Library Rock's Backpages

The Buzzcocks: Product

Martin Aston, Q, December 1989

LIKE MOST punk escapades, Buzzcocks started with Johnny Rotten, whose "We're not into music, we're into chaos" motto drew Bolton students Peter Shelley and Howard Devoto down to London. There they persuaded Malcolm McLaren to bring the Sex Pistols up to Manchester, thus triggering a city scene that thrives to this day. It began with Shelley and Devoto who filched their group's name from a Time Out review of the music soap Rock Follies which ended, "get a buzz, cock."

Total word count of piece: 630

Subscribe

Becoming a member is easy. Membership gives you access to all the thousands of articles in the library.

Click here to go to Subscribe page.

Click here for academic and other group subscriptions.