The 'Alternating Currents' Legacy Interview: Steve Garvey of The Buzzcocks

Hit reset with 'Operators Manual' – A 'Best Of' blast from the past, released in October 1991

Steve Diggle, Mike Joyce, Steve Garvey and Pete Shelley backstage at the Reading Festival, August 1990.

---

Prologue

After a successful but ultimately short-lived run in the late 70s and early 80s, British punk pioneers The Buzzcocks called it quits in 1981. However, the music world wasn't done with them yet. In 1989, the influential band surprised fans with a reformation, reuniting the classic lineup of Pete Shelley, Steve Diggle, Steve Garvey, and John Maher. This unexpected return marked the beginning of a new chapter for The Buzzcocks, one that would see them revisit their punk roots, create new music, and solidify their status as legends.

---

You know the old cliche: Don't judge a book by its cover. What's in a name? You can't teach an old dog new tricks. The most likely candidates to be squashed into this box might be The Buzzcocks. The seminal British punk-pop quartet of the late '70s and early '80s resurfaced two years ago when rumors had them reforming for a tour. For all intents and purposes, the band has come together to stay with spirit intact, courtesy of a ‘best of’ collection from I.R.S. Records titled Operators Manual, damn the torpedoes and all.

Boston has a unique kinship with the group – singer Pete Shelley, guitarist Steve Diggle, bassist Steve Garvey and drummer Mike Joyce (who's replaced original member John Maher) – as I discovered in my phone conversation with Garvey from New York City just before the start of their U.S. tour.

"It's one of our favorite gigs in the whole country, he enthused. “We always have a great time there."

To say the least, Garvey's memories of the early days were highly amusing and although he’s lived in New York for nearly a decade, he recalled one Beantown escapade from their youthful glory reign.

“The first time we ever came to America, the first gig we ever played, was in Boston,” he recalled. “I remember once we played at the Bradford Hotel, there was a ballroom there, upstairs on the second or third floor. Must have been 1980… strange. Anyway, we were staying in the hotel! You just got on the elevator and you’re onstage – literally! The backstage area was our hotel room, so, there were some serious parties going on. We did two nights there.” After I mentioned the hotel was renovated, he joked, "They renovated it after we stayed there," and broke up in laughter.

I found Garvey's easygoing persona quite a jolt since I imagined the old punk attitude would be online. Nothing could be further from the truth. Garvey and his bandmates are excited to be back and he's happy to dispel any notions that they're over-the-hill, boring geezers.

"We're only in our early thirties; we're not old men. We're a lot more of a tidier rock and roll band, not like the trashy, punky band we were then. We still have all the energy, but we're so much tighter. We're much better musicians and more focused on what we do. Certainly from a live point of view.”

The pressures of touring in their heyday were considerable, with the success of some 20-odd singles including “Orgasm Addict,” “Harmony In My Head” and “Everybody's Happy Nowadays.” It was when they assembled in 1980 to record their fourth album that they discovered the financial payback for their hard work was virtually gone – a situation that Garvey characterized as “soul destroying.”

"All the money had been squandered away, the accounts were lost. Under those conditions, we had a hard time coming up with an album." Their producer Martin Rushnet instead took Shelley into his home studio and eventually Shelley wound up with his 1981 solo hit “Homosapien.”

"It wasn't like a big argument that split up the band,” Garvey now says. “At that point, Pete didn’t need the band, hence the demise of the Buzzcocks at that point.”

Some eight years later, Garvey – now in New York – got wind from the British music papers that his old band might be reforming and for some reason, thought he would be passed over for the bass position.

“I did actually call Pete and say “What’s going on?” and he said “Well, it’s all bullshit. We’re not getting back together.” But we got to talking and we realized maybe we’ll give it a go and see what happens.”

To their amazement, they discovered they had become bigger than when they were together and during their 1989 U.K. tour, they “didn’t disappoint anybody,” Garvey noted. “We got better reviews than the first time around. We went to Europe and then Australia and Japan. We played to 9000 people in Sydney, which is incredible! I was more surprised than anybody, believe me.”

Unfortunately, John Maher felt his heart, wasn't in it for a reunion. After the U.K. tour, auditions were held, but fate intervened when ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr recommended his bandmate Mike Joyce for the vacated spot. It worked, as Joyce “knew every one of our songs backward," Garvey said. "It was like it was meant to be.”

As of this writing, the group will go into the studio with producer Bill Laswell and demo songs even though they have no record deal. It sounds unfathomable since I witnessed one of the most intense power-packed shows of this year when they played Axis. The band is absolutely driven and if I hadn't met Garvey before the gig, I swear his stage persona would remind me of a wide-eyed lunatic on a comical high. There’s no mistaking their bonding with an audience when a dozen or more fans jump onstage to sing along to “I Believe” with its legendary refrain “There is no love in this world anymore!”

“People come up to me all the time and say we were one of the greatest bands ever,” Garvey told me on the phone. “And I’m scratching my head, saying ‘Thank you, but why?’ I just don’t understand it.”

Bless his heart that we do!

---

Epilogue

Steve Garvey with Todd Alan Ellis, September 2024. Photo: Todd Alan Ellis/Facebook

---