Burke Shelley

Shelley was born in Tiger Bay, now known as Cardiff Bay, in Cardiff, Wales.

Shelley is often compared to Rush bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee,[1] as they both share the position of bassist/vocalist in power trio bands, both have distinctive high pitched singing voices, and during the mid to late 1970s they bore a striking resemblance to one other, with long straight hair and huge glasses. Like Lee, Shelley possessed a high tenor vocal range.[2] In addition to singing and playing bass for the group, Shelley also performed keyboards on its early albums, most notably Mellotron on "Young is a World" from their second album Squawk.

Budgie's November 2010 tour of Eastern Europe had to be cancelled as Shelley was hospitalised on 9 November in Wejherowo, Poland, with a 6 cm aortic aneurysm. After surgery, he returned to Britain for recovery, but no decision about the future of the band has been made.[3] Shelley has said that following the operation he finds it hard to simultaneously sing and play bass guitar for long periods. Nevertheless, he continues to play bass (with occasional backing vocal duties) in rock and pop covers bands based in South Wales.

Shelley is a Christian.[4] In a 2010 interview for the BBC documentary Heavy Metal Britannia, Shelley expressed his Christian beliefs and said he'd always been uncomfortable with the occult-themed lyrics of bands such as Black Sabbath.[5]