Gosh, it’s really quick to get to Brixton from North London, isn’t it?
Just a thought I had as we fuelled up, post-tube journey, at Honest Burgers in foodie Brixton Village for the best burger ever. And don’t get me started on the startlingly fabulous chips with rosemary salt.
This was all by way of prelude to our night at the Academy to see the Buzzcocks ‘Back To Front’ tour. The audience were the heartlands of my first piece for The Kentishtowner: as you’d expect, nice middle aged types running the gamut of ‘I’m still punk, really’ to the ‘resigned to cardies and happy with my paunch’ folk. It being such a hot day, there was also a chance to sport a huge variety of not-so-fresh but still striking tattoos and piercings.
The band came on, the new and current line up. It was fine. Energetic, intense and very very loud, but not rabble rousing. There was a huge photo backdrop of the band as they are today in glorious technicolor, which was massively disconcerting, mostly because you were forced to debate: ‘airbrush or botox?’.
Then came part two, announced by an extra from Spinal Tap (probably), the glory years of 1977,78,79. The backdrop photo was from the archives, and a lot more palatable. Out came Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle again, Steve Garvey and John Maher, and the pogo-ing began. Anthemic, jumpy and tight, it was fun and really what we had all traipsed here for.
A little too much swearing – probably unnecessary – but a good nod to our rebellious young selves. Climaxing with ‘Ever Fallen in Love with Someone’, and a mini encore, the crowd were peaking. Fabulous.
And then our MC came back and told us we had now travelled so far back in time we could get the performance of the first Punk EP ‘Spinal Scratch’ and the band returned, this time with Howard Devoto. A cross between Alexei Sayle, Dobby the house elf and a man with an anvil-for-a head, Howard D has probably the greatest stage presence I have witnessed for some time.
Can’t explain it, can’t quantify it, but he totally commanded the room. Maintaining his essential post punkiness, he addressed the aged elephant in the room by checking we had our hearing aids on and whined for his cocoa during the encore. He also did some odd pantomiming with sunglasses, hats and mirrors, but mostly was just super cool and charismatic. Finishing on a high.
A happy posse shuffled out, boarded a surprisingly empty tube, and were probably home by midnight – most likely tucked up in bed before their kids.
Words: Susie Innes
4 thoughts on “Review: Buzzcocks, Brixton Academy”
sorry were you actually at the gig? You’ve got the line-up and running order correct but you’re completely off the mark in respect to the sound and the crowd’s reaction.
The sound at the Academy can be up there with the best – The Specials last year springs to mind as a gig in the same venue when the sound system, the sound engineers and the performers were in harmony – literally.
This sound at this Buzzcocks gig was amateurish – one couldn’t understand a word (apart from the odd expletive) coming from the mikes, the wall of sound meant the guitar riffs and melodies that the Buzzcocks were famous for were lost in a constant blast of sound.
The current line-up of the Buzzcocks, who performed first, were nothing more than a warm-.up act and, to be fair, deserved to be. They were living off the glory of days gone by and played to a luke-warm audience who were there for the original line-up.
But when this original line-up (minus Devoto) came on, the quality of the sound (the sound engineer seemed more interested in the movie playing on his mobile phone than creating the best sound for the audience) was so poor it took several seconds for the audience to realise what song Shelley was singing.
The reviewer does get it right that Devoto, when he briefly appeared, commanded the stage and made up for the pisspoor performance of the diva Steve Diggle who seemed to think he was the messiah and expected the crowd to bow to his every move. Drinking champagne and swearing on stage – well done Diggle that’s true punk rock!
Such a shame – should have been another of those great one-off gigs that only come round once (or twice if you’re lucky) in a lifetime. It should have been up there with The Specials recent bout of gigs, but sadly the amateurish sound and even more amateurish antics of Diggle let the whole thing down – do us a favour Buzzcocks and retire now.
I have to say that I saw the gig the night before at Manchester Apollo and concur wholeheartedly with a lot of what Daniel Attwood says.
I have seen the band a lot of times over the last 30 years, the first performance being
at this same Manchester venue, supported by Joy Division.
The sound mix at Manchester was atrocious…I like a lot of the band’s more recent
output, but you had to concentrate hard to hear which song had just started…bass too
loud, Pete Shelley’s vocals and lead guitar struggling to be heard. Most songs were introduced by a Steve Diggle ‘1-2-3-4’, making the whole thing feel more like a Ramones gig and a real assault on the senses.
No problem with the song choices, but the band felt a bit ragged, maybe due to the large number of songs they’d had to rehearse ?. Audience reaction was muted indeed and this first session seemed interminable.( I found out later that one of our crowd had left early and gone home, finding the sound ‘excruciating’)
The current line-up feels more like a trio. Danny Farrant is an excellent drummer, but where ON EARTH have they got the bass player Chris Remington from ?
I’m not sure the reasons for Tony Barber leaving, but he seems to be sorely missed. I first saw the current incarnation of the band at, of all places, Beverley Folk Festival, a cracking gig, but noticeable for the way that Shelley and Diggle worked the crowd themselves and totally ignored the new man. He possesses zero charisma and seemingly limited bass ability, dreadful.
At the end of the first part I was furious, I was fed up of songs I loved being totally ruined. I was quite close to the mixing desk and mentioned the sound to the lights guy. He said “I know it’s shit, but you can’t tell him how to do his job”. The main sound guy seemed to be a tall, thin, oldish bloke. I tried to attract his attention, but didn’t get the chance to have a word.
There was something magical about seeing the classic line-up together, backed by a picture of them walking down a street in their heyday. John Maher’s drumming seemed somewhat slowed down compared to those heady days, and Steve Garvey’s bass playing was nowhere near as precise, several well-remembered bass riffs going missing, but now there were 4 people on stage, all of roughly the same age and it was amazing how much more presence they had. The sound was still very very poor (how many seconds had passed before i realised they were playing ‘Everybody’s Happy Nowadays ?), but I really enjoyed this second session.
So, the finale with Howard Devoto, sorry, it just didn’t do it for me. Quite a few people found his turn amusing..I’d have preferred a straighter take on one of early punk’s seminal EPs , Shelley looked great in his shades just playing guitar and singing backing vocals, Diggle was quite far gone by now and at one stage was playing the bass like a normal guitar sitting down on the stage.
Sounds like he was on the sauce at both gigs. Normally I’ve got a lot of time for him, he’s always been more the showman than Shelley who has a cooler persona on stage, so am quite prepared to forgive the cheesey grins and posturing as he really does play to the crowd and his enthusiasm is very infectious. But at this gig he was the loudmouth pub bore “Keep the attitude”, “Don’t let the bastards grind you down” etc etc, culminating in an embarrassing drunken rant as the others left the stage at the end.
I wonder how many people were drawn to this gig by the presence of Howard Devoto,
but left never intending to see Buzzcocks again ? That’s a crying shame, such a catalogue of wonderful tunes, ruined in the main by the sound engineer (presumably their own ? )
the sound was terrible – too much treble, no bass. diggle was a bit of a dick but then apparently
he’s always like that. gig would have been a brilliant “one off” if the sound man knew what he
was doing. i was right next to mixing desk so he must have known how bad it sounded.
all in all a disappointment.
I can only agree with the above replies, the sound was terrible and Diggle was just an over the top, arrogant, bore who clearly has a really over-inflated opinion of himself. I have been going to Buzzcocks gigs since 1976 and, though I really enjoyed seeing Garvey, Maher and Devoto back playing the old songs, I really think I cannot go to any more gigs unless Diggle is restrained, there’s nothing wrong with being a showman, there is everything wrong with making a gig a sad embarassment. Even the rest of the band seemed to shun him on stage, as my photos clearly show, for the most part he was on one part of the stage and the other three were on the other half – like they really didn’t want to be with him.