Pete Shelley – Manc Legend !

Manchester’s original punk, Pete Shelley has died of a heart attack at 63 and like many people, I’m not only shocked but really gutted. Pete and Buzzcocks were part of the soundtrack of many of my age group’s lives. They made songs about the sort of stuff that most of us could never say – but they could!

 Shelley was there right at the start of punk, forming Buzzcocks with Howard Devoto in 1975. Whilst still at college in early 1976, the pair of them made the trip down to London after reading the first live review of the band to see the Sex Pistols. What followed brought punk out of London and to the rest of the world - and in particular to Manchester! In 1976 Pete and Howard organised the two now legendary Sex Pistols gigs at the Free Trade Hall that kick-started the modern day Manchester scene and would eventually lead (admittedly with the help of the IRA) to the  rejuvenation of the city into what it is now. Without this ground breaking initiative from Shelley and Devoto there would probably be no Factory Records; no Joy Division; no Fall; no Smiths and even no Simply Red !!

Buzzcocks debut single, the 4 track Spiral Scratch EP is arguably not only the first genuine punk record but also the first ‘indie’ record as they produced, pressed and distributed it themselves with no record company involved. The tracks themselves, whilst not being the most radio friendly are still incendiary in both form and content, buried between a sexual rage and amphetamine energy that transforms the Sex Pistol’s confident fury into a comedy of pent-up neurosis. Shelley’s guitar makes melodies out of barbed wire and rusty tin which reaches its peak on “Boredom” where somehow happy pop music is created out of something that sounds - exactly like boredom!

Pete is quoted at the time as saying “Punk was about expressing things in song that wouldn’t be talked about… being honest. It was very liberating.”

What followed were the seminal hits, “Ever Fallen In Love”; “I Don’t Mind”; “What Do I Get?”; “Orgasm Addict” and “Everybody’s Happy Nowadays”. Buzzcocks appeared regularly on Top Of The Pops, indeed they were television naturals. Shelley ignored the instructions to pretend the cameras weren’t there and ‘stared-out’ the viewers at home. It didn’t end with the end of punk though, after a hiatus through the 80s after Shelley dissolved the band (acrimoniously I must say), Buzzcocks reformed again in 1989 and have continued to record and play live on and off ever since.

Pete Shelley should truly be regarded as the poet laureate of punk with his original yet often lovelorn lyrics and effortless but brilliant melodies. Buzzcocks weren’t your everyday angry punks, they were so much more. They were the start of something steamier and seedier, but still far more personal and definitively pop than the Sex Pistols, The Clash and the rest of London’s ‘art-punk’ scene. Even today they still sound like nothing else on earth. 

Thanks for the music and the memories.

RIP Pete