Pete Shelley was born Peter Campbell McNeish – he formed Buzzcocks with Howard Devoto in 1976 after they met at Bolton Institute of Technology. He took the name Shelley inspired by his favourite Romantic poet Percy Bysse Shelley. He took over lead vocal duties when Devoto left and wanted to create something that was a reaction against the overblown and overlong Prog Rock of the day. “If a song’s long and meandering, I lose interest, but if you deliver it at breakneck speed, it gets the adrenaline pumping and gives you a very strong feeling of being alive.” Devoto and Shelley chose the name “Buzzcocks” after reading the headline, “It’s the Buzz, Cock!”, in a review of the TV series Rock Follies in Time Out magazine. Buzzcocks were at the heart of the English punk scene. Organising gigs for the then unknown Sex Pistols in Manchester. When Shelley died in 2018, Peter Hook of Joy Division and New Order said: “He helped us so much at the start of our career out of a sheer love for all things punk. Without Pete and the Buzzcocks, I would probably still be working at the Docks.”