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Buzzcocks at Zappa Baza in Belgrade on December 12 - fifty years of the band that put out the first independent record in British music

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Buzzcocks at Zappa Baza in Belgrade on December 12 - fifty years of the band that put out the first independent record in British music

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Buzzcocks are turning fifty, and they mark it at Zappa Baza in Belgrade on December 12. The band that released the first genuinely independent record in the history of British music is coming to a club, which is roughly where they started.

They were founded in Bolton in 1976 by Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto. They took the name from the headline „It's the Buzz, Cock!” in a review of the series „Rock Follies” in the magazine „Time Out”. In 1977 they released the EP „Spiral Scratch” themselves, with no label behind them, and in doing so effectively invented indie as a way of working. Devoto left the same year, and Shelley stayed on as lead singer and songwriter.

„Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)” came out on September 8, 1978, reached number 12 on the British chart and was named song of the year by NME. Shelley never revealed whether it was written for a man or a woman - he deliberately kept it gender-neutral, and that is exactly why everyone reads it as their own.

Shelley died in 2018. Since then the band has been led by Steve Diggle, the long-serving guitarist, who also took over the vocal role. Playing with him are Chris Remington on bass and Danny Farrant on drums. They are not a museum act: in 2025 they recorded the album „Attitude Adjustment”. Tickets are via tickets.rs.