A specially created bench was unveiled in memory and tribute to Buzzcocks frontman Pete Shelley, to mark his 69th birthday, in a project partnership between the Pete Shelley Memorial Campaign (PSMC) and Wigan Council. The bench displays 17 lyrics written by Pete, suggested by fans and is located outside Leigh Library and faces the large mural of Pete that was created in 2022. As part of the event, a memorial garden, directly behind the bench was unveiled in memory of Pete Shelley, who died in 2018 and of Buzzcocks fan and friend of Pete, Paddy Mitchell, who died in 2023, he was involved in the PSMC fundraising. The ribbon was cut by legendary drummer with The Fall, Paul Hanley, who also held a book signing session of his new book 'Sixteen Again' at Leigh Library.
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00:00 Hello, my name is Paul Lally. I'm the founder of the Pete Shelley Memorial Campaign.
00:04 The Pete Shelley Memorial Campaign has been running since 2018 when Pete sadly passed away.
00:09 Today we're sat outside Lee Library where we've unveiled a lyric bench of Pete Shelley.
00:17 And the lyric bench has come about through a partnership between ourselves and Wigan Council.
00:22 And there was also a lot of interactions between ourselves and Pete's fans on social media
00:28 where we'd asked his fans to pick their favourite lyrics from Pete's career. And we had hundreds
00:35 and hundreds of song suggestions and lyric suggestions and we whittled them down to 17.
00:41 We did that because 17 is Pete's birthday the 17th and also only 17 lyrics could fit on this bench.
00:52 And that's it, we're here today. Our long-term goal is to preserve Pete's legacy and we'll
00:58 continue celebrating his birthday annually here in Lee and that's the long-term plan of the campaign.
01:05 It didn't really take long because I wanted to think about Pete with his music. So we have the
01:12 music note and a guitar but I also wanted to bring the mural into the garden and so designed this
01:21 heart and this one's called a heartbreaker. Everybody has had their heart broken and in
01:30 ever falling in love. I think it ties that in nicely and this one's a heavenly blue. So I think
01:40 the garden really reflects on the memory of both Paddy and Pete and we can enjoy this garden.