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Spiral Scratch was a four-track EP by the punk rock band Buzzcocks, recorded in 1976 and released in January 1977. It was the first punk record to be self-released (that is, without the support of a record label), and only the third ever by a British punk band. When reissued in 1979, it reached number 31 in the UK Singles Chart. A collection of various CD singles In music, a single is a short recording of one or more separate tracks. ...
For the panel game, see Never Mind the Buzzcocks. ...
Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ...
Chemical structure of the vinyl functional group. ...
A vinyl EP from Crop Circles. ...
EP can stand for: EP is the IATA code for Iran Aseman Airlines Extended play, a music recording (usually consisting of several tracks, but shorter than a typical album) European Parliament, the parliamentary body of the European Union Evolutionary psychology, a belief that psychology can be better understood in light...
This article is about the City of Manchester in England. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ...
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. ...
A songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics to songs, the musical composition or melody to songs, or both. ...
Pete Shelley Pete Shelley (born Peter McNeish, April 17, 1955 in Leigh, Lancashire) is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist, best-known as the leader of Buzzcocks, one of the first generation punk rock groups from England. ...
Howard Devoto (born Howard Trafford 1955 in Manchester) is an English rock and roll singer/songwriter who began his career as the frontman for the punk band Buzzcocks, and who then formed several other groups, notably Magazine. ...
In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes. ...
Martin Hannett (May 31, 1948) – April 18, 1991 )), sometimes credited as Martin Zero, was an innovative record producer who helped develop Joy Division and co-founded Factory Records with Tony Wilson. ...
For the panel game, see Never Mind the Buzzcocks. ...
EP can stand for: EP is the IATA code for Iran Aseman Airlines Extended play, a music recording (usually consisting of several tracks, but shorter than a typical album) European Parliament, the parliamentary body of the European Union Evolutionary psychology, a belief that psychology can be better understood in light...
Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ...
For the panel game, see Never Mind the Buzzcocks. ...
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. ...
“British Hit Singles†redirects here. ...
Recording and release
Buzzcocks recorded the tracks on 28 December 1976 at Indigo Sound, Manchester on 16-track tape. According to Devoto, "It took three hours [to record the tracks], with another two for mixing."[1] Produced by Martin Hannett (credited as Martin Zero), the music was roughly recorded, insistently repetitive, and energetic. Martin Hannett (May 31, 1948) – April 18, 1991 )), sometimes credited as Martin Zero, was an innovative record producer who helped develop Joy Division and co-founded Factory Records with Tony Wilson. ...
The band, having no record label support, had to borrow £500 from their friends and families to pay for the record's production and manufacture.[2] The EP was released 29 January 1977 on the band's own New Hormones label, making Buzzcocks the first punk group to establish an independent record label. Despite this, the disc quickly sold out its initial run of 1,000 copies, and went on to sell 16,000 copies, initially by mail order, but also with the help of the Manchester branch of music chain store Virgin, whose manager took some copies and persuaded other regional branch managers to follow suit.[3] This article is about the City of Manchester in England. ...
Chain stores are a range of retail outlets which share a brand and central management, usually with standardised business methods and practices. ...
Virgin Megastores is an international chain of record shops, founded by Sir Richard Branson on Londons Oxford Street in January or February 1971 (exact date uncertain). ...
"Boredom" "Boredom", probably the EP's most well-known song, announced punk's rebellion against the status quo while templating a strident musical minimalism (the guitar solo consisting of two notes repeated 66 times, ending with a single modulated seventh[4]). At the same time the lyrics already showed boredom with punk itself ("You know the scene is very humdrum" and "I'm already a has-been!") - indeed Howard Devoto left the band on the eve of the record's release, saying "I get bored very easily and that boredom can act as a catalyst for me to suddenly conceive and execute a new vocation." He added that punk rock had already become restrictive and stereotyped.[5] A seventh chord is a chord consisting of a triad plus a note forming an interval of a seventh above the chords root. ...
Howard Devoto (born Howard Trafford 1955 in Manchester) is an English rock and roll singer/songwriter who began his career as the frontman for the punk band Buzzcocks, and who then formed several other groups, notably Magazine. ...
Richard Boon, the band's manager, asserts that "Boredom" was a satirical song.[6] 21st Century Game Design 21st Century Game Design (ISBN 1584504293) is a book by Chris Bateman and Richard Boon. ...
1867 edition of Punch, a ground-breaking British magazine of popular humour, including a good deal of satire of the contemporary social and political scene. ...
The song was placed at Number 11 in Mojo magazine's list of "100 Punk Scorchers" in 2001.[7] Mojo is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. ...
Influence Simon Reynolds in his book Rip It Up and Start Again states that some consider Spiral Scratch to be a more important record than the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK" - because, whereas the Sex Pistols' single showed that anyone could be in a rock band (a novel idea at the time), Spiral Scratch proved that anyone could release a record, without needing an established record label, of which there were very few in 1977. Simon Reynolds (born 1963 in London), is an influential British music critic who is well-known for his writings on electronic dance music and for coining the term post-rock. ...
The Sex Pistols were an iconic and highly influential English punk rock band, formed in London in 1975. ...
Anarchy in the U.K. (B-side I Wanna Be Me) was the first single by the punk band the Sex Pistols released on November 26, 1976, and is thus frequently considered to be the first punk single (although The Ramones released Blitzkrieg Bop a year earlier). ...
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. ...
Further to this, he states that the EP was "a regionalist blow" by the Manchester band against the London-based music industry. Jon Savage states that it was instrumental in helping establish the small labels and scenes in both Manchester and Liverpool.[8] This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...
Jon Savage real name Jonathan Sage (born 1953) is a writer, broadcaster and music journalist, best known for his award winning history of the Sex Pistols and punk music, Englands Dreaming (1991). ...
For other uses, see Liverpool (disambiguation). ...
It is often said that the many small DIY labels that sprang up across the country in 1977 took Spiral Scratch as their inspiration.[9]
The EP was also an exercise in the demystification of the record-making process (for example, its title was taken from the music's being recorded literally as a spiral scratch on each side of the vinyl; also, the listing of take numbers and overdubs on the record sleeve). This was a landmark event for many, Reynolds adds. "People were buying Spiral Scratch...for the sheer fact of its existence, its existence as a cultural landmark and portent of revolution."[10]
Bob Last founded his Fast Product label after Spiral Scratch came out. "I had absolutely no idea there'd been a history of independent labels before that. Spiral Scratch turned my head around."[11]. Fast Product were an independent record label, established in Edinburgh by Bob Last in December 1977. ...
Eighties Indie band Orange Juice mentioned "Boredom", used a line from it and adapted the guitar solo on their 1982 single "Rip It Up."[12] in music that is characterized by its perceived independence from mainstream or pop culture as a whole. ...
For other uses, see Orange juice (disambiguation). ...
The success of this EP also helped to establish the reputation of Martin Hannett in the music industry.[13]
Collecting The original EP is priced at £40 by Record Collector in their 2008 price guide. [14]. Cover of the Nov 2005 issue Record Collector started in 1979 and is the UK’s longest-running monthly music magazine. ...
Track listing
Side one - "Breakdown" (Third take no dubs)
- "Time's Up" (First take guitar dub)
Side two - "Boredom" (First take guitar dub)
- "Friends of Mine" (First take guitar dub)
Personnel Howard Devoto (born Howard Trafford 1955 in Manchester) is an English rock and roll singer/songwriter who began his career as the frontman for the punk band Buzzcocks, and who then formed several other groups, notably Magazine. ...
Pete Shelley Pete Shelley (born Peter McNeish, April 17, 1955 in Leigh, Lancashire) is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist, best-known as the leader of Buzzcocks, one of the first generation punk rock groups from England. ...
Steve Diggle (b. ...
Martin Hannett (May 31, 1948) – April 18, 1991 )), sometimes credited as Martin Zero, was an innovative record producer who helped develop Joy Division and co-founded Factory Records with Tony Wilson. ...
Reissues and alternate versions The EP was reissued in the UK in 1979, having been deleted when Buzzcocks signed to United Artists in 1977.[15] Remaining on the New Hormones label, but credited to "Buzzcocks with Howard Devoto" the record was distributed by Virgin records and reached No 31 in the charts, staying in for six weeks.[16] Virgin Records was a British recording label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, and Nik Powell in 1972. ...
The EP was reissued as a CD by Mute Records in 1999.[17] Mute Records is a record label formed in 1978 by Daniel Miller primarily to release his own single, T.V.O.D./Warm Leatherette, under the moniker The Normal. ...
Time's Up, a former bootleg LP recorded in 1976, features early, rough versions of the songs. This was also released by Mute.[18] For other uses, see Bootleg. ...
See also The DIY ethic (do it yourself ethic) refers to the ethic of being self-reliant and doing things yourself as opposed to paying others to do it. ...
Self-publishing is the publishing of books or other media by those who have written them. ...
For Mancunians, the popular musical heritage of the city has always been a source of great pride. ...
References - ^ Savage, J. England's Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock (Faber and Faber 2001), pp.296-7
- ^ Perry, A. in Mojo 95, P.90
- ^ "Mail order was very important. Rough Trade was just a shop with a mail order service in those days." - Richard Boon in Reynolds, S. Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 (Faber and Faber 2006), p. 92
- ^ Lee, C.P. quoted in Sharp, S. Who Killed Martin Hannett? (Aurum 2007), p.27
- ^ Reynolds, S. Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 (Faber and Faber 2006), pp.17-18
- ^ Savage, J. England's Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock (Faber and Faber 2001), pp.296-7
- ^ Savage, J. and Perry, A. "100 Punk Scorchers!" in Mojo 95, (October 2001), P.90
- ^ Savage, J. England's Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock (Faber and Faber 2001), p.298
- ^ for instance, "Spiral Scratch helped to codify the DIY-or-die fervor that resulted in so many scrappy English 7”s over the next few years" in Harvell, J. "Rhythm of Cruelty:Howard Devoto, Magazine and the Post-punk Revival" (Retrieved 29 June 2007)
- ^ Reynolds, S. Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 (Faber and Faber 2006), p.93
- ^ Reynolds, S. Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 (Faber and Faber 2006), p.94
- ^ Todd Hutlock: "And then there it is: that same ringing, repeating guitar riff that Buzzcocks put in our heads years previous" in Buzzcocks:boredom/Orange Juice;Rip It Up
- ^ This is stated in his Wikipedia article
- ^ Shirley, I. (ed) Rare Record Price Guide (Diamond 2008, ISBN 0953260151)), p.187
- ^ Perry, A. in Mojo 95, P.90
- ^ Brown, T. et al. The Complete Book of the British Charts (Omnibus Press 2002), P.178
- ^ In Scaruffi, P. "Buzzcocks" (retrieved 29 June 2007)
- ^ Wilkinson, R. in "Q (magazine) Punk special edition (EMAP 2002), P.135
Mojo is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. ...
29 is my favourite colour!!!!!!!! Events Romans captured Sofia. ...
For other uses, see June (disambiguation). ...
Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...
Martin Hannett (May 31, 1948) – April 18, 1991 )), sometimes credited as Martin Zero, was an innovative record producer who helped develop Joy Division and co-founded Factory Records with Tony Wilson. ...
Mojo is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. ...
29 is my favourite colour!!!!!!!! Events Romans captured Sofia. ...
For other uses, see June (disambiguation). ...
Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...
Q is a music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom, with a circulation of 140,282 and a readership of 731,000. ...
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