monorail music present…

Sixteen Again

A celebration of Buzzcocks, Pete Shelley and Manchester music.

John Maher photographs, Buzzcocks promo films. Paul Hanley and John Maher in conversation with Stephen Pastel

Wednesday 12 June, 8pm

Every few years I have the same epiphany and remember how important Buzzcocks music was to me, especially in my teenage years - not only their music but the pathways they suggested. When Pete Shelley died I was visiting my mum, in my old bedroom, and it hit me hard - this person I didn’t know but looked up to, who had changed my life. How can that be?

In his brilliant book, Sixteen Again, ex-Fall drummer, Paul Hanley, grapples with something similar - the relationship between a young fan and his favourite group. But it’s a bigger picture that Hanley paints - he gets inside the group and explains their importance not only in their time but as a legacy - what they meant to the groups that followed them, to the independent music scene and to Manchester music and the city in general. Hanley’s argument is that Pete Shelley was the pivotal person in all of this - the connector, the low-key genius, the accidental hero.

We will be joined by John Maher, Buzzcocks incredible drummer, and one of Pete Shelley’s many friends. Maher was quite a bit younger than the other members but there from the start, leaving school at sixteen to join the group - the propulsion and harnessed energy behind Spiral Scratch and their subsequent amazing four year run. He is now a highly regarded photographer, famous for his buldings and landscapes work in the Hebrides. We’re incredibly pleased to be able to show some earlier more ad-hoc work, taken from Buzzcocks 1979 and 1980 US tours.

We will also be screening some key Buzzcocks promo films. Thanks to Street Level Photoworks, Domino Records and Route Publishing for their help with this event.  

SP, April 2024