BBC Electric Proms presented a double-bill of Mancunian rock at the Roundhouse as Doves performed on the same evening as reformed Manchester legends Magazine. Original members Howard Devoto, Barry Adamson, John Doyle and Dave Formula were joined by Noko on guitar, who stood in for the late John McGeogh. The band added a special element to their 45 minute performance by playing, for the first time, ever, a set featuring selected A and B sides from their singles.
Magazine's front man, Howard Devoto co-formed Buzzcocks with Pete Shelley after the pair had seen the Sex Pistols in early 1976 and promoted the band's infamous Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall gigs. Among the audience for these gigs were Morrissey, Mark E Smith, Joy Division and Tony Wilson all of whom went on to shape the musical landscape of the city.
Devoto left the Buzzcocks in 1977 immediately after their Spiral Scratch EP and formed a new band. At the vanguard of post punk, Magazine took punk's dynamism and energy and bent it into strange and wonderful new shapes. Their debut single Shot By Both Sides is period definitive and their four subsequent albums layered jagged synths and propulsive basslines onto punk's lean template.
This was a rare opportunity to see this enduringly credible band who continue to exert a profound creative influence on contemporary artists such as Radiohead, Maximo Park and indeed Doves.
