As previously covered by editor Ian Fillingham, the Buzzcocks return to Rock City a second time round with their road show ‘The Buzzcocks Way’ featuring the original members of Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle in what is essentially a celebration of the band’s most loved singles in all its ’77 punk flair. Yes, it had been a good thirty years since their Manchester hey-days, but I was eager to see a band associated with the likes of The Sex Pistols and The Clash as being at the forefront of the UK punk revolution.
Eager fans that arrived earlier were lucky enough to catch the support band The Dollyrots. Offering a somewhat noisy but none the less endearing set of energised punk rock tunes, they hailed as a three piece from across the pond, remarking fondly to the crowd of their love for our ‘tea’ and ‘health service’ before ploughing through a perfectly paced set that had us all in applause when it came to an end. If there was no other job to be done but that of warming up the now busy audience, it was a job done in true punk fashion.
The Buzzcocks poured onto the stage much to the anticipation of the people before it and immediately launched into their well known anthem ‘Boredom’, following on with a crash course of (fairly) new and old tunes without so much as a water break. By the time a wrinkled Pete Shelley came to say hello, the crowds ears were reverberating with the sound of crashing symbols.
Offering little in the way of talk, most of the songs did the talking for Buzzcocks, whom were tight rhythmically and still as dynamic as the younger crowd could only imagine they were back in the day. A personal highlight was the popular tune ‘Ever Fallen In Love With Someone’, executed to perfect precision. Whilst offering nothing in the way of the experimental or ‘out there’, The Buzzcocks played what they play and that’s that; for those expecting nothing less, this was a great evening of entertainment.
Mike Burman
Image by Picksysticks, MTV Asia & jeanclaire
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