Time's Up [Enhanced, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Buzzcocks | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 21, 2000)
• Original Release Date: 1977
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Mute U.S.
• ASIN: B00004RJ2E
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #346,176 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great slice of history, but for completists only., January 28, 2002

By 

Art - See all my reviews

This review is from: Time's Up (Audio CD)

This is a great snapshot of the Buzzcocks' first ever recording session. As someone who is far more familiar with the Pete Shelley-led version of the band, I found it fascinating to hear Howard Devoto's take on these early songs. Not what I would recommend for someone's first introduction to the band, but great if you think you've heard it all.

Two caveats to potential buyers: Despite what Amazon says, this album is not "Live". Also, there is one live video track included on the enhanced CD, but the video is not synched up with the audio in any way. The audio sounds like the studio track with random shots of the 'Cocks onstage performing. It's interesting to see them in action at their first ever gig, but any connection between the movements they're making in the film and the music you're hearing is purely coincidental.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Come in,Ye Rock Gods of Yore....Yer Times Up!, March 22, 2000

By 

[e-mail] (Blackpool) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Time's Up (Audio CD)

One can only imagine the effect this type of band had on the UK mainland in those far off days of'76,when long hair and denim was simply choking us all to musical death...Enter our unlikely saviours,one Pete Shelley and his angry friend/collaborator Howard Devoto.Together they crafted speedy little viginettes of wired love and nowhere lust,tapping into a sound that instantly grabbed you...No-one else was creating music like this...The reference points and influences were hidden,making it all the more mysterious and compelling...Deep Purple In Rock seemed to be self-explanatory all of a sudden! On this showing,The Buzzcocks rip into each song...make their point,and leave...A perfect guest.The music is taut and propulsive with barbs of hidden melody poking through Devotos bittersweet musings,leaving him sounding like Salfords answer to Franny Kafka...Boredom says it all really,perfect music,performance and witty Bennetesque lyrics...(Times Up,the song,is about a visit to a Post Office,remember!)Fantastic,if you can withstand the same basic production throughout..It was also recorded in a loft for under £50....B'dum,B'dum......

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Time spent missing this bootleg is up, July 19, 2006

By 

PennyS (Vic, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Time's Up (Audio CD)

Back in the '80s I had this bootleg album on a creaky old cassette which was ultimately chewed up in some walkman or other. I never expected to find it again. I cannot express the joy of discovering that somehow it has made its way to CD.

This is the original Buzzcocks line-up with Howard Devoto on vocals. It contains some great songs which were subsequently dropped from the Buzzcocks playlists when Devoto left the band, such as Boredom, Time's Up and of course Lester Sands (a drop in the ocean), a small sliver of immortality for Lester Sands and in fact the only thing I know about this person; that Howard Devoto once loathed him enough to write a song about him. The production is raw but the energy more than makes up for it, as well as the pleasure of listening to a favourite singer in development, as in the early tracks Howard Devoto has a definite sound of John Lydon, if such a thing could be imagined.

The sound has been cleaned up very well for the CD; it's much better than the tape I had. The included home movie of the Lesser Free Trade Hall Concert is brief but priceless.

Absolutely required for fans of Buzzcocks and Howard Devoto, if there are any left apart from me.