{"id":192911,"date":"2018-12-07T04:40:28","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T09:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=192911"},"modified":"2018-12-07T04:40:28","modified_gmt":"2018-12-07T09:40:28","slug":"buzzcocks-co-founder-pete-shelley-dies-at-63","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/12\/07\/buzzcocks-co-founder-pete-shelley-dies-at-63\/","title":{"rendered":"Buzzcocks co founder Pete Shelley dies at 63"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: Pete Shelley singing with the Buzzcocks. Shepherds Bush Empire. (Photo<\/a>: grahams cyber-world\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LONDON \u2014\u00a0Pete\u00a0Shelley, the singer-songwriter and co-founder of the punk band the Buzzcocks, has died at age 63.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the band confirmed \u201cwith great sadness\u201d his death and called him \u201cone of the U.K.’s most influential and prolific songwriters.\u201d The Buzzcocks announced in a tweet on its website. It did not elaborate on the details of\u00a0Shelley’s death but said that more information would be released later.<\/p>\n

The Buzzcocks were part of the punk revolution which began in England in the mid-1970s and also featured such groups as the Sex Pistols and the Clash. Like their contemporaries, the Buzzcocks scorned what they considered the pretensions and bloated style of mainstream groups and turned out brief, stripped down songs, performed at manic speed.<\/p>\n

Their singles included \u201cEver Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve),\u201d the explicit \u201cOrgasm Addict\u201d and \u201cWhat Do I Get?\u201d Their energy and intensity were worthy of punk, but they also had a melodic streak, with the song \u201cEverybody’s Happy Nowadays\u201d sounding at times like a punk version of the Beach Boys.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Mike Mills of R.E.M. tweeted: \u201cDamn.\u00a0Pete\u00a0Shelley\u00a0gone. The Buzzcocks were and are a favourite of mine, and I was fortunate to be able to hang with\u00a0Pete\u00a0a few times and tell him so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shelley, whose real name was Peter Campbell McNeish, was born in the English town of Leigh in 1955. He founded Buzzcocks with Howard Devoto after they met at what is now the University of Bolton. The band debuted in 1976 in Manchester, opening for the Sex Pistols. Devoto left in 1977 and\u00a0Shelley\u00a0took over as lead singer.<\/p>\n

The Buzzcocks broke up in the early 1980s, but reunited in the late ’80s and continued to perform and record over the past three decades.<\/p>\n

Tributes poured in from around the music world.<\/p>\n

Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan tweeted: \u201cAs a lifelong ?Buzzcocks fan…I so appreciate the musical influence\u00a0Pete.\u00a0Condolences to your family….\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter Hook, the bassist and co-founder of Joy Division and New Order, tweeted: \u201cPete\u00a0Shelley\u00a0– a true gent! He helped us so much at the start of our career out of a sheer love for all things punk. Without\u00a0Pete\u00a0& the Buzzcocks I would probably still be working at the Docks. RIP mate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONDON \u2014\u00a0Pete\u00a0Shelley, the singer-songwriter and co-founder of the punk band the Buzzcocks, has died at age 63. On Thursday, the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":192912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}