If you're looking for an example of how much a band can change by replacing a single member, you might consider Time's Up, a collection of the earliest recordings of the Buzzcocks.

Recorded live to tape in one afternoon in October 1976, five months after they played their first gig, the music documented by these rough demos is almost instantly recognizable as the Buzzcocks, with their minimalist pop-punk melodies and buzzy guitar lines. However, at this point, Howard Devoto, who co-founded the band with guitarist Pete Shelley, was still singing lead, and Steve Diggle was on bass, before Steve Garvey came aboard and freed up Diggle to play guitar.

They'd already written a handful of tunes that would become favorites in their catalog (including "Orgasm Addict," "Boredom," and "Love Battery"), the Troggs and Captain Beefheart covers are inspired, and if they hadn't fully honed their precision attack here, they clearly knew just what they wanted to achieve, and were close to getting there.

This is a snapshot of a great band in the process of finding their feet, and for fans of early U.K. punk, Time's Up is invaluable.

Time's Up originally surfaced in 1978 as a bootleg, released as the Buzzcocks were becoming stars on the punk scene. Since then, the tapes have been given an authorized reissue, remastered to make the most of the reasonable if not exceptional audio quality.

Vinyl, Reissue, 180 Gram

Tracklist:
A1 You Tear Me Up
A2 Breakdown
A3 Friends Of Mine
A4 Orgasm Addict
A5 Boredom
B1 Time's Up
B2 Lester Sands (Drop In The Ocean)
B3 Love Battery
B4 I Can't Control Myself
B5 I Love You, You Big Dummy
B6 Don't Mess Me Around

The Buzzcocks