With Pete Shelley's sneering yet sweet voice and Steve Diggle's relentless guitar, Buzzcocks were the Mancunian punk misfits who made disaffection sound catchy. Their songs were anthems for the frustrated, the lovelorn, and anyone tired of polite society, but they could write rings around their more nihilistic contemporaries, crafting songs didn't so much unfold as burst giddily into life.
Buzzcocks broke up in 1981 after just three studio albums and the brilliant Singles Going Steady compilation, but reformed in 1989 and have been with us ever since, electing to continue after Pete Shelley's sudden death in late 2018. Buzzcocks' 10th studio album, Sonics in the Soul, was released in 2022.
