Pete Shelley, RIP
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I bought the Product (vinyl) box set when I got my first weeks wages from a factory job when I was 17 (and of course gave it away and replaced it with the CD equivalent). Never saw him live, one of those where they came around quite a bit and you think I'll get round to it sometime.
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- Mar 2008
- 7574
- Off the purple line
- I'm slutty: Roma (on haitus until I can forgive them for hiring Jose), Liverpool, and Dortmund
- Del Taco
The first record I bought from them was A Different Kind of Tension, which feels very different than the other early records. I liked that record a lot but soon followed with Singles Going Steady and then truly discovered the magic of this band.
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Best article I have located so far on his recent past
https://heavy.com/entertainment/2018...ey-wife-greta/
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Great songwriter. His lyrics and vocal delivery influenced the self-deprecating style of kitchen sink indie, like a British Jonathan Richman, but he could also play loud and aggressive punk. He didn't feel the need to project narrow hetero masculinity so was a bridge to Morrissey whilst retaining the grounded personality that Morrissey never possessed. I think he experienced more happiness in his curtailed middle age than many of his contemporaries, finishing with his last 6 years living in Estonia with his wife.
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Damn.
One of my favorite bands. Many many many great songs, but Love You More was the first to come into my head after hearing the horrible news.
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Great band that soundtracked a pretty frustrating year in 1978 - but gave me a lifetime memory playing at Canterbury Odeon that November. I met Pete a couple of times, the second of which saw me apologise for the way that his band's name had been bastardized by the TV show for which I was writing: he responded by getting me a beer. Lovely bloke who saw it all first hand, and documented it in a series of punchy pop gems.
RIP indeed.
Belated edit: I Don't Mind was my favoured moment in the growing pantheon of Buzzcocks greats.
Originally posted by Sporting View PostOh shitLast edited by Jah Womble; 07-12-2018, 17:33.
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Ah, that’s sad news. I believe Spiral Scratch was the first punk record I bought, and I continued to buy Buzzcocks earlier stuff and catch them live a few times through to ‘78.
Was just thinking “I’m glad I saw their Back To Front gigs at Brixton Academy a couple of years back now”, when they ran through their catalogue highlights in reverse order. But then I realised that was actually 6 years ago... Tempus fugit, innit.
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I’m very upset, truly. Apart from their songs being part of my youth and whole adult life, I met him many times over the years. First at the Magazine Roundhouse gig in 78, and his wife lived on the same street as me for a while; I got charged with looking after him at a gig where he was the worse for wear a few years back, which was sort of comical as I had six inch heels on and he could barely stand up, so we were both wobbling all over the place, but I worried then for his health and safety. And for my ankles.
I stopped going to see them live a few years back because they so seldom got the sound right. I don’t think that it was down to them but there were maybe two out of ten gigs where you could hear them properly, even though they were clearly giving it welly. (Edit: they sounded fine back in the day but I don’t think sound engineers / systems are geared up for that trebly sound now. Dunno, not an expert, but the sound at the Forum and at Brixton was kinda muddy.)
The records are the thing, and Love You More is my favourite. What’s making it even harder for me personally is that the person I’d most like to talk to about it died in September (and I got another dagger through the heart regarding that last night, but that’s to digress). After we spent our first night together, back in 96, he went down to make tea and blared out Love You More (the record), then brought me up a cuppa without a comment. Girls like stuff like that.
Fuck. Pete Shelley was a genius in my book, able to knock out these brilliant brilliant pop songs and lay his heart bare with such wit and brevity, without pomp or pretension, at a time when it was cool to feign nonchalance and sneer at sentiment.
RIP, you’re in my blood.Last edited by MsD; 07-12-2018, 13:16.
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When I heard the news about Shelley’s death last night I thought it was sad but I didn’t think it had a massive impact on me as I wouldn’t consider myself a huge Buzzcocks fan. Then I saw OTFer 200% mention ‘Singles Going Steady’ on twitter and suddenly remembered with a real gut punch how vital that album was for me for a few years in my teens.
I spent a lot of time then round my then best friend’s house with him and another mate drinking tea, bemoaning not having girlfriends, reading the music press and listening to his records. The problem was that the three of us didn’t agree much on music so we tended to hammer a limited and somewhat random set of records by acts we did all like ; Husker Du, The Redskins, Trouble Funk, Johnny Cash, The Fall’s more listenable stuff, early hip-hop (perhaps still called “electro” then) but probably most of all, ‘Singles Going Steady’.
Even now, when I see my mate and his family, like his 50th birthday the other week, his father and three sisters have a go at me for “all the time you spent moping round our house drinking all our tea and listening to the bloody Buzzcocks!”
It’s strange but I’d forgotten how deeply every word and note of both sides of that album are still burnt on to my consciousness even now. I’ve got it on CD and on my iTunes so it’s been with me in the decades since but can’t think when I last sat down and listened to it through. Hearing all the songs from it on the radio today is a real Proustian rush and I’m right back there. The tributes to Shelley’s lyricism and the band’s tunes, energy & concision are all spot on.Last edited by Ray de Galles; 07-12-2018, 14:10.
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