The legacy of the Buzzcocks is one that is really hard to argue against. It is just amazing the way this band managed to influence punk in such a way that their sound and their inspiration can be heard in a lot of bands even to this day. To the eyes of many there is simply no doubt that their run from 1977 to 1979 was truly something else, the band was on fire, booking live gig after live gig, being incredibly active in studio, and ending up delivering some of the most enjoyable and energetic music at the time. Of course, despite the uniqueness of their legendary run, it is hard to say that it was all perfect, but there is at least a concensus regarding its high quality and, what's more important, their undeniable legacy and importance in the history of modern music. Sadly, the same statement can't be used when it comes to talking about the rest of their discography.
Yeah, the band is, and will always be, known for those early albums and singles, but they still have an oddly large discography that spans over the course of decades, a discography full of new music as well as plenty of archive material constantly unvaulted in order to be showcased to the public, everything of varying quality. One could quite literally spend hours talking about each and every one of these releases, bringing out their pros and cons, discussing their relevance, or simply being baffled at the next step that Shelley (may he RIP) and company chose to take for their newest project at the time, but most of that isn't relevant at the moment. However, there is one release that falls into this category that has always been a splinter in my thoughts regarding this band, and that would be the BBC Sessions album released in 1998.
This album was very weird for many reasons. At that point the Buzzcocks were very active, having released an album in 1996 and preparing themselves to enter recording sessions for their upcoming 1999 album, ending up in a period that was very active for their live performances in promotion of all this new material. Of course, and in very expected "legendary English musical act with new music on the plate" action, radio presentations came to be, ending up in the Buzzcocks doing plenty of these sort of performances over the course of the 90s. Promotion for this release was very vague, the CD was relatively limited and most definitely addressed towards big fans more than anything, but the contents were still not very clear up until the release of the album. Reading something as "BBC Sessions" from a band like the Buzzcocks, which had very iconic BBC presentations during that golden 70s run, one would expect mostly this sort of archive material complemented with a few sparkles of the newer recordings. However, this was not the case. Only four (technically five) of the twenty (technically twenty one) tracks on the album were of their early days, with the rest of the material being presentations done from 1993 to 1997. Essentially, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, it technically is something that lives up to its name and description, but I guess it is something that had always bugged me in some irrational way, mainly because Buzzcocks live after the 80s has never fully clicked with me. There is no doubt that the band, with its different lineups, still tried to bring back the energy that had characterized the name for a long time, but it just was never the same. Strong instrumentals can't hit the same without strong vocals, and viceversa, and by that point Pete had just lost or gotten weaker regarding most of the qualities that made him unique as a vocalist and a frontman. It was evident that he was still trying, and there are still plenty of great little songs from the new music being written and performed at that period that one can listen to and enjoy, but as a whole the essence of Buzzcocks was almost an old memory drifting away (thankfully, it never really did, even during their last stretch of material in the mid 2010's, but you get the point).
I guess as a way to ease that splinter in my thoughts I come here to share the """proper""" BBC Sessions release, a bootleg compiling their radio performances from 1977 to 1979. They are not that great and honestly when I first stumbled upon them I ended up coming out underwhelmed in a very odd way (with the "disappointment" coming from unreasonable and made up personal expectations more than the actual quality of the recordings), but they are still a very important historical document that any Buzzcocks fan, or just any fan of punk history, should check out. There are still a lot of great moments to be appreciated from the bunch (the first two sets of Peel Session recordings being my absolute favorites of the whole thing), and as a whole it is what someone would really come to expect from a release titled "BBC Sessions" that has the Buzzcocks name attached to it. Fun, energetic, catchy, and just engaging from beginning to end, and NOT ending on an unnecessary silence just to reward the listener with a radio recording of What Do I Get from 1979 that is just odd because of its sourcing when everyone and their mother know full well that THAT particular recording has always been available in high quality. Oh well, what can you do.
At least Garvey's bass in Fast Cars will never NOT fuck insanely hard in ANY of its renditions.
Peel Session 1977-09-07
1. Fast Cars (2:16)
2. Pulse Beat (4:47)
3. What Do I Get (2:52)
Peel Session 1978-04-10
4. Noise Annoys (2:55)
5. Walking Distance (2:09)
6. Late For Train (5:13)
Peel Session 1978-10-18
7. Promises (2:31)
8. Lipstick (2:40)
9. Everybody's Happy Nowadays (2:21)
10. Sixteen Again (3:17)
Old Grey Whistle Test 1978-11-14
11. Sixteen Again (3:00)
12. Nothing Left (4:36)
Kid Jensen Session 1978-11-xx
13. Promises (2:24)
Mike Read Session 1978-11-xx
14. Lipstick (2:28)
Peel Session 1979-05-21
15. I Don't Know What To Do With My Life (2:44)
16. Mad Mad July (2:42)
17. Hollow Inside (3:48)
18. E.S.P. (3:38)
Download Here - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CdthoCVZHKXuZCyd4ClrfUilNn6LR3rG?usp=sharing
Thanks again! :)
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