the buzzcocks are the greatest band ever - C or C?

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There were so many good English bands from this period. I can't imagine that I'd take any of the songs on Singles Going Steady over, say, "Alternative Ulster" by Stiff Little Fingers, just to name the first thing that comes to mind.

But, anyway, yeah, one of my all-time faves.

I don't think there's a mediocre track on the original SGS (the Euro remaster CD has eight bonus tracks that I haven't really listened to).

-- peter smith (reesewitherspoo...), May 9th, 2005 4:05 PM. (plsmith)

yes, go on

-- Sasha (ahmar...), May 10th, 2005.

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1) at least 3 eras of absolute brilliance : a) Devoto-era sarcastic youthclub punk racket b)the pop era from 'What Do I Get' until 'Harmony In Your Head'. b) the short experimental era including (parts of) A Different Kind Of Tension and the 3 post-ADKOT singles

2) the run of 7 singles from WDIG to HIMH is as good as any 7 by The Beatles, The Kinks, The Pet Shop Boys, The Supremes, The Smiths...

3) like all great singles bands they didn't sound quite like anyone else, and were instantly recognizable on the radio. Great singles bands need at least one visual and one sonic trademark hook (e.g The Beatles head-shaking 'yeeeahs'). The 'Cocks had the 'oh-o-o-o-h' backing vocals and Pete's sideways glances away from the mike on TV)

4) Pete Shelley's camp wail.

5) John Maher's drumming.

6)The weren't afraid to experiment and deviate from a winning formula. This made for great B-sides (Something's Gone Wrong Again, Why Can't I Touch It, Autonomy) and album tracks (..Pulsebeat, Late For The Train, Love is Lies)

7) Shelley's ability to mate buzzsaw punk propulsion with classic unrequieted love/loss/lust themes. Just listen to 'I Don't Mind' - it could have been written by Smokey Robinson or Holland Dozier Holland.

8)Even their comeback era is good - alright the classics are harder to find, but they're there - 369, Crystal Night, Your Love, Jerk, Soul On A Rock.

To compare them to SLF is insane - SLF are halfway decent second gen punk chancers who had 2 and a bit decent songs. They were redundant after the first album.

The Buzzcocks with Devoto have a great claim to be the greatest band ever. But then, so do Magazine.

To which I added 12" versions of Spiral Scratch and the 'hits' EP, and now it looks and feels like a paving slab.

I never heared "Org Ad" at the time, so never felt it as keenly as 'you lot' but the rest (singles) were the ones I grew up with.

I had "kitchen", the version without "I need", so that too.

I 'discovered' the wonders of "Love Bites" and "tension" from this box.

Oh look, I'm going "Classic" wahay...

There was a version of Kitchen without 'I Need'???

I am now listening to 'Chronology' - some wonderful unreleased stuff on there - Running Away From Home, Jesus Made Me Feel Guilty and No Friend Of Mine (actually the latter is Steve Garvey and Karl Burns only).