Extract from "Unknown Pleasures - 20 Great Lost Albums Rediscovered" given away free with Melody Maker issue dated March 4th 1995.

"SECONDHAND DAYLIGHT" By DAVE SIMPSON

ENGLAND, Summer 1976. The country blistered from the biggest heat wave for 20 years and then there was always the weather. But mainly. it was the heat of punk rock that caused people to break out in rashes and delirium. For the first time, it seemed like the lunatics had taken over the asylum and the freaks had grabbed all the microphones. From the embryonic genius of the Sex Pistols to other come shortlies like X-Ray Spex the music biz was in shock. These kids didn't look right they didn't speak right, they certainly didn't play right. Hey, in the words of Joe Strummer. anyone could do It. You didn't even have to be based in London.

So it was In Manchester where four unknowns entered a studio with six hundred quid, some boyish buzz saw guitars from Woolworths and a bagful of raw, splendid talent. They made an EP called 'Spiral Scratch, stuck it out on Richard Boon's fledging New Hormones label. It sold (initially) 16,000 copies and the rest was history.

"I'm living in this movie. But it doesn't-uh-move me" complained a voice like honey cut with broken glass on the anthemic "Boredom". The scene had been very humdrum, but now Buzzcocks had arrived. And their voice - dammit, Mind bomb Rant! - belonged to Howard Devoto, an odd, dome-headed individual with a receding hairline and an art school background. In a carnival of individuals Devoto was unique. He had the sneer of Lydon mixed with the vitriol of Dylan, and many more less tangible qualities. Surreal and fidgety, as if some alien being was singing street-bred literature with a peg upon its nose and a fork up its backside. Devoto was like a film maker or detached observer. "The Orson Wells of Punk" one critic said at the time.

Devoto moved people. Literally. "Boredom" quickly became an alternative National Anthem and Buzzcocks became blueprints for a new generation of quick fire, love torn bands. But while his band were press darlings and heroes Devoto was far from content. He felt doubly trapped between the expectations of punk rock and the more romantic pop leanings of his co-band leader, Peter Shelley. Hence. Devote did the decent, unheard of , foolish, brilliant thing and quit Buzzcocks at the height of their infamy. He had other work to do.

When Devoto returned fronting Magazine in January 1978, he came armed with a new array of musicians (John McGeoch, guitar: Barry Adamson, bass; Bob Dickinson keyboards and Martin Jackson, drums) and a startling single which Rolling Stone described as "the rock'n'roll" single of 1978. Shot By Both Sides remains a remarkable record. centring around McGeoch's exhilarating guitar riff (Imagine an elastic band building towards snap) and Howard Devoto's breathless delivery about paranoia and suspicion "I wormed my way into the heart of the crowd, I was shocked to find what was allowed" Perhaps unwittingly in those two lines Devoto had summed up both his position amid punk and the human race itself."Shot By Both Sides" is the classic outside anthem.

When Magazine released their John Leckie'd produced debut album. "Real Life" in June 1978, the reception was almost unparalleled. "No one that has the slightest interest in the present and future of rock'n'roll should rest until they've heard Real Life", raved Melody Maker, expressing sentiments that still hold true. "Real Life" bought a new language to rock music, its luscious landscapes ("Definitive Gaze", "Paradise", "My Tulpa" -owing much to the work of a replacement keyboardist Dave Formula) pouring out a stately grandeur, like a kind of surreal fairground music. The more McGeoch-led guitar tracks ("Recoil", "Burst") bled with a tension that eclipsed their contemporaries. Devoto himself was advancing at a remarkable rate, something like. "In the back of his car/Into the null and void he shoots/The man at the centre of the motorcade/Has learned to tie his boots", ("Motorcade", about the Kennedy assassination) illustrating his unearthly knack for combining sarcastic perception with Incredibly vivid descriptive qualities. Even more startling was "The Light Pours Out Of Me", "It jerks out of me/Like blood/Into this still life/beats up love". Devoto must have felt like the centre of eternity and who could blame him ? Six months into their existence, Magazine were light years ahead of their contemporaries. Flushed with initial success and thee critical acclaim ringing in their ears, the band recruited a new drummer in John Doyle and entered the cold winter of 1978 preparing to record their difficult second album.

For the task of producing the record Devoto (having failed to secure Tony Visconti) turned to a young engineer called Colin Thurston, who'd worked with Visconti on Bowie's "Heroes". He'd also helped record "Lust For Life" by Iggy Pop, who, along with the early Dylan, was one of the few artists Devoto held esteem. Sixteen years on, Thurston can still vividly recall the initial meeting between artist and producer.

"It was In Manchester", Colin remembers, "I drove up there in a blizzard - snow flying everywhere - saw them go through about 10 or 12 songs inn a little basement place that they rehearsed in and came back to London. I think they were a bit nervous and so I didn't tell them it was my first production."

"We sort of talked generally about music. Barry Adamson, the bass player, was the most open guy. He would say, 'So what's you favourite kind of music'. I mentioned Abba and he nearly freaked! Or was it Cliff Richard ? I did it as a joke, but I think they all took it terribly seriously."

So it was that the leading lights of the post New Wave prepared to record with a guy whose favourite retort - so they thought - were "Thank You For The Music" and "Devil Woman" to add to the drama. Thurston started work in Good Earth studios but ran out of time because The Moody Blues were coming in. Hence, the album was completed In the Manor Mobile at a place called The Farmyard, at the time just a rehearsal set-up. That winter (1978/9) was one of the coldest in mommy. Thurston recalls the atmosphere at the time.

"It was all rather strange. Howard had to sit in one of the rooms to do a vocal and he was absolutely frozen. He was dressed up like a mad abominable snowman and I remember seeing the breath just falling off his face. Anyway, we did most of the overdubs their and went beck to Good Earth to do a few guitar parts and mix it. Everything was completed except for one track, which I had to Central Recorders in Denmark Street to mix, became they wanted it to sound more like a single"

That track was "Rhythm Of Cruelty" (released on 45 In March 1979) another classic slice of Magazine action (with distant echoes of Dylan and Sparks) which explored the physical and mental torture of love and opened with the great lines: "I brought your face down on my head/It was something I rehearsed in a dream." - Indeed, opening lines were something Devoto was excelling at. "Feed The Enemy", which eventually kicked off "Secondhand Daylight" set the tone for the whole album: "It's always raining over the border/There's been a plane crash out there/In the wheat fields they're picking up the pieces/We could go look and stare." These words served two functions. They alluded to the sense of discovering new terrain that was prevalent in rock music at the time (two months later. Joy Divisions "Unknown Pleasures" would start with "I've been looking for a guide to take my hand"). They also established the unique feel of "Secondhand Daylight" which was like being ushered into a new era, and a strange, bleak, alien landscape. The album has a particularly icy, snowbound, unforgiving feel, notable in songs like "The Thin Air" and the epic closer, "Permafrost" ("I will drug you f*** you/On the permafrost"). Hence Thurston's memories of the wintry recording conditions are most illuminating.

"Devoto probably wrote 'Permafrost' while he was at that studio," he adds, half laughing. -"I have to say that one of the strange things about the album was that there were no real boppers on there, no real dance tracks apart from maybe "Rhythm Of Cruelty". At the time, the absence of conventional song structures would confuse and disappoint a few reviewers. Years on. it becomes clear that this is one reason why "Secondhand Daylight was a masterpiece then, and remains one now. "Howard Devoto was way ahead of himself." - Colin Thurston concurs. "The whole band were ahead of their time. But especially Howard."

What do you remember about him ?

"Very quiet guy. Very intense. If you made a comment about something and he wasn't sure what you'd said. he'd grill you for 10 minutes to get out exactly what you were trying to say. There were no flippant remarks around Howard. because he' d look at you and his eyes would sort of widen and he'd Just turn away and you'd think, 'What the hell is he thinking now ?"

"He was very into himself" Thurston continues, "If I would ask for some written lyrics to accompany a vocal he would say, 'Well. I've got some little bits of scrap paper. You can write them down but I'll probably change them in the next take."

"He was a hard worker in the studio. If a vocal wasn't quite the way I liked it or he liked it, he'd stand there for an hour. two hours, and do that vocal. But, invariably. it would be, 'I don't want to get too clinical. I want to keep it semi-rough. So, if we get it right first tine. I'd like to hold onto it."

"Permafrost" was the exception. He had to go quite high. and his voice kept breaking. He had a bit of a cold.'

"Secondhand Daylight" was a tension exaggerated by the albums insistence on the slow, relentless rhythms of Adamson and Doyle. But perhaps more than any of Magazine's other record "Secondhand Daylight" was where keyboardist Dave Formula came into his own. giving the songs all manner of unusual textures and facets.

"Dave was very moody," Colin Thurston recalls. "But an excellent keyboard player. John (McGeoch, guitarist) didn't actually have a lot to play on that album, mainly rhythm parts. I remember we rented one of the first synth guitars - he'd heard somebody else play it - and he tried it for nearly a day to get a sound, something that was quite good. And we had closed circuit TV looking into the studio, and all I saw was him taking it off and throwing it across the room. It hit something and the neck snapped. We went back to the hire company and told them that it fell off a chair. The guys said. Do you realise that this thing has got a metal pole down the centre ?! There's no way it could have broken falling off a chair".

"Secondhand Daylight" was released In March,1979 with very few exceptions, it was buried by the critics. "[It]- equates pretension with art." wrote sounds' Garry Bushell, with his usual mistrust of anything non-geezerish. "Coffee table", insisted RD Laing in RM. "Self conscious art rock/future rock poseurs," grumbled James Truman in MM. Only Allan Jones (describing the album as "remarkable" in a concurrent live review) and Nick Kent got it right. Writing in NME. Kent (not a fan before) said. "Where previously there was half-realised potential. there is now austere sense of authority to the music- Magazine have well and truly become a group."

However, the response to "Secondhand Daylight" may well have brought the curtain down on Magazine. Although It went Top 40. the album didn't reach Virgin Records commercial expectations and the next ("The Correct Use Of Soap") was recorded under greater commercial pressures. McGeoch quit shortly afterwards and the band struggled on to make "Magic, Murder And The Weather", by which time. Devoto admitted to me in a 1988 interview, "My willpower had gone."

Howard Devoto made an OK solo album. "Jerky Versions Of The Dream". in 1983 and returned with a new band, Luxuria, and an excellent album in 1988's "Unanswerable Lust". Their second offering,"Beast Box", Was roundly panned (not least, sad to say by this writer) and Devoto subsequently announced his retirement from music. McGeoch went on to success with Siouxsie And The Banshees and PiL. and Dave Formula now teaches at a keyboard clinic. Barry Adamson has made a string of acclaimed recordings for Mute. Nothing is known of John Doyle. All Magazine albums are available on CD and a fascinating compilation, "Scree", brings together many B-sides and oddities including their immortal rendition of Beefheart's "I Love You Big Dummy". There is a book"It Only Looks As If It Hurts" (Blackspring Press) - containing all Devoto's lyrics and which you should own.

I thought about approaching Devoto for this piece but decided against , primarily because the enigma behind his input into Magazine and "Secondhand Daylight" is best left unexplained. At the time (amidst a background of punk, post-punk, pub rock and soul-disco), few critics could make sense of it. Heard now, it becomes clear that the album was a brilliant document of a future unfolding, and one that has never been emulated by any other artist.

"The records were made to stand the test of time and they have done," Devoto told me in 1988. As he finished pouring tea and reclined across a comfy sofa, an incredible wry smile crept across his face.

As well it might.