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Formed in Manchester, England, in 1975, the Buzzcocks were one of the most influential bands to emerge in the initial wave of punk rock. For a while, before the advent of the second wave of punk, they were also one of the faster bands out there, with frontman and guitarist Pete Shelley leading the band on with his rapid-fire three-chord changes and highly sardonic lyrics.
The Buzzcocks' newest and sixth album, simply titled, "Buzzcocks" (Merge Records), features both Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle on guitar and vocals, Tony Barber on bass, and Philip Barker on drums. Shelley's voice may have dropped a few notes over the years, but it's still unmistakable behind the sparkling wit that
made the Buzzcocks so likeable in the first place.
I spoke to the very excitable, amped-up Pete Shelley on a break during his most recent U.S. tour. I don't know what he and his mates were watching on TV at the time of the interview, but it was apparently hilarious, as the entire conversation was interrupted with fits of Shelley giggling hysterically along with whoever was sitting on the couch next to him.
Cosmik: How did you get into playing music?
Pete: How did I get into playing music? I remember, there was an entry in my diary, from January the 4th, 1970, and the entry read, "Today, it's raining. I've decided to learn to play the guitar." So I suppose I started playing music because it happened to be a rainy day. My brother had an acoustic guitar, which my parents had bought for his birthday, but he had never really took up. I picked up a book that showed me how to put together a few chords, and on that fateful, rainy day, I guess I just sat down and taught myself how to play the guitar. From then on, I was hooked.
Cosmik: What were your musical influences growing up?
Pete: Well, I suppose all sorts of things. I had a transistor radio, growing up in the mid-to late-60s, and I used to listen to all the pop music of that time. I didn't come from a musical family or anything. No one in my family was particularly musical.
Cosmik: I read somewhere that when you started the Buzzcocks, you changed your last name to Shelley?
Pete: That's correct. I picked the name "Shelley" because that's what I was going to be called if I was a girl, after Shelley Winters.
Cosmik: I thought maybe there was a Mary/Percy Shelley connection there.
Pete: Actually, that was the reason why Shirley Winters changed her name to Shelley. So indirectly, there is a connection.
Cosmik: Also, before the Buzzcocks, you also attended the Bolton Institute of Technology. What were you going to school for?
Pete: Well, I started off studying electronics, just basic stuff, and then I decided to do a complete about-face and study humanities, which was philosophy and comparative European literature. I think there was some poetry mixed in there, too, or maybe I was just writing a lot of poetry back then and have that confused with what I was supposed to be doing in school. I do enjoy the science of technology, and embrace technology, but studying it in school wasn't much fun for me. I do have a studio at home now, which is all computer-based, and I have a lot of fun playing around in there when I'm supposed to be doing other, more important things.
Cosmik: With the new record, is there a theme or an idea that ties it together?
Pete: I suppose there's a fair share of angst in it. So far as anything beyond that, the general feeling of angst and alienation and all that, there's no specific idea behind it all. I suppose now, as much as any time, it's the time to make decisions, and any decision that you follow through is going to change your life. So I guess the album is about that: agonizing about which decisions are the right choices.
Cosmik: What is it about the Manchester (England) area that makes people so angry? It seems like there are a lot of angry people from that area.
Pete: They're angry? (laughs) Well, I suppose life's just never a bowl cherries, right, and there are certain types of people from certain areas that aren't afraid of voicing their dissent. I suppose Manchester could be one of those areas with those kind of people in it. I myself grew up about 13 miles outside of Manchester proper, so perhaps that's why I've always been a little more reserved about my angry points of view. Or do you think I seem like I'm angry, too? Maybe? Really, though, it's always that life is harsh. That's the reason that we were thrown out of Eden - this world is sort of our punishment, right?
(C) 2003 - Holly Day