The Independent 25 September 2000
Punk hero Howard Devoto reinvents himself but says there isn't 'a lot at stake' By Louise Gray
Officially - it was an unannounced gig - slid unobtrusively into a Mute Records bill at the ICA - but news such as this -- that Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley were sharing a stage under the whipped-up name of buzzkunst - for the first time since 1978 does not stay quiet. For anyone who remembers the early days of punk rock - when the Manchester-based Devoto and Shelley were - as founders of the Buzzcocks - arguably as significant as London's Sex Pistols - buzzkunst's five-song set had all the relevance of the second coming.
Even more so for those who remember Magazine - the band Devoto founded in 1977 - soon after leaving the Buzzcocks. Shelley never really went away. Devoto did. Disbanding Magazine in 1981 - a 1983 solo album - Jerky Versions of the Dream - and a subsequent band - Luxuria - failed to take off. Devoto seemed to disappear. It was an extraordinary absence - given the presence he had had in late Seventies punk and new wave.
Now - with the release of - Magazine (Maybe It's Right to be Nervous Now) - a three-CD boxed set that includes some unreleased BBC John Peel sessions - audiences will get the opportunity to reappraise what Devoto achieved with the band. "I have - " he confesses - "no idea where to put the band in rock's rich tapestry. I don't look back on it as a particularly happy time in my life - for instance. I've never been very good at enjoying success - even with a small 's'."
Twenty years on - Devoto is still recognisable. His icy stage demeanour is absent -- he turns up with a shopping bag full of proofs for the CD booklet -- but his deliberate phrasing echoes the precision so apparent in his recordings.
A five-piece "powerhouse" that combined his edgy vocals with the subtle funk of Barry Adamson's bass - the cool - synthetic hues of Dave Formula's keyboards and the driven pulsion of John McGeogh's guitar (drummer Martin Jackson was replaced after the first album by John Doyle) - Magazine immediately stood out. "It was the melodrama - " says Devoto. "We did actually arrange the music quite well. That was something I found I had a talent for."
Their first 1978 single "Shot by Both Sides" reinforced their charge. Revelling in the band's wilfully ambiguous name - Devoto's songs had all the impact of a balled fist - and they had an articulacy and depth uncharacteristic of the period. References to Huysmans - Camus and Dostoevsky flashed through their songs; they would cover not only the Stooges - Iggy Pop's proto-punk band that lasted the distance in those exacting times - but also Sly Stone and Captain Beefheart. The sleeve of their 1978 debut album - Real Life - was a Linder Ludus monoprint of floating heads - an homage to Odilon Redon's alienated vision reiterated on the boxed set.
In the best tradition of artists unwilling to be hemmed in - Magazine was a band that invited listeners to make connections and was a reason for Devoto's sudden decision to leave. "A lot of the driving anger which had been where I was coming from was evaporating under pressure" - he says. Yet - outside Magazine - it was difficult to capitalise on their cult success. A solo career didn't suit - and Luxuria's didn't set the critics aflame. Even now - Devoto's bleak delivery conveys more than a residual memory of the rejection.
"Despair? No. The only difference was I knew how to deal with it this time. My real point of despair had been in the mid-1980s after the solo album and I was dropped for the first time. I was on the fast slope down and not knowing how to deal with it. This time I knew what was coming. I got a job [in the photographic archive where he still works] virtually as soon as I was dropped - and for the first time actually started to feel some peace of mind."
Devoto is currently preparing his autobiography: "The chronology of things is of fundamental importance to the truth of things. You tell a story in a different order and it's a different story - a different life."
buzzkunst - "That's what we're calling ourselves this month" -- has been - he says - an unexpected pleasure. "But then I haven't got a lot at stake. It doesn't threaten me at a fundamental level if nobody likes it. I certainly ain't giving up the day job."
Magazine's '- Magazine (Maybe It's Right to be Nervous Now)' boxed set is released by Virgin on 2 October.
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