News

To start the new year right: classic English punk and a shot of what’s next; the definitive account of the greatest British white-r&B band of the Sixties that you still don’t know; and experimental vigor from Norway, vintage and immediate.

The Buzzcocks, Another Music in a Different Kitchen; Love Bites (Domino)

The latest CD-and-vinyl iterations of the Buzzcocks’ first two albums didn’t arrive in time for their 40th-anniversary deadline. By cruel coincidence, these newly remastered English-punk landmarks — originally issued in rapid-fire sequence in March and September...

Spill a drink and smash the glass for the late, great Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks, one of the most humane, compassionate, emotionally raw songwriters punk rock ever coughed up, not to mention the funniest. He twisted all the gender codes of rock & roll, casually shrugging off the masculine clichés punk inherited, pouring his heart out into three-minute vignettes. “Ever Fallen In Love,” “Get on Our Own,” “What Do I Get?,” “I Don’t Know What to Do With My Life” — these songs were emotionally urgent enough to make his peers sound like drooling cartoons.

Anyone expecting a sweet remembrance of the life and times of Marianne Theresa Johnson-Reddick was in for a surprise if they opened the obituary pages this week in the local newspaper. "On behalf of her children who she abrasively exposed to her evil and violent life, we celebrate her passing from this earth and hope she lives in the after-life reliving each gesture of violence, cruelty and shame that she delivered on her children," the scathing obituary begins. Now circling the globe on the Internet, the obit was written by Johnson-Reddick's adult children, whose horror stories prompted Nevada to become...

Buzzcocks have confirmed reports that they will play a pair of career-spanning shows featuring three different lineups. The punk icons will their 'Back To Front' performance to the Manchester O2 Academy on May 25 and London's O2 Academy Brixton the following day. "They'll kick off with new and contemporary material featuring the current line-up of Pete Shelley (vocals / guitar), Steve Diggle (vocals / guitar), Chris Remington (bass guitar) and Danny Farrant (drums)," organisers confirmed. "Part two sees Pete and Steve perform the United Artists 'classic years' tunes featuring the classic line-up of Shelley / Diggle and Steve Garvey (bass guitar) and John Maher (drums). They added: "The evening's proceedings will be brought to a clamouring close in part three by Pete, Steve, and (more)...

Buzzcocks will reportedly play two special shows next March featuring different lineups from across their career. The current band - Pete Shelley, Steve Diggle, Chris Remmington and Danny Farrant - will start the shows, before Remmington and Farrant make way for Steve Garvey and John Maher to recreate the group's classic 1978-1979 lineup, Louder Than War reports. It is suggested that Garvey will then depart the stage and be replaced by founding frontman Howard Devoto. The band will then play tracks from their era-defining Spiral Scratch Ep and songs which later appeared in demo form on Times Up. It is thought that the shows will take place at the Manchester Apollo on May 25 and London's Brixton Academy on May 26. Devoto, real name Howard Trafford, and Shelley, real name Peter McNeish, founded Buzzcocks (more)...