Autonomy

Portrait of a Buzzcock

By: Steve Diggle

Narrated by: David Morrissey

From bass player to lead guitarist, singer and last remaining founding member, Steve Diggle has been the driving force keeping Buzzcocks alive since he first met Pete Shelley in 1976. Together they would ignite the Manchester music scene, kickstart indie and become one of the best loved and most influential punk groups of all time.

Following Shelley's untimely death in 2018, Autonomy is Diggle's definitive inside account of their shared musical legacy and complex friendship through the band's rise, fall, and rise again - from their punk origins supporting Sex Pistols with original singer Howard Devoto to Top of the Pops, the excess of success, break-up, reformation and life beyond bereavement.

Funny, honest and touchingly philosophical, it is also Diggle's very personal story of working class escape, dreams, redemption and loss - an ultimately heroic survivor's tale from an irrepressible rock 'n' roll spirit.

Good, but not great

if you're interested in the Buzzcocks or early UK punk, this is definitely worth a listen.

Diggle is a decent storyteller and a fluid writer. Though he makes the all too common music memoir mistake of lingering too long on his "formative years."

I suggest picking 3-5 pivotal vignettes (and if it's 5, keep 'em short) from the "early" days. And then immediately dive into the meat of why people bought your bio -- Your time in the band that made you famous.

Diggle also spends too much time whining about perceived slights, whether real or imagined, all of which are meaningless in the grand scheme.

Could have been better, but it wasn't bad, and I was entertained.