JD: The first thing I want to ask you is, uh, do you still live in Manchester?

Pete Shelley: Uh, no, i moved down to London about 14 years ago.

JD: You've lived in London for 14 years. Oh that's a bummer. In my mind I always imagined Manchester to be this place where music grows out of peoples ears and like maybe you live across the street from Johnny Marr and help Bernard summer mow his lawn.

PS: Uh, no, but when I first split the Buzzcocks and I went solo I was in a club in Manchester and this guy comes up and says if you need a guitarist, I know a really good guitarist and that was Johnny Marr.

JD: That's pretty cool. Do people ask you about your past alot?

PS: Well of course, yeah.

JD: I don't want to bother you about that or anything I mean you've had a pretty good past...

PS: It's all through having an interesting present. (laughing)

JD: So are you the chief songwriter in the band right now?

PS: uh, I tend to write most of the songs right now, yeah.

JD: When I was at the sound check I only saw three of you, who was missing just now?

PS: um, that would be Steve Diggle.

JD: Where's he at right now?

PS: At the hotel

JD: Oh, is he sick or something.

PS: No

JD: He just doesn't have to do sound check privileges.

PS: Yeah something like

JD: So on this tour have you done alot of your old music?

PS: Um, yes a mixture between old and new.

JD: What are people going to expect on the setlist?

PS: Um, there'll be lots of songs that they know and some they won't know

JD: Off the new album what songs will you be playing?

PS: I think we'll be playing "Soul On a Rock," um, "It Doesn't Mean Anything,""The Speed of Light."

JD: I really, really liked "Why Compromise" on that album, that's a good song, I wish you were playing that tonight.

PS: (laughs) It's possible

JD: Uh, can I get your autograph right now?

PS: Yes, certainly

JD: I saw someone else doing it and I thought it would be a good idea.

JD: So in the U.K. is this album going to be on Go Kart records?

PS: No, it's on EMI.

JD: It's on EMI, is that a major label?

PS: Yeah

JD: And it's not a major label over here is there a reason for that?

PS: we really financed this album on are own we just licenced it out Go Kart records really....I can't seem to get this bloody pen to work.

JD: Here's a black pen maybe that one will work. JD: So what do you think is the big difference in the scene in punk rock here in America and the scene in the U.K.

PS: Well, uh, the whole thing about punk was it was really a state of mind. It gave people something to do, it affects different people in different ways I mean some people get involved with the music, some people talk to people about music.

JD: you mean like in the scene

PS: like promotion.

JD: When I was reading about you guys I don't know if this is correct but in the Ultimate Band List it said you had done some promotion before with the Sex Pistols show and you decided to form a band off that. Did you really do alot of concert promoting before that?

PS: No, no we a had a part in a gig in Manchester and we booked the Sex Pistols

JD: So you just wanted to play with them

PS: Well, yeah I mean we were quite similar in sounds of music, you know.

JD: What was it i heard. It said you were key into bringing Manchester to the maybe second largest punk scene in the U.K.

PS: Well, I'm to blame for lots of things. (Laughing)

JD: You're to blame for it.

PS: Yeah, lots of people blame me for things.

JD: I guess in the Homosapian album it really wasn't to punk it was more of a new wave kinda thing going on and on the cover you're wearing a white suit, is that right? I wanted to know what was the fascination in the early eighties with triangles? You know what i'm talking about like on the Gary Numan album there's triangles it seems like on alot of new wave album covers it's all angled out with triangle.

Kerry: Like The Police album.

PS: Well I suppose it's to try and make it look modern.

JD: A little modern?

PS: Yeah, the more geometric you can get with shapes stays more modern.

JD: What do you see for the future of the state of music now coming into the year 2000?

PS: Well uh every one says after the show that it's the best show they seen in ages so in that case it must be very bad.

JD: I believe it is very bad.cause you know the nineties really hadn't had anything at least that American kids could look up to. You had Nirvana and even then you kinda felt like you were being sold into a commercial.

PS: No, no, well the thing with Nirvana was, well we did one of our tours with them in Europe and we got along real well with them

JD: So i guess what I'm trying to say is that do you feel that punk rock is starting to die and maybe were having a second wave of postpunk coming up upon us.

PS: I think it's just a style of music and it moves in to different areas of music it still the same experience.

JD: Are you considereing yourself moving into a different area or are you just playing what you play

PS: I think what makes us a bit unique is that we don't have a particular style of music. We do write songs and the songs seem to change. We've got all sors of different songs that make a bigger chain, and if you listen to the old records you can tell witc one we were making a change with.

JD: Almost every song has it's own style is that what your saying. I really wanted to ask you a bunch of general questions. Is it true that in the U.K. to flip someone off you use two fingers.

PS: That's correct

JD: Do you ever go with the one finger style?

PS: Um yes, yes I have seen that and that's merely because of the Americans

JD: When someone uses the two fingers is it taken as seriously over there as it would be over here. cause if your going to flip someone off over here they're almost fighting words. is it almost that serious over there.

PS: It can be

JD: It can be more serious?

PS: well, it depends, on who your doing it to. it can be provocative

JD: Alright. do you guys ever watch American style football?

PS: I, uh, no.

JD: No?

PS: I hardly watch British style football.

JD: Is sports not really your thing?

PS: Uh, no

JD: What are your interests outside of music?

PS: Uh, ‘out side of music' (to himself) I suppose that would be my family.

JD: Your family? Do you have a wife and kids?

PS: yeah I have a wife and an eight year old son, he wrote a title for this album.

JD: He wrote modern?(because he's English I couldn't understand what he said)

PS: No, he uh wrote "Thunder of Hearts" and made a suggestion for the title.

JD: Which song is that?

PS: Track three I think.

JD: Oh, that's a pretty good song I've been starting the cd about there I don't know why. I really like the track five song a lot. Um, god damn. Do you have any cds that you've bought lately? Do you really cling on to certain bands?

PS: well the last cd I bought was on the tour and it was on sale and it was a compilation album made nine years ago, made in seattle of buzzcock covers

JD: Of Buzzcocks covers?

PS: Yeah.

JD: Who were some of the bands?

PS: Well surprisingly the Lunachicks were on there, the Door Boys who we did a tour with, the Naked Ray Gun from Chicago, Alice Donut

JD: Alice Donut?

PS: (laughing) yeah

JD: So you bought that compilation, do you ever listen to your own music?

PS: Um, I do every now and again.

JD: Do you have a good time listening to your music or sometimes do you just think about when you were recording it or in the process of making it

PS: Uh, well, I mean, quite recently a month before I left my wife was constantly playing

JD: Was that just to get you ready for the tour?

PS: Oh no, no I mean before that it was Joy Division and New Order.

JD: Those are two of my favorite bands that you mentioned there

Kerry: Yeah, I love New Order.

JD: Um I guess is there anything else that out of punk rock that you really listen to if they come out with a new album you have to have it the first day it's released? Is there any bands that your kind of obsessive about?

PS: Um, well I suppose The Residents

JD: Say that last part again

PS: Even though I don't know what it sounds like I buy it.

JD: The Residents? I'm really not familiar with the Residents. I feel like I should be though.

Kerry: What else are some of your influences besides the Sex Pistols?

PS: Um, Elton John, yeah (smiles)

JD: What's the most punk rock thing you've ever done?

PS: Oh, well, uh, starting a band really.

JD: Starting a band? (laughing)

PS: Yeah (laughing)

JD: Have you ever been at a show that wasn't going over so well and things got riotous?

PS: Oh, yeah. Tons of times.

JD: Is there a town that's kind of rough to play?

PS: No not really I mean I've been kind of surprised at how mild mannered everyone is in the states.

JD: In the states? What's it like in the U.K. are they more ruckus?

PS: Yeah sometimes.

JD: By mild mannered do you mean they stand around more, not rockin' out as hard

PS: No, I mean they're never tempted to cause any trouble.

JD: They're never tempted to cause any trouble?

JD: In your concert tonight what songs do you plan on playing from your singles collection album tonight?

PS: Uh, there's quite a few of those. Orgasm Addict, Love You More, What Do I Get, Noise Annoys, Autonomy,

JD: What was the last thing you said? Just to name a few?

PS: Yeah, just to name a few.

JD: You have an English accent, it's hard for me to decipher. Do Americans sound like that to you? Is it hard for you to pick what they're saying because your use to the English Accent? I guess you wouldn't call it an accent but is an American accent hard for you to understand what they're saying?

PS: Some. Well there's so many different ones.

JD: Like New England? Is that close to you?

PS: no

JD: What about southern people, are they hard to figure out?

PS: Yeah

JD: Cause I find them real hard to figure out.

PS: Although we do watch a lot of American T.V. We've seen the Dukes of Hazard a million times.

JD: (laughing) What kind of shows do they show over there that are American? Are there any shows that they show constantly over there like do ever Seinfeld or anything like that?

PS: Oh yeah I like Seinfeld, and they show the Larry Sanders Show.

JD: The Larry Sanders Show? That's a good show. (To Kerry, you should watch that some time).

PS: The Simpsons, South Park.

JD: Do you Europeans ever take offense to references to Europeans they make on the shows?

PS: Uh.

JD: Like I guess in the episode of the Simpsons it's St. Patrick's Day and they blow up the U.N. Embassy I guess the British Embassy I don't remember what they blow up. But do Europeans ever take offense to that.

PS: Uh I think so maybe.

JD: Are Americans looked down upon, do we seem smug or anything like that?

PS: They're not as reserved as the British

JD: Are we more

PS: Yeah, more brash.

Kerry: I always picture the British with a more subtle sense of humor, not as out there. I think that's funny I like it more.

JD: So what do you like better, Saturday Night Live or Monty Python?

PS: Uh, Monty Python.

JD: Monty Python

PS: Although I do like Mr. Bill

JD: fire marshall Bill? Like Jim Carrey

PS: No, on the early, about twenty years ago with claymation

JD: Oh, yeah, okay I know what your talking about now.

Kerry: I like Mr. Bean.

PS: Yeah, I like it sometimes. I've liked Rowan Atkinson since the Black Adder.

JD: the what

PS: black adder

JD: black cat?

PS: no, adder like snake a-d-d-e-r

JD: oh adder

PS: yeah

JD: I'm gonna write that down just the way it was, like huh? It'll look cute, hopefully not camp Well anyways,

JD: In America right now it seems like the Backstreet Boys, and N'Sync and a lot of boy groups are popular, what's it like over there?

PS: The same.

JD: It's the same?

PS: Yeah like Boy Zone

JD: Well what's rockin' out on the top indie charts or alternative charts we call it.

PS: I don't really know man. It's like the charts don't really matter as much. There use to be a time when people would know what was number one. Nobody really cares, with the records it's just a marketing device.

JD: The charts are a marketing device?

PS: Yeah, singles and. . .

JD: So I guess in America there are certain bands that are big and there are certain bands that are big in Europe that I know aren't big here. There's this band named Travis from the U.K. I guess they're really big over there but I don't who they are.

PS: Yeah

JD: Is there that much of a culture shock in music when you come to America where crowds in the U.K. know almost every word to your song?

PS: It's surprising how many know the words to the songs over here.

JD: Do you think you're more popular in America?

PS: Uh, yeah I would imagine so, yeah. Since it takes a long time for things to happen in America.

Kerry: I noticed that too when I was in Europe, the Manic Street Preachers were at the top of the charts a year ago and their video was just played here a couple months ago. You guys think nothing of Marilyn Manson over there and we always make a big deal out of him.

PS: Yeah, we don't, I, uh, actually saw a video on T.V. not to long ago, it was kinda funny (laughing). I mean I didn't find it scary or anything.

JD: How do you guys celebrate Halloween?

PS: How do we celebrate Halloween? We don't know usually. Since E.T. was broadcast and the idea of trick-or-treating caught on. But before when I was a child we didn't go trick-or-treating.

Kerry: Can you only dress up as certain things in England?

JD: Yeah, cause we heard that you can only dress up as a witch, a skeleton, and something else and those are the only costumes.

PS: Well, those are the traditional one you know?

JD: It's the same here.

Kerry: They made it sound like that's all you could wear over there.

JD: Here's the question I have to ask, I ask every band, will you sing my name into a song? (Laughing)

PS: (laughing) What's your name again?

JD: My name's JD.

PS: JD (thinking) I'll have to think about it.

JD: I just ask every band that, sometimes I'll ask them to write my name into a song. Like have you heard of a band called Jets To Brazil?

PS: No.

JD: I guess I want to know what's big what's really, really big in the U.K. If you were going to play a show with somebody and you were going to open with a band like Depeche Mode or whoever what would sell out the big arenas?

PS: There doesn't seem to be anything that mega and huge. Um, I imagine if Oasis had a farewell tour.

JD: If Oasis had a farewell tour

PS:thst might sell out.

JD: So what's going on in London right now, is your family in London?

PS: Yeah

JD: You didn't take them on tour with you? Cause your kid's in school, right?

PS: That's correct

JD: Is it hard for you going on tour with your wife in London?

PS: Uh, well I phone up every day and offer advice, and do the show after that.

JD: Do you have any advice that you would give future parents?

PS: Future parents, uh, yeah, enjoy it

JD: Is it ever stressful at all?

PS: Uh, sometimes, especially when he starts saying ‘it's my life you can't tell me what to do.' (Laughing) So then you find yourself turning into your own father. ‘No, you've got to do what I tell you.' ‘But it's my life.' He's only eight who knows what he'll be like when he's fifteen.

JD: Do you guys have other jobs when your not making records, like do you deliver pizzas or something.

PS: We hate working. We avoid it

JD: Do you guys have any singles releases off this album?

PS: Uh, I don't think there's an actual single but the lead track is, "Thunder of Hearts," there's a video we did in Paris. It's not being shown on television yet, there's an uncensored version and a censored version of it.

JD: What has to be censored about it?

PS: Some French directors thought it was too sexual, too violent. I think there's an uncensored version of it on the Buzzcocks website.

JD: Is it playing right now on the website? The Buzzcocks.com we'll have to check that out.

PS: Yeah

JD: On the new album you have kind of an electronic sound. Are you using electronic keyboards or are you imitating the sound with your instruments?

PS: We were using keyboards.

JD: Did you bring them on tour with you?

PS: No. We used them on some dates in the U.K.

JD: What gave you the idea for the electronic sound?

PS: Well, it was really Tony, he was the producer of the album

Kerry: Where did you meet those two (Tony Barber and Philip Barker), since they weren't originally with the Buzzcocks?

PS: Well in 1992 when Steve Garvey decided he didn't want to carry on being in the band and touring. He had his family in New York and we were in London and it was hard going back and forth. So, we held auditions for a new rhythm section and Tony heard through somebody about it and he showed up at the audition and brought Phil along with him. And he knew all the songs, he had been a fan for ages.

JD: Tony's the bass player, right?

PS: Yeah.

JD: Did you guys put an ad in the paper for that?

PS: No, No, we just you know. . .

JD: . . . got the word around?

PS: Yeah.

JD: How long were the Buzzcocks broken up for?

PS: Eight and a half years.

JD: Eight and a half years? How did you get back together then?

PS: Rumors that we were back together.

JD: Rumors? (laughing)

PS: Our agent told us to get in contact with him and he would set up a tour. So he set up a tour and that was our reunion.

JD: So a tour was booked for you and you guys hadn't even spoken yet?

PS: Yeah.

JD: That's a dirty trick

PS:

JD: You should have your agent do that for the Smiths. (Laughing)

PS: hmmm.

Kerry: Is that why you went on tour with Nirvana? I heard it was cause Kurt Cobain cited you as an influence.

PS: Well, he came in, ‘93 it was, and we were playing in Boston. They had a day off in Boston and they came to our show and afterwards we started talking. We both had future plans to go to Japan in February, but they changed they're plans when they heard Pearl Jam was gonna go and in the end Pearl Jam didn't go. But they booked. . . . . . .

Kerry: Do you still talk to Dave Grohl or Krist Novoselic?

PS: Uh, no I haven't seen them for a real long time. But the Foo Fighters, I really like the Foo Fighters.

JD: The Foo Fighters are a good band. When you did the Homosapian album were you still living in Manchester?

PS: Yeah.

JD: Was there something else going on at the time that made you decide to go that direction with music instead?

PS: Well it all came about when I went into the studio with Martin to record demos for the fourth Buzzcocks album and as we were doing the songs with it was just me and him with a guitar for the instrumentation and he had just gotten this new synthesizer that you could program so we started messing around with that and I think it was the second day that we did Homosapien. And we kept listening to it and listening to it and he said ‘you know this isn't a demo anymore, it's a finished track.' Let's try some more and so we did and after we had about three or four more we went along to Island records to see Andrew Lauder who had signed the Buzzcocks to United Artists. So we played him a thing and he thought it was good and we got a record deal and we got financed for the album

JD: Did you ever go on tour for that album?

PS: Yeah, yeah.

JD: At the time was that album more successful you than the Buzzcocks were? Or were people going to the tour just cause you were the frontman for the Buzzcocks?

PS: I don't know really, I mean it was successful in it's own light.

JD: What kind of electronic bands are you into?

PS: Um one's that make lots of noise.

JD: I guess when I think of electronic sound the first thing that comes to mind would be Kraftwerk, they're drummer almost reminds me of a train in motion. And then I think of Depeche Mode, there's two Depeche Modes, the new dramatized DM and then there's old goofy DM. When you say ‘make a lot of noise' what kind of comparison would you make?

PS: Well early Depeche Mode. . . I have two Depeche Mode cds. One I was given from a friend at Mute Records. I don't know, I don't tend to categorize them.

JD: Electronic that makes guitar like noise or anything, like a drill being recorded.

PS: Well noise like Noy.

JD: Noy? What do they sound like?

PS:

JD: Do you prefer electronic or something like the Chemical Brothers?

PS: Yeah, I like the Chemical Brothers.

JD: Cause they have a lot of different sounds in they're album. When I heard the electronics in your album I thought they were kind of crude, more basic sounds. Is that what you were going for or was the electronics just kind of part of it?

PS: Well it was basic electronics that we were using (laughing).

JD: Were you involved in making the sounds?

PS: No, Tony did them.

JD: the Go-Betweens, Gang of Four, the Jam. Is there any bands that are really good like them but you wish they would've been bigger?

PS: Uh, not particularly.

JD: When you pay attention to music do you just focus on your own work more than caring about what music you think is good?

PS: Well, I'm not really a musician type of musician. Sometimes I listen to songs I've written without

JD: What sounds really good to you? Kurt Cobain screaming or a Rolling Stones guitar. What kind of sounds sound really good to you?