{"id":2037,"date":"2012-05-26T14:23:53","date_gmt":"2012-05-26T14:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/?p=2037"},"modified":"2012-05-28T20:57:54","modified_gmt":"2012-05-28T20:57:54","slug":"buzzcocks-back-to-front-manchester-apollo-250512","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/2012\/05\/26\/buzzcocks-back-to-front-manchester-apollo-250512\/","title":{"rendered":"Buzzcocks – Back to Front, Manchester Apollo – 25\/05\/12"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When Sledge and I heard about this gig, we got on line and booked tickets right away.\u00a0 In an interview, Pete Shelley revealed that their promoter had said \u201cIf you want to play bigger venues, you need a story\u201d \u2013 So, tonight\u2019s story was \u201cBUZZCOCKS<\/a> \u2013 Back to front\u201d \u2013 3 sets by the band \u2013 the first as they are now, the second as they were during the \u2018hit years\u2019 and the third as their short lived explosive genesis – all 3 featuring Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle.<\/p>\n

It was weird going to the Apollo again. I cut my gig going teeth<\/a> there, starting with the Stranglers in 1979<\/a> but hadn\u2019t been there for 27 years (the last time was Dec 1985 to see Rick Mayall with Ben Elton in support!). Walking through the foyer brought back all sorts of nostalgic memories \u2013 mainly about dragging my dad out of bed to pick me up as I\u2019d missed the night bus home\u2026..<\/p>\n

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Inside it seemed much smaller than I remembered it. All the seats were gone from the downstairs thank goodness, so we easily got to the front. From there on in, it was the same as it was 30 years ago. The band blasting your ears, jumping around in a hot sweaty mosh-pit with lots of good natured banter, helping up those who\u2019d fallen as well as some vicious drunk bastards intent on causing everyone around them physical harm \u2013 it was ace! There was one enormous guy who I nicknamed \u2018the beast\u2019 who just gently bobbed up and down all night with others just bouncing off him in a cartoon style.<\/p>\n

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Marc Riley<\/a> was the compare, noting that when the Fall supported the Buzzcocks, they always stayed behind to see the main act as they never disappointed. They didn\u2019t disappoint tonight although the sound was pretty awful \u2013 if we didn\u2019t know the songs off by heart they\u2019d have been pretty unrecognisable. Even between songs when Shelley or Diggle talked to the crowd \u2013 you couldn\u2019t tell what they were saying. In some ways it didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

When the \u2018Mark II\u2019 Buzzcocks came on, there was genuine love in the room for John Maher and Steve Garvey…..and what a set list \u2013 \u2018Fast Cars\u2019 \u2018You say you don\u2019t love me\u2019 \u2018Promises\u2019 \u2018I don\u2019t mind\u2019 \u2018Fiction Romance\u2019 \u2018Ever fallen in love\u201d \u2026\u2026.everything from \u2018Orgasm Addict\u2019 to \u2018Harmony in my Head\u2019. The best sing-a-long moments we\u2019re \u2018Why can\u2019t I touch it\u2019 and \u2018Love you more\u2019 \u2013 just glorious.<\/p>\n

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As the evening progressed, Diggle was getting visiably worse for wear (it was funny to see Shelley, Maher and Garvey on the right of the stage raising eyebrows and shaking heads whilst Diggle went off on one during ‘Moving away from the pulsebeat’).<\/p>\n

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He was with it just enough for bass duty for the final\/first incarnation with Howard Devoto as lead singer. The rest of the band came on and started \u2018Breakdown\u2019 \u2013 then Devoto ran on with the mike in both hands and started singing \u2013 it was a joy to see <\/a>\u2013 hilarious! He spoilt it a bit with some stage theatrics but hearing \u2018Boredom\u2019 live was worth the wait. Things got a bit chaotic then with missed starts and forgotten lyrics and we were left with Diggle punching the air and shouting about Manchester into his microphone as the sweaty masses dispersed \u201c….Bring back the Smiths an\u2019all!\u201d\u2026..!<\/p>\n

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Home, and what did I get? The new edition of Mojo had landed on my doorstep and there was a punky version of the Beatles \u2018Think for yourself\u2019 on the CD by none other than Pete Shelley, just proving who the real star is\u2026\u2026..<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bob the Chiropodist<\/p>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Sledge and I heard about this gig, we got on line and booked tickets right away.\u00a0 In an interview, Pete Shelley revealed that their promoter had said \u201cIf you want to play bigger venues, you need a story\u201d \u2013 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gigs-reviews","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2037"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2069,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037\/revisions\/2069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}