AN AUDIENCE WITH...
STEVE DIGGLE
The Buzzcocks bosun talks acid, existentialism, accidental genius and missing Pete Shelley
Interview by SAM RICHARDS
Rock’n’roll survivor: Steve Diggle in London, 2024
WILKOWILKINSON
“It just seemed like a necessary thing to do it ourselves”
“I ’VE got a bit of the Keith Richards constitution,” decides Steve Diggle, tucking into a liquid lunch at his Highgate local. “I’ve seen the sex, drugs and rock’n’roll a billion times, but I’m still going. The inbuilt gyroscope keeps you on course. I’ve been very lucky considering how old I am now!”
Following the death of his co-frontman Pete Shelley in 2018, Diggle resolved to keep the Buzzcocks show on the road, to the point where he’s playing so many gigs this year, he’s almost lost track. “We did the West Coast of America a few months back, we’re doing the East Coast in September. We come back, we do Australia. We’ve got a festival in Greece, we go to Budapest next week… It’s all I’ve known since I was 20. I’ve been very fortunate to be touring forever. But that’s your lifeblood, really – that’s what I like to do. And it’s been quite amazing. I never thought I’d be doing this in the first place, but I realised I was built for it.”
In the midst of such a busy live schedule, Diggle has found time to pen his autobiography, Autonomy: Portrait Of A Buzzcock. “I didn’t really plan anything, it just spilled out.” So what did he learn about himself? “I learned that I’m a survivor, but you do wonder how it all happened. It was magic, in a way.”