Whatever we expected from Pete Shelley’s solo debut in 1981, after a string of superlative singles by Buzzcocks, a queer synthpop anthem came as a surprise.

Homosapien is the title track from his 1981 solo album, and it’s just as catchy as anything he did with Buzzcocks. Which is to say: very.

Its celebration of homosexuality is also lyrically quite controversial for the time. I’m not sure what’s funnier: the lyrical rhyme “homo superior / in my interior” – or Shelley’s insistence, when asked, that it was nothing to do with gay sex.

The bisexual Shelley wrote the song in 1974 before forming Buzzcocks in 1976. Originally intended as a demo track for the band, Homosapien was recorded in one day in 1980 with producer Martin Rushent, initially intended for a fourth Buzzcocks album.

After producing punk bands like The Stranglers, Buzzcocks and Generation X, Rushent built his own studio filled with synthesisers and drum machines to create the synthpop sound he used on The Human League album Dare – and Homosapien.

It seems strange now that no one really noticed the song was a heartfelt plea for an end to homophobia: “I just hope and pray that the day of our love is at hand,” sang Shelley, “And the world is so wrong that I hope that we’ll be strong.”