The Buzzcocks

The best of Pete Shelley’s songs (those where he manages the trick of merging Philip Larkin and The Ramones) stand fair comparison with the greatest British music of the last thirty years.

Not that you would ever guess this on the strength of tonight’s show. Because what should progress a glorious stampede, quickly develops into a sludge. True, the band aren’t helped by the awful sound quality, but their linear, note-for-note approach to their back catalogue also creates problems.

It’s great fun watching Steve Diggle rally the mosh pit troops, and the thrill of ‘What Do I Get?’, ‘Ever Fallen In Love’, ‘Orgasm Addict’ and the mighty ‘Boredom’ never wanes. But the album Shelley recorded with Devoto last year was so smart, challenging, and playful in regard to their shared and individual legacies that I expected more than the kind of set any competent tribute band could rustle up before dinner.

Perhaps, now bridges have been rebuilt, Shelley could ask the Professor of Punk if he wants his old job back. Or he could just try to cover his own songs a little bit better.