Pete Shelley RIP

[king_tubby]

63 is no age. Damn.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46476369

[Norton Canes]

Shelley not

[manticore]

Oh no. This has upset me. He was such a livewire and wrote some brilliant songs that meant an awful lot to me in my late teens.

Fucking hell. RIP Pete.

[phantom_power]

RIP obviously but what the fuck is going on with this sentence in that BBC report:

"BBC music correspondent Lizo Mzimba said Buzzcocks, who formed in the 1970s, were regarded as a significant influence on the music scene."

[Bingo Fury]

What?! No fucking way! Shit ...

[Technique]

oh shit!

[Janie Jones]

Oh no. This has upset me. He was such a livewire and wrote some brilliant songs that meant an awful lot to me in my late teens.

Fucking hell. RIP Pete.

I know from the Chris Morris age thread that you and I are about the same age so yes, this. A big presence in our late teens. I didn't realise he was that much older than us until now. This is sad news.

[Crabwalk]

Way too fucking young. What a songwriter. All you kids, put 'Singles Going Steady' on now.

[Brundle-Fly]

Oh no. Buzzcocks were one of the best. Sixty-fucking-three.

R.I.P. Pete

Look how young he is here. 28 minute mark.

https://boingboing.net/2013/11/14/punk-on-a-bbc-current-affairs.html

[Jockice]

Fucking hell. I'm in the pub here and trying not to cry.

[Gulftastic]

Ah, fuck. RIP Pete.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

This is very sad news indeed. Glad I got to see them live just the once, only a few years ago, yer man Shelley playing those classic songs stoically yet masterfully. Sorry if that sentence sounds a bit garbled, but am still in a state of shock about this.

[Johnny Yesno]

It's only a sampler, but check this out (from 1976):

https://soundcloud.com/jk1962/pete-shelley-cinema-music-wallpaper-sounds-mini-mix-promo

Also this from 1974:

Pete Shelley - Sky Yen [Side A (first part)]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wNrYw6FeiY

Amazing. RIP.

[Mr Banlon]

Fucksake.

[Doomy Dwyer]

Aw fucking hell. I didn't expect this and didn't want to expect it. It's difficult to overstate how underrated Buzzcocks are/were. Lyrically, melodically, harmonically; exemplary. Their songs are two minute thirty second soap operas without the bubbles. And their, and specifically Pete's, oddness cannot be stressed enough. A true believer and one who understood that spreading the word didn't mean repeating the message over and over. Distinctive and off kilter and, unusually and defiantly romantic. Another music in a different kitchen, I suppose.  Heart beats up love. 

[buzby]

Bloody hell, that's no age. He and Devoto were responsible for kickstarting the Manc punk scene (famously putting on *that* Pistols gig), and even after Devoto left Pete's more 'pop' punk stuff was great. It's his early 80s electro pop recorded with Martin Rushent that is my favourite era of his though, including XL-1, which included the revolutionary for the time ZX Spectrum music video.
RIP, Pete.

[Rocket Surgery]

Ah, that explains why Gideon Coe was playing four Buzzcocks songs back to back when I was in the kitchen earlier.

Damn shame.

EDIT:

oh shit!

I thought you and I were friends...

[Absorb the anus burn]

Fuck. What a shame. The Buzzcocks provided me with so much pleasure... Going Steady is by far my favourite singles collection. RIP.

[jobotic]

That era of British punk always left me cold but not for the first time I've played myself. Just tonight, as a result of this bad news, I heard I Don't Mind for the first time, brilliant. Had forgotten Why Can't I Touch It - isn't that a fantastic song?

[Uncle TechTip]

The run of the first six or seven songs on that album are just sublime. All before he's 25. It's just horrible news that prompts a lot of reflection. Thanks Pete.

[Custard]

Fucking fantastic songwriter. So many solid gold classics.

Gah. 63 is way too young

RIP

[alan nagsworth]

This sucks. The Devoto stuff is probably more important to me on an artistic level but Shelley wrote some blinding pop tunes and I dare say you can never be too young to feel the raw pop clobber of "Ever Fallen In Love" and recognise it as a fuckin timeless banger. Time for a spin of "Love Bites" in my bedroom tonight.

[lipsink]

"It's with great sadness that we confirm the death of Pete Shelley, one of the UK's most influential and prolific songwriters and co-founder of the seminal original punk band Buzzcocks," the band said on Thursday evening.

It's funny that the band themselves sent out a statement describing themselves as 'seminal' and 'original'. I know they were, like.

[studpuppet]

This is missing Pete remonstrating with the audience at the beginning - "Don't gob on me!"
(My mates and I always used to say, "Tricky guitar solo!" to each other whenever we saw a band that wasn't very technically proficient.)

"This one's a nice pop song..."

[gilbertharding]

It isn't any age, is it?

I remember the Buzzcocks on TotP, and deciding aged 9 that they had just defined everything I wanted pop music to be. Being fickle, I forgot about them for about 5 years when someone lent me a copy of Singles Going Steady on tape, which I copied and proceeded to wear out.

Saw them at Reading Festival in 1990 when Pete was a grizzled 35 years old. They were amazing of course.

Had no idea until the invention of Youtube that he did the theme music to the Tour de France when it was on Channel 4.

[nedthemumbler]

Ever Fallen and What Do I Get alone get him music legend status.  Also I snigger to myself and think of them everytime I enjoy a bus journey.  It's quite a windy, roughly surfaced route.

It's funny that the band themselves sent out a statement describing themselves as 'seminal' and 'original'. I know they were, like.

Be a record label person or whoever runs their website, Shelley?

[Jockice]

It isn't any age, is it?

Saw them at Reading Festival in 1990 when Pete was a grizzled 35 years old. They were amazing of course.

Yes. I was there too. First time I ever saw them live. I was just slightly too young (and more importantly, much too young-looking) to see them live in their prime.

[Glebe]

Very sad news, fantastic musical artist.

[manticore]

The song that spoke to me most when I was 16 was 'Sixteen Again'. It blew me sideways at the time that someone could write a song like this, from the perspective of a 23 year old looking back on when he was my own age. To me this is just unique songwriting, nothing generic or platitudinous, and it cuts to the quick:

Feeling like I'm almost sixteen again
Layin' 'round doing nothing like all my friends
Play it cool don't get angry count up to ten
Just like I was sixteen again

Everybody gets the lowdown right from the start
Everybody gets the showdown right from the heart
But that's all that's on the menu when life's a la carte
I don't know

Things in life are not played for keeps
If it makes you happy it'll make you weep
And if you want some more practical advice
If you can't think once then don't think twice
'Cause things won't seem so nice
You'll wish you were sixteen again
Oh no

Feeling rather strange when you're sixteen again
Things don't seem the same the past is so plain
This future is our future this time's not a game
This time you're sixteen again

Always on your own when there's nobody else
Asking myself would I be someone else
But after all life's only death's recompense
I don't know

Things in life are not played for keeps
If it makes you happy it'll make you weep
And if you want some more practical advice
If you can't think once then don't think twice
'Cause things won't seem so nice
You'll wish you were sixteen again
Oh no

Look at me here I am for your eyes
Mirrored proof of what you recognize
I know I never will feel quite like you
And I know you won't treat me right till I do
But at least we'll know it's true
That we're sixteen again
Oh no

Feeling rather strange when you're sixteen again
Things don't seem the same the past is so plain
This future is our future this time's not a game
This time you're sixteen again

Always on your own when there's nobody else
Asking myself would I be someone else
But after all life's only death's recompense
I don't know

Look at me here I am for your eyes
Mirrored proof of love's suicide
I know I never will feel quite like you
And I know you won't treat me right till I do
But at least we'll know it's true
That we're sixteen again
Oh no

Sixteen again
Sixteen again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqtTZSa20-0

[a duncandisorderly]

first gig I went to after I moved to london in 1989 was the residents ('king & I' show) at sadlers wells theatre. I sat immediately behind pete, who was already extremely high in my estimation even before discovering he liked the eyeball men too.

much more recently I discovered 'sky yen', his 1974 work which sounds a lot like what I & my musical oppo were doing a few years later with similar equipment, & which kick-started our own careers in music. we were both in a glam-rock covers band that did a couple of buzzcocks songs too. 

I've been upset before about rock stars dying, but this time it feels like one of our own.

"time's up.... time really is up...."