19/05/2024
Online LGBT+ magazine Into celebrates the life and work of Pete Shelley, the cofounder of punk rock group The Buzzcocks in 1976. The group were politically and socially important for releasing Spiral Scratch on their own record label. Whereas other punks, even the Sex Pistols, were on major labels such as EMI, the Buzzcocks lived and breathed the punk rock DIY ethos for real, and inspired many others involved in the cultural aspects of punk such as independent music, self published magazines and DIY housing, lifestyle and autonomy. In 1978, Shelley’s song “Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t)” was released, and through the years it would become one of the punk era’s most memorable anthems. The lyrics—like all Shelley’s songs—didn’t use gendered pronouns to address an uninterested potential lover, but was written completely in the second person. “You make me feel like dirt, and I’m heard,” Shelley sang, and queer folks everywhere knew just what he was talking about. Henry Giardina writing for Them.com, says that in a contemporary radio interview, Pete Shelley proclaimed that all the Buzzcocks songs were bisexual. Henry says "During an era of extreme compulsory heterosexuality, people like Shelley had to contend not only with the stigma of being openly queer, but the pain of dating other bisexual men who weren’t as comfortable with their own queerness. You can feel Shelley’s pain in so many of his lyrics, which infuse a masochistic sensibility with sharp, energetic punk beats." In the gay music fanzine OutPunk in 1994, Pete Shelley added that the punk movement had done much to invigorate LGBT+ culture. "t didn’t really matter what you were, what sexual persuasion you were from or what gender you were... It didn’t really matter, it didn’t raise eyebrows if someone was gay.” Sadly, Pete Shelley died in 2018. But he left behind such classics as his 1981 solo effort "Homosapien", which Wikipedia adds was banned by the BBC for explicit lyrics. The Buzzcocks remain active, with Steve Diggle on vocal duties since Shelley's passing. They tour in 2024 across the free world.
