Favourite John Peel quotes

oh, hahaha... the only football chants i'm familiar with are the ones in which ppl chant "UNITED!" and make a U shape with their arms...

Is it just me or does everone hear these quotes in the voice of Mr Peel as you read through them?

perhaps a sound sample comp of all his best bits would be apt.
It could be the final "Peel Session", as such.
*wipes away a tear*

"People ask me, ‘what was the best year for the music?’ I always say, this year is the best year for music. Prior to that it was the previous year"

"I like to be in the position where I play something and I don’t even know if it’s good or not"

And one for our fellow Beefheart fans:

"When we were coming back from Frank Freeman’s, he [Don Van Vliet] asked if he could listen to a tree. I’ve always thought that’s a really strange thing to have done, but of course it could have been his way of saying that he wanted a pee – probably was. He might have said ‘listen to a tree’, because it rhymed with ‘having a pee’. His thought processes were not like those of other men – you could well believe that he wanted to listen to a tree.

"If anybody else had said it, I would have said ‘stupid bastard’ under my breath. But with Beefheart you thought, well, he knows more than I do and if he wants to listen to a tree, and I’m in a position to enable him to do so, then I’m going to give him a chance to do it, because it would be quite wrong not to. So he got out of the car and disappeared. It was one of those things where Pete Frame ought to have arranged for a plaque to be put there. Beefheart probably just went and had a pee, I don’t know. Or he may have just listened to a tree. I’d like to say that I can see him silhouetted against a gibbous moon with his ear firmly pressed to a fine old elm, but I just don’t know."

How's that for service?

I have asked if anyone can let me know exactly what he said 'though.

(in reference to the required method of getting to his 'DJ page' on the Radio 1 website) "To visit my DJ page on the Radio 1 website, just click on my face. *pauses* Click. All. Overmaface. (said to a rythm)

(after playing an old Carcass session track) "They don't write them like that anymore!"

So being a smart-arse, I sent him a letter saying just that. A few weeks later, a letter with a Radio 1 postmark landed on my mat. Sure enough, it was a signed photo sent by Peelie. But it was a signed photo of Kid Jensen, with a post-it note attached to it, saying, "Is this the sort of thing you want?"

Priceless. I'll miss him.

he played a record on his show called 'Vana White' and pondered aloud who she was. someone phoned in with the details - she was the dolly girl who turned the letters around on Wheel Of Fortune. peel makes some disparaging remark about the quality of daytime quiz shows. someone else phones up and points out that the british version of WOF was presented by Nicky Campbell who also had the radio show immediately after his. oops.

OK, not a Peel quote as such, but I do remember the opening of one particular show where - god help us - the first record up was Kylie's 'I Should Be So Lucky'. It played for a while and then gradually - very very gradually - it was crossfaded into some gutwrenching hideous noise by Extreme Noise Terror or some such bunch. Wonderful.

"That was Big Country there, the band that put the 'Tree' in CUNTry!"

Back in 2001 Peelie was doing the rounds of cities around the country visiting various bands and promoting local events. This time he was here in Birmingham to compere at the Radio 1 live in Birmingham for bands Broadcast, Plone and Magnetophone live at the Irish Centre in Digbeth. Earlier on that day myself and a few others had had the good fortune to enjoy a curry with John and everything had been going fine until I put my foot in it later when we returned to the Irish Centre. Plone had just played their set and I was 'woo-hooing' with excitement- (just as they do in the great plains of Texas). Suddenly loud and clear over the Tannoy, was the almighty voice of John Peel. His exact (well as far as I can remember) words were "Right. Whoever is woo-hoo'ing, kindly stop that right now. I do not tolarate this kind of behaviour. If you do not stop it I will make a bee-line to you and bop you on the nose. You'd be amazed how fast a man of 62 years of age can move!!!!!!". I had never been so embarassed (and frightened) in all my life!

Fantastic stuff :-) A year later Peelie asked me back to play at another Radio 1 gig in Birmingham where he was in the audience. (Ironically it was supposed to be a Radio 1 showcase for Brum- dispite that the BBC hadn't actually got anyone- apart from boring bands like Ocean Colour Scene (yawn)- in from Birmingham). Both of us chatted afterwards for ages. Me and everyone else here from brum, are gonna miss him dearly :(((

Incidently I haven't woo-hoo'ed since.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,1339898,00.html

JP: Ah well, Hello, are you in a band?
CG: Yes
JP: How Lovely...

".. and here comes the good bit..."

"You would meet people who you would assume were complete knobheads who actually turned out to be quite nice. Sometimes it worked the other way as well!"

"And now for something by the appallingly titled Tasty Bush"

Like Dan Hartman: "We had an extremely pleasant conversation about toll-roads in New England."

"Straight in at the all-important No.39 spot..."

"At 27 it's Meatloaf - Hear him and weep" (instead of 'Read Em and Weep')

"At 26 it's the Sisters of Mercy with Thompson Twins" (instead of the Thompson Twins with Sister of Mercy)

(after playing the Smiths' Stretch Out and Wait for the first time, with it's lyric 'And is there any point ever having children?')

"I wondered about that long and hard, but in the end I decided there's always a chance that they'll be the ones that make the world a better place"

"coming up after this are the highlights of the Pearl Jam concert at [wherever].....which should last about 5 minutes I reckon"

'they love their mummies..... with a white wine sauce'

that sort of humour you couldnt script.

RIP John and thanks for the memories.

I`ve been digging out the old tapes and will put a few up soon.these are some of the best tributes I`ve come across.Keep it up.

"If you're so clever, why are you on your own tonight. How many times have I said that to you....?"

RIP and thanks John

Peel said "Why do ppl assume that if you don't love something then you must hate it? Why don't they realise that there are stages in between, like....indifference?"

"The best thing i like about your band, is i can't tell who you've been listening to..."

What a quote from the man who listens to everything!

“It’s quite humbling at Festive 50 time to know you’re broadcasting to the entire nation. I don’t know why Radios 2,3,4 & 5 even bother putting out programmes at this time.”

“I was just thinking that there’s probably no-one – apart from The Pig – who’s given me more pleasure than Mark E. Smith”

More than anything though was his ability in common with the great broadcasters that you were in the presence of a friend. I have loads of his remarks saved to tape. I’ll try and dig some out. One classic is football related and I don’t want to quote it incorrectly but it’s a peach.

Also he always seemed genuinely surprised when it all started going wrong, wrong track, wrong speed, not starting. I loved it when he would make the producer come in to confirm that he was pressing the right button or that his equipment ws wilfully showing the wrong track or information. We’ll all miss him.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/s.bending/

1 (After a couple of seconds silence following an extremely long-winded end to a Sisters of Mercy track ('Emma' for the nerds) "....one of the longest fade-outs in the history of recorded music". Actually. I think he introduced it with "this is the first time a Hot Chocolate track has made it into the festive fifty..."

2 After fearsomely anti-war 'The Green Fields of France' by the Men they couldn't Hang. "I think it's the barely suppressed emotion that makes it such a good song"