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Baker's Dozen

Foundations Of Rock: Buzzcock Steve Diggle's Baker's Dozen
Stephanie Phillips , January 20th, 2021 10:40

Steve Diggle guides Stephanie Phillips through the records that shaped him, from the girl across the road who introduced him to The Beatles and Bob Dylan to the sensual allure of late era Supremes

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Velvet Underground - 'White Light / White Heat'
Velvet Underground had Nico singing 'Sunday Morning' and 'I'll Be Your Mirror'. When they're singing those songs they had an offhand punk attitude. 'White Light / White Heat' captures a bit of a that. When [Buzzcocks] first got together, I think we rehearsed 'White Light / White Heat' a couple of times. Not sure whether we ever played it live, but it was a bit of a blueprint, the Velvet Underground, for us.

It just takes me back to those really early rehearsals when we did that song. I think maybe I'm going "white light" and Pete's going "white light catching in brain". We were doing a question and answer thing to each other. It reminds me of Pete as well a bit in the real early days when we started off. We did that song and it puts a little tingle down your back.

The Velvet Underground had their thing. It was a bit dark, there was some heroin about, but they had these great seedy songs. You always imagine you had to be in a basement in New York, wasted, listening to those songs, in mummy and daddy's posh house somewhere. It kind of makes you look at the world in a distorted, loser way.