Pete Shelley, Lead Singer of Buzzcocks, Dies at 63

Pete Shelley, the lead singer of the punk band Buzzcocks, died from a “suspected heart attack” at the age of 63, BBC News reports. The Buzzcocks’ management said Shelley died Thursday in Estonia, where he was living at the time. The band, which was formed in the 1970s, was influenced by the Sex Pistols, but brought “intense, brilliant energy” into “alternately funny and anguished” songs, the BBC reports. Music critic Stephen Thomas told the BBC that the Buzzcocks’ influence can be heard in music from bands like Nirvana, and he called their songs about teenage angst and love the “best and smartest of his era.” Tracey Thorn, the former Everything But The Girl singer, wrote on Twitter that Shelley was an “amazing songwriter.” Teenage Fanclub singer Norman Blake also tweeted that Shelley’s songs were “important” to him when he was a “young man.” “Thank you Pete and R.I.P. You will be missed,“ Blake wrote.