See if you can hang on through the hyperventilating woman interviewing The Buzzcocks in Toronto, in 1979 (following a set up by some more recent Toronto VJ). As your reward, a little past the 5:00-minute mark, there’s a pretty clean performance of “What Do I Get?,” a rarity among the typically sloppy Buzzcocks live cuts from ye olden days that I usually come across.
What I really want to get at, though, is the inanity of media members who expect musicians to aspire to STARDOM and the whole “star treatment” routine. How intoxicating that can be for young musicians, but what a pain! I can think of at least one Townsperson who I bet has been through this type of interview. Anyone else to any degree? It’s one thing for a musician to humbly or secretly desire some form of success – or even to gun for it without prompting, but it’s quite another to be expected to act like you want to be the next Mick Jagger, like you should be oozing stardom and secretly hitting on the interviewer while he or she is sticking a mic in your face. This woman seems to be trying too hard to lead The Buzzcocks into acting like they’re something other than they are, missing the opportunity to talk to what seem to be a fun, interesting bunch of guys. I guess anyone on the other side of an interview has been guilty of feeding into an expected routine with an interview subject, but this style of interview strikes me as especially cheesy. I’ve got no beef with rock musicians who actually possess and/or attain star power, but the expectation for musicians to fall into that pattern can be…icky. It’s awkward to watch The Buzzcocks squirm through these expectations, no?
Man, I LOVE What Do I Get. They definitely had the right attitude about the interview, there’s no point in jumping to her conclusions. I especially identify with the dropping of guitars.
Yeesh. That woman is unbearable! I suspect those kinds of questions are, for the most part, irrelevant these days. I sincerely doubt there are as many kidz today who undertake the creation of rock music as a means to becoming “rock stars” in the overblown, Keith Moon kind of way.
The boys handled that completely asinine woman with aplomb. You could almost hear the eye rolling.
I wish someone had asked The Sexiest Man in Prog Rock these probing questions when he had the chance.