Harmony in his head
The complete Buzzcocks, from their windmill-riffing guitarist.
By Andrew Perry.
Still getting a Buzz: Steve Diggle in 1978, a “noble soldier”.
Chris Gabrin/Redferns/Getty
Autonomy: Portrait Of A Buzzcock ★★★★
Steve Diggle
OMNIBUS. £20
IT WAS “like being punched in slow motion”, when rock lifer Diggle heard that Buzzcocks frontman Pete Shelley – his sparring partner, and, of course, the main author of the band’s golden run of punk-pop 45s from 1977-79 – had suffered a fatal heart attack in Tallinn, Estonia, on December 6, 2018.
“It was always me and Pete, from day one, the one unifying constant,” he colourfully reflects in his prologue, “from Stalybridge to Sunset & Vine, from bathtub speed to Moët et Chandon… and, as people, polar opposites.” Still stunned post-wake, Diggle wonders, minus expletives, “what now?”