Buzzcocks take to the stage to headline Chagstock this Friday, July 20.

Founder members Steve Diggle and Pete Shelley have been performing together for more than four decades since they opened for the infamous Sex Pistols in Manchester in 1976.

Steve said: ‘I’ve been with Pete for 42 years – longer than our wives and girlfriends! It’s been an amazing journey. We couldn’t see beyond the next week when we were young.

‘We never sat down and planned a career, it’s all been spontaneous. And we never thought we’d still be going 40 years later.’

Steve and Pete wrote many of the band’s iconic tunes, including Ever Fallen In Love.., What Do I Get?, Autonomy, Promises and Everybody’s Happy Nowadays between 1976 and 1981, when the original band split.

Steve added: ‘Me and Pete compliment each other. We had so much spontaneity back then – we’d get together and just bash out songs cos we had to get to the pub for half past five.

‘Our original drummer and bass player left as they got bored of touring. But me and Pete thought “we can’t really do anything else anyway so may as well stick with it”. I was a conscientious objector to work so a rock n roll life suited me. But this is harder than actual working – this is 24 hours a day.

‘We split up in 1981 to take a rest. We’d been going about six years, had eight hits on Top of the Pops and been constantly touring round Britain, Europe and the US.

‘Conveniently the 80’s came along and we managed to sidestep that a bit and then got back together in 1989.’

Since 1989 the Shelley/ Diggle partnership has been consistent, with decades of high profile gigging and six successful studio albums. They both also have ongoing solo projects.

Steve grew up in the 1960’s North West as ‘a bit of a Mod’ listening to the Kinks, Beatles and Rolling Stones.

He said: ‘By 1976 everyone was ready for punk. I remember seeing Yes on stage and they brought out a f***ing enormous Alpine horn and I thought “too much”. People were out there signing on the dole - we needed something like The Who, smashing guitars and telling people to f**k off. Something more direct and relevant to what was going on.

‘We thought a London record company would laugh at us so we borrowed £500 and made 1,000 records. It was a stroke of genius but also a stroke of necessity really.

‘Then we were signed up by United Artists Records and our first single was Orgasm Addict. Its release was held back for three weeks as the guys on the printing floor were horrified and had to be talked round to producing it. They were different days back then!

‘Punk did challenge people. It was about people questioning stuff and questioning their lives. We didn’t have the answers but we had the questions. We inspired people to just get out there and do it. Make your own record, create your own band.’

Steve has many great rock n roll stories, including how he advised an impressed Kurt Cobain on how to correctly smash a TV set on stage to avoid electrocution.

He continues to drink and chain smoke but said he counteracts it with a good diet of predominantly organic, Mediterranean-style food, including unpasteurised milk ‘full of omega oils’.

‘Our audiences now span three generations,’ laughed Diggle. ‘A lot of our stuff has been covered by other bands. A good song is a good song. Kids still read Shakespeare and he’s older than us.

‘It’s better now than ever. We’re about singing these songs with experience now.’

Chagstock festival is on Friday and Saturday, July 20 and 21. Imelda May is headlining Saturday night. For information and tickets see www.chagstock.info