Search - Buzzcocks :: Spiral Scratch

Seminal Scratch

P. Hanley | 03/06/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Back-and-white sleeve, black-and-white disk, black-and-white world, or at least that's how I remember it. One listen and you're straight back there - Before you even play it, it's clear that few records are as immediately evocative of time and place as this one. That said, when Spiral Scratch appeared (along with The Sex Pistols on the front page of The Daily Mirror) it really did seem like anything was possible, even the lurch from monochrome to colour.

In these days of digital recording, mp3s and myspace it's important to remember just what an accomplishment 'Spiral Scratch' was. (No-one put their own records out, ever) Its very existence is enough to secure Buzzcocks' place in the history books, let alone the sounds contained therein. And what sounds! Combining humour and angst in equal amount, Howard Devoto set the lyrical bar about as high as it could go in the confines of a 3 minute pop tune. That contemporaneous Mancunian wordsmiths Mark E. Smith, John Cooper-Clarke and Ian Curtis were able to rise to the challenge is testament to the extraordinary explosion of talent that existed in Manchester in 1976. The music doesn't disappoint either - Pete Shelley's pop sensibilities, which were to come to the fore following Devoto's departure, were enough in evidence to ensure that the 4 tracks here were strong enough to remain in the listener's subconscious (and in Buzzcocks' live set) for the next 30 years. The production dates it, of course, but even that brings a warm glow of nostalgia for simpler times, a time when you could count both the number of takes and the number of guitar overdubs on the fingers of one hand.

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