Burke Shelley, singer/bassist for 1970s Welsh hard rock band Budgie, has died at age 71. In a Facebook post on Monday (Jan. 10) attributed to the heavy metal pioneer’s daughter, Ela Shelley, she wrote, “It is with great sadness that I announce the death of my father, John Burke Shelley. He passed away this evening in his sleep at Heath Hospital in Cardiff, his birth town. He was 71 years old.”
The notice, which was also attributed to the musician’s other three children — Osian, Dimitri and Nathaniel — did not disclose a cause of death for the rock howler who is credited with helping to usher in the modern metal sound via the trio’s bottom-heavy, urgent attack. John Burke Shelley, born on April 10, 1950 in Tiger Bay, Cardiff, Wales, was the focal point of the group, with a studious, straight-laced look highlighted by oversized glasses and a preference for tailored vests that was at odds with his band’s thundering, aggressive sound.
The band, which also originally featured Tony Bourge on guitar and drummer Ray Phillips, was formed in Cardiff, Wales in 1967 as Hills Contemporary Grass. By the next year they’d switched the name to Budgie, a placid-sounding moniker that paid tribute to the nickname for a colorful Australian parakeet whose pleasant look was, like Burke’s stage image, the antithesis of the group’s hard-charging sound.
Their self-titled MCA Records debut album, produced by Black Sabbath collaborator Rodger Bain, was released in 1971; the collection included the song “Crash Course in Brain Surgery,” which, in a sign of Budgie’s enduring influence, was covered by Metallica on their 1987 The $5.98 E.P. – Garage Days Re-Revisited.
Their 1972 second effort, Squawk, featured a cover image of a bird-like plane crashing to Earth drawn by frequent Yes illustrator Roger Dean. The following year they dropped Never Turn Your Back on a Friend, which featured another Dean cover illustration and one of the group’s most beloved songs, the proto speed-metal, blues-flecked rager “Breadfan,” which Metallica issued as a 1988 B-side to “Harvester of Sorrow.” Their songs have also been covered over the years by everyone from Van Halen to Iron Maiden, Soundgarden and Megadeth.
After near-annual releases throughout the 1970s — In For the Kill! (1974), Bandolier (1975), If I Were Brittania I’d Waive the Rules (1976), Impeckable (1978) — guitarist Bourge split with the group before the release of their eighth full-length, 1980’s Power Supply. Two more 1980s albums, 1981’s Nightflight and 1982’s Deliver Us From Evil, propelled the group through their final live gigs in 1987. It would be 24 years before Budgie issued their 11th and final album, 2006’s You’re Living In Cuckooland.
A 2010 Eastern European reunion tour was cut short when Shelley was hospitalized with an aortic aneurysm, effectively marking the end of the group’s career. Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich paid tribute to Shelley in an Instagram Story on Tuesday, posting a classic black and white picture of the bassist in action and writing, “Thank you Burke for everything you did for heavy music and much next level appreciation for co-writing and creating two songs that Metallica were honoured to record over the years, ‘Breadfan’ and ‘Crash Course In Brain Surgery’.”
Watch some videos of Shelley and Budgie below.
