Tributes for Blackpool musician Pete Shelton who dies aged 83

A former Blackpool musician who toured America with top bands as well as recording at the same studio as the Rolling Stones has died.

Pete Shelton, who was 83, started off as a cleaner at the Picador Club in the resort which booked acts in the 1960s including The Beatles when they were still unknown.

After going on to manage the club, he began performing himself - a move which saw him relocate to Chicago before returning to Blackpool in later life.

Blackpool councillor Tony Williams, whose own career as a guitarist crossed paths with Pete, has paid tribute to his former fellow musician.

He recalls Pete becoming road manager to several top bands including the Tornadoes, before joining a group on its way to gigs in Chicago when their original bass player did not turn up.

Tony said: "Pete settled into life in the USA very well and the group went from strength to strength after changing their name to Robin and the Hoods, a blatant attempt at capitalising on the new British music invasion which was sweeping America.

The 'Hoods' went on to record a couple of albums and toured across the mid west even being featured in a national TV commercial."

Pete worked as a road manager in America where he married singer Bonnie Herman and had a daughter.

Tony, a former member of Stealers Wheel, recalls how Pete helped pick out their biggest hit during a visit to a recording studio in London.

He said: "I asked the engineer Geoff Emerick of Sgt Pepper's fame to play all the finished tracks back to Pete.

"One of them was what we considered an album filler, not one of our best tunes. As soon as Pete heard it he exclaimed 'that's a hit, get it released'.

"The song that Pete had insisted was a hit was called Stuck in The Middle With You and he was so right, it was a hit."

Another of Tony's memories is of going to record with a band at the Regent Sound Studios in London with Pete when the Rolling Stones turned up, having booked the next session for their first album.

Following his return to Blackpool from America Pete lived in Newton Drive, and wrote a book, Rock-n-Roll Fever about the Blackpool music scene going back to the fifties.

A funeral service for Pete, who died on October 3, will be held on Thursday October 15 at Carleton Crematorium.