Not that television appearances will ever be a worry for opening act MISS MACHINE, as they’ve about as much chance of appearing on 'Top Of The Pops' as Craig David has of being a contestant on ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’. If you can imagine an amalgam of Anjelica Huston and Wendy James fronting the remnants of Toploader, you might come close to their visual delights.
It’s really not that easy to say what they sound like but expect the word “mess” to be in there somewhere. Someone next to me thought they reminded him of Hole but even Courtney Love has written a few tunes in her time. Next, if you please…
And thank heavens it’s worth the wait. A quarter of a century may have passed since their groundbreaking ‘Spiral Scratch’ single first saw the light of day, but the opening chords of ‘Boredom’ from said EP still sounded so fresh, so exhilarating, so vibrantly NOW.
Despite the fact only two of the original line up remain (guitarist Steve Diggle, and “porky” Pete Shelley, who now sports a platinum blonde mane and several extra pounds), the band play as if their lives are dependent on tonight’s performance, with the only words uttered between songs being “1-2-3-4” to start the next one.
They play all the hits from way back when including the masturbators’ anthem ‘Orgasm Addict’ and their signature tune ‘Ever Fallen In Love’, which causes a 1,500-strong karaoke choir to roar every word back in unison.
Not that tonight could ever be dismissed as a nostalgia fest. On the contrary, with the newer songs aired tonight from their forthcoming album (imaginatively titled 'The Buzzcocks' – what else?) not sounding out of place alongside the more recognisable, established material.
If you want to know where people as diverse as The Smiths, Blink 182 and Badly Drawn Boy got shedloads of inspiration from and don’t mind being surrounded by 20-odd stone blokes in their fifties bellowing “Admit, Admit, You’re shit! You’re shit!” then a Buzzcocks show really is the place to be.
