Buzzcocks

we’d had quite a few hits at that point, done quite a few tours. Some of the singles I wrote like “Promises” and “Harmony…” weren’t on albums. I’d written “Promises”, the music and the chorus, but I’d lef my verses at home. Pete said, “I’ve got some verses,” and he ended up singing it. I said to him, “You’ve made it into a love song…” because “Promises” was [originally] about the government. JOHN MAHER [drums]: The thing with “Harmony In My Head” – we’d obviously gone through the love song phase, the pop songs. Myself and Steve Diggle were interested in doing something a bit dif erent. I can’t remember how it was put forward as a single; I guess Steve was f ghting his corner on it – it was Steve trying to rock things up a little bit. ALAN WINSTANLEY: “Harmony…” is interesting as it’s the only one Steve Diggle sings – it doesn’t have that Pete Shelley sweetness – but when he comes in on the chorus it really changes it. Then of Steve goes again with his growly voice. STEVE DIGGLE: I thought it was time to do something heavier. I wanted to get back to the roots of the matter. I wanted it to be as powerful as “Anarchy In The UK” and to give Top Of The Pops a kick in the face. Because we’d had “Ever Fallen In Love?” and “Promises” and we didn’t want people to get the wrong idea. It’s not all fucking nice, is it? We needed something heavy really which is how I came up with “Harmony In My Head”. JOHN MAHER: Richard Boon, our manager, was very keen on the idea that the singles weren’t just pulled of the album. There was an approach to make the single a bit more special in its own right. We did resort to having singles pulled of the albums eventually, but there was certainly an initial reluctance to do that. STEVE DIGGLE: With the singles, there was a value for money attitude. If you put out a single which had been on the album, that was selling out. We cut our teeth doing interviews with fanzine writers – that was serious journalism. You were lucky to get out of the club alive af er an interview with those kinds of people: “You’ve signed a deal – you’ve sold out.” We said no to selling out, but then “I Don’t Mind” came out months af er the f rst album. So those [standalone] singles were about not selling out – but also because by the time it came to doing a new album we’d have some more songs. JOHN MAHER: United Artists, particularly when [legendary A&R man] Andrew Lauder was there, were keen on letting us do what we wanted to do. Otherwise they wouldn’t have put out “Orgasm Addict” and “Oh Shit” [B-side of “What Do I Get?”] f rst – not exactly commercial radio-friendly stuf .

“I guess Steve was fighting his corner… trying to rock things up a little bit”

JOHN MAHER

MALCOLM GARRETT [sleeve

designer]: The whole thing was about personal identity as well as DIY. They signed to majors but were in control of their visual identity. I was interested in the front, the back and the label. Nothing was allowed to be… wrong, including conventional record company marketing. We felt we were smarter than the rest and we could do it in a more appropriate and original way with Buzzcocks. STEVE DIGGLE: The songs were always there. It was part of the way of life: you got up, you wrote a song. If Pete had a song or if I had a song we’d do it very quick in the af ernoon, get it done because the pubs opened at 5.30pm. It’s true! You could hear people in the next room, they’d still be rehearsing the intro to a song. We’d just written a hit single and would be on Top Of The Pops the next week! There was a lot of of -the-ball work went on between me and Pete Shelley – I think who he was came out in his songs, and who I was in mine. When you’re in your twenties, there’s a lot of internal searching. JOHN MAHER: We’d had a thing where every time we released a single we’d get on Top Of The Pops and that peaked with [1978 single] “Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)”. There was a bit of a reaction when we released “Everybody’s Happy Nowadays” [in 1979]. Lyrically it’s very cynical. Weirdly people perceived the singles which came out prior to that as these very poppy love songs – whereas the lyrical content if you dig into it, in a song like “Love You More”, is a bit darkerthanwhatpeople

“Things were going darker still”: the Buzzcocks in 1979

“Theharmony in my head wasthesound of the crowd. That’showreal life is”

STEVEDIGGLE

sawonthesurface.“Everybody’sHappy Nowadays”wasaperiodwhenthings weregoingdarkerstill. STEVEDIGGLE:Atthattimehavinggone throughthemillyousortofquestionyour sanity.Youstartofinrock’n’rollthinking it’sallgoingtobeeasy,butit’satough road:thedrink,drugs,theparties,the actualwriting.Youtieyourselftothemast likeTurneranditallcomesatyou. JOHNMAHER:Around1979,Petethought itwasallgettingabitmuchandthefact thatStevecamealongwith“HarmonyIn MyHead”,itpossiblyallowedPetetostep backabit.Petewouldretreatintohimself. Thesedayswearebettertalkingabout mentalhealth.IthinkIprobablythought, ‘Pullyoursocksup,let’sgetonwithit…’ STEVEDIGGLE:“HarmonyInMyHead” wasvenomous.IwasreadingJames Joyce’sUlysses,whichisaheavybook. Butithadalotofcinematicimagery –so“Harmony”wasn’talinearstory likepopsongsare.TheArndaleCentre [Manchestershoppingcentre,fveyears intheconstruction]hadjustbeenbuilt anditgavemearealsenseofalienation.I wantedtowalkdownthestreetandhear thepercolationofthecrowd–thatwasthe FACT FILE

Writtenby: SteveDiggle Recorded:Eden Studios,Acton, westLondon Producedby: MartinRushent (producer);Alan Winstanley (engineer) Personnel:Steve Diggle(guitar, vocals),Pete Shelley(guitar), JohnMaher (drums),Steve Garvey(bass), MalcolmGarrett (sleevedesigner) Highestchart position:UK32;US–harmony. Life was never going to be sweet and nice and it’s not always doom and gloom. The harmony in my head was the sound of the crowd. That’s how real life is. JOHN MAHER: As time went on, Steve was wanting to put a stamp on things. When Ilookbacktotheverybeginningsofthe band,withHowardandPetetherewas verymuchasenseof“ThisisHowardand Pete’sthing”.Iwasjustdelightedtobea partofit.NotputtingSteve’scontribution downatall,butIthinkhewasabitlike me–he’dbeendrafedinandwasthere, allowingthingstohappenwhichwere pushedforwardbyPeteandHoward. STEVEDIGGLE:Werecorded“Harmony…” atEdenstudiosinActonandmixedin Marqueestudios.[Producer]Martin Rushentwasasfastasus.You’dgoin,say, “Thisisthesong”,bangthreeversions downandthenpickthebestoneandwork onit.AlanWinstanley,whowentontodo Madness,wastheengineer.Martin,he didn’tinterferewithanything.Theband hadthemagicanyway–youjusthadto stickthemicsinfrontandletthebanddo thework,really. JOHNMAHER:Ofallthepeopleweworked withinthefrstperiodofBuzzcocksfrom 1976-81,MartinRushentwasthebest.Not justfromatechnicalpointofview,hewas verygoodathowhedealtwithpeople.It’s almostlikebeingasocialworker. ALANWINSTANLEY:Youweretryingto recreatetheirliveshows,inaway.What MartinandIdidwascapturealivesound aswedidwithTheStranglersand999.We

never had booths, just screens in front of the drums, and the guitar amps. The only thing that would have been dif erent was Steve’s voice, so we might have done some jiggery-pokery on that.

TIMELINE

STEVE DIGGLE: With “Harmony” I wanted that attack, that aggression, which we captured. We found some microphones in the cupboard, a really old-fashioned ribbon microphone, and I think that’s what we used in the chorus. It’s got a lovely sound; my voice is double-tracked – but it’s got a real warmth to it.

MALCOLM GARRETT:

There’s a huge amount of confusion about the red and the blue sleeves. I think I specif ed blue and Steve suggested red which I was happy with. It got marked up for blue but proofed in red, which was f ne and correct but it had been passed on to the printing company that there had been a change. They changed it to red and then they changed it back to blue. So Steve was happy with the proofs, but then when he saw the sleeve he was very unhappy. There was another batch printedinredandthesearemuchrarer;all ofthemajorsaleswereinthefrstbatch. JOHNMAHER:AtTopOfThePops,we’d probablytakenadvantageofthedrinks inthebar.ThestoryIrememberabout “Harmony”isthattheywouldcakethis makeuponwhichmadeyoulookbetteron TV.ThiswasabigdealforSteve,sohe’d hadthreeorfourdays’beardgrowthto lookabitmorerock’n’roll.Butinmakeup theyputthisstufonhisfaceandthey blottedouthiswhiskersandyoucouldn’t seethem.Hewasabitmifedaboutit,so thewomansaid,“WellIcandrawitback onforyouifyoulike…”Soshegotthis pencilanddrewstubblebackonhim. STEVEDIGGLE:With“Harmony”we weren’tontour,soitstayedat32for sixweeks,selling100,000aweek.It’s amazingnow–butitdidn’tmove.Some peoplesayit’stheirfavouriteandbetter than“EverFallenInLove”.It’snota competition,butit’sinterestingthat peoplegetthatsideofthings.Ithinkitgets arawdealfromradio.It’seasierforthem toplay“EverFallenInLove”thanitis “Harmony”.It’saneasierpilltoswallow.

CompleteUnitedArtistssingles 1977-19807”boxsetisreleasedby DominoonJanuary15

THURSTON MOORE

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