Manchester in the mid- to late-1970s was dark and moody. The International Monetary Fund bailed out the UK economy with a £3.5 billion loan in 1976 as the pound sunk to record lows. There was bitter infighting in the Labour-led government and strikes were in the news headlines.
World Beat: Buzzcocks Photos courtesy of George Banting
I was in university in Manchester during these years, beginning my studies in 1973 and graduating in 1977 at the University of Salford. In my final year, I stayed in the residence halls and despite the stress of final year thesis writing and final exams, plenty of students had already picked up on the rapid rise of something called "punk rock".
I mention the residence halls because above me on the third floor, George Banting, now a research professor, had taken to the music with great enthusiasm -- he bought many of early singles and EPs (my only purchase was the original 1976 John Cooper Clarke EP, Innocents on Rabid Records), including what is sometimes regarded as the first self-produced punk record, the Spiral Scratch EP on the Buzzcocks' own New Hormones label, released in January 1977.
We could hear George bouncing around the room to the manic sounds of punk that within a year had replaced "dinosaur rock", as punks liked to call it (rock music and stadiums, big shows and endless guitar solos were among the gripes of the punks), and the concerts were a lot of fun (if you avoided the spitting wars at the front of the stage).
I graduated in June 1977 and unable to secure a grant for postgraduate studies, I snared a job as a bus conductor for the City of Salford (like many big Northern towns, there are actually two cities in Manchester: Manchester and Salford), taking fares on double-decker buses, and even going as far away as Bolton on the No.8 bus (the longest ride with 56 stops). I mention this because I would go straight to punk gigs from the bus and be complemented on my "look" (drainpipe trousers were big after a decade of decadent flares and bell-bottoms). I also had a great bus partner, driver Mike Arshad, who originally came from Pakistan and clued me into Pakistan food and music. Fun times.
And by 1977, the Manchester punk scene was not so much bubbling along as frothing and foaming at the mouth. I should just mention here the infamous June 4, 1976, Sex Pistols' gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester. The few who attended included Tony Wilson (Factory Records), Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto of the Buzzcocks (Devoto would later leave and form Magazine), Morrisey (The Smiths), Mark E. Smith (The Fall), Bernard Sumner (Joy Division and New Order) and producer Martin Hannet. The show changed popular music in England forever. I should state now, though, that unlike about 50,000 claimants, I did not attend this show; I missed it as I was doing a summer job in a dehydrated garden pea factory in Sheffield.
Here's one chord, here's another. Now form a band. That was the DIY philosophy -- it kicked off punk in the Northern cities and paved the way for indie rock.
World Beat: Buzzcocks Photos courtesy of George Banting
This reverie has come about because frontman and songwriter for the Buzzcocks Pete Shelley died last week at the age of 63 and there has been a lot of social media commentary from music fans in this region, many of whom it seems were inspired to pick up a guitar by songs like the classic Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't Have) and Harmony In My Head. If you had told me in 1976 that indie bands in Singapore and punks in Thailand and the Philippines would revere the Buzzcocks I would have thought you were bonkers.
Shelley wrote great three-minute pop songs, and in a way the Buzzcocks were more melodic than some of the more strident punk acts like the Sex Pistols. Shelley had a gift for great lyrical hooks and a gift for getting out his message, often about unrequited love, in a very simple way (think of the two-note guitar solo in Boredom).
Many of his songs endured the test of time. At the Buzzcocks Nov 28, 2009, show at Club Culture here in Bangkok, many people in the audience were able to sing along. The band did a version of Boredom that still lingers long in my memory. Pete Shelley no longer looked like the snarling "young 'un" he was back in the mid-1970s but as they say, the bank rocked. I'm not a great fan of rock music but the Buzzcocks and later The Clash are exceptions for me.
The only thing that had really changed at the Buzzcocks' Bangkok gig was the "look" of the audience. Back in Manchester in 1977 everyone seemed to be stick thin and many punks had chains, safety pins and brightly coloured punk Mohican haircuts, spiky and glued in place, and drainpipe trousers. In Bangkok, most of the audience seemed to be somewhat fatter, with tattoos, vests and shaven heads. And no one "gobbed" at the front of the stage, which was a relief.
And with punks trying to hold a concert here a few weeks ago to play for freedom, the authorities shut them down. That rebellious punk spirit which kicked off in London and Manchester remains alive and well, miles away from where it began.
Peter Shelley, left, plays Bangkok in 2009. Fans at the Bangkok show. Photos: John Clewley
John Clewley can be contacted at clewley.john@gmail.com
