Steve Diggle | |
|---|---|
 Diggle with Buzzcocks at the Cropredy Festival in August 2009 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Stephen E Diggle |
| Born | 7 May 1955 Manchester, England |
| Genres | Rock, punk rock, pop punk |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar, bass guitar |
| Years active | 1976–present |
| Labels | EMI |
| Website | stevediggle |
Stephen E Diggle (born 7 May 1955) [1] [2] is an English guitarist and vocalist in the punk band Buzzcocks.
Diggle was born on 7 May 1955 at Saint Mary's Hospital in Manchester, [3] [4] and grew up in the Bradford [4] and Rusholme areas of the city, where he was a mod. [5] After attending Oldham College, [6] he worked in a foundry, but was dismissed for refusing piece work, causing a strike. [7] [8]
He attended the Sex Pistols gig at Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall, in June 1976. Their manager Malcolm McLaren introduced him to guitarist Pete Shelley and vocalist Howard Devoto, who were looking for a bassist for their band, Buzzcocks. [9] John Maher joined as drummer and six weeks later, Buzzcocks played their first concert. Steve played bass at several concerts and on the Spiral Scratch EP . Howard Devoto left Buzzcocks shortly after the EP was released, which prompted the band to reshuffle – Pete Shelley becoming lead vocalist as well as guitarist and Diggle switching from bass to guitar.
Steve Diggle wrote several songs for Buzzcocks, including "Autonomy", "Fast Cars" (co-written with Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley), "Love Is Lies" (perhaps the first Buzzcocks song featuring an acoustic guitar), "Sitting Round At Home", "You Know You Can't Help It", "Mad Mad Judy", "Airwaves Dream", and, perhaps his most famous song, "Harmony in My Head", a Top 40 hit in 1979.
After Buzzcocks split in 1981, Diggle was briefly a solo artist, releasing the 50 Years of Comparative Wealth EP (with the guest participations of fellow-Buzzcocks Steve Garvey and John Maher) the same year. In 1982, he formed a new band, Flag of Convenience with ex-Buzzcock John Maher. Ex-Easterhouse drummer Gary Rostock played on Diggle's 2000 album Some Reality, released on Diggle's own label, 3:30 Records. [10] In 2013, Diggle also appeared in the British punk-pop comedy Vinyl , playing himself.
Buzzcocks are an English punk rock band that singer-songwriter-guitarist Pete Shelley and singer-songwriter Howard Devoto formed in Bolton in 1976. During their career, the band combined elements of punk rock, power pop, and pop punk. They achieved commercial success with singles that fuse pop craftsmanship with rapid-fire punk energy; these singles were later collected on Singles Going Steady, an acclaimed compilation album music journalist and critic Ned Raggett described as a "punk masterpiece".
Magazine were an English rock band formed in 1977 in Manchester in England by singer Howard Devoto and guitarist John McGeoch. After leaving the punk group Buzzcocks in early 1977, Devoto decided to create a more progressive and less "traditional" rock band. The original lineup of Magazine was composed of Devoto, McGeoch, Barry Adamson on bass, Bob Dickinson on keyboards and Martin Jackson on drums.
Howard Devoto is an English singer and songwriter, who began his career as the frontman for punk rock band Buzzcocks, but then left to form Magazine, an early post-punk band. After Magazine, he went solo and later formed indie band Luxuria.
Pete Shelley was an English singer, songwriter and guitarist. He formed early punk band Buzzcocks with Howard Devoto in 1976, and became the lead singer and guitarist in 1977 when Devoto left. The group released their biggest hit "Ever Fallen in Love " in 1978. The band broke up in 1981 and reformed at the end of the decade. Shelley also had a solo career; his song "Homosapien" charted in North America in 1981 and 1982.
Noko is an English musician, multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer, has formed and/or played with a number of bands primarily as a guitarist or bassist. In chronological order they were: Alvin the Aardvark and the Fuzzy Ants, the Umbrella, the Pete Shelley Group, the Cure, Luxuria, Apollo 440, Stealth Sonic Soul, Fast, Maximum Roach, James Maker and Noko 440, Magazine, Raw Chimp, Levyathan, SCISM, Am I Dead Yet? and Buzzcocks.
Another Music in a Different Kitchen is the first studio album by the English punk rock band Buzzcocks. It was released in March 1978 by the United Artists record label. This was the third line-up of Buzzcocks, with the guitarist Pete Shelley singing following the departure of the original vocalist Howard Devoto and then the firing of the bass guitarist Garth Smith. The album includes the single "I Don't Mind", which reached number 55 in the UK Singles Chart in May 1978.
The Invisible Girls were a British rock band, formed in Salford, Greater Manchester in 1978, to provide a musical backdrop to the recorded output of Salford punk poet John Cooper Clarke. The band's nucleus was Joy Division and New Order producer Martin Hannett and keyboardist Steve Hopkins, with contributions from, amongst others, Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks and Bill Nelson of Be-Bop Deluxe. The band also played on the first solo album by Pauline Murray, the eponymous Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls and some singles, and later with Nico for the single "Procession".
All Set is the fifth studio album by English pop punk band Buzzcocks. After standardising their line-up of vocalists and guitarists Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle, bassist Tony Barber, and drummer Phil Barker for the band's previous album Trade Test Transmissions (1993), the band's first record since their reunion in 1989, the band toured relentlessly which inspired the band–especially Shelley–to create a new album. Hiring longtime punk rock producer Neill King to produce and engineer All Set, the band recorded in Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California, a studio where then-huge pop punk bands like Green Day, to whom Buzzcocks had been a big influence, had recently recorded music engineered by King.
Modern is the sixth studio album by English pop punk band Buzzcocks. After the critical success of the band's previous album All Set (1996), the band became disillusioned with trying to be a rock band and set out to become more "modern," thus birthing the project. Recording the album in Chipping Barnet with the band's bassist Tony Barber producing, Modern sees a strong electronic music influence, with electronic instruments and drum machines featuring on the songs, especially those written by Steve Diggle, who wrote five of the album's songs whilst Pete Shelley wrote the other eight songs.
Buzzcocks is the seventh studio album by English pop punk band Buzzcocks. It was released on 18 March 2003 by record label Merge in the US and Cherry Red in the UK.
Trade Test Transmissions is the fourth studio album by English pop punk band Buzzcocks. It was released on 2 June 1993 by record label Castle Communications on their sub-label Essential Records and was the band's first release in fourteen years, following up 1979's A Different Kind of Tension. The music was quite different from their earlier material with nods to the power pop scene popular at the time.
Operators Manual: Buzzcocks Best is a compilation album by English punk rock band Buzzcocks. It was released in 1991 by I.R.S. Records.
Spiral Scratch is an EP and the first release by the English punk rock band Buzzcocks. It was released on 29 January 1977. It is one of the earliest releases by a British punk band. Spiral Scratch and the album Time's Up are the only Buzzcocks studio releases with original singer Howard Devoto, who left shortly after the EP's release to form one of the first post-punk bands, Magazine.
Stephen Garvey is a musician who is known for being the bass guitarist of the punk band Buzzcocks, forming part of the classic line-up of the group, from 1977 to 1981, and, again, from 1989 to 1992.
Flag of Convenience were a rock group formed in 1982 by former Buzzcocks members Steve Diggle and John Maher, along with bassist Dave Farrow and keyboard player Dave "D.P." Prescott. Through their first two line-ups they were managed by the writer and music critic Michael Gray, shortly after his personal management of Gerry Rafferty. Hence the band's first single was produced by Rafferty's co-producer Hugh Murphy. The band continued with changing line-ups until 1989, with later incarnations releasing records under the names F.O.C. and Buzzcocks F.O.C. The final incarnation of the band included former member of the Stone Roses Andy Couzens and former Inspiral Carpets drummer Chris Goodwin, who both went on to form the High. The band ended when Diggle joined Pete Shelley in a re-formed Buzzcocks, the reunion prompted by controversy over the use of "Buzzcocks" in the billing of Diggle's band.
John Maher is a British musician who was part of the punk and new wave scenes in Manchester, England, most notably as the drummer with Buzzcocks.
Garth Smith and sometimes credited as Garth, was known for being one of the bassists of the Bolton formed punk rock band, Buzzcocks.
The Best of Steve Diggle and Flag of Convenience – The Secret Public Years 1981–1989 is a CD compilation of Buzzcocks' Steve Diggle's first solo days and his subsequent band, Flag of Convenience, which compiles his post-Buzzcocks songs from 1981 to 1989, during the years Buzzcocks remained disbanded. It was released in 1994 in the UK on Anagram Records.
50 Years of Comparative Wealth E.P. was a 1981 7-inch EP released by Steve Diggle of Buzzcocks. This was his first disc released in his solo career and without Buzzcocks, who by those days were disbanding. Shortly afterwards Garvey dedicated to his proper projects, with his band Motivation, while Diggle and Maher formed punk band Flag of Convenience, but Maher also left Diggle after some releases.
Sonics in the Soul is the tenth studio album by English punk rock band Buzzcocks, released on 23 September 2022 by Cherry Red Records. It is their first studio album since 2014's The Way and their first album without founding member Pete Shelley, who passed away in 2018.
| Studio albums | |
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| Compilation albums | |
| EPs | |
| Singles | |
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| International | |
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| National | |
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