Dying Scene Book Club – “Autonomy – Portrait of a Buzzcock” by Steve Diggle

Steve Diggle is the lone remaining original Buzzcock. He and Pete Shelley started the band in Manchester, England, back in 1976. They remained the two constant members until Shelley’s unfortunate passing in 2018. Since then, Diggle has become the de facto leader of the band and recounts it’s history in his book, “Autonomy: Portrait of a Buzzcock.” I went into this book wondering why Steve Diggle would be the one to tell this story and at this time. With Shelley’s passing, it seems like that ship has sailed, but Diggle’s contributions to the band are more significant than you would think.

The book is broken up into two parts. The first part describes Diggle’s childhood through the forming of the Buzzcocks. He details discovering rock ‘n’ roll and becoming a Mod in Manchester in the mid-70s. Being unemployed led to him having time to write songs, and an accidental meeting with Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto set him on his path to rock ‘n’ roll. Diggle speaks about writing his first few songs including “Autonomy” and “Fast Cars,” but just as the band gets some traction, Howard Devoto leaves to form Magazine. Devoto’s exit serves as the cut-off point for the second part of Diggle’s book.

Part two of Diggle’s book starts with what could be called Buzzcocks proper. Diggle talks about Pete Shelley and their friendship, sometimes drinking and debating in the pub but always in sync with songwriting for the band. Diggle understands the backlash of Pete Shelley’s promotion to lead singer after Howard Devoto’s departure. He brings up Pete’s bisexuality and the ways Pete tested Steve. While writing, he was fine with Shelley’s orientation; he seemed a tad uncomfortable discussing it. Yet he does more than just write a quick paragraph and move on; he describes the cross-section of how the Gay Punk Rock scenes in Manchester crossed more than people realized and what’s written about it. Most of the events that may make him look undesirable do get more page space than most autobiographies. It is a byproduct but is still there for all to see. Diggle basks in the truth uncomfortably of these revelations well.

I always assumed the Buzzcocks was the Pete Shelley show, but Diggle wrote a good number of the band’s hits, specifically “Promises,” “Harmony in My Head,” and “Autonomy.” These, outside of Pete Shelley’s anthemic “Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve),” are amongst the band’s most durable hits. Given the vulnerability of the band’s lyrics, he spent many a night talking with fans about the problems.

Diggle is as formal as a punk rocker in his late sixties can be as he details his past exploits. While not a criminal like Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols, he did stir up some trouble. He relishes the rinse-lather-repeat motions between touring and recording even when Pete Shelley did not. As with many recollections of the past, the tone and gears shift between nostalgia and wistful regrets of should-haves. He is very matter-of-fact about his and the band’s drug use and the substance problems that led to the selfish ending of his relationship with his longtime on-and-off-again girlfriend, which he chalks up to a selfish moment emulating John Lennon.

While not one of the British scene’s biggest characters like Sid Vicious or Joe Strummer, Steve Diggle’s adjacent time in it makes for a great reading experience. There is a lot of crossover with Manchester pillars like Martin Hannett and Tony Wilson of Factory Records and bands like the Clash and Joy Division. He details the strange ways the band’s songs have been commercially used but loathes the use of the band’s name on the nearly thirty-year-strong BBC pop music panel show, “Never Mind the Buzzcocks.”

Bone up on your British slang because this book is not Americanized at all, which I liked. There were a few terms I had to look up myself even being an Anglophile obsessed with the country’s books, films, and television. I was convinced that keeping the Buzzcocks going post-Pete Shelley was a money grab; this book proved me incorrect, and I’m happy to be wrong. With the infighting of a lot of the bands whose material endured this long, it’s good to know this incarnation isn’t the Steve Diggle band and had been blessed by Pete Shelley before his passing. Pick up “Autonomy: Portrait of a Buzzcock” on Omnibus Press here.