Here’s what you need to know about the musician and the band that had such and influence on a generation of musicians.
Who was Pete Shelley and when did he found the Buzzcocks with Howard Devoto?
Pete Shelley was born Peter Campbell McNeish in Leigh, Greater Manchester.
His father was a fitter at a nearby coal mine and his mother had been a mill worker in the town.
Shelley met Howard Devoto at the Bolton Institute of Technology in 1975 and the pair went on to form the Buzzcocks the next year having been inspired by seeing the Sex Pistols in London.
What where The Buzzcocks famous for?
They achieved commercial success with hits including Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) but Devoto left the band in 1977.
After a run of three albums, the band split in 1981 but reformed eight years later and went on to release six more albums, the most recent being 2014's The Way.
Shelley also composed the theme music for the intro to the Tour de France on Channel 4 which was used from the late 1980s to the mid -1990s.
Teenage Fanclub singer Norman Blake tweeted how important Shelley's songs were youth and still remained so.
Buzzcocks themselves said Shelley was "one of the UK's most influential and prolific songwriters and co-founder of the seminal original punk band Buzzcocks".
How did Pete die?
The frontman's brother Gary McNeish announced the news on Facebook, telling fans: "This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do, is tell you my brother Pete Shelley had a heart attack this morning and passed away."
The band's official Twitter account followed it with a statement reading: "It's with great sadness that we confirm the death of Pete Shelley, one of the UK's most influential and prolific songwriters and co-founder of the seminal original punk band Buzzcocks."
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