From The Archives: A Quickie With Buzzcocks' Pete Shelley

WHERE ARE YOU NOW AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
At home in Camden. I’ve just been watching the Labour Party conference.

FIRST RECORD TO SEND A SHIVER UP YOUR SPINE?
‘Jeepster’ by T Rex

FIRST GIG YOU EVER ATTENDED?
T Rex. I saw them on 16th May 1971. I was in the front row and it was brilliant!

FIRST GIG YOU PLAYED?
I had a band called The Jets of Air inspired by a physics lesson. In 1973 we hired the local church hall for five pounds and played our first gig.

MOST MEMORABLE GIG YOU’VE PLAYED?
The first time we played in LA at the Santa Monica Civic around ‘78/‘79. People were jumping up onstage; the bouncers dragged a guy off so we stopped the show. More people came up. So we got everybody to sit down on the stage and carried on

MOST EMBARRASSING THING YOU’VE DONE WHILE DRUNK?
On my way home from the pub I knocked - quite enthusiastically - on the door of a friend of mine. There was no answer so I went round the alley for a pee. When I came back the cops were standing there. His wife was in the house on her own.

FAVOURITE SPINAL TAP MOMENT?
Getting lost on the way to the stage. It happened to us recently at the Forum in Kentish Town. Funny thing was, no-one came looking for us!

LAST RECORD YOU BOUGHT, BLAGGED OR DOWNLOADED?
I suppose it would be Lily Allen’s latest, It’s Not Me It’s You. I haven’t yet found a track I don’t like. We played at the same place as her recently and she came into our dressing room with some Wispa bars.

WHO’D BE IN YOUR DREAM BAND?
The Velvet Underground. Lou Reed could do backing vocals.

WHAT SHITE JOBS HAVE YOU HAD IN THE PAST?
A trainee computer operator. I only stuck at it for a while

SONG YOU WOULD LIKE TO HAVE PLAYED AT YOUR FUNERAL?
The Irving Berlin song ‘Cheek to Cheek’ as sung by everyone from Sinatra to Ella Fitzgerald. It starts off with the lines “Heaven, I’m in Heaven…”