Steve Diggle, Buzzcocks' guitarist, described the birth of this song in an interview he gave to Malcolm Wyatt:
"Promises was my song, but I left the verses at home! There’s a demo where we’re having a bit of fun and I’m making the verse up as I go along. As I was doing that, Pete was by the mixing desk, so it was just me, John (Maher, drums) and Steve (Garvey, bass).
“We were working out which songs we had, and Pete [Shelley] said, 'I think I've got some verses for that melody.'
"The difference was that it was going to be a socio-political song about promises made by the Government. I said, 'You’ve turned it into a f***ing love song!'
"Having said that, it worked out well all round. That’s the thing with lots of the songwriting, particularly later on. We complement each other."
Promises, one of a great run of Buzzcocks singles, reached no. 20 in January 1979.
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