At the very end of the '80's the rumour mill started to grind with whisperings of a Buzzcocks reunion. As I recall this was fuelled, at least in part, when Steve Diggle's Flag of Convenience transformed into Buzzcocks F.O.C. Anyway, in 1989 rumour became fact and I had my first chance to see them.
With no new material at that time, these first gigs were purely a celebration of the band's mighty back catalogue.... no issues with that! So this is a date from the US leg of that 'Telling Friends' tour from two sources, one audience and one soundboard (somewhat edited). What I have always considered to be a little unusual is the extent of the success that the band enjoyed Stateside given that they are just so British and so different to the bands that make it big in the US. The Clash conquered the States by honing their sound to a US radio friendly one. On the other hand, The Jam, arguably the biggest band in Britain at one time never really broke America and yet Buzzcocks were successful.
FLAC: https://we.tl/t-ZQ0JBbPhgP
Artwork: https://we.tl/t-tgWwLSNm8o
My band opened for this Buzzcocks' reunion show at the Living Room in Providence 1989. I brought my LPs and 7" singles and got the entire band to sign everything.
ReplyDeleteSteve Diggle was super nice, others were cool, but their manager was a douchebag. Pete was quiet and seemed pretty down so I mostly talked to Steve and left Pete alone, but he was very kind to sign my records.
Their set was incredible!