After providing the backbone of late-'70s British punk band the Buzzcocks with the scorching, barbed-wire sound of his electric guitar, Steve Diggle was forced to seek other outlets when the group disbanded in 1981. Forming a new band, Flag of Convenience, with Buzzcock drummer John Maher, he continued to assault listeners with his bone-crushing sound through the 1980s.
Diggle continued to struggle for success, however. Although Flag of Convenience was reorganized following Maher's departure in 1986, and renamed FOC, the group's album, Northwest Skyline, sank upon release an...