HarmonyIn My Head
by Buzzcocks
CHRIS GABRIN; ROBIN MARCHANT/GETTY IMAGES; SHIRLAINE FORREST/WIREIMAGE; GRAEME BULCRAIG
After a clutch of melodic punk-pop hits, their other songwriter steps in to add some grit: “I wanted to give Top Of The Pops a kick in the face”
I
N the estimable singles catalogue of the Buzzcocks, Manchester’s first wave experimental melodic punks, “Harmony In My Head” is something of an oddity. There’s a couple of reasons for this. Amid an impressive collection of songs that are alternately candid and spiky, witty and melodic, lovelorn and catchy, this is the only single of the post-Howard Devoto era to be sung by their lead guitarist, Steve Diggle and not by the band’s singer/ guitarist Pete Shelley. Not only that, it’s certainly the only Buzzcocks song by either writer to transform itself in the live arena into a freeform testifying anti-establishment
rap. To examine footage from London’s Roundhouse of the Buzzcocks’ 40thanniversary tour in 2016 is to observe Steve Diggle as the song’s lightning rod, using it to receive unstable electrical charge from historic rock’n’roll forces. While a recessive Shelley keeps pace with the song’s digressions, a wry smile on his face, Diggle prowls the stage – intermittently thrashing his guitar and delivering an improvisational sermon against the commercial wrongs of the world. “You add a lot of dimension to it,” Diggle told me in 2016 of the band’s 21stcentury reworking of old songs. “You can fill ’em out with more experience: you find other noises, vibes. It’s part of the craft.
KEY PLAYERS
Steve Diggle Vocals, guitar, songwriter
John Maher Drums
Alan Winstanley Engineer
Malcolm Garrett Sleeve designer Mondrian love: (l–r) Steve Diggle, Steve Garvey, Pete Shelley and John Maher
A song like ‘Harmony In My Head’, with noises in the middle, it takes it somewhere else. It’s a long journey of experience – you’re almost different people.” A few years on, and with Pete Shelley sadly no longer with us, the low-key give and take that was once the narrative between Shelley and Diggle has necessarily settled into something a bit more one-sided. Still, Diggle remains keen to represent for his contributions to Buzzcocks’ oeuvre. After early co-writing credits, during the band’s period of peak chart achievement he contributed chords and chorus to “Promises” (with verses written and sung by Shelley). Then shortly after Shelley’s “Everybody’s Happy Nowadays”, he delivered “Harmony In My Head”, the second of the band’s two standalone singles of 1979. As was customary for the band in the period, the Buzzcocks appeared on Top Of The Pops to mime to the record. There’s miming and then there’s miming, though, and Steve Diggle’s front-foot performance is a classic example of a musician claiming their moment in the spotlight – and loving it. “I was quite punk and with The Clash on that, about not appearing – you can’t sell out,” Diggle says today. “But then you think, ‘Well, it does enhance the programme…’” JOHN ROBINSON ALAN WINSTANLEY [engineer]: I just thought they were really good musicians for young kids. They started off as a punk band but they developed. “Ever Fallen In Love” was a fantastic pop song – they were a punk band but they played pop songs. STEVE DIGGLE [guitar; vocals]: We’d been around the block a few times. I don’t know how many singles we’d had, but
