Magazine

Enigma is a good word to use when describing Howard Devoto, his attitude to the mechanics of being in a band and his existential lyrics.

Howard Devoto …it’s a key factor to the way I function – is that I thrive on what I’d term ‘negative drive.’ I get bored very easily and that boredom can act as a catalyst for me to conceive and execute a new vocation. In fact negative drive was always what I believe the punk ethic was about. Or should have been about; constant change, avoidance of stale conceits, doing the unacceptable. NME, 28.4.79

A lot of people say I’m complicated.. but I can’t understand that. I think I’m completely transparent. And my songs are as close as you can possibly get to nakedness. He’s not smiling as he says that. But it was surely his first – and only – joke of the afternoon. NME, 29.7.78

Howard Devoto, aka Howard Trafford, met Pete Shelley at college and first came to prominence with the Buzzcocks who debuted in July 1976. For Devoto the Stooges Funhouse was the inspiration to start a band,

Howard Devoto I was getting fed up with rock music in that horrible barren mid 70’s period. The pre-Pistols sterility period….my rock listening was pared down to the three Stooges albums because they were the only records that made sense to me. Plus it was such a shitty period of my life. I found it so glorious to wallow in the hyper negativity of that music. NME, 28.4.79

The catalyst for both was seeing the Sex Pistols. The legendary Spiral Scratch ep was recorded but Devoto, struggled with commitment and found his use of words constrained by the short sharp punk songs they were writing. The aim was to continue to write lyrics for the band.

The second catalyst was when working with Shelley the latter played the motif to what would become Shot By Both Sides, a lyric phrase he had been carrying about with him.

Howard Devoto Shot By Both Sides was the blueprint if you like…well let’s say it was the starting point. It was written whilst I was helping Peter [Shelley] on some tentative Buzzcocks songs. He played the chord sequence and I was really impressed, said so and he just gave them to me there and then. The Light Pours Out Of Me was created the same way. NME, 28.4.79

…getting involved with punk was a reaction against that everything that was in thin air in the time, so getting Magazine together was a reaction against punk.. I don’t like movements. I’m just perverse.. I mean what was radical about doing what several hundred people were doing , all of a sudden? NME, 29.7.78

The band was originally to be a temporary arrangement to produce an EP and Devoto certainly got lucky. First off John McGeoch was already a gifted guitarist with a name for playing. Barry Adamson was a guitarist who picked up the bass after seeing Devoto’s advert in a local Virgin store and auditioned. He would turn into a talented and innovative bassist whose use of the chorus pedal on the band’s second album would be the blueprint for countless gothic and indie bands that followed.

The band was rounded out by keyboardist Bob Dickinson and drummer Martin Jackson (he was going to join Warsaw but saw Devoto as a better opportunity)  and it all fell into place quickly. The writing with McGeoch was so productive they became a band and guitar lead. Demos were sent out and they signed for Virgin in late 1977. Devoto trusted Virgin and it was their stores that Spiral Scratch was sold through initially in 1976.

Their first live appearance was on the last night of the Electric Circus on 2nd October 1977 using old friends, The Buzzcocks, equipment. They also then replace Bob with Dave Formula who had been part of the Northern Soul scene.

The first single was Shot By Both Sides which came out in January 1978 and reached #41. A monster of a single it wrapped so much into itself both sonically and lyrically and should have been a bigger hit. It’s now legendary that what should have been a chart boosting appearance on Top Of The Pops actually caused the song to go down. Check out their appearance and Devoto’s performance. It’s an ambivalence that followed the singer throughout his career. You could argue that the light does literally pour out of him leaving a white painted frontman complete as the NME described his physique as with “High forehead, feminine glazed eyes, gaunt wax works cheekbones. Short and frail of physique.” NME, 28.4.79

If he divided audiences, then straight away the band divided critics or rather Howard divided the critics and as he was the focal point of the band that would cause problems down the road. He was a reluctant performer, interviewee and was described by NME’s Charles Shaar Murray as an “arrogant extrovert” with whom communication was both taxing and annoyingly obtuse.

I don’t think the image of Magazine was contrived at all, as Howard himself asserts, but there was and always has been an uneasy relationship between press and artists who don’t necessarily toe the line.. People who, in one way or another, aren’t hell bent on selling their souls for silver and to appease the masses. The Light Pours Out Of Me, Rory Sullivan-Burke

The album Real Life was released in June 1978 and it’s an astonishing debut that gets broadly good, and sometimes ecstatic, reviews. It’s recorded in 10 days at speed.

John Leckie (Producer Real Life) It’s very much a keyboard album. I mean it’s fantastic, I’m really proud of it because I’ve always thought that it never goes out of date, it always sounds like a modern record – probably the keyboards, the sound and Howard’s vocals. The Light Pours Out Of Me, Rory Sullivan-Burke

NME summarised, Devoto’s career so far in its Real Life Review by Phil McNeil.

Lands national rock press reviews on his and Buzzcocks first gig ever in Manchester supporting the Pistols / Cuts classic home-made ep at the start of the Indies boom /Retires / Fosters celebrity status via occasional enigmatic pronouncements and rumours of Sam Beckett albums / Returns to mass attention he never had in the first place, courtesy of television appearance with superslick band / Negotiates major label contract releases pacemaking single of the New Year / Gets splurged  all over rock press / Lapses into dreary gig circuit  anti-climax, playing mainly to the curious (yes, all this but no fans!) Becomes unfashionable / And now…

Post the album, Martin Jackson, who was more suited to a more punk style of playing, departed, and John Doyle came in to complete the band and add to their options with his rock and funk abilities.

By 1979 the band was rehearsing for their second album with a working title of Back To Nature and the film score composer John Barry was mooted, but Virgin couldn’t afford to fly the band out to the States where he lived. While the first album still had some vestiges of punk in songs like Recoil and Shot By Both Sides, Second Hand Daylight removed all traces and was more keyboard orientated though the writing of songs is democratic.

Howard Devoto …the creative input and the layering of sound is what makes SH what it is, it isn’t about the mix. Dave liked to later things and use different keyboards on the same piece, whereas for John it would be one guitar part that he would put down. The Light Pours Out Of Me, Rory Sullivan-Burke

But the critical response is poor, and at times savage, but not wholly so. The album is so far removed from punk rock and say the UK Subs Another Kind Of Blues it rankles critics favoring the more anti intellectual roots style of punk.

Howard Devoto I’ve always felt its [downfall] came down to two things – its gatefold sleeve.. and I’m afraid “The Thin Air”. which I felt, even when  Joh presented it to us, again there was a hint of Pink Floyd about it.. and you weren’t supposed to go there. The Light Pours Out Of Me, Rory Sullivan-Burke

That plus the critic’s inability to understand any with any complexity. Like why is it called Second Hand Daylight (why was Real Life called Real Life?) What does the cover mean? Why is there a head on stick on the edge of what looks water? Why a luxurious gatefold sleeve and what the fuck are the songs on about? Why? Why? Why?

Garry Bushell, with his love of short sharp songs about football and fighting, was never going to be the man to appreciate this. But the funny thing was that for a lot of us, punk and post punk was an ever-broadening church and we had no problem mixing bands like Magazine, The Stranglers and Ultravox and more punkier stuff.

Part of the problem was Howard hated touring and struggled with the drudgery while the rest of the band liked it but the machine rolled on and the band toured and went to the States.

Already thoughts were on the third album and there was a conscious decision to make it more guitar-oriented. This would be the Correct Use Of Soap and the last to feature John McGeoch but that falls outside of our time frame.

However, it would be remiss if we didn’t leave this entry with arguably Magazine’s greatest song Song From Under The Floorboards.

John would leave Magazine and join Siouxsie & The Banshees creating some of their best songs till alcoholism caused his removal from the band. Stints in PIL and the Armoury Show and some cameos in Generation X  but nothing lasting that matched his talents. He retired from music in the 1990s, becoming a nurse, and died in 2004, aged 48. Barry Adamson would later join the Bad Seeds and do soundtracks. Howard would do Luxuria post Magazine and then just dropped out.

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Shot By Both Sides / My Mind Ain’t So Open
(Virgin January 1978)

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Touch & Go / Goldfinger
(Virgin April 1978)

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Give Me Everything / I Love You You Big Dummy
(Virgin November 1978)

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Rhythm Of Cruelty / TV Baby
(Virgin February 1979)

God bless YouTube and footage like this – Dave Formula remembers” Never seen it before but I know exactly where it is – etched into my memory. It’s a Spanish tv show we did in Barcelona. We must have done at least a dozen takes. The crew was all over the shop. Kept getting the wrong camera angles, bumping into us, tech problems in the control room – incompetence beyond belief. But somehow because they were relaxed and very nice to us, it was sort of good fun. We got a little bit silly that night, ending up with some stunning local transvestites pursuing us through the back streets off the Ramblas…….”

Real Life
(Virgin June 1978)

For Real Life Magazine for the most part got mostly good reviews for what is an exceptional debut album put together at speed and released still amid the change in music brought about by punk rock. Time hasn’t aged this album but judge for yourself and the treasures within! Even the cover distanced itself from punk and was by the artist Linder who notably did the design for Buzzcocks’ Orgasm Addict.

Jon Savage, Sounds, 3.6.1978 – 4 out of 5 stars. The immediate impression of this album, reinforced by the glossy back sleeve, is of imaginative well played ‘quality’ rock ‘n’ roll. ‘Punk’ it is not. The textures are lavish, aided by judicious production of John Leckie which also might give an   indication as the general direction of Magazine’s ‘market’. Impressive enough, but not instantly appealing.

A commercial quality rock album then with deceptive depth. All is not revealed. A few disappointments some in execution – a rerecording of Shot By both Sides made because apparently Virgin lost the masters lacks the cutting edge of the original nd the original and irresistible disco slap of The Light Pours Out Of Me has been lost – others occasionally in conception.

It may be possible to expect too much but any criticisms of a certain conventionality and lack of structural inventiveness on the part of the group, at a time when more than ever traditional structures are being broken down, can be balanced against what they are capable of. Which in the end is more than this. They have got the time  and they’ve got the talent; whether they realise it, or will be allowed to , or whether Devoto retains his commitment, is another question.

Phil McNeill’s review in NME 3.6.78 was virtually a full page of A5, and entitled Devoto: The Most Important Man Alive which was the sort of headline that heaped pressure and expectation on the band and man himself.

… every song is blindingly arranged, never sticking to one format, often changing the established riff structure at will so that, for instance a song might fade out on a new refrain constructed of other elements of the song. It’s a style that appeals on several levels: juggling with musical strutures, evoking aural pictures, moving the imagination and the emotions…

But at least it shows a real belief in rock, acknowledging its renewed importance to its audience, rather than the dopey ‘anti-intellectual’ motivations of people putting togther yet another three-chord buzzsaw conglomerate or, even worse….some shallow fast pop group…it is ironic, but Howard Devoto could actually turn out to be as important as he thinks he is.

He did point out that he thought Devoto’s vocal delivery was the weak part of the band for now!

Below is a more modern Amazon review that’s more detailed about the actual songs.

Jason Parkes Amazon Review 23/4/2007, ‘Real Life’ is one of the great albums of this era and a shockingly good debut. ‘Definitive Gaze’ is a great opener, spelling out the title track in the statement “So this is real life?” – Adamson’s bass is fluid and funky, while Formula’s keyboards offer a cinematic feel. An opener as great as it gets. ‘My Tulpa’ is another favourite, crashing into life with manic keyboards and manic Devoto at the centre – like ‘Definitive Gaze’ it’s advanced by the use of keyboards and space, the next step on from Bowie’s Berlin-era.

The classic single ‘Shot By Both Sides’ is up next, a song that fights PIL’s ‘Public Image’ for the best riff of the post punk era – though the riff appears to be Pete Shelley’s, hence the credit and the riff recurring on the Buzzcock’s catchy ‘Lipstick.’ Devoto’s lyrics are suitably literary and paranoid, the title emanating from a theoretical argument with a girlfriend that ended with her telling him, “You’d be shot by both sides.”

The rest of the album is as fantastic, from ‘Burst’ with its primal drumming (I might prefer the Peel Session version), to the artier ‘Great Beautician in the Sky’ (pointing towards the next album), and the closing ‘Parade.’ The latter is a sublime, if downbeat, song…

The two songs that I always come back to, like ‘Definitive Gaze’, ‘My Tulpa’ and ‘Shot By Both Sides’, are ‘The Light Pours Out of Me’ and ‘Motorcade.’ ‘The Light Pours Out of Me’ still sounds like the future to me…’Motorcade’ is even better, just under six-minutes long and showcasing the keyboard/structural elements that were written off as prog on their second album by some critics.

Devoto’s lyrics feel like Burroughs cutting-up Ballard and Bowie at the same time, the imagery is quite blank, Devoto becoming expert at saying everything and nothing in a suitably oblique way – ‘Permafrost’ the apex of that approach. I’ve always felt it has something to do with the assassination of JFK, though this might have been due to the fact I was reading Ballard’s ‘The Atrocity Exhbition’ the first time I heard this song! “The man at the centre of the motorcade” might be JFK – who knows? The sections where the sonic manically speeds up has more in common with Can and Faust than punky peers, while the concluding part where Devoto intones, “The motorcade holds sway” drips with that wonderful vague meaning. Maybe the words just sound great. Maybe it’s kind of catchy after the mood swings of this epic? Who knows…

‘Real Life’ sounds as great as ever, part of the soundtrack to that brilliant age in the late 1970s that saw such albums as ’20 Jazz Funk Greats’, ‘Chairs Missing’, ‘Fear of Music’, ‘The Idiot’, ‘Low’, ‘Marquee Moon’, ‘The Modern Dance’, ‘Suicide’, ‘Systems of Romance’, ‘Unknown Pleasures’, & ‘Y’ (…and so much more…)

Secondhand Daylight
(Virgin March 1979)

In which the Magazine had a bit of a backlash. Playing it not Punk but yep its Post Punk. Its lush and multi layered and has a lot of synth but the tracks have a groove and it holds up well as an album. Barry Adamson’s bass playing is arguably equal star billing with Formula’s keyboards. Considering he’d been playing for only a year and a half he gets some great tones and that chorus effect on the bass would be copied multiple times down the years, not least by one Steve Severin.

Here’s what Nick Kent said in his NME interview and subsequent interview

Nick Kent – Second Hand Daylight has given Devoto and Magazine a context in which they can provide the listener with a grade A representation of their talents… where previously there was half-realised potential, there is now an austere sense of authority to the music. This becomes clear from the first bars of ‘Feed The Enemy. These are very Low Period Bowiesesque, right down to the stray saxophone bleats and lulling synthesiser chords both of which are submitted into the dank gothic sound to which Magazine  seem so partial. NME, 31.3.1979

…You’ve convinced me that Howard Devoto and Magazine are a force to be reckoned with. No mean feat seeing as I dislike lyricists who tend to play coy and wallow in obscurity and as I also detect a plethora of influences peaking out of every note at times. But you’ve arrived and have harnessed your considerable potential to the dictates of ‘professionalism’ whilst still, taking chances. After all as Devoto himself says ….. “I’ve got to admire your ingenuity.” NME, 31.3.1979

His interview also gave a flavour of other music paper’s less positive comments.

Sounds sucked into its boundless vat of half baked spleen to accuse Devoto of charalatan tactics “while constantly failing to communicate anything except his superiority over the human race.”

Melody Maker concluded that the record was more than a string of unsresolved contradictions buoyed up by a band excellently disguising Devoto’s insignificance. The latter communicated nothing more than than his own “focussing-in on reconciling his intolerable public image with his one personal obsession (ie himself) and his distrust of others becoming in the process, frantically indulgent and solipsistic.

Wow! What the frick were they on eh? Judge for yourself.