An Anglophile New Yorker living on the south coast of England, Peter Shapiro started writing for The Wire in 1994 in issue 128; his first two pieces included a review which conflated two of his abiding interests, DJ culture and classic rock, dismissing US DJ Keoki's contribution to the Journeys By DJ series by concluding, “In the end, though, like that old chestnut about 12 minute Duane Allman guitar solos, it just doesn't go anywhere.”

Over the next 20 years Peter became one of the magazine’s most prolific and influential contributors; while between 2000–2003 he was also a member of the magazine’s staff, working as an assistant editor and staff writer.

As well as contributing numerous album and book reviews to the magazine, his cover stories included interviews with Natacha Atlas, Jah Wobble, Coldcut, Stereloab, A Guy Called Gerald, New York’s Illbient scenesters, Antipop Consortium, Kool Keith, LCD Soundsystem, Kid606, and Talvin Singh. He tested a wide variety of musicians in the Invisible Jukebox feature including Tom Moulton, El-P, Mike Patton, Bill Laswell, Caetano Veloso, Alec Empire, Autechre and LTJ Bukem, and contributed extended interview features with, among many others, Mark 45 King, Dr John, Phil Cohran, and a 1997 encounter with Rammellzee which introduced the prophet of lkonoklast Panzerism and Gothic Futurism to a disbelieving Wire readership.

Peter was a great essayist, and his think pieces included articles on Harry Smith, cassette mixtapes, cosmic disco, and, in issue 167, in the first ever Epiphanies column, great rock riffs. He also contributed extended Primer guides to Turntablism, James Brown, P-funk, psychedelic soul, mutant disco, Fela Kuti, US hardcore punk, and the Roland TB-303 Bass Line (in issue 303 naturally).

His last major piece for the magazine was a 2019 Primer on early 80s New York Latin freestyle. But perhaps the issue of The Wire that distills his essence best is issue 192 from February 2000, for which Peter contributed a cover story on the underground West Coast hiphop collective Quannum Projects, a soon-to-be notorious Invisible Jukebox with Lemmy (in which Peter played the deadpan straight man to the increasingly bemused Motörhead leader), an interview with Canadian turntablist Kid Koala, a typically incisive takedown of a new history of techno, and a critical beats column complete with a cameo appearance by his friend and fellow Wire columnist Dave Tompkins.

In parallel to his work for The Wire Peter wrote several books, including pithy Rough Guides to soul, hiphop, and drum ’n’ bass, and a glittering history of disco, Turn The Beat Around.

Like all great critics, Peter was a writer whose worldview could feel so singular, so idiosyncratic, almost eccentric, but one whose observations would illuminate the music he was discussing in ways that meant we could all hear, feel, and understand it more completely.

He will be greatly missed.