Pete Shelley - Buzzcocks singer

[FishFright]

Perfection

 

[Blue Hills]

edit - reply to accy - other posts intervened.



Yes groups used to play some very modest places. At very reasonable ticket prices. Must have been for I didn't have a lot of money. Just look at some of the places Bowie played - in fact an Aylesbury venue (Friars?) saw the effective premier of two of his greatest albums. Days gone for ever.

Thanks for the Beatles Nelson image I know they also played Catford in SE London, these days known only for a shopping centre from another retail age.

King George's Hall had loads of folk on.

In fact I saw my first ever band there - Slade

(actually a great band)

I trust you weren't in the audience for that?

Pretty sure the Ramones didn't play at the Buzzcocks gig I saw. I suppose there must have been a support - usually was in those days - but I don't remember who.

If it was actually the Ramones and they passed me by, shoot me.

edit edit - our paths do seem to have crossed a fair bit accy, including a narrow miss at birth - am starting to worry

(Clash I saw at Hammersmith Palais [of their great song fame], Jam at the Rainbow.)

 

[Accy cyclist]

King George's Hall had loads of folk on.

In fact I saw my first ever band there - Slade

(actually a great band)

I trust you weren't in the audience for that?

A bit before my time,though i did see them at 'The Cavendish' night club in 1978 or '79,which was then under a new name. An older friend of mine saw David Bowie in 1973 at The King George's Hall.

 

[robjh]

Even as a big Buzzcocks fan, I had no idea at the time that Pete Shelley was bi, or gay, or however he would have described it. I only found out some 25 years later when a colleague of the same age as me said that this was common knowledge amongst the music-following youth of Liverpool at the end of the 70s. I can only imagine it was not mentioned in the NME and similar, else we would have known in South London/Surrey too. That suggests a degree of self-censorship even in the supposedly avant-garde music press in those days, whereas in the many obituaries today his ambivalent sexuality is openly discussed.

 

[Blue Hills]

well I've only just found out now Rob! Haven't read the obits yet or all that guardian coverage.

>>That suggests a degree of self-censorship even in the supposedly avant-garde music press in those days,

Yes - it is curious. Shines a light on the times I suppose. And shows how things have moved on.

I did refer upthread to his objection to that spitting and the manner in which he made it.

Yes his tone did even to me as a very naive teenager sound somewhat what would once have been called "camp".


Thank god the folks who would shoot me down/flame me for that statement have gone to another place.

Great great songs pete, RIP, I care not what your proclivities were.

Does this by the way rob or others shine a light on any of those driving hymns to angst?

edit - your post perhaps suggests that the music following youth you describe were somewhat more advanced than than the music press they followed. Definitely pre punk there was a lot of inmenetrable pretentious garbage in them.

 

[robjh]

Does this by the way rob or others shine a light on any of those driving hymns to angst?

It's hard to know, and easy to read things in retrospectively with the benefit of (even rather belated!) hindsight. For me the songs stand or fall on their own merit, and will always be superb high-energy low-tech pop - it was never really punk - that carries good memories for me. I don't know now whether knowledge of his sexuality would have changed the way I appreciated the music in 1978. I guess that it would have made it seem more risqué, but that would have detracted from the enjoyment of the music for itself. After all, you don't need to know the biography of an artist to appreciate great art.

 

[FishFright]

Even as a big Buzzcocks fan, I had no idea at the time that Pete Shelley was bi, or gay, or however he would have described it. I only found out some 25 years later when a colleague of the same age as me said that this was common knowledge amongst the music-following youth of Liverpool at the end of the 70s. I can only imagine it was not mentioned in the NME and similar, else we would have known in South London/Surrey too. That suggests a degree of self-censorship even in the supposedly avant-garde music press in those days, whereas in the many obituaries today his ambivalent sexuality is openly discussed.

I remember his being very open about his sexuality and didn't partake in the NME's lie machine ( except for tour dates of course )
At that time one of my closest friends was gay ( although not fully out then) and he was a huge fan and got to know Pete later in life.

 

[Blue Hills]

nice response.

Wasn't really thinking of risque so much as the human angst.

Agree that it wasn't really punk as such. Which was a neat media label.

Lots of other great songwriters stepped forward at the time which weren't really "punk" either but got lumped in with it.

 

[The Crofted Crest]

1. How may "genuine" punk bands were there? The Pistols obviously, and then? The Clash were an electrified skiffle group of middle class kids pretending to slum it. The stranglers read philosophy, spoke French and were melodic. So apart from the Slits and the Ramones, who else?

ETA: oh, the Damned, of course, the Damned.

 

[wheresthetorch]

1. How may "genuine" punk bands were there? The Pistols obviously, and then? The Clash were an electrified skiffle group of middle class kids pretending to slum it. The stranglers read philosophy, spoke French and were melodic. So apart from the Slits and the Ramones, who else?

ETA: oh, the Damned, of course, the Damned.

Anti-Nowhere League? Sham69?

 

[nickyboy]

1. How may "genuine" punk bands were there? The Pistols obviously, and then? The Clash were an electrified skiffle group of middle class kids pretending to slum it. The stranglers read philosophy, spoke French and were melodic. So apart from the Slits and the Ramones, who else?

ETA: oh, the Damned, of course, the Damned.

SLF and The Ruts

 

[The Crofted Crest]

Good suggestions.

The Raincoats? Siouxsie and the Banshees? X-Ray Spex?

 

[robjh]

1. How may "genuine" punk bands were there? The Pistols obviously, and then? The Clash were an electrified skiffle group of middle class kids pretending to slum it. The stranglers read philosophy, spoke French and were melodic. So apart from the Slits and the Ramones, who else?

ETA: oh, the Damned, of course, the Damned.

Maybe I was being a little unfair to the Buzzcocks earlier on. Spiral Scratch certainly came over rather punky, but by Ever Fallen in Love they had moved onto great pop. Interesting too that Howard Devoto who left the band at that time was soon doing something more crafted and artistic with Magazine too.

 

[Blue Hills]

By the by, only realised the bolton roots with his sad passing. I'm from not far from there, still get to bolton a fair bit. Always thought of them as manchester, though of course bolton has been greater manchester for a long time, many many places having been taken from lancashire in the interests of admin, leaving it as a curiously rural place.

Include all the extracted bits and lancashire has had a massive influence on brit and world popular music.

 

[Pale Rider]

I can understand Shelley's adverse reaction to being spat on even if it was a sign of appreciation.

He was something of a diva in other ways as was revealed in a Radio 4 documentary about contract 'riders' - little or not so little extras bands insist on before they perform.

The Buzzcocks, if I recall, had to have a crate of Moet et Chandon Non-Vintage in their dressing room.

One promoter couldn't get it, so substituted more expensive vintage champagne.

The band rejected it.

As the manager said at the time: "No Moet, no show-ay, no Chandon, no band on."

Which goes to show they were just as far up their own backsides as the old dinosaur rock bands they were seeking to replace.