All cock and not a lot of buzz

I'd had very mixed feelings about going along to see veteran English 'punk' band The Buzzcocks at Yugong Yishan a couple of weeks ago.

Yes, they were a 'name'.  And I was intrigued to see what kind of Chinese crowd they might attract (just about none, as it happened; the ticket price was too darned expensive).  And Sham 69, of similar genre and vintage, had rocked out pretty damned well at the Midi Festival at the start of May - so I wasn't going to hold their advancing middle age against them.

However... well, it did start to bother me rather that - just about alone among the punk bands of that generation (just when I was entering my teens) - I couln't remember a single one of their songs.  Well, no, that's not quite true: I could remember Orgasm Addict.  Or rather, I could remember the title, but not really very much about the song. After doing some memory-jogging research online, I discovered that I did in fact remember a few of their song titles - but none of the actual songs.  Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't Have)? is probably their most widely known, most widely covered composition, and is often praised as a good song; but in fact it's just a good song title - there isn't really anything to the song except a lot of repetitions of the title!

I played a bit of their stuff on YouTube, and was not enthused.  Pete Shelley was always compromised by a weak, whiney voice and an autistic performance style - and he hasn't got any better with age.  Whereas many rock'n'rollers seem to find that performance keeps them superhumanly youthful, Shelley, I'm sorry to say, now looks old and fat - rather older, in fact, than his (I guess) 50 years.  Old, fat, and bored.  Not a very inspiring frontman.  Steve Diggle on guitar has at least stayed lean, but also looks older than his years.  And he's not much of a player.  And his trademark gesture, raising his right arm above his head and holding it there for several seconds (rather like a freezeframe of Pete Townsend at the beginning or end of his windmilling; and, in fact, uncomfortably close to a 'Sieg Heil!' salute...), got really old by the third or fourth time he did it - 45 seconds into the first song.  I mean, really, what the hell is the point of repeatedly calling attention to the fact that you're not actually playing very much?!

I had promised myself that I'd give them 6 songs.  I lost count, and may possibly have given up after only 4 or 5.  Then again, given that most of their songs are less than 3 minutes long, I had probably managed to survive 8 or 10 of them.  And they all sounded exactly the same.

I wonder if anyone would now remember them at all but for the BBC's long-running comedy music quiz Never Mind The Buzzcocks.  Great band name, but a very mediocre band.  One of the biggest gig disappointments of the year.