The New Cue #408: Steve Diggle Part 2 + Fontaines D.C., Leon Bridges, The Hard Quartet, Floating Points, Glass Animals, That Woman, Hayden Thorpe

"You’d bring 200 girls back to the hotel: there was cocaine, orgies, parties..."

Morning,

We kick off today’s edition with the second part of Monday’s interview with Buzzcocks’ guitarist, co-founder and sole remaining original member, Steve Diggle. You join us around pint number three in his Highgate local, as he explains to Ted what happened to the group after when their three-year incredible run of singles started to run out…

Elsewhere today, Niall and Chris weigh in with their Recommendations from this week’s music releases. Ted’s in Greece with patchy WiFi still, so he’s sitting that out again. Here’s this week’s playlist:

And here for the Apple Music crew.

Enjoy the edition, see you next week.

Ted, Niall and Chris

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Steve Diggle Part 2

What was the relationship between the four Buzzcocks like?
Oh, it was good.

How did that evolve?
We always got on well with each other, particularly me and Pete, because we’d be in the pub. They’d do about one or two drinks after rehearsals, we’d be there till about eight, arguing about stuff – but not always arguing, talking about stuff. I used to call it intellectual fencing with him. But we used to learn a lot off each other. When we had an office in 50 Newton Street, people started coming in all of the time, then we’d be in the Waggon and Horses, you know, across the road. But for me and Pete, I think, that was like the French existentialists sitting outside peep shows, your Sartres and Picassos and all that, in Manchester, that was our existentialist chat.

Buzzcocks songs are often conversational.
The songs are really about us, talking in a pub, you know? Because we’re kind of talking on them songs, there’s a bit of realism in the songs. The human condition.

What was the arc of your relationship with Pete Shelley like?
It was about 40 years, I knew him.

Ups and downs?
Not really. The early days, we just had fun and a great creative time. We didn’t really argue. We’d be in bars on the road drinking together and all that. You’ve gone on Top of the Pops, so there was a lot of girls. You’d bring 200 girls back to the hotel, there was cocaine, orgies, parties, everything. I thought, “This is amazing”. I couldn’t get arrested when I was 17, but now, look, you’ve got a choice of ten tonight! It was all consensual. Pete liked boys and girls. So sometimes we’ve invited the girl’s boyfriend back too because Pete had his eye on him. There was a lot of fun in our early 20s, suddenly able to afford cocaine and all the rest, rock’n’roll craziness. It was a great