Pete Shelley Heaven And The Sea Demos

 

18th April 2025 - artwork corrected.

Not a live gig from the tour that promoted the release of the 'Heaven & The Sea' album, but the demos instead! Nice sounding tracks, some of them made the grade and formed part of the album. Thanks to Jim for sharing the files.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-NonSjSUMR6

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-UiaVyJal3t

Pete Shelley 'Cue The Music' Live In London 1986 DVD

Looking for a suitable post for the ongoing 1987 thread I was dipping my toes into old music press from the previous year amd some stuff came up relating to this little chap. 1986 saw the release of a new Pete Shelley album, 'Heaven and the Sea'. I have talked about it before on these pages, about what a remarkable album it is, despite falling victim to a degree of the overblown production that marred many an album that appeared in the secong half of the decade.

This is a recording of an episode of the ITV series 'Cue The Music' hosted by Mike Mansfield and on occasion (as here) by the comedian Tony Slattery, who we lost last month. I have two versions of this recording, one that I prepared and authoured an another downloaded years ago from Punktorrents authoured by Bandit999. Of the two versions, my version I think my version has a slightly clearer picture and so that is the one I have chosen to share here.

DVD Image: https://we.tl/t-hj1cUFoae6

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-5rA83AvpBr

01. Intro

02. Waiting For Love

03. On Your Own

04. Never Again

05. My Dreams

06. Blue Eyes

07. If You Ask Me (I Won't Say No)

08. No Moon

09. Telephone Operator

10. Homosapien

11. Something's Gone Wrong Again

In addition, below is the announcement from Record Mirror of his tour.... I would have loved to have seen him play the Zap Club in Brighton! Do anyone have any recordings from this tour. The closest that I have is the shortened support slot that he played with The Damned at the 10th Anniversary gig in Finsbury Park.

Record Mirror 8th November 1986

Finally, here's a contemporary review of a gig from this period that he played at The Warehouse in Leeds.

Record Mirror 17th May 1986

Pete Shelley Inked

 

Missing Pete after our family outing to Leigh a few weeks ago.

Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks)

15 cm x 20 cm linoprint

Black ink on cream art card.

Pete Shelley 6th December 2022 - 4 Years Gone.

 

So, another run up to Manchester to visit Mo and to fulfill her request for us to bring up some warmer clothes as for once the rain has abated and the weather seems to be perishingly cold, although this may be related to the unseasonably mild weather that has bathed the UK for the past few weeks.

Saturday morning is bright and cold, the best weather that a British winter can offer. After 30 minutes or so of wandering around Manchester Cathedral, we boarded a V1 bus that would take us out of Manchester, through its little sister of Salford to Leigh. The reason for this diversion from the metropolis? Why, Pete Shelley of course!

The town of Leigh is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is the birthplace of Peter McNeish, universally better known, to my generation at least, as Pete Shelley, the enigmatic singer and songwriter of Buzzcocks (but there's now need for me to you that is there!). Earlier this year I made a promise to myself that the next time we were on family business in Manchester we would make the pilgrimage to view the exceptionally good mural painted in his honour on the gable end of a property in the centre of town. A truly huge canvas! 

Of course I have seen many online photographs of the work from its early execution through to the unveiling in July 2022. However, a still image viewed on a computer screen is no substitute for a up close and personal encounter of the mural! This Malcolm Garrett design was realised by acclaimed Manchester artist, Akse P19. However in contrast with other Akse works (Ian Curtis and Marcus Rashford) that are in black and white, the first thing that impresses upon the viewer of the Shelley mural is the vibrancy of the colours involved. The red and blue intensity of the Garrett heart motif leaps out from the brickwork, whilst the sky blue background illuminates the work whilst providing a stark contrast to the monochrome portrait of a young Pete staring intensely into the lens of photographer, Chris Gabrin's, camera.

I am so glad that the Andrews family, minus one, made the journey to say hello to Pete. I felt quite emotional standing before it I must say. I just hope that it is respected and that money is available to ensure that it is maintained such that its impact is not lost for future visitors. The fact that Pete's family have been involved in the project from the beginning gives me hope that this will indeed be the case. After all, the Manchester climate is no respecter of art exposed to its elements!

20 From '82 (15) Pete Shelley Ripley's Music Hall Philadelphia 26th May 1982

 

Out of the burnt out wreckage of Buzzcocks, Pete Shelley donned a white whistle, neatly parted his hair and reinvented himself as an early pioneer of dance music. Despite the audible change in direction, many of the central themes of Shelley's writing stayed on track. 

I saw a Buzzcock-less Pete once (supporting The Damned at their 10th Anniversary bash) when he was briefly in an outfit called Zip who had recently released a great album called 'Heaven & The Sea', another electro-pop effort but rather less stark than his first album. 'Homosapien', material from which makes up much of this Philadelphia set.

What did the critics make of this new direction? I found one review that was less than favourable. Strangely, the review makes no reference to the title track 'Homosapien', a late Buzzcocks' demo, polished up and released as Shelley's first solo single. The single was a hit in Australia, Canada and New Zealand, but was banned by the BBC as a result of its overt gay sexual message, something that Shelley denied.

Record Mirror

16th January 1982

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-HXMJa832eq

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-WIvcOluRhx

01. Homosapien
02. Pusher Man
03. Guess I Must’ve Been In Love With Myself
04. I Generate A Feeling
05. Qu’est-Ce Que C’est Que Ça
06. Yesterday’s Not Here
07. I Don’t Know What It Is
08. Witness The Change
09. Hollow Inside
10. Something’s Gone Wrong Again

A fiction romance... All love and glory... That never seems to happen in my life (Pete Shelley 1955-2018)

Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks)

Lino print 15 cm x 20 cm

Black ink on Dreadnought Grey art card.

It's Unthinkable!.... Pete Shelley Dies at 63

Last night as I sat on my own at home watching TV my phone pinged. It was a message from Gunta, it said 'Have you heard the sad news about Pete Shelley?' Such words could only point to one thing.... my attention to the documentary that I was watching evaporated instantly as I started to search credible news sites for confirmation of the facts. At the same time the traffic on my Facebook account spiked as many of my like minded friend's, 'Friends of Mine' you could say, reacted to the rumour that seemed to be rapidly solidifying into an awful fact.

..... and there it was, 'Breaking News' on the BBC website..... 'Buzzcocks singer Pete Shelley dies at 63'.

'Oh Shit!' indeed. Of course we have been through this before, Joe Strummer, The Ramones and of course David Bowie. For me each of those rock 'n' roll deaths were rather different to this one. The passing of David Bowie was genuinely a huge thing that effected millions in a very personal way, myself included, but the news of Pete going is hitting me harder. I never met Joe, any of the original Ramones or David Bowie whereas I met Pete Shelley on a couple of occasions. The second occasion was in Budapest (if I remember correctly) in April 2011. I was there for a company meeting with other work colleagues. At breakfast in the hotel, I looked up from my cornflakes only to see Pete standing not 10 feet away patiently waiting for his toast to do a revolution in one of those awful hotel toasting machines, the ones that never toast evenly! Well, I was due to make some toast myself so I walked over and said hi, made some throwaway remark about toasting efficiency,  mentioned that I was a fan of the band and asked him what had brought him to Hungary. It was holiday and always conscious of invading the space of musicians, especially when 'off-duty' I said 'See you on tour' and returned to my seat as Pete threaded his way through the breakfast diners holding his pale/charred toast. I thought that was the end of it.

After two days of all day meetings it was time to make for the airport for a return flight to London. For whatever reason the British Airways flight was facing a delay which appeared to be increasing steadily as the evening turned into night. Frequent trips to the departure board were made to follow the progress of the flight. On one of these occasions, I was crowded around the screen when the delay increased by a further two hours on the turn of the page. 'Oh Shit!' I uttered and turned away only to find the diminutive Mr Shelley standing at my shoulder...... oh God he's gonna think I'm a mad fan who is quoting song titles deliberately within his earshot! 'Hello again' he said as I hurried back to the kiosk come bar. By now I was feeling rather sorry for myself, with the current delays we would not be touching down at Heathrow until the early hours of the morning at which point I needed to cross London to Sutton, At 5 the next morning  a group of us were to drive Dover as we were scheduled to see The Stranglers in the coming days on an acoustic tour of the Lowlands. No sleep for me then!

The hours wore on, the shops closed and successful flights fell off the departure board leaving a sorry looking BA flight in red as the only one still displayed. Airport delays + beer = frequent trips to the toilet and it was as I returned from yet another visit that I crossed the now deserted concourse just as Pete rounded the corner. We were the only two people in this huge space and he wandered over to me. He was with company that evening but he was quite happy to spend half an hour talking music. We discussed the band's current progress in the studio, Garth, Steve (I mentioned the withering looks Pete had become in the habit of giving him in his more excitable moments........ 'Oh that's just Steve' he said) and the original come back dates, my first time. We went on to discuss solo stuff, the short lived Zip and the excellent 'Heaven and the Sea'. All great stuff that lifted my mood no end. As we were about to head off in opposite directions he said that I might be interested in some dates that the band were planning for October that would bring the original, the 'classic' and current line ups together for a couple of nights that would celebrate Buzzcocks over their career. In the event, October was optimistic, but the dates went ahead as 'Front to Back in May 2012.

'Enjoy The Stranglers!' he said over his shoulder as he sauntered off.

20 From '86 (6) Pete Shelley (Zip) Finsbury Park London 27th July 1986

Here's a support slot when Pete Shelley played with his then band Zip played on the Sunday of The Damned's '10th Anniversary Tea Party'. sadly I missed this date as I went on the Saturday and the mid '80's were not a time when I was in a position to travel up to London to see a band twice in two days.

That year Pete released an album by the name of 'Heaven and the Sea' which although obviously very much of its time is, in my opinion, a great album some of the tracks from which appear in the set below.

FLAC: https://we.tl/8WYiKbq4NE

Artwork: https://we.tl/adwDX6lKGw

01.Telephone Operator
02.On Your Own
03.You Know Better Than I Know
04.Qu'est-Ce Que C'Est Que Ca
05.Waiting For Love
06.Blue Eyes
07.XL1
08.Homosapien (Part 1, fades-out)
09.Homosapien (Part 2, fades-in)
10.Something's Gone Wrong Again

Howard Devoto Talks Buzzcocks

Here's a short interview with Howard Devoto in which he discusses how Buzzcocks came together and his brief 10 gig tenure as their lead singer.

Here

''Scuse me, where's the Gents?'

Pete Shelley - Think For Yourself

'Tonight Matthew, I'm going to be ..... John Lennon'

Pete Shelley on 'Stars In Their Eyes' 1993

This morning, I was set to the task of sorting through piles of magazines that I have amassed over the past 18 months or so. I have a terrible habit of buying magazines only to give them a cursory flick through before casting them aside. One of my regular purchases is the 'NME' for the middle aged, that goes by the name of 'Mojo'. In this sorting process I also looked through 20 or so cover CDs (invariably still attached to the front cover of the magazine) and this track caught my attention.

On an album of covers in celebration of The Beatles 'Yellow Submarine' album, Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks fame has covered 'Think For Yourself' with the assistance of the current Buzzcocks line up minus Steve Diggle (i.e. Chris Remington on bass and Danny Farrant on drums).

By virtue of their pop sensibilities in the face of the late '70s punk snarl, Buzzcocks were on occasion referred to as 'the punk Beatles' or 'Manchester's Fab Four'. Listen to 'Singles Going Steady' and it kind of makes sense.

So here it is:

Pete Shelley - Think For Yourself