If impact and influence are true measures of a band's lasting greatness, Manchester's legendary Buzzcocks should already be in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.

Three bands from the now mythical 1976/77 British punk explosion set the benchmarks for everything that was to follow - Sex Pistols, the Clash and Buzzcocks. Practically inventing the independent record scene with their seminal self-financed EP Spiral Scratch, Buzzcocks instantly forged a unique relationship with their public. The band went on to break away from the Pistol's anarchy and the Clash's overt politicism, signing to United Artists on the day Elvis died and producing a string of hit singles that welded high-octane guitar, bass and drum power with heartrending personal statements of love won and lost or dismay at the modern world.

Three classic albums - Another Music in a Different Kitchen, Love Bites, and A Different Kind of Tension - were released in '78/79, charting the progress of a band on top form and not afraid to mix the experimental with the instant or of being constrained by their punk rock roots. In 1981, in the process of preparing their fourth studio album, the Buzzcocks machine went off the rails. The band split.