as i remember 2nd hand tour was supported by simple minds and the mighty whah, correct use was bauhaus.

Devoto's among numerous main players interviewed in Don Letts' outstanding, very comprehensive 'Punk Attitude' documentary currently showing on telly here in the U.S. (American TV's not all bad!) The film's got the feel of 'Filth and Fury' and is packed with great action clips, including Magazine. It's out on DVD in the U.K. in October.

Thanks..was wondering when it was going to be available over here.

Yeah, you can place your order at Amazon now. I now have to evacuate my building. There's a backpack been left on the sidewalk ... sorry, pavement outside my building and the NYPD bomb squad's just arrived. So this is real life? Yep, you're tellin' me.

Anybody going to the Urbis next Friday? Anybody got any burning questions they would like me to ask Howard or Pete?

Part 1 I've read this site with great interest for quite a while. Now time to break a taboo. I'm actually going to post something on the internet, god knows what will follow, but what the hell. I love Magazine and have done since '76. Put a gun to my head and ask 'what is the greatest album ever made' and my answer is 'Real life' (or daylight or soap, or even magic if it had had JMcG on it). Anyway, so far so dull. A couple of points; 1) In the discussions about video material I've seen no mention of the 'Rainy Season' video. This was on the video jukebox at one of my local pubs, and very good it was to. HD battling through willow trees and ripping out empty draws at appropriate points. Someone even told me that Rainy Season was on the jukebox at the Queen Vic (the pub in Eastenders apparently). Not being a viewer of this programme myself, I can't vouch for the veracity of this, but the source was sound.

4) I once saw the Smiths support Magazine/HD/ Luxuria, can't remember which. What is it with HD and support acts? No wonder he's pissed off. 5) Spoke once to Allan St Clair, guitarist on HD's solo tour. He told me a nice story. HD used to come into the shop where he worked to by his guitar strings. He was a Magazine nut and nagged HD to give him a try. He said 'imagine how it feels a few months later to be stood on a stage banging out 'permafrost'. Not sure how true it is, but he went far (ish) with Theatre of Hate. For the record, he also said JMcG was an egotistical wanker, whereas DF and BA were good guys to go for a beer with. HD was not easy, smacked out most of the time. Just conveying the message.. Look forward to carrying on reading the comments here

2) Maybe the appearance on TOTP was the fist nail in Magazine's coffin, but I, for one, thought it was great. So, HD didn't move so much and looked a bit pale, but I thought it was brilliant. After all, Magazine were no Sham 69 (thank god). Enigmatic with knobs on I thought.3) Simple minds cribbed Magazine mercilessly after their stint as support. Jim Kerr was a third rate HD impersonator and note the change in their musical style, post Magazine support spot. The fact that they released an album called 'Real life', just adds insult to injury.

Welcome cpl. Interesting stuff. Didn't know there was a Rainy Season vid. I still play the single sometimes. Don't want to be picky but HD was singing with Buzzcocks in 76, M'zine formed in 77. LOL. Theatre of Hate- I once went for acupuncture & the practitioner was their old bass player.

Whoops, what a mistake to make.. it was '77. By way of penance, it was of course HD the Smiths supported, 7 August 1983 London Lyceum. They were rubbish (got better later though).

cpl in japan.. interesting comment on the HD smack. look back at my posts. look what fears done to my body. crave again.

Hey,don't knock the chevrons.. you'd pay a lot nowadays for that sort of branding.

That SBBS cover image was by Odilon Redon, whose 'Cactus Man' featured on the cover of 'Give Me Everything'. There's plenty about him on t'internet.

just googled Redon... his Spirit of the Forest (Specter from a Giant Tree) is the absolute dead spit of Howard...spooky cpl in japan; i had no idea about the smack but i knew about his dislike of ants

flux, pants on fire. i told you the smack thing months ago. check history.

Anyone at Urbis tonight? Come on, spill the beans..

Desperately seeking a copy of the Magazine/Wire 'Dominoe' bootleg - anyone out there willing to do a cd copy for us?

nippon is a good ant killer.

I was at the Urbis! How much info would you like? (Shares secret smile with no-one in particular). No - seriously - do you just want personal snapshots or do you want a full-blown account (I was sad enough to be taking notes!)....

Give Me Everything

Hee hee! I'm not sure how much text you can put up at a time so I might have to do this in bits....(And I don't think it's really possible to post at length on here so I'll just give you the edited highlights!If you want to know any more just ask - or email me..

We entered the room....at the alloted time. The event was held in a large room with about 200 chairs set out and a small stage at the front - it looked like the set of a low budget chat show, with a screen behind for visuals. An uncertain start - the girl who introduced the evening was embarrassingly nervous and inept and sound problems threatened to marr the evening. Things improved when John Robb took the mic and Howard, Pete and Richard took their seats on the stage.If you had no idea who these esteemed gentlemen were the image before your eyes would have been of three, slightly gone to seed, middle-aged men reminiscing.

The whole premis of the evening was that John was going to lead Howard, Pete and Richard through a discussion of a very short period of musical history ie from Howard and Pete meeting, to Howard leaving the band.I don't think much was actually revealed about that period that people don't already know, so I won't go through it all - ask me if you want to know anything specific. Pete was relaxed and seemed to be enjoying the experience; Howard was a bit twitchy and fidgety, but he was definately up for the experience and had evidently put quite a lot of preparation into the evening - and had brought some rare pics, footage etc to show. He had a plastic bag by the side of him and from time to time would pull out certain effects eg a postcard that never actually got sent to R or a passage from a book he wanted to share.

I got the impression that HD is a bit of a perfectionist and would actually have liked more control over the proceedings. Things didn't always run as smoothly as he would've liked and he kept prompting the visuals people to put up the rightimage on the screen behind - or gently admonishing John for missing bits out of the story. R was a peripheral figure - and pointed out to J several times that he was actually there!

Eventually, the discussion got onto the always interesting point of why H actually left The Buzzcocks when he did. Howard said: 'Punk was ok for a while. Some of the songs had an aggression in them that wasn't me. It started pushing a lot of things I didn't like. Suddenly there were a lot of people doing it' (And then he admitted that part of the reason was he actually wanted to finish his college course). When Pete was asked how he felt about this he said; 'It was like his mum had called him in for his tea.' - to which Howard replied: 'Fuck off!'- and sulked for a bit! (P also said to him : 'It was disappointing to see you go so early.')

At this point, it was time for questions from the audience and the mic was passed around. Not many were dealt with in detail. Someone asked an intellectual question about celebrity culture v punk rock but no-one on the panal either understood it or could be bothered to give an intelligent reply. I bravely took the mic and asked them what current music they enjoyed - and to be honest I can't even remember Pete's answer.I prompted H in my best professional manner 'and Howard - what about you?' but his answer was probably ironic - he said Rach....(name of classical composer) and Jeff Beck.

At the end (after another embarrassing speech from our host) there was an orderly scramble to get autographs, photos etc. I got both H and P to sign my sleeve from 'Spiral Scratch' and then got a photo with H then P. They were both very friendly - with P it was a bit like posing with your favourite uncle - being taller than him I had to bob down and grab hold of him round the waist!(H was sitting so the height differential didn't cause a problem!). I took loads of photos throughout the event - some digital, some film.

The highlight of the evening for me was having a little chat with Howard. We talked about some of the Magazine gigs that I'd been to and I told him my little story about meeting him at Erics and he laughed!. I told him how special Magazine were to me and that I still played his music and he seemed quite flattered. Afterwards I wished I'd had longer to chat with him - I thought of loads of other things I wanted to ask/tell him. One other thing I've remembered - there was talk of the Buzzcocks anniversary next year and H was asked if he'd play with them again. He said enigmatically: 'Don't watch this space - watch another one' or something like that - but it was clear the idea appealed - the audience were encouraging him!There is obviously a strong bond between H and P even now.

I was there too. I won't add to the previous report but had a fab evening despite the sound being poor at the back of the room.

Okay - you need to scroll down somewhat if you want to read about 'An Evening with Howard'n Pete'(in order that is...) We went back to The Urbis the next morning to have a look at the punk exhibition. There were two fantastic videos to watch - one was about the first Pistols/Buzzcocks gig at The Lesser Free Trade Hall and who was actually there - and the other was a Granada TV 'Whats On 'Special called B'dum B'dum. I would kill for that vid - it had extensive footage of H and P talking circa '79 (at a guess)and performing gigs as Buzzcocks and Magazine. H was at his most beautiful - remember the red jacket and mascara'd eyes?! Happy memories!

Hey..I went back to Urbis the next day too. You can get B'dum B'dum (1978) on ebay. The other prog' 'I Swaer I Was There' was been shown on Granada & North West TV. There are apparently no plans to show it again.

Thanks for the info re B'dum B'dum - I will definately look out for it! I loved The Urbis in the rain on Saturday morning - the colour of the building and the slate (or similar) paving outside - it was really aesthetically pleasing to me - I took photos!

Double double thanks SG! Just gone straight onto Ebay - and there it was, with 3 mins remaining! Bought it!

helen and s g should be the next event.

Open Mind - you are as enigmatic as Mr Devoto....

and just one step ahead of you, as me.

Over at www.secretpublic.com (Buzzcocks.com) there are some more stories from the Urbis and some photos....