being just a little fucked up. The ringing is in my ears today, and that hasn’t happened for a while on the post-gig morn, but I still feel as if I have nothing to complain about. Oh, and small note The Spazzys supported. I’m no fan, so it may be inappropriate for me to make any grand commentary, but again I didn’t feel they had the power a three piece punk band needs. In fact the occasional Bodyjar inflection brought me to cringetown once too often. Anyway.

Fans often clamour uproariously at the promise of a “we’re playing our classic album(s) tour”, but this doesn’t mean that the concept is without a number of significant, possible pitfalls. Not every band has an album packed to the brim with impeccable song craft, let alone an album that doesn’t have at least one or two ‘experiments’ that went wrong, or are a product of the whim at the time or that have dated to all hell (Some may argue this of the two albums in question). Basically everyone may think its an awesome idea, but its pretty hard to pull-off convincingly unless your playing Dark Side Of The Moon or the White Album or some such conceptual or alternatively esoteric masterpiece. But somehow The Buzzcocks survived and even prospered on this occasion, playing their first two pre-break up albums not only with incredible accuracy (whilst the performance wasn’t note-for-note it was close enough to might as well of been, which I got the feeling everyone wanted, and worked perfectly) and fire and passion.

Without giving you a blow by blow account of a pre-ordained set-list, I’ll mention a highlight or two. (I only vaguely remember the encore(s) (I don’t even know whether there was more than one), you can guess why, especially if you’ve read my reviews before.) Fast Cars was a glorious start, introducing the ‘play the song almost exactly the same as the record’ kinda thing they were gonna pedal for the rest of the night. Different Kitchen is a close to legendary record and while the Buzzcocks may be considered a predominantly singles act this album is their moment in time were the full-length worked. There’s not a disappointing song. It’s hard and fast without being overwhelming, the lyrics are literate with the occasional legendary line (“”) or perfectly timed punk lament (_Fiction Romance_). The album has 50’s throwbacks with a sinister sexual edge (_Sixteen_), out and out 2 minute Hornfests (_Love Battery_) and a strange culmination of all the Krautrock via Can guitar fascinations of Shelley (_Moving Away From The Pulsebeat_). The tempered diversity of the album (rare for any punk album) was on full display and what on record seemed a rhythm guitar complementing fierce lead guitar became a genuine unified two guitar punk attack performed live. But it was Fast Cars, the pop bliss of I Don’t Mind and a Diggle driven version of Autonomy that stole this first 35 minutes of ear-drum busting fun.

Not as successful, maybe purely because of the discrepancy in consistency when compared to Kitchen, Love Bites had its moments of slight humdrum. This is probably due to the minor attempts at a bit of mainstream pop somewhat populating the album. They’re not overwhelming but they’re present on the occasional song. Kicking it all off with Love Bites’ 4-song ‘smash you in the face’ barrage, the crowd ripped and roared along with the band (whose stamina was in no way diminishing). They somewhat peaked with their biggest “hit”, if they have one, Ever Fallen In Love which created one of a few highlights of the Love Bites run through. While Just Lust fell somewhat flat and Sixteen Again seemed to drag a bit, the sheer enthusiasm that Diggle performed the only Buzzcocks old-school ballad I know Love is Lies brought a smile to my face and the lyrics which alternatively make you think he’s a moron and a genius at the same time (an achievement to be celebrated), came off perfectly. It all wickedly peaked with the early post-rock closer Late For The Train which on record nicely compliments the terse yet quirky E.S.P. but live, completely obliterated it. By this stage I was pretty Non compos, I’d head banged and spilt beer with too much ‘vitriol’ so to speak and while I knew that a few singles would come around that I knew, the next 20 minutes or so was going to be an exercise in exposure. In an immediate attempt to hit us with a classic they ripped into Orgasm Addict which needs no explanation and took us through a tour of early singles making it all just too good with Everybody’s Happy Nowadays in fact it became a bit of a run through of Singles Going Steady (a legendary compilation if you can get your hands on it.)

Seven or eight singles later the Buzzcocks were gone, off to recuperate for a short time only and again invest all their energy in the enjoyment of other punkers another day in another town. The crowd, who were a mix of bogans, old school punkers, people that go to the Gov whoever’s playing and a bunch of piss-weak emo-punk dicks were all pleased, all pissed and mostly a little sore. Pop-punk has been a hunk of shit post Blink 182 even if it survived for so long purely on Husker Du’s intelligence. This wasn’t true on this night. It was awesome to be reminded of where it came from. And that in that place it was still vital, louder than its been, and maybe even more fun. We need to be reminded of this every now and then.

CHECK OUT ALL THE PHOTOS HERE.