 | | Gear (pic: Shirlaine Forrest) |
Frontman Matheson in his cleavage-baring singlet launches into every tune, breathlessly exhilarant, in the manner of a small child who’s started running down the biggest hill he’s ever come across and then realises that the only way to stop without smacking in to anything is to jump up and down for all his life his worth. Forthcoming single Liquor is a relentless, Taylor Hawkins drum-led pounder of a tune, punctuated by strangulated, pleading falsetto. Sweat’s flying, the lead guitarist’s racking up the kind of RSI that would take a good 20 years to achieve in the typing pool, the crowd surfing’s started before the clock’s struck half eight and then Pete Shelley appears in his zip-up sports jacket to karaoke his way through Ever Fallen in Love.
 | | Buzzcocks (pic: Shirlaine Forrest) |
Apart from making a young frontman very happy, this bolt-shooting appearance seemed a bit odd until Buzzcocks took to the stage and played seven songs in a row from the new album, Flat Pack Philosophy. The first single Wish I’d Never Loved You shares more than just sentiment with Ever Fallen but also veers a little precariously into cock-rock territory. Still, the sense of anticipation for the songs that everyone knew, coupled with the fact that by virtue of the genre, no song lasts longer than three minutes, meant that the new stuff rattled through at a quick enough pace not to confound the punters who couldn’t care less about the pension fund.
 | | Buzzcocks (pic: Shirlaine Forrest) |
Buzzocks set a precedent for melodic, evocative punk. There’s no patter, no messing, just tune after tune after tune – by the time they’d whipped through What Do I Get, Fast Cars, Ever Fallen in Love With (again), Orgasm Addict and Nothing Left, they were pushing close to 30 tracks. It’s a startlingly simple winning formula; Killer riff + bit that anyone, no matter how tone deaf, can bellow along to (“What do I get Oh oh what do I get”, “'Cos I've nothing left at all at all at all at all at all at all at all at all I've nothing left at all) = continued success among a predominantly male fanbase from here to eternity.
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