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Buzzcocks
Everybody's Happy Nowadays - Music Box
‘Everybody’s Happy Nowadays’ was the band’s 8th single, released on United Artists Records and hitting the UK charts in 1979. Recorded at Stockport’s legendary Strawberry Studios, by legendary Producer Martin Rushent and with artwork by legendary Graphic Designer Malcolm Garrett, it went onto become one of the band’s most popular songs. This Non-Album Single by the Pioneers of Independent Music, was subsequently incorporated into the now-classic ‘Singles Going Steady’ Buzzcocks compilation, which the NME called "a vital part of the inspiration for the new pop age - pop of such intense truthfulness, it literally hurts" with Rolling Stone Magazine ranking it amongst their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
This version of the Punk-Pop classic will never make you tired or upset, from always wanting something you can never get - as life's no illusion and love's not a dream…
Now you can know just what it is - with this music box!
This version of the Punk-Pop classic will never make you tired or upset, from always wanting something you can never get - as life's no illusion and love's not a dream…
Now you can know just what it is - with this music box!
When Bernie Wilcox and Geoff Brown approached Chris Hewitt in June 1978 about building a stage and providing a PA system for Alexandra Park, Manchester, Chris already had all the hardware booked for the Deeply Vale Festival which was a week later in July 1978 than the date Bernie and Geoff had proposed for the Northern Carnival Against Racism Concert. This then meant that all of the equipment, generators, scaffolding and fencing could simply have the hire period brought forward to cover Alexandra Park and that the costs would be far more reasonable than a completely ‘start from scratch hire’. So it was that about 12 days before Deeply Vale 1978 we started to build a stage and secure compound in Alexandra Park, Manchester. Three days before Buzzcocks were due to play on the Saturday we got a call to ask if Graham Parker and The Rumour could rehearse in the park on the stage on the Thursday night as he was supporting Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton at a festival at Blackbushe Aerodrome on the Saturday and Graham and the Rumour had never played outdoors before. So we finished the stage by Thursday lunchtime for a free concert by Graham Parker in the evening and then Buzzcocks played Alexandra Park Saturday afternoon.
Pete Shelley in 2016 – “I know Chris Hewitt obtained a recording of Buzzcocks at Alexandra Park, it would be great fun if it came out as an album”. Pete Shelley 1978 after playing his set at Alexandra Park –“This wasn’t politics it was fun, but the best kind of fun is with people and being with people is politics”. Paul Morley reviewing the concert – “Buzzcocks placed the emphasis on entertainment – a people’s celebration. Arriving on stage with no fixed set they played some pop music… They were a triumph”.
Pete Shelley in 2016 – “I know Chris Hewitt obtained a recording of Buzzcocks at Alexandra Park, it would be great fun if it came out as an album”. Pete Shelley 1978 after playing his set at Alexandra Park –“This wasn’t politics it was fun, but the best kind of fun is with people and being with people is politics”. Paul Morley reviewing the concert – “Buzzcocks placed the emphasis on entertainment – a people’s celebration. Arriving on stage with no fixed set they played some pop music… They were a triumph”.
TRACK LISTING
Side 1.
1 Spoken Word From People Involved
2 Ever Fallen In Love
3 Sixteen
4 Moving Away From The Pulse Beat
5 Fiction Romance
6 Love You More
Side 2.
1 Spoken Word From People Involved
2 Nothing Left
3 Breakdown
4 Noise Annoys
5 What Do I Get
6 Autonomy
7 Boredom
The legendary Manchester punk band need little introduction. Back in 1977, they gave birth to a generation of independent labels with their debut EP ‘Spiral Scratch’. Thereafter, their melodic punk - pop proved irresistible, leading to hit singles and three landmark albums. They broke up in 1981 but reunited in 1989 and have been going steady ever since. Sadly, singer Pete Shelley passed away in 2018 but founder member and the band’s other singer/songwriter Steve Diggle has kept the flag flying. During the COVID pandemic, Steve and co. (Chris Remington on bass, Danny Farrant on drums) busied themselves with recording ‘Sonics In The Soul’. Recorded at Studio 7in London, the album was co-produced by Steve himself with Laurence Loveless.
TRACK LISTING
1 Senses Out Of Control
2 Manchester Rain
3 You’ve Changed Everything Now
4 Bad Dreams
5 Nothingless World
6 Don't Mess With My Brain
7 Just Got To Let It Go
8 Everything Is Wrong
9 Experimental Farm
10 Can You Hear Tomorrow
11 Venus Eyes
Following last year’s extensive re-release campaign, Domino announce the Buzzcocks 7” box-set containing the 12 singles the band released for United Artists between 1977 and 1980.
Remastered from the original tapes and in the original Malcolm Garrett designed sleeves, the box also contains a 36-page booklet written by acclaimed author and punk chronicler Clinton Heylin.
A thrilling run of singles, primarily written by Pete Shelley & Steve Diggle, which showcased their effortless ability to write three-minute-minimasterpieces that would endure long after the initial spark of punk had faded, many of these tracks were compiled and released on the album Singles Going Steady, a record which came out in the U.K. in November 1981 and quickly transcended its status as a mere compilation going on to become regarded as a seminal and era– defining release.
12 x 7’’ black vinyl in flip-top box with 36-page booklet and digital download card.
Remastered from the original tapes and in the original Malcolm Garrett designed sleeves, the box also contains a 36-page booklet written by acclaimed author and punk chronicler Clinton Heylin.
A thrilling run of singles, primarily written by Pete Shelley & Steve Diggle, which showcased their effortless ability to write three-minute-minimasterpieces that would endure long after the initial spark of punk had faded, many of these tracks were compiled and released on the album Singles Going Steady, a record which came out in the U.K. in November 1981 and quickly transcended its status as a mere compilation going on to become regarded as a seminal and era– defining release.
12 x 7’’ black vinyl in flip-top box with 36-page booklet and digital download card.
TRACK LISTING
Single 1
Orgasm Addict
What Ever Happened To?
Single 2
What Do I Get?
Oh Shit!
Single 3
I Don’t Mind
Autonomy
Single 4
Love You More
Noise Annoys
Single 5
Ever Fallen In Love (With
Someone You Shouldn’t’ve?)
Just Lust
Single 6
Promises
Lipstick
Single 7
Everybody’s Happy Nowadays
Why Can’t I Touch It?
Single 8
Harmony In My Head
Something’s Gone Wrong Again
Single 9
You Say You Don’t Love Me
Raison D’Etre
Single 10
Are Everything
Why She’s A Girl From The
Chainstore
Single 11
Strange Thing
Airwaves Dream
Single 12
Running Free
What Do You
It's conceivable that internal friction helped inspire the title of the third Buzzcocks longplayer, 'A Different Kind Of Tension'; the group would splinter shortly after the album's 1979 release. But the U.K. pop punk band went out with a bang, marshaling one of their most diverse and exciting sets of songs under the guidance of producer Martin Rushent. The breakneck pace of their first recordings is well represented by such tracks as opener “Paradise,” though by the closing sound collage “Radio Nine,” chief songwriter Pete Shelley has managed to indulge his more experimental side as well – without ever abandoning the trademark Buzzcocks wit and emphasis on melody.
TRACK LISTING
01. Paradise
02. Sitting 'round At Home
03. You Say You Don't Love Me
04. You Know You Can't Help It
05. Mad, Mad Judy
06. Raison D'Etre
07. I Don't Know What To Do With My Life
08. Money
09. Hollow Inside
10. A Different Kind Of Tension
11. I Believe
12. Radio Nine
Like many first albums, Another Music In A Different Kitchen collected material written by the group - in particular Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle - that had been amassed during the previous years, going back to 1974 and 1975. According to Tony McGartland in his Buzzcocks: The Complete History, the songs were sequenced in the order that they were written. The play through seems to bear this out: the album begins in fast protest punk and ends in the seven minute, definitely non punk length Krautrock of ‘Moving Away From The Pulsebeat.’
Most of Shelley’s songs on the first side concern the vicissitudes of romance, but the opener Fast Cars name drops US campaigner Ralph Nader in an ecological diatribe: “They're so depressing going 'round and 'round/Ooh, they make me dizzy, oh fast cars they run me down.” ‘No Reply’, ‘You Tear Me Up’, ‘Get On Our Own’ and ‘Love Battery’ are sharp, short (all under two and a half minutes), speedy disquisitions on the tortures of interpersonal communication, love and lust played with a perfect balance between pace, abrasion and melody.
Side closer ‘Sixteen’ is something else. It’s longer and contains an avant-garde breakdown around two minutes in, recorded with each group member isolated and unable to hear each other. “It started off as a false ending,” Shelley told me in 1977: “All sloppy, and then it carries on longer so that people are thinking, “Oh I’ve just clapped but they’re not thinking — what’s up?” and then it comes back in again.” It was, as John Maher added, “A remnant of our chaos days.”
Would Shelley like to be sixteen again? “In some ways yes, in some ways no. The words go: “And I wish I was sixteen again/Then things would be such fun/All the things I'd do would be the same/But they're much more fun/ Than when you're twenty one.” Things like going for a drink — now the novelty’s worn off but the enjoyment’s still there. There’s no difference between doing something when you’re 16 and 22, except there is a difference if you’re doing it for the first time.”
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the song is its rapid fire, venomous ending:
“And I hate modern music/Disco boogie and pop/They go on and on and on and on and on/HOW I WISH THEY WOULD STOP!” Never has a truer sentence been written about the true impetus behind Punk: not just boredom with progressive rock or dinosaur sixties acts but an intense disgust with mainstream pop music, which in 1976, the year of number one singles by Elton and Kiki, Abba, the Brotherhood of Man, Adge Cutler & the Wurzels, seemed not to have anything to do with teenage life and certainly nothing to do with excitement or the true teenage news.
The five songs on side two reflected the group moving away from simple love tropes into something more complex: as Shelley sang on ‘I Don’t Mind’, “Reality’s a dream.” Unlike the increasing militarism and violent posturing of the Clash, Buzzcocks aimed to explore male sensitivity and frailty (‘This pathetic clown’) - which in pop terms was still new, exactly what punk had set out to be. They began to use love songs as a conduit through which they could talk about other things: the nature of human relationships in a capitalistic society, the nature of reality itself.
Onstage Buzzcocks did not present as macho. Sometimes they’d try a group uniform, like the Mondrian shirts of early 1977, but mostly they just dressed as themselves: Diggle and Maher in various permutations of Mod wear, Paddy Garvey in leather jacket and skinny tie, and Shelley in a bewildering variety of styles. “It’s no good me wearing anything like that (bondage pants),” Shelley told me; “I’m just not the fashionable shape.” “You put those clothes on and you become a different character,” Diggle added: “I don’t feel myself, I feel like somebody else.”
‘Fiction Romance’ continues the themes of ‘I Don’t Mind’: male frailty, the commodification of emotions, the difference between reality and fantasy. Steve Diggle’s powerful ‘Autonomy’ spells out the true theme behind Punk: self determination. “It’s a discussion between two sides of your personality,” he told me; “It’s about discipline in yourself, like when you say you’d like to do something and you haven’t got control, you’re not autonomous. Like giving up smoking, which I’m trying to do now and it’s very difficult. I haven’t got control of myself.”
Shelley’s pell-mell ‘I Need’ tackles the capitalist perplex head on: “I used to only want but now I need/To get by with what I got but now I need.” After a fine bass led instrumental break, Shelley lays it out again: “I need sex/I need love/I need drink/I need drugs/I need food/I need cash/I need you to love me back.” ‘Moving Away From The Pulsebeat’ continues the breakneck pace: lasting at least three times the standard punk rock single, it features some stinging psychedelic solos and some rapid fire classic break beats from John Maher.
There’s a pause, then the riff of ‘Boredom’ returns: back to the beginning. Another Music in a Different Kitchen is a perfect circle: thirty five and a half minutes of tuneful, exciting and thoughtful music that stretched the boundaries of guitar pop music at the same time as it delivered on the group’s promise. It was a critical and a commercial success, reaching the UK album top twenty in March 1978 and staying there for nearly three months. But Buzzcocks had no time to rest on their laurels.
Most of Shelley’s songs on the first side concern the vicissitudes of romance, but the opener Fast Cars name drops US campaigner Ralph Nader in an ecological diatribe: “They're so depressing going 'round and 'round/Ooh, they make me dizzy, oh fast cars they run me down.” ‘No Reply’, ‘You Tear Me Up’, ‘Get On Our Own’ and ‘Love Battery’ are sharp, short (all under two and a half minutes), speedy disquisitions on the tortures of interpersonal communication, love and lust played with a perfect balance between pace, abrasion and melody.
Side closer ‘Sixteen’ is something else. It’s longer and contains an avant-garde breakdown around two minutes in, recorded with each group member isolated and unable to hear each other. “It started off as a false ending,” Shelley told me in 1977: “All sloppy, and then it carries on longer so that people are thinking, “Oh I’ve just clapped but they’re not thinking — what’s up?” and then it comes back in again.” It was, as John Maher added, “A remnant of our chaos days.”
Would Shelley like to be sixteen again? “In some ways yes, in some ways no. The words go: “And I wish I was sixteen again/Then things would be such fun/All the things I'd do would be the same/But they're much more fun/ Than when you're twenty one.” Things like going for a drink — now the novelty’s worn off but the enjoyment’s still there. There’s no difference between doing something when you’re 16 and 22, except there is a difference if you’re doing it for the first time.”
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the song is its rapid fire, venomous ending:
“And I hate modern music/Disco boogie and pop/They go on and on and on and on and on/HOW I WISH THEY WOULD STOP!” Never has a truer sentence been written about the true impetus behind Punk: not just boredom with progressive rock or dinosaur sixties acts but an intense disgust with mainstream pop music, which in 1976, the year of number one singles by Elton and Kiki, Abba, the Brotherhood of Man, Adge Cutler & the Wurzels, seemed not to have anything to do with teenage life and certainly nothing to do with excitement or the true teenage news.
The five songs on side two reflected the group moving away from simple love tropes into something more complex: as Shelley sang on ‘I Don’t Mind’, “Reality’s a dream.” Unlike the increasing militarism and violent posturing of the Clash, Buzzcocks aimed to explore male sensitivity and frailty (‘This pathetic clown’) - which in pop terms was still new, exactly what punk had set out to be. They began to use love songs as a conduit through which they could talk about other things: the nature of human relationships in a capitalistic society, the nature of reality itself.
Onstage Buzzcocks did not present as macho. Sometimes they’d try a group uniform, like the Mondrian shirts of early 1977, but mostly they just dressed as themselves: Diggle and Maher in various permutations of Mod wear, Paddy Garvey in leather jacket and skinny tie, and Shelley in a bewildering variety of styles. “It’s no good me wearing anything like that (bondage pants),” Shelley told me; “I’m just not the fashionable shape.” “You put those clothes on and you become a different character,” Diggle added: “I don’t feel myself, I feel like somebody else.”
‘Fiction Romance’ continues the themes of ‘I Don’t Mind’: male frailty, the commodification of emotions, the difference between reality and fantasy. Steve Diggle’s powerful ‘Autonomy’ spells out the true theme behind Punk: self determination. “It’s a discussion between two sides of your personality,” he told me; “It’s about discipline in yourself, like when you say you’d like to do something and you haven’t got control, you’re not autonomous. Like giving up smoking, which I’m trying to do now and it’s very difficult. I haven’t got control of myself.”
Shelley’s pell-mell ‘I Need’ tackles the capitalist perplex head on: “I used to only want but now I need/To get by with what I got but now I need.” After a fine bass led instrumental break, Shelley lays it out again: “I need sex/I need love/I need drink/I need drugs/I need food/I need cash/I need you to love me back.” ‘Moving Away From The Pulsebeat’ continues the breakneck pace: lasting at least three times the standard punk rock single, it features some stinging psychedelic solos and some rapid fire classic break beats from John Maher.
There’s a pause, then the riff of ‘Boredom’ returns: back to the beginning. Another Music in a Different Kitchen is a perfect circle: thirty five and a half minutes of tuneful, exciting and thoughtful music that stretched the boundaries of guitar pop music at the same time as it delivered on the group’s promise. It was a critical and a commercial success, reaching the UK album top twenty in March 1978 and staying there for nearly three months. But Buzzcocks had no time to rest on their laurels.
Behind the chocolate box cover, Love Bites is an album of paradoxes if not clashing opposites: real/imaginary, past/future, love/lust, connection/alienation, commerciality/experimentation. It’s to the group’s credit that they walk the high wire with ease: the attack is less punk, more measured and on occasion psychedelic, as befits the perceptual and philosophical nature of Shelley’s lyrics. The glossy pop star photo on the sleeve is matched by stranger photo realist portraits on the inner, by Robin Utracik of the Worst: Shelley in particular looks dishevelled, having just vomited when the source photo was taken.
Love Bites hit its moment. The reviews were good, and so were sales: it reached number 13 in the album charts, Buzzcocks’ best showing. They immediately went out on their fourth tour, Beating Hearts - supported by Subway Sect - which was marked in this year of Sham 69 by skinhead violence and stage invasions, definitely not what Buzzcocks were about. The fifth single of that year had already been recorded: ‘Promises’ and ‘Lipstick’, the latter of which used the same riff as Magazine’s debut ‘Shot by Both Sides’. Buzzcocks had reached their commercial peak, but Pete Shelley was deeply troubled.
Late 1978 was a harsh place, with competing styles and fads and the relentless pressure of rapid fire novelty that punk had set up. The pace was killing and on top of that the impetus of 1976 punk had faded. Shelley also felt that the original sense of community had gone: “Once we were in the music industry, people had become more diversified, there was nothing really to pull people together again.” More importantly, the constant touring was driving him mad: “It was a bit unnerving. When we did the Love Bites tour I was convinced by Richard not to leave the band. It was all getting too much for me.”
Love Bites hit its moment. The reviews were good, and so were sales: it reached number 13 in the album charts, Buzzcocks’ best showing. They immediately went out on their fourth tour, Beating Hearts - supported by Subway Sect - which was marked in this year of Sham 69 by skinhead violence and stage invasions, definitely not what Buzzcocks were about. The fifth single of that year had already been recorded: ‘Promises’ and ‘Lipstick’, the latter of which used the same riff as Magazine’s debut ‘Shot by Both Sides’. Buzzcocks had reached their commercial peak, but Pete Shelley was deeply troubled.
Late 1978 was a harsh place, with competing styles and fads and the relentless pressure of rapid fire novelty that punk had set up. The pace was killing and on top of that the impetus of 1976 punk had faded. Shelley also felt that the original sense of community had gone: “Once we were in the music industry, people had become more diversified, there was nothing really to pull people together again.” More importantly, the constant touring was driving him mad: “It was a bit unnerving. When we did the Love Bites tour I was convinced by Richard not to leave the band. It was all getting too much for me.”
Featuring the original line-up of Howard Devoto (vocals & songwriter), Pete Shelley (guitar & songwriter), Steve Diggle (bass guitar) and John Maher (drums), ‘Time’s Up’ was recorded at Revolution Studios, Bramhall Lane Stockport on the 18th of October 1976. The session, recording Buzzcocks’ live set at the time and was engineered by Andy MacPherson.
TRACK LISTING
You Tear Me Up
Breakdown
Friends Of Mine
Orgasm Addict
Boredom
Time’s Up
Lester Sands (Drop In The Ocean)
Love Battery
I Can’t Control Myself
I Love You, You Big Dummy
Don’t Mess Me Around