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| The Buzzcocks
 Though they hardly need an introduction, The Buzzcocks are known as one of England's premiere punkers of the late 1970s - producing a run of nine chart singles and thee Top 30 albums. Having recently appeared at the Warped festival in the States and on the back of their brand new album 'Flat Pack Philosophy', The Buzzcocks are back once again for an extensive Australian tour which will see them in Adelaide mid-September.
After spending so many years on the road as a punk band, you'd think one would eventually grow tired and bored of the touring regime...Well, apparently not, according to The Buzzcocks' lead guitarist and vocalist Steve Diggle, who claims his enthusiasm for performing live will never extinguish as long as he lives.
"You'd think it would, wouldn't you? To tell you the truth, it never really goes away. It's simple in the way that if you love what you are doing, well, you're not going to get tired of it, are you? Even when you're as old as we are," Diggle chuckles. "A lot of it has to do with changing your set between the shows, by which I mean you get bored quickly when you play the same songs all the time. What we try to do is reflect what the new album is all about. So, if you're familiar with the album that's pretty much what you can expect from the set."
When it comes to the subject of contemporary music, Diggle does not seem to think very highly of bands currently going under the name of 'punk-rock'.
It's simply too much about style and choreography, when it comes to modern-day punk, as far as Diggle is concerned. "Look, there's a big difference between bands that were around in our time and the bands that are doing big things now. Where do I start on this? It's hard because, while there are lots of good things happening, there are more bad things. It's like there was something more real or solid that you could get out of The Sex Pistols or The Clash, it was more unique. It was about finding your individuality and going against the rules...Whereas today, these young bands don't seem to understand that. It's like they think by emulating what we did they are being original."
When The Buzzcocks started out, Diggle opines, music was spontaneous - an attribute that today's musicians seem to be lacking.
"The first record by The Ramones just came out when we got started in this band and we really liked it. But the difference is that we never tried to emulate or copy that. We could acknowledge that there was a lot of good music out there, but that didn't necessarily mean that we wanted to play that exact same music in our band, you know? Actually, speaking of good bands, I must say we're big fans of one of your bands over there, The Spazzys, they're a great bunch of girls, play some really great music, you guys should be proud of them."
Still on the subject of criticism, Diggle continues that it's not like The Buzzcocks themselves never experienced negative feedback from peers and critics alike at one stage.
As Diggle recalls, "You can't really please everyone all at once, there's always going to be someone who is not entirely satisfied no matter what you do. You know, you slightly change your style a little bit and people start crying that you've changed into something completely different or, on the other hand, say you stay the same throughout your career and don't change at all, then they say you're scared of evolving. We got that one for one of our albums, but what can you do. We've found that most of the critics have not really been all that familiar with all of our albums. If they had been they would have noticed the diversity."
With the Australian tour coming up, Diggle says that he couldn't be more happy with Sydney-siders the Happy Hate Me Nots filling in the band's support slot for the majority of the Au2ssie shows.
"We hear they are big fans of ours and whatnot, but it's not about that, they play some really great punk-rock too and a great support band is always one of the crucial things about a successful tour. We can't wait to see all of you Adelaide folks!"
Nina Bertok
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The Buzzcocks play at Fowler's Live on Sat 16 September.
'Flat Pack Philosophy' is out now through Shock. |
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