Buzzcocks - Auf Wiedersehen DVD (review)
Buzzcocks - Auf Wiedersehen (Cherry Red Films DVD; CRDVD003N)
reviewed by Michael Macomber
The Buzzcocks have always been more pop than punk, a melodic anomaly on the late 1970s and early ’80s punk rock scene. This live set from 1981 shows them at the height of their popularity and power, singing songs of love and hate, fear and loathing, romance and madness. Pete Shelley’s sweet and sour vocals are fabulous, ripping through each tune. Ditto for Steve Diggle, who attacks every one of his songs with a fury.
Diggle and Shelley had a way with a lyric that set them apart from the crowd. Diggle’s philosophical epics were always a nice compliment to Shelley’s more poetic emotional rants. And in both cases, the musical approach fell somewhere between the Beatles and a runaway freight train.
Watching Diggle tear at his guitar while he bellows out “Harmony In My Head” is amazing. He is in time, in tune, and deliciously atonal and chaotic all at once. For anyone who hasn’t seen or heard The Buzzcocks, this may be hard to imagine — but it was the group’s stock in trade.
Shelley achieves much the same effect on “What Do I Get,” with the added bonus of his devilishly sly delivery. He is the world’s greatest jilted lover, spitting out his anger and disappointment. Shelley’s “Lipstick” comes across as a mixture of regret and irony, with the band ripping it up in a brilliant break.
All 18 tracks on this DVD are astounding, particularly the bonus cut from 1996, a rendition of The Buzzcocks signature tune, “Boredom,” performed at the Holidays In The Sun Festival. The simplicity of “Boredom” has always been its great strength, and The Buzzcocks clearly know this, as they drill through the song in the most basic and blunt way possible. Still, the guitars are in perfect harmony, as are the vocals.
More than a decade after this performance, and with a 30 year career behind them, The Buzzcocks continue to be the leading purveyors of melody and chaos. This DVD is a marvelous opportunity for old fans to look back at the band’s glorious early days, and for potential new fans to discover something wonderful.
