315 Hello Pete Shelley* - What Do I Get ?

(* as  part  of  Buzzcocks )

Chart  entered : 18  February  1978

Chart peak : 37

Number  of  hits : 10  ( 9 with  Buzzcocks, 1  solo )

A  couple  of   tenuous  personal  connections  here. Steve  Diggle  and  I  have  a  mutual  friend  , Stuart  Dawson  who  was  at  art  college  with  his  brother  Phil  and  designed  the  sleeve  for  at  least  one  of  the  singles  of  his  eighties  band  Flag  of  Convenience. Even  more  tenuous , back  in  1984  I  committed  some  of  my  own  warblings  to  tape   ( mercifully  lost  by  work  colleagues  in  the  early  nineties ) and  was  told  I  sounded  just  like  Pete  Shelley. I  couldn't  hear  it  myself  and  didn't  take  it  as   a  compliment.

Pete  was  born  Peter  McNeish  in  Leigh  in  1955  ( he  turns  60  next  week ).  His  dad  worked  at  a  nearby  colliery.  In  the  early  seventies  he  embarked  on  a  humanities  course  at  Bolton  Institute  of  Technology  ( which  now  masquerades  as  a  university ) . Musically  he  was  playing  guitar  in  heavy  metal  bands  while  experimenting  with  a  home-made  oscillator  in  his  bedroom. He  made  a  mini-LP  "Sky  Yen"  in  1974  which  was  released  in  1980; comprising  20  minutes  of  electronic  droning , it's  good  for  clearing  parties  but  not  much  else. In  1975  he  answered  an  ad  by  another  , slightly  older,   student  Howard  Trafford   looking  to  form  a  band  with  someone  of  similar  tastes. They  christened  their  embryonic  duo  "Buzzcocks"  from  a  phrase  in  the  infamous  Rock  Follies.  

In  February  1976  they  rode  down  to  London  to  check  out  the  Sex  Pistols  after  reading  about  them   in  the  NME. They  came  back  inspired  to  make  their  own  band  more  of  a  reality  and  to  get  the  Pistols  up  to  Manchester, helping  to  arrange  the  first  gig  at  the  Lesser  Free  Trade  Hall  in  June. Buzzcocks  were  supposed  to  support  them  but  the  duo  couldn't  get  a  band  together  in  time. They  did  pick  up  a  bass  player  Steve  Diggle  at  the  gig  and  by  the  time  the  second  one  came  round  six  weeks  later  they  had  a  schoolboy  drummer  John  Maher  on  board  and  were  able  to  play  their  first  gig.  Howard  became  Howard  Devoto  and  Pete  adopted  the  stage  surname  "Shelley"  as  a  tribute  to  his  parents'   wish  for  a  girl  despite  the  risk  of  confusion  with  the  singer-songwriter  Peter  Shelley  who'd  been  in  the  charts  little  more  than  a  year  earlier. The  band  played  at  the  100  Club  Punk  Festival  in  London  in  September  but  otherwise  honed  their  craft  in  the  north. Their  next  move  would  change  the  music  scene  for  the  rest  of  the  century  if  not  beyond.

Believing  that  the  record  companies  would  not  bother  to  send  A & R  men  up  north  with  such  a  scene  happening  on  their  own  London  doorsteps,  the  group  decided  to  release  their  first  record  themselves  and  distribute  it  by  mail  order. The  whole  indie  scene  was  born   in  January  1977  when  "Spiral  Scratch"  was  released  on  the "label" New  Hormones ; without  it  we  could  well  have  missed  out  on  Joy  Division, Smiths, Stone  Roses, Depeche  Mode, Oasis, Primal  Scream..... where  do  you  stop ?  Regardless  of  any  musical  qualities  it's  one  of  the  most  significant  pop  records  of  all  time.

"Spiral  Scratch"  is  an  EP  of  four  songs  written  by  Pete  and  Howard  produced  by  Martin  Zero  ( later  to  be  more  famous  as  Martin  Hannett ).  Musically  it's  a  bit  rough  and  tuneless  compared  to  their  hits  and  Howard's  voice  is  little  more  than  a  needling  sneer  but  there's  an  intelligence  in  the  lyrics  . "Breakdown" hints  at  mental  illness, "Time's  Up"  gives  a  preview  of  Pete's  later  preoccupation  with  relationships  gone  awry  and  "Friends  of  Mine"  surgically  dissects  a  set  that  you  hope  for  Howard's  sake   was  fictional. The  best-realised  song  is  of  course  "Boredom", Howard's  already-felt  dissatisfaction with  the  punk  scene  and  accurate  prediction  that  his  time  would  soon  be  up  - "I  just  came  from  nowhere  and  I'm  going  straight  back  there "-  topped  up  with  Pete's  famous  two-note  guitar  solo  that  deliberately  doesn't  go  anywhere. It  was  a  minor  hit  - almost  their  last -  when  reissued  three  years  later.

Almost  as  soon  as  it  was  in  the  shops  Devoto  announced  his  departure  in  a  pretentious  letter  to  the  music  press  dismissing  the  punk  scene  as  "clean  old  hat".  The  reality  was  more  mundane; he  was  being  threatened  with  ejection  from  his  course  and  he  stayed  around to  help  manage  the  band  for  the  next  few  months. Pete  co-wrote  the    debut  single  "Shot  By  Both  Sides"  for  his  new  band  Magazine  early  in  1978. Devoto's  rabbit-in-the-headlights   non-performance  of  the  song  on  Top  of  the  Pops  has   been  widely  but  probably  unfairly  blamed   for  scuppering  their  career. In  truth  I  don't  think  their  angular  music  topped  off  with  his  wooden  tones  ( not  to  mention  the  receding  hairline  )  was  ever  going  to  crack  the  big  time  and  he  quickly  became  a  marginal  figure  while  his  bandmates  cropped  up  in  groups  as  varied  as  Visage, Siouxsie  and  the  Banshees  and  Swing  Out  Sister.

Pete  actually  welcomed  his  departure  , assuming  the  roles  of  singer  and  main  songwriter  himself  while  Steve  became  the  principal  guitarist. A  new  bassist  Garth Davies  was  recruited  and  played   on  their   Peel  session   in  September  1977 . They  ostentatiously  signed  with  United  Artists  at  Manchester's  Electric  Circus  the  same  month

It's  still  hard  to  credit  that  the  label  sanctioned  the  release  of  "Orgasm  Addict"  as  their  second  single  in  November  1977. Perhaps  they  reckoned , in  the  wake  of  God  Save  the  Queen ,  that  controversy  alone  would  be  enough  for  a  high  chart  placing.  The  lyrics  are  Devoto's  and  coruscate  a  teenaged  compulsive  masturbator. The  music  is  still  pretty  rough despite  Martin  Rushent's  production  and  seems  to  rush  to  the  hook  too  soon  but  maybe  that's  part  of  the  concept. Pete  now  says  he's  embarrassed  by  it   saying  "It's  the  only  one  I  listen  to.... and  shudder" , perhaps  an  unfortunate  choice  of  words.  Shortly  afterwards Davies  was  fired  after  one  too  many  drunken  incidents  and  replaced by  Steve  Garvey.

"What  Do  I  Get ?" 's  release  was  delayed  by  a  couple  of  weeks  due  to  disquiet  at  the  record  pressing  plant  over  the  B-side  being  titled  "Oh  Shit". These  were  the  first  Shelley  solo  compositions  to  be  released.  In  many  ways  "What  Do  I  Get"  is  the  quintessential  Pete  Shelley  song , a  self-pitying  cry  of  despair  from  one  unlucky  in  love  delivered  in  that  unmistakable,  camp  but  abrasive  Northern  whine  that  I  guess  was  always  going  to  put  a  limit  on  his  time  in  the  sun. The  twin-guitar  thrash  is  still  there  and  Maher  tries  to  fill  every  micro-second  with  something  but  they're  now  controlled, at  the  service  of  the  melody. Chart  success  followed.