It is one of the earliest releases by a British punk band (preceded by The Damned's "New Rose" in October 1976, and both Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the U.K." and the first two singles by The Vibrators in November 1976).

[10] Buzzcocks recorded the tracks on 28 December 1976 at Dave Kent-Watson's Indigo Sound Studios in Manchester on 16-track Ampex tape.

[13] "Boredom", probably the EP's most well-known song, announced punk's rebellion against the status quo while templating a strident musical minimalism (the guitar solo consisting of two notes repeated 66 times, ending with a single modulated seventh).

Indeed, Devoto left the band on the eve of the record's release, saying, "I get bored very easily, and that boredom can act as a catalyst for me to suddenly conceive and execute a new vocation."

[16] Reynolds also contends that the EP was "a regionalist blow" by the Manchester band against the London-based music industry.

[21] The 1980s indie band Orange Juice mentioned "Boredom", used a line from it and adapted the guitar solo on their 1982 single "Rip It Up".

[22] The self-publication of Spiral Scratch is cited as an event which led to the rise of independent record labels and ultimately resulted in the name "indie" being used to describe a style of music as well as a publishing model.