Peter Shelley
Growing up as a music lover in the 70s, there was so much to like, those days’ lyric sheets and gatefolds seemed to be just as important as the songs.
Punk arrived and the words took on a new meaning, fast and furious, high energy with an massive edge we all knew wasn’t real, but it was wonderful and it didn’t matter.
Peter Shelley and the Buzzcocks were one of those bands that had lyrics that mattered. What exactly was an ‘Orgasm Addict’, and yes I guess we have all ‘Fallen In Love with Someone We Shouldn’t Have’.
The songs were delightfully in your face, and the words delivered with a throwaway quality, two-and-a-half minutes of jingle-jangle audio escapism, and that’s what I get.
The Buzzcocks played several times in the city, famously at Mr George and Tiffanys, Warwick University and a few years ago headlining Godiva. I also had the pleasure of seeing Peter as a solo artist at Guys (Busters) on his 1981 Homosapian tour and the magic remained.
It’s pretty cliché nowadays to talk about been an artist providing a soundtrack to your life, but Pete and his exquisite punchy little pop songs, never had to relate in a personal way, it was just about a harmony in your head.
Peter has gone and his music is still here but you know what, I wish he was too, just to have one more song, one last life changing moment..
Roddy Radiation
It’s always something of a celebration when Roddy Radiation and The Skabilly Rebels give us something new, and here it is, a three track EP ‘Losing Control’.
So, first track, it’s back to older territory with a superbly powerful version of one of his most celebrated songs ‘Hey Little Rich Girl’, famously covered by the sadly departed Amy Winehouse.
It’s superbly sax driven thanks to Adrian Lee, with guest vocals from Neville & Christine Staple.
‘Losing Control’ is such a well constructed song that is testament to Roddy’s talent as a songwriter and the final track ‘Johnny’ (written by Neil Hunter) is testament to Roddy as a guitar virtuoso.
More Neville on this, and it’s one of those tracks that sounds like it was a lot of fun to make. It’s a powerhouse of a track with Roddy, Neville, Lee, Connor, Joe and Adrian all on toppest form.
The EP is now available to buy from both skabillyrebels.com & roddyradiation.com the 2-Tone Village, and stream or download via iTune, Spotify, Deezer, Amazon and all other platforms.
The Session
The Session are amazing, what’s not to like, they are the complete package either on CD or live, and speaking of live.. on December 15th (starts at 7.30pm) they will be playing a free live gig at The New Albany in Earlsdon, with support from Free Galaxy, Andrew Ferris and Danny Ansell.
