35-minute documentary by Anthony H. Wilson.
Devoto excerpts only plus related footage
AHW: -Autumn 1975. Bolton Institute Of Technology. Shelley and Devoto are students. And they're very bored.
huge long shot of HD
HD: I was incredibly sick of what I was hearing and what I was reading. Er - on record - on paper - on people's minds.
int.erview with Shelley about starting out
HD: Everybody that was involved with that movement - and certainly myself - and I think probably Peter and the rest of Buzzcocks - was that you re- you didn't think you'd be around very long. You didn't think you were gonna make another record - you didn't really know you were going to play another concert. And therefore - in a way - you had to do it first - y'know. And you had to do it as directly as you could.
PS comments on what Buzzcocks wanted to achieve
HD: I thought of it as an attack - but not in any straight-forward - up-front - er - "I'll show you my fists - man" sort of thing. Er. It was just an attempt to er - steps sideways and shadow-box with a few phantoms or something.
lengthy clip of Free Trade Hall. Then PS explains
HD: When I came off the stage - er - I went and looked down the back staircase and I'd cut my finger on one of Peter's guitar strings and I had some blood on my finger and I thought I felt-. uh mmm er- so unbelievably br().
more history - leaving the group
HD: Well - it was just another one in a series of perverse movements on my part - really. Like getting involved with the sort of music the Buzzcocks were doing was - er-. a reaction and maybe a slap in the face for everything- that everything else. So leaving it - I had this second slap in the face in the back of my mind and - y'know.
cuts to question of HD causing the end then big Buzz bit
next section is accompanied by 'Parade' and then a live clip of 'Motorcade' - recorded at the Elizabethan Ballroom by Granada.
O/V
AHW: Meanwhile - back in history - Devoto was perhaps lonely - perhaps frustrated. Certainly bored. Back to the notice board - having found a guitarist he asked now for bass - drums - keyboard or woodwind. Quote: "Punk mentality not essential" He finds two art students and two local musicians (tape fowls up here) The band are called Magazine. They play their first gig on November 2nd 1977 and their third performance is at the Elizabethan Ballroom - Belle Vue.
after clip
HD: Er - I just liked the word 'motorcade' and er - 'cascade'. The big fat black cars moving through the street and people throwing their eyes over them - the effect it had. The idea of the big man in the back of his limousine - y'know - that was all.
AHW: The man who can't even choose between coffee and tea.
HD: No - he can do - but perhaps - perhaps that's all he can do. Perhaps all - all- despite all his power and influence really - y'know - the most fantastic - the biggest decision he can make in any day is to choose whether he has coffee and tea.
next montage
O/V
AHW: So - choose between Buzzcocks and Magazine. Both very much bands of their time. And it was a time to release singles. Buzzcocks released 'Orgasm Addict' at 45rpm. Magazine - they signed speedily to Virgin Records and released 'Shot By Both Sides'. Buzzcocks put out 'What Do I Get?' - Magazine put out 'Touch and Go' with 'Goldfinger'. Buzzcocks' follow-up was 'I Don't Mind'. All five singles hover in the charts at around the thirty mark. (the montage absurdly cuts to a picture of armed police) Widespread acceptance was denied by the bigotry of disc-jockeys and radio station controllers despising anything connected with the punk movement. Thinking it a repugnant fashion - they refused to play it and still refuse to play it.
AHW: Do you not think that the movement which you were involved in - at the beginning I mean - did something for people.
HD: Oh - I know it did. I know it did something for people. I know it did a lot for a lot of people and I know it did a lot for me.
AHW: What did it do for a lot of people - we'll come to you later.
HD: Er. (tuts - catty) Oh - later. Always later. [-] I think it gave them confidence to do things - to operate out there.
AHW: Did it give you confidence to operate out there.
HD: Certainly did.
AHW: You get more confident by the week - don't you really?
HD: (laughs loudly) Er - yes.
question of politics
HD: Er - I think that if you deal as honestly as you can with yourself and with the things that you write about - then what the hell ever you write about is political.
PS believes in his own politics
HD: The change is that there's more time in it and there's more aspects - there's more - more sides to the whole thing. Only a few more - because there were - there were those signs then in the songs for me. It all sounded like this is the same primitive emotion being re-run - which it wasn't. Now all there is is a better binding.
more captions for
O/V
AHW: Magazine are bound together by Barry Adamson on bass - Howard Devoto sings and writes the songs. John McGeoch shares the writing and plays guitar. Dave Formula - an elder musician - moved in recently on keyboards and Martin Jackson plays the drums.
second live clip
HD: As far as I'm concerned - I show people what they want to see. Er - they may not be aware of what they want to see - but I will show them (comically) eventually that they're seeing what they want to see.
personal details
AHW: What about Peter - can you describe him.
HD: I think Peter deals honestly with what he writes about. I think that's as good a thing as you can say about anybody.
PS: He's very obscure at times. Sometimes he seems very guarded - but if you can actually get through the cordon around him - then he's a really nice g- - he's really easy to get on with.
HD: (reacts) A cordon!
PS: It may be his way of tackling all this modern living. Erm - he enjoys keeping himself to himself and doesn't like too many hassles.
HD: Well - if you know what you're doing you learn what protects and you need - and maybe that's where a lot of people go down the lift shaft.
chatter with PS then clip of Buzzcocks 'reunion' with cloth-capped Devoto trundling on to say-
HD: This is not nostalgia. This is not even off-the-cuff - but it's up our sleeve and - er- (waggle of hand - whispers to PS)
PS: This is er - called 'I Can't Control Myself'.
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![[Magazine Logo]](/magazine.jpg)