John Peel RIP

PERHAPS HE MURDERED PEELIE

RIP

:(

(Adds details)

LIMA, Peru, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Veteran British disc jockey and broadcaster John Peel has died in Peru while on holiday in the ancient Inca city of Cuzco, his employer the British Broadcasting Corporation and the British embassy said on Tuesday.

"He passed away. We don't have any details. We received a phone call at 4 a.m. from his brother to inform us," said Jonathan Clare, an embassy official in Lima.

The BBC in London said Peel was on a working holiday in Cuzco with his wife, Sheila. There was no other comment from the BBC.

Peel, born in 1939, was one of Britain's original pirate radio disc jockeys in the 1960s, broadcasting from ships anchored just outside British waters that won huge followings. Peel was his assumed "pirate" name.

In the late 1970s he championed punk rock to the consternation of many of his radio contemporaries who were still playing rock supergroups - and were convinced the new music fad would never had any real impact.

Peel - an authority on independent music - was honoured as an Order of the British Empire.

RIP.

Give me a break though. I wouldn't have joked about it. It's incredibly sad news.

and sorry Jim

I am very sad right now.

Funny I kind of assumed he'd be around forever.

I've wondered occasionally what was going to happen when he died. If there was somebody who was going to inherit his mantle of influence/cool/smarts, I never heard a name. Of course I'm American, so I might not have heard it. But EVERYBODY's heard of Peel.

John Peel and Tony Benn were the two people in this country that actually made me look forward to getting old.

(I dearly hope Tony and Mark E Smith sing Teenage Kicks as a tribute to their kindred spirit.)

RIP.

Perhaps Mark E could phone in his performance?

The sad thing is that this is completely true.

this is making me very sad indeed.

Sod work. :-(

OTM

Good night, JP. Have a word with Walters when you see him.

We sometimes bumped into him in the Rough Trade shop in Covent Garden and we had a drink when he came up to do that programme about the Oxford music scene for C4.

When Laura died he was kind enough to mention it on his Tuesday show that week.

It's perhaps a slightly absurd cliche when used in regard to someone whom in reality I didn't know that well, but at the moment it feels like it did when my dad died - someone who'd always been around, all my life, who'd done as much as my dad to influence my thoughts and views about music, and then suddenly is no longer there.

That is exactly what I'm fearing.

We've got Pulp on in our office.

again, otm.

I know it's early to discuss such matters (even on an internet messageboard), but I'd want them to sign up Jon Kennedy from Xfm. He's a lot nearer to Peel than Lamacq.

he wants the lyrics to teenage kicks on his headstone he's said.

how ace is that?

When I was about ten I used to try and listen to some of his show every night it was on - not much of it, just enough to feel touched by the magical special thing it was. And from that came every girl I've ever dated, virtually every friend I have, the person I am now.

r i p

a sad day... RIP

I can't really imagine anyone else doing his show. It certainly reflected my ideal about what music radio should be; an eclectic world where DJ Scud, the Hidden Cameras, Laura Cantrell, Misty in Roots and Artie Shaw could all co-exist happily. The only DJ I can think of who could even approach that would be Steve Barker.

Peel is the reason why I'm on this board, why I have the friends I have, why I listen to the music I listen to...can't be coherent and articualte right now. I just feel numb.

(oddly I felt more shattered when Ayrton Senna died, so I can't quite go along with Porky's idea, but I do know just what he means)

Yeah, feeling this too.

Do yea ken John Peel - Tune Based on an 18th Century Ballad
"John Peel"
D'ye ken John Peel with his coat so
gay,
D'ye ken John Peel at the break of
day,
D'ye ken John Peel when he's far away,
With his hounds and his horn in the
morning.
For the sound of his horn brought me
from my bed
And the cry of his hounds which he
oft times led,
Peel's 'view hullo' would awaken the
dead
Or the fox from his lair in the
morning.
Yes I ken John Peel and Ruby too
Ranter and Ringwood and Bellman and
True,
From a find to a check, from a check
to a view
From a view to a death in the morning
Then here's to John Peel with my
heart and soul
Let's drink to his health, let's
finish the bowl,
We'll follow John Peel through fair
and through foul
If we want a good hunt in the morning.

RIP

R. I. P.

R1 are sandwiching the news with Peel-type tracks in the afternoon: Teenage Kicks after, summat else before. When I switched on the radio it was Joy Division.

I just spent the last half hour reading the tributes on the bbc site.

Also it ill behoves Steve Wright, who on his show for most of the '80s took the piss out of Peel and called him a "weirdo from Mars," now to term him "a great influence on me."

i remember him DJing at some radio 1 sound city type thing i attended in 2001 for an industry Q&A panel. it was the afternoon, and my then-girlfriend, who'd worked on Peel's show, and i sat and watched him play records for an hour or so - hard techno, afrobeat, oddness, and closing with 'i've been loving you too long to stop now' by otis redding. he was unable to play this song, he explained, without crying. i was very touched by that.

RIP.

(would anyone like me to get them a beer from the fridge, I'm certainly not gonna do anything but listen to music and have a good cry for the next 10 hours - suggested tracks welcome)

http://www.fancyapint.com/main_site/thepubs/pub388.htm

it has an indie jukebox.

"I had the pleasure of meeting John Peel at Glastonbury watching Clinic, 5 years ago. I've never met a nicer man. I said hello to him and explained it was because it's not everyday I stand next to John Peel in a field.

He said he was pleased I did say hello, as it wasn't everyday he stood next to me in a field. He was genuinely pleased."

JP No not really. I'd like to because I'd like to believe in an afterlife - obviously the older you get the more you think about these things - not because I want to spend all eternity singing hymns but I'd like to sort things out with My dad, apologise for being a crap son and find out whether he really wanted my brother Frank to have the Welsh dresser.

from http://www.molara.co.uk/7696.html

I can't quite believe I'll never hear his show again. I feel deep sadness at his passing. As someone else noted, 'what a legacy'.

NP. Soft Machine - Moon In June (Top Gear Session)

Huh, yeah, I just used the same word -- interested -- in a post on another board. More than anything else, more even than his decency, his curiosity seemed like a great gift to him and everyone else.

some of the best, first records I ever bought were Peel sessions reissues. terrible packaging, wonderful music, great taste, great range - made we wish I grew up in his country where somebody played this stuff on the radio.

Radio Mooro played Sinatra in tribute:

Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you
If you’re young at heart
For it’s hard, you will find, to be narrow of mind
If you’re young at heart

You can go to extremes with impossible schemes
You can laugh when your dreams fall apart at the seams
And life gets more exciting with each passing day
And love is either in your heart or on it’s way

Don’t you know that it’s worth every treasure on earth
To be young at heart
For as rich as you are it’s much better by far
To be young at heart

And if you should survive to 105
Look at all you’ll derive out of being alive
Then here is the best part
You have a head start
If you are among the very young at heart

I shall miss his spirit: I hope I can keep a fraction of Peel’s enthusiasm for music until the end of my days.

To cherish: those brief moments of communication with the great man, bumping into him a few times at Liverpool Street & at Bush House, the two Peel ‘Wingdings’ I got to attend at Maida Vale, hitting the spot with an e-mail to get a tune played on his show.

Will I ever listen to Radio1 again now?

Teenage dreams so hard to beat,
Every time she walks down the street,
Another girl in the neighbourhood,
I wish she was mine she looks so good,
I wanna hold her,
Wanna hold her tight,
Get teenage kicks,
All through the night.

I'm gonna call her on the telephone,
Have her over cause I'm all alone,
I need excitement oh I need it bad,
And it's the best I've ever had,
I wanna hold her,
Wanna hold her tight,
Get teenage kicks,
All through the night.

1/the normal
1/cabaret voltaire
3/pere ubu
4/the albion band
5/culture
6/fairport convention
7/the human league
8/"handsworth revolution" by steel pulse. (I taped this, & used to listen to this over and over again. WTF kind of music was this?)

(etc etc) He is, I suppose, quite literally irreplacable. I hope they don't try, but fear they will.

OTM. I think most of us - especially those of us who are starting to worry that we're "too old" for young music - can relate to Peel as a fan who lived out our dreams. He got on the radio, introduced his favorites to the world, and never lost his enthusiasm. What higher honor was there for a young band than to be asked to record a Peel session? Who didn't want to turn up on the Festive Fifty? Though it's sad that he's no longer of this world, his spirit will live on in everyone who a) has fanatical opinions and b) wants to share their enthusiasm with everyone they meet.

Very touching thread.

But think of Julie Burchill, Peel's biggest detractor, his accuser, his nemesis. It's even worse for her. I wonder if she's going to say anything about it? It's awful for her if she says nothing and leaves on the record her hatred for the man everyone loves to love. It's worse if she continues that hatred and extends it by dancing on his grave. I genuinely fear for her safety if she does that. But it also looks bad if she now changes her mind and joins in the mourning. Peel is dead, but Julie Burchill is still alive, and in grave danger.

Peel was the man that got me into The Delgados. And without that, I really, really wouldn't be on this board, living this life that I am today. I'd be living something like it, but the music wouldn't be there.

(Radio 1 plays Coldplay... no, now just is not the time)

but no, no Peel, no Delgados. No wandering round with my Walkman on, 2001 it must have been. Christmas 2000, I think, one side the Peel christmas concert, the other side the Festive 50 25th anniversary special. I'm maybe misremembering... one side had 'Beans & Rice', Mad Professor & The Sofa Surfers, along with Christmas songs by James Brown and Elvis. 'Revolution' by Chumbawamba. 'Atmosphere' by Joy Division! Lord, weird as it seems in this modern age, but back then that really was the first time I'd ever heard them, him playing Atmosphere, and I'll remember that winter walking round with Ian Curtis "Don't walk away... in si-hi-lence..." and I'd never heard them before, but suddenly I just got it. Mansun covering 'Shot By Both Sides' - never heard Magazine before either. First term at uni, only tape I had was the White Stripes live in session - without that I'd never have tried them. Culture, 'Legalisation'. Electric Music in session. Herman Dune at Christmas, "Now here I am on Lord Peel's land, playing at a private party."

I knew this day would come, I just thought i'd maybe see it coming, I don't know, but it just feels like a whole part of the world has fucking collapsed. I've not listened in a little while, to be honest, but it was that he was there and while he was there you knew that there was a chance, a hope, the weird and the wonderful, the other, had an outlet. I just look up and down these racks of records and how few of them I'd have heard, how few of them might even have been released had Peel not been there, Peel had not played them, how very different the world would have been not for him. Peel was Special, Peel was Different, Peel was Important, there was no other like him and it just feels like there never will be again...

RIP.

Radio 1 is playing 'Atmosphere' in the background. Jo Whiley sounds truly, utterly devastated. Dear god, they're all devastated.

Poor old Peelie! None like him, and there never will be again.

Damn! I shoulda sent him my CD.

RIP

"Know your enemy. People say to me they never read the tabloids, but they've done more to transform life in this country than anything else. The attitudes they hold have passed into general currency. The Guardian and Independent etc represent some kind of fantasy world, the real world is The Sun and that's where most people live."

so, so OTM.

I am so, so overcome with grief. I never thought I'd feel so awful, but then I didn't expect him to go so soon. As the kind of kid whose parents had little time for the music I listened to, and were always telling it down (if I was lucky) or off (most of the time) it was so important for me to have someone almost as old as they were who actually played it on the radio.

Like others upthread (is it just our age?), I haven't listened to him for far too long. However, memories of Bowlie (of Mooro being mistaken for him, of his DJ set being not as good as I wanted, but still, it was John Peel, the only time I ever had the honour of being in the same place as him), of sitting in the pub with members of Camera Obscura waiting for the placing of "Eighties Fan" in the Festive Fifty, of late nights at boarding school with the radio turned down really low, of a whole big bunch of my adolescence, studentdom and early adulthood... his death just seems so unreal. And unfair. It's like a part of my life has gone, a part I might not revisit that often, but it was good to know I'd had it, and that it was there. And now it's not.

God bless.

(x-post, Momus, what a load of shit re. tribute fatigue. Do you honestly think people don't mean all this, that it's some faux-Diana-esque mass outpouring of sympathy? It won't even register with the great British public, as proved by the reaction of my colleagues, and the tributes that have been paid seem heartfelt and honest from people that knew or respected him).

The Monday evening show the weekend after the Hillsborough tragedy was a piece of broadcasting I'll never forget.

He said nothing at the start of his show. He just played a record. A long slow record. It was Aretha Franklin's heart breaking gospel version of You'll Never Walk Alone.

I looked through the glass from my adjacent studio and John was just weeping. Silently. So were all of us - his listeners. Nothing more needed to be said.

It's the lead story on the 6 o'clock news tonight. No-one knew just how important he was.

The Diana thing was not 'faux'. Diana had become to the British public what Peel is to the indie community. In fact, thanks to his work on Home Truths and his appearance on TOTP and lots of adverts, Peel was very well known to 'the great British public'.

http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/icliverpool/oct2004/8/7/00054AC3-540F-117E-AC4D80BFB6FA0000.jpg

: (

RIP

"peel sessions" is such a powerful brand name (i think back to when i was 12-14 and digging through used cassettes at chicago record stores, i'd always take notice when a band had a peel sessions tape) that i think i might have even divorced it from the person of john peel (who i never got a chance to actually hear), and now i'm reminding myself that this huge and amazing body of recordings is above all a tribute to the taste and perseverance of this one man. absolutely spectacular achievement.

RIP

Ailsa, I am surprised that your colleague had not heard of him; and I am glad he got top billing on the news.

This decision at the time was seen as side-lining Peel into 2 obscure late night weekend slots.

However Peel eventually in the late 90s reclaimed the traditional and much loved 10pm - 12 slot. [Previously in the 90s this had been filled by Mary Ann Hobbs and before that Mark Radcliffe]

It was only recently this Summer due to scheduling changes that the 11pm - 1am slot came into place.

Yes, the indie community, not the great British public. And yes, he did TOTP and adverts and other stuff in the telly, but I can't imagine the same Diana-level of public outpouring of grief if someone like (insert decent example that I can't think of right now), who is a well-kent face and personality but their work doesn't mean that much to a lot of people.

Like maybe Brian Clough. Meant a lot to a lot of people in the football world, similar age, known personality outwith his chosen field, top item on the news when he died, tons of tributes, but ultimately just another dead celebrity. (note, this isn't my personal viewpoint, but I think some people are overestimating the significance of John Peel's influence on people that aren't us).

Or else I'm underestimating.

I think the parallel Momus is looking for is the death of labour leader John Smith, taken in similarly tragic circumstances at a similar age. A man who represented the decent way of doing things.

Nicholson

Peel

and Davies silenced

Truly, we live in dark times!

Andy Kershaw on the 6'o clock news said in fulsome tribute 'he was the most important man in British rock music'.

Whatever, I'm still crying.

Oh no, I don't think that's a good parallel at all. Decent and noble Smith may have been, but charismatic he was not. Peel was extremely charismatic. He talked in a very intimate way to people (we musicians know that the ears are the most direct route to the heart), over a period of many, many years. He was very sentimental, and that tends to provoke sentiment. He was also very enthusiastic, and that elicits enthusiasm. And he was enough of a chameleon to survive in many different cultural eras, and to make sure he embodied the zeitgeist. I mean, put the posh British Invasion Peel of his early 60s American broadcasts (which he used to play self-mockingly) next to the whispering hippy sex fiend 60s Peel of The Perfumed Garden, then put that Peel next to the clipped, slightly sarcastic punk Peel of the 70s or the football and domesticity Peel of the 90s -- he was really as much of a chameleon as David Bowie or Madonna ever was. And yet he had the charm to pull it off without looking calculating. And his posthumous revenge is that even his enemies are now tremendously sad.

But I don't want to derail this thread further, so can we go back to remembering a national (international?) treasure who made many people's lives (mine included) a slightly better place for having him in it?

(xpost, obviously)

what exactly did he say?! that sounds pretty controversial.

(xpost)

John Peel turned me on to music that was jazz and was being made today. It's a great sadness that he won't be able to do it again. I'm heartbroken. Let's not forget home truth either; he made the minutiae of people's everyday existence somehow interesting. I will miss him on saturday mornings or Sunday evenings as well.

I remember him once telling me playfully but with utter sincerity that another of our colleagues was "the most dangerous man he had ever met". Incidentally, he wasn't wrong.

Now, that can only be a reference to ex-BBC man Robert Kilroy-Silk, now in the midst of a bid to become the Pim Fortuyn of British politics.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/04/entertainment_john_peel/img/1.jpg

Beautiful. Really.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/04/entertainment_john_peel/img/4.jpg

Only on the British edition of the site, not the World edition. That leads (sensibly) with 'Knesset votes to back Gaza plan'.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/04/entertainment_john_peel/img/5.jpg

(xpost)

That leads (sensibly) with 'Knesset votes to back Gaza plan'.

Ah, most understandable. Odd, though, I thought my default *was* to the World edition.

On C4 news he repeated John Walters annecdote about Peel - that if 'he hit puberty we'd be in trouble' (something like that) and then towards the end he was asked about the last time he saw him and how he was - was he happy? Kershaw said 'no' and set about explaining - saying that he ran into him a couple of months ago and asked how he was, Peel replied 'not too good' (at this point mentioning that he had been diagnosed from diabetes a couple of years earlier) - they go for a coffee and that's when Peel told him about the 11 pm slot - that it wz 'killing him'.

That's how I'm recalling it.

Siouxsie Sioux:

This news is totally unexpected and devastating. I'm still reeling from the shock of Marc [Almond]'s accident the day after he attended my last show at the RFH in London.

John championed Siouxsie & The Banshees and many more when no-one else would and he gave us our chance to discover what it was like to be in a studio with those early sessions. I know for a fact that those sessions were instrumental in getting us signed and releasing Hong Kong Garden as our first single in 1978.

I can't believe that it was only last week that I so enjoyed filling in for John whilst he was away, I was looking forward to reading his anecdotes of Peru in the paper when he got back and maybe doing it again for any of his next trips.

You always knew that John said and played what he wanted, not what he was told to or ought to.

A unique maverick of the radio has been lost and I feel so sad.

Siouxsie Sioux - France - 26 october 2004

David Gedge:

"We are shocked and distraught to hear the news. Aside from the fact that he presented the most challenging and entertaining program on the radio, as everyone who looks at this web site already knows, he was a huge influence on my life and musical tastes. Both Sally and I have gotten to know John and his wife, Sheila, well over the last twenty years and can honestly say that we'd be hard pressed to name warmer, nicer people. Our thoughts are with her and the family.

"He will be remembered for the huge number of great artists that he brought to the attention of the listening public. He was not a careerist and he was not affected by marketing campaigns. If he liked records, he played them on the radio. As a result, you heard music on his show that you would not hear anywhere else. His passing has a created a void in British culture.

"I've rarely missed a programme since the late seventies; if I've ever been away, friends have taped it for me. I'm so used to hearing his voice that it feels like I've lost a member of my own family. I know many people will feel like that. John's show was much more than just a radio show. This is an unbelievably sad day."

Yes, this is a big part of it. I don't really trust those tears, I guess, because they're for me, not John Peel. For me, the only time I've really felt this way before is when George Harrison died, and it wasn't half as bad as this.

The thing is, it's very easy to identify him with almost 50 years of music in the rock n roll era with John Peel's life and career. That's why almost anything I hear now is setting me off.

"In session tonight in heaven with me and my producer John Walters: Jimi Hendrix and Marc Bolan.. very nice to see them again I must say.. and I managed to get hold of a copy of the new album by the mighty Fall just before I left Earth, so we'll be spinning some tracks from that. The Pig sadly couldn't be here, but I'll be featuring some of her favourite 20s artists live last night at the Paradise Club. Oh and to kick off with a request from God.. it's the Undertones..... oh hang on, that's the wrong speed.. oh dear oh dear""

And in a pleasantly surprising touch, a thread over at the glorious Straight Dope.

xpost

http://i1.ebayimg.com/02/i/02/b7/29/83_1_b.JPG

I'm trying to picture Oasis arriving at Peel Acres (rather than Maida Vale, where the Peel Sessions were actually recorded) with a couple of trucks full of back-up, and Liam asking The Pig if he could use the Peel bathroom to snort a line...

When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
Is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark

Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Tho' your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone

Indeed. From this interview

Well, over the years we've had almost everybody, except the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, of the kind of big bands of the past. More recently Oasis, I never really thought Oasis were much good to be honest, so they didn't do one.

That was Momus's main point, wasn't it?

It feels insane and absurd, how upset I am over the death of someone I never met.

6 Music have Holly Johnson on the phone at the mo.

That was exactly my point, Momus. It's not a question of Campbell having different interests, or not sharing Peel's interests, but of consciously presenting himself, in a young fogeyish way, as someone who wasn't going to be taken in by the faddish nonsense that his more gullible DramSoc contemporaries were taken in by. Like punk music, new wave and John Peel, for example.

I may fall asleep crying tonight.

It took also a little while before I could ring up & tell the sad news to two of my friends, the two guys with whom we once interviewed Peelie, a dozen years ago, when he was on a World Service promo trip in the Baltics.
Which, on top of the interview (the second part of which even didn't get published, ever, for our poor little zine went under before we managed that, dammit), was an altogether fine half-a-day in many ways - just being able to watch from close quarters the, well, "Peel being Peel in Tallinn", basically. Doing a short show on the radio here; mixing with various young musicians who (hardly managing to control their uttermost excitement) kept bringing him their cassettes and stuff; rather admiring his polite patience at the concert he was asked to attend - and did attend up to the end - in the evening, though not exactly *everything* there was terribly interesting.
A really great, great chap.
Such a terrible loss.
I listened to him mostly on the World Service, late-80s-early-90s, which here meant just half an hour of Peel once a week, IIRC. And lately had started to check his shows via the net anew, now and again...

and now they're playing The Delgados' version of Mr Blue Sky. I'm... these records will never be played again, you know? These...

FUCKING HELL.

if you missed tonight's show.

Peel has easily hit me the hardest of any celebrity death I can think of. I haven't read this thread (300+ posts, if ever there was a death that would unite ILX its this) but the father thing upthread = totally OTM.

I very, very rarely listened to Peel's radio show but he managed to permeate everywhere, from comments in the press to Glastonbury broadcasts to Radio Times columns to ad voiceovers... he was just THERE. And every indie teenager went through a phase of wishing John Peel was their dad. He was four years older than mine, and seemed so much younger and more sprightly.

(Half Man Half Biscuit now)

What WBS said, I think this may be the last time I ever hear the Trumpton Riots on mainstream radio.

FUCKING HELL.

I know what you mean. It feels like a bit of music itself has died. Who's going to do this shit now? Who's got the patience and the passion enough to do what John Peel did?

My favourite John Peel tune: "Identify The Beat" by Marc Smith vs Safe'n'Sound - so many good times courtesy of this man.

Wavelength, Van Morrison
Written and produced by Van Morrison
Warner Bros. 8661 1978 Billboard: #42

Van Morrison's fascination with radio, both as a vehicle for the transmission of music and as a metaphor for the transmission of spiritual power, amounts to an obsession. It's familiar from the stunning "Radio! Turn it up!" chant which concludes "Caravan," the best song on the great 1970 album Moondance. But it reached a state of perfected grace in this single, though (relatively speaking) it flopped on the very medium it celebrated.

Like John Lennon just across the Irish Channel, Morrison first heard rock and roll and R&B through a fog of pops and crackles on foreign stations like Radio Luxembourg. No nation in Europe had any reason to regularly program such music as part of its cultural fare, but Luxembourg rented time to any record label that cared to buy it, a kind of institutionalized payola that had kids all over the continent and throughout the British Isles glued to their receivers during the few evening hours each week when new releases were highlighted. Luxembourg's station was far away and fifties radio receivers poor; the miasmic distortion that resulted must have struck Morrison, like Lennon, as a built-in part of those strange, foreign records, a built-in part of their mystique even if it wasn't there when you played the records themselves. These secret sounds traveled only the transnational airwaves.

So when Van sings "I hear the Voice of America calling on my wavelength" he's not referring to the US propaganda channel(which was mainly aimed at the "captive nations of Eastern Europe" and hardly would have played any such trash as rock and R&B anyhow) but to the music itself and the static that accompanied it. Against swirling synthesizer riffs that evoke that late night radio distortion, he sings about the transforming power of broadly transmitted music. The moments when pop music becomes the thing of glory of which even such a bitter, whimsical, cynical mystic can sing:

When I'm down, you always comfort me
When I'm lonely child, you see about me
You are everywhere you're s'posed to be
And I can get your station, when I need rejuvenation.

In "Wavelength," Van declares that the message of those American voices on his radio was "Come back, baby, come back." And so he moved to the States. And in 1967 or 1968, found himself living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Hardly anybody knew who Morrison was; his last hit had been that one about the "lover in the grass" referred to in these lyrics and the music he was working on, which became the immortal Astral Weeks, was not inclined to incite frenzied attention.

Van stayed up late and listened to the radio. In the night, he heard a strange voice calling to him once again, in the form of a frog-voiced preacher who spun blues and R&B records and shouted jive talk into the after-midnight air on station WBCN, which devoted the rest of its programming to hippie album rock. One night, Van worked up his nerve and called the station. It was a small place; the deejay answered his own phone.

Van was stunned to discover that the disc jockey was a white man named Peter Wolf. Wolf was stunned to be called by a guy who was one of his musical heroes, the writer not only of "Brown Eyed Girl" but of "Gloria," a song his own band, the Hallucinations, regularly performed. So the guy from Belfast became friends with the kid from the Bronx and they stayed in touch for the next couple of decades.

And that is a little bit of what Van Morrison means when he sings "You never let me down, no, no."

Though... I *am* learning things from people who've learned from him (i.e. you guys), so maybe that's his influence being trickled down.

(xpost)

Sunday, 31st March 1991

How do I express unbridled joy? Thank God I was in the room (I'd just returned from the bathroom) when John Peel ran through what's to come on tonight's programme. Two alternate takes of Smiths songs and ONE PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED song! Of course I should never have believed Morrissey when he said in 1988 "Everything the Smiths ever committed to tape has been released. Re-released even!" Yet it still seems strange. I know that other famous groups have had bootlegs and official records released of outtakes, but I could never really imagine this happening to the Smiths. Do you understand that this is the first time I've witnessed (as a Smiths devotee) the airing of a 'new' Smiths track. All the Smiths songs are just so firmly imprinted on my mind as a complete portfolio of seventy-however many songs that I can't even imagine another one appearing in my life. It's so exciting. I'm jumping up after each record Peel plays and standing with my finger on the record button. I've put in a TDK SA-X tape. What if the bastard plays one following on from another record without introduction? He wouldn't, would he? What if I heard him wrong? It still seems incredible.

Sorry about another 'what if?' but what if the only reason the song wasn't released is because it's a sort of jokey, crap jam? Hmm... Will these tracks be officially released? If they're not then promos of them will reach gigantic sums. By the way, 'Sit Down' is now number two. I have to buy the original before all this success makes its price rocket.

John Peel, hurry up. How can he sound so calm and normal about announcing all the other, insignificant records?

It's 1:07 and I'm still waiting. He has confirmed that he'll be playing them, but he seems unaware of their importance. It's as if he's got some new tracks by... well any old band really. Sort yourself out John. I hope so hard that I'm not disappointed in some way in the next fifty minutes. Things that could go wrong 1) He might not play them 2) I might mess up the taping of them 3) They might not be very good. What will the previously unreleased song be called? I guess that it begins with a 'p'. I hope the alternate takes are of two of my favourite tracks. Perhaps the new song is an instrumental. I hope not. It's 1:14. Come on. It's 1:31 and I'm now sure that he's going to leave them to last. Sitting here, I've been looking back through this diary. Two things grab me. Firstly, a lot of it is almost illegible. Secondly, there are a number of sentences which might be read 'wrong'. Like somewhere I said that I spend more time thinking about films than I do watching them. Now, I didn't mean that if you add up all the durations of the films I've watched it will come to a longer [presumably I meant to write 'shorter'] time that the time than the time I spend thinking about films. That's not that surprising. What I meant was whilst I'm watching a film I spend an awful lot of time thinking baout my reaction to it, rather than just letting myself be carried along with the story. That might be quite normal, I don't know.

Well all I know is that these 3 Smiths tracks don't add up to more than 19 minutes of music: it's now 1:41. But then that's not very surprising. How many other people must be sitting here waiting just like me? Imagine if my radio broke down now. It's 1:47... 1:48... 1:49 (they must all be an average of 3 miuntes long unless this Levellers 5 record finishes in the next few seconds)... 1:50 what is this for heaven's sake? ... 1:51... This is heartbreaking. I'm sorry but I don't believe this: he's playing another record and it's 1:53. What are we going to get? Alternate takes of 'Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want', 'I Keep Mine Hidden' and a one-minute gem? Get lost John Peel. I *must* have heard him right - he said it twice. And he never overruns. Leave it to next week maybe? Bastard. 1:55. 1:56. I don't believe this. Yes I do. You know what he's jsut said? "And err.. waht was I going to say now. Ah yes... If you've been waiting to hear those Smiths tracks that I didn't have time for; maybe this time next year, eh? Ha ha ha. I don't suppose anyone fell for it did they? Still, you've got to try haven't you?"

When I started quoting him then, I was totally confused. "*Why?*," I thought. But suddenly I realised, it's now April 1st. April Fools Day. But that's no *bloody* excuse. I fell for it, yes. But I can still hardly believe, let alone come to terms with it. It was *so* obvious: of course he wouldn't have been that casual about it. I'm considering boycotting the show in future. I'm genuinely upset: how pathetic I am.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/alt/tracklistings/peel_archive.shtml?20040715

My friend Anj4li grew up listening to JP in deepest Ilford, and long before she became a recording artist of any kind, was living in a squat in Islington that was where the Angel Centre stands now. One day JP was on the air, banging on about how much he fancied a curry, so she rang up Radio 1 and said 'Me, my mum and my sister would be HONOURED to make you the finest vegetarian Indian food known to humankind, all family recipes, all fantastic.' JP's like 'lummee, I'm in' and arranged to visit Anj's EXTREMELY DILAPIDATED abode. So Anj and her mum spend all day cooking, only to turn on the radio later that evening to hear "last week I was invited for curry and I rather suspect it was a wind-up because when I went to the address I was given, it looked like nobody'd lived there in years." When she started her first band, the Voodoo Queens, he came to her gig and she refreshed his memory abouit the incident.

Immediate offer of session.

Hey now. (He was as much of a 'grow up listening to the Peel Sessions bootlegs of Joy Division and all that' kid as anyone.)

I don't have that so I'm not, but I have done exactly what I think was appropriate and like what I said elsewhere:

I came home and played "Teenage Kicks" very, very loud.

And now I'm cranking a happy hardcore disc even louder.

Let exultance be the way to remember him in the end.

I would say "You're kidding me" but -- yeah, looking at that list, you're right. And a remix, too. Wow. And all the respect that's being shown on this thread.... Wow. He seems to have had quite the open mind, then. In that case, it may be even sadder than I'd previously thought that this guy passed on before I could really learn anything from him.

Also Peel documented a real life story involving Simon Le Bon on his Home Truths radio programme for radio 4:

OMG! He told That Story! Wow. Respect!

Um, anyway, back to original topic now....

Was looking through my little red book of useful numbers and I was very saddened to see John Peel's home phone there, as if I could just ring him up. I am of course totally kicking myself that I didn't say hello to him at Sonar (although I spoke to his wife, who is VERY pretty and megafit. She was probably carrying him up the mountain).

Billy Bragg!
Jesus & Mary Chain!

Peel's Record Box [for the radio 1 website]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/alt/johnpeel/record_box_sept04.shtml

Peel's Record Box :: September 2004
Last updated 15 October 2004

Here are the records John recommends for September....
Which are your favourite tracks from the show this month?

Singles
Tunng - 'Suprise Me 44' 7" - Static Caravan
Vitalic - 'Fanfares' 12" - Different
Sons And Daughters - 'Johnny Cash' - Domino
Martyn Hare - 'Do Not Underestimate' EP - Designer
Bloc Party - 'Helicopter' - Wichita
Jeff Mills - 'Expanded' 12" - Axis
The Caves - 'Wow Machine' - Main Spring
Prosthetic C**t - 'Nemo/Prosthetic C**t Split' 7" - Relapse
Venom - 'Mumra' 12" - Heatseeker
Tik Tok - 'The Colosseum' 12" - 2CB
Flaming Stars - 'Spilled Your Pint' 7" - Decharne
Help, She Can't Swim - 'Bunty vs.Beano' 7" - HSCS
Mutts - 'Sharks' - Fat Cat
Murcof - 'Una' 12" - Leaf
Das Bierbeben - 'Staub/Reproduction Rmxs.' EP - Shitkatapult
Sarah Nelson - 'Are You Sitting Comfortably' EP - Womb
Drop The Lime - 'The Girls' EP - Shadetek

Albums
Mark One - 'One Way' - Planet Mu
Total Science - 'Good Game' - CIA
Giant Sand - 'Is All Over The Map' - Thrill Jockey
Forty Fives - 'Music For Drunk' - Schematic
Various - 'Gig Demo' - Purr
Growing - 'The Soul Of The Rainbow And The Harmony Of Light' - Kranky
Nettle - 'Build A Fort, Set That On Fire' - The Agriculture
Jimmy Martin - 'Don't Cry To Me' - Thrill Jockey
Little Killers - 'The Little Killers' - Crypt
Duran Duran Duran - 'Drunk On C**k' - Irritant
We Start Fires - 'Caught Redhanded' - Head Girl
Various - 'We're From Norwich No.1' - HowlBackHum
Signer - 'The New Face Of Smiling' - Carpark
Various - 'Live At Ochre' 7" - Ochre
Swarrrm Title - 'Unknown' (it's in Japanese) - HGFact
3 Inches Of Blood - 'Vol.10' - Roadrunner
Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - 'Magneticism' - Viper

yes. exactly. as i sat here on my own reading the various tributes on sites/blogs and occasionally flicking back to ILM (and from there across to here) it was kinda reassuring to think that i wasn't alone in my grief. which is, without being overly dramatic, what we're all feeling.

RIP Mr Peel, you are responsible for much of what my tastes in music became. Sitting up late listening to taped BBC shows sent in the post by friends overseas was always a great delight...

.. I dont know what else to say. I'm too shocked. :(

Those tracklistings were being a bit dicky for me too, but I thought it was "Be My Baby"?

Everything I have to say is here.

On other threads where people have died I have said things such as 'this is sad' or suchlike. They were. Perspective on those thrown sidelong with this - the imcomparable sense of expanding space and air(waves) unfilled, the gut-wrenching sense you should only, logically get when an actual friend or family member dies.

Andy Kershaw did speak well: "The single most important person in the history of British rock music". He was, I think, talking about Peel rather than himself.

I haven't listened to his music show at all in a couple of years - Home Truths I catch very infrequently - but, as others have said, just to know that he was still out there ('our cheerleader', as Kershaw said) was of huge comfort in a world where people like Peel shouldn't, by rights, be allowed to communicate to large numbers of people.

The Undertones always kind of annoyed me. I hope the person carving that most famous of headstones is a fan.

A friend said that meeting Peel for the first time was the single greatest moment of his life. We'll never ken his like again. Goodbye, J.R.

It's slightly alarming when people start saying this about someone who's not a musician or creator but essentially a curator or middle man. What's more, Peel himself disagreed:

"You get a lot of credit for putting these bands on the radio, but the fact is that it's like being the editor of a newspaper - you don't claim credit for the news," he said.

"It's not up to me to discover them - bands discover themselves," he said. "They make the records; the records arrive. I think, 'Let's play it on the radio,' and when they come over here, I think, 'Let's book them for a session.' It's very little to do with me, to be honest."

The scary thing is that a man of Peel's humbleness may now be replaced by people who really believe that Kershaw line. What reason would there be for someone that important not to speak over the beginnings and ends of records, for instance?

We're having our commemorative drink tonight at the Carnarvon, Glasgow ILX.

Momus, I tend to agree that it's weird that he's hailed as doing more for music that any musician but a. I think it's true; b. How do you propose to hear such a breadth of new music without a radio? - you can't go to every gig ever; and c. Can you name a musician who did more for the music scene in the UK than JP?

"In science the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs." Sir William Osler

Suzy's anecdote about her friend is similar to one i heard yesterday in which somebody had sent Peel a demo and on hearing how much he fancied a biriyani right now proceeded to order one and have it delivered to Peel in the studio. Peel played the demo and then announced on air he'd have played it even without the biriyani. sadly can't remember who the artist was.

Well, Peel was 'a whole climate of opinion' in Britain. I do think he was tremendously important. But if you left Britain and went to France or Germany or Japan you'd still be hearing interesting music -- perhaps more interesting. It would be coming at you through 'the Black sessions' (Paris) or Keigo Oyamada's radio show (Tokyo). It might well have featured less Cinerama and Bogshed, but that didn't make it worse.

; b. How do you propose to hear such a breadth of new music without a radio? - you can't go to every gig ever;

The internet. Even Peel, latterly, was just another internet stream.

and c. Can you name a musician who did more for the music scene in the UK than JP?

Personally, I was vastly more influenced by David Bowie, as were all the musicians of my generation. What worries me about the c) argument is that you could probably say the same thing about Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Alan McGee, etc etc. These people were curators who saw whole generations of musicians come and go, and adapted with the times. Sure, Peel was a less commercial version than those three, but he was part of the same tribe: mediators, curators, gatekeepers. They are all now in the process of being 'disintermediated' by digital flow.

Don't get me wrong, I think Peel was a very great figure indeed. But his modesty was not misplaced. And when you try to imagine a Peel figure who actually says and believes and acts as if he's 'the single most important person in the history of British rock music', you have the artistic equivalent of a dictator.

I think it's no less valid, and in fact I think the differences are smaller than you're suggesting.

In some ways Peel was the ultimate rockist. He was in showbiz, but his whole schtick was about 'keeping it real'. Almost every anecdote he told -- and they seemed, on the face of it very self-deprecating -- was about how all the other Radio 1 DJs thought they were big stars, or how he was in some club off Bond Street once and Bryan Ferry was there, and he felt so out of place, and ended up in the kitchen. But in a world where being ordinary is one of the requirements of stardom, that self-deprecation, that celebration of ordinariness, that articulation of national preoccupations as if they were just your own personal hobbies, is part of the glitz, part of the charisma. I know that when I met Peel I was terrified, because this was a big star and a massively important person. Sure, he wasn't rich, but he was tremendously powerful, and the powerful are not like us, however down-to-earth they may pretend to be. What's more, his behaviour was actually, if you look closely at the biography, as excessive as any rock star's, certainly in the early days. And, as I said before, he went through as many chameleon-like image changes as Madonna did. He was just more canny than her about seeming 'real'.

I listened to lamcq's show and liked lots of it including the Pumpkins tracks, which was included in the 'Pisces iscariot' CD - I thought it was kind of weird they played that bcz I remember that in the liner notes Billy Corgan wasn't all that keen on Peel after meeting him - I may be wrong about this and i can't check 'cause I sold that.

The policy for last night seemed to be either the more famous names or people who didn't register on the radar that much beyond making lots of Peel sessions but they only had 3-4 hrs to prepare.

And people (well, I at least) find it hard to find new artists through the internet in the way that I do through radio (um, aside from listening to the radio through the internet) because sometimes I need my inputs to be mediated. I'd rather it was JP mediating than Dr Fox. You and many other posters here are in the enviable position of being on the inside of music "scenes" and can get it from the source more easily I guess. But I'm unlikely to be alerted to something totally brand new without someone telling me about it one way or another.

"He didn't deal in celebrities for their own sake. He found beauty and interest in ordinary people. He was a real democrat."

Maybe Eno liked this Peel anecdote:

"I remember Mike Read once taking me to some terrifically trendy club off Bond Street, and he was immediately surrounded by all sorts of glamorous women. It was one of those places where they have an area where only top celebs can go, and Bryan Ferry came down and was doing like a walkabout, as if he were talking to schoolchildren clutching flags. He came up and of course I don't feel like or look like a celebrity - I look like somebody's dad or a minicab driver - and I could see him looking across this glamorous crowd at me, with me looking like the man who'd come to collect the empties.

'Obviously in that context, he didn't want to be seen talking to somebody so manifestly unglamorous. So, I did the classic thing of getting terribly embarrassed, and saying, 'I think I'd better be going, man,' and trying to look as though I was on my way to something much better. I left purposefully through what I thought was the front door, and found myself standing in the kitchen. It was the sort of thing where you think, 'Well, how do I recover from something like this?' (Peel covers his face in mortification) saying 'Sorry!' and 'Bye', beating a retreat ... '"

Eno surely knows that 'the kitchen' is the right choice if the alternative is a room containing Bryan Ferry. (It's also interesting that 'the kitchen' is where Peel took showbiz next, with Home Truths.)

I don't recall Peel and/or Eno ever enthusing about the glories of foxhunting or bringing down Labour governments.

what if you substitute their actual origins...

What if? I'm not sure I follow the point. Do you mean that he pretended to be humble, despite coming from a middle-class background (i.e. he couldn't be humble because he wasn't working class and because he was famous), and kept up the pretence of humility by continually being humble wrt music (viz. not talking over records) and musicians (viz. running away from Ferry and Read - as you point out, who wouldn't?). But all the while, he was saying it and therefore couldn't be? I don't see this as a huge flaw. Everyone tells self-deprecatory stories now and then.

xpost

What, are you saying that both Ferry and Peel had knee-jerk and thoughtless reactions to the glamourous life? Or that both Ferry's and Peel's attitudes towards glamour were, in differing ways, both fun, interesting and creative?

Yes, and I *know* you're not saying either, but...

Also, surely it's hugely reductive to label Peel as the 'ultimate rockist'? I think his very pronounced eclecticism would be one argument against that.

In fact it is because of Peel that I started listening to music that specifically wasn't yer trad indie rock fare.

I wanted John Peel to lend a submission to an anthology a few years ago, and had numerous opportunities to contact him, but even though I am someone who is confident in those situations where you have to grapple with the Ferrys of this world I was terrified of being told no, and never went up to him despite the top-class introduction I had from Anj (I was there when he asked her for a session and it was one of the times I've been hap[iest for another person ever).

I probably resisted the Peel R1 show for years after mistakenly assuming it was a haven solely for German metalbashers and dirty, scuzzy rubbish (my 13-y-o ears just weren't ready for what I heard coming out of my brother's radio); hipper, smarter schoolmates would mutter about 'Peel Sessions' and I'd nod as if I knew what they meant. I didn't appreciate that The Human League and The Bunnymen had been aired first by JP. But through the late '70s-mid '80s I knew Peel as an always-good-value TV celeb - his appearances were irregular but high quality. The TOTP double act with David Jensen is legendary ("They say Aretha Franklin could sing any old rubbish and make it sound good. And I think she just has.") but I also remember some kind of opinion piece (possibly about football) delivered straight to camera on, of all things, one of Noel Edmonds' Saturday tea-time vehicles (The Late Late Breakfast Show?) in about '82 which was very funny and very OTM. I remember thinking "one of us" even though he was "one of them" (LFC).

My core Peel R1 years were probably '88-'93, though I must've persevered sporadically until '97 or so. He read out my dedication to Uni chums in '92 after I'd sent him a birthday card and described his Reading show as "outstanding". "I'm not whether he means 'outstandingly good' or 'outstandingly bad'. No matter, here's Nation Of Ulysses for..."

I've sat in the same veggie South Indian restaurant as him and used to see him regularly when our offices were at the top of Great Portland Street (home of fabulous Radio One FM), trudging to/from the Holiday Inn with a big bag of 12"s, looking a bit glum.

I got my fix of Peel last night as the tributes were aired - an Anglia TV thing called Going Home which followed John and Sheila as JP visited his old Heswall home and a HARDtalk interview on News 24 from 1999, which was lovely stuff, Tim Sebastian barely able to contain his glee at having such an engaging interviewee. That was the first time I'd seen him talk about Shirley, the Texan teenager he'd married in '65, who came to the UK with him and had such a turbulent and tragic life.

What finally set me off, after keeping the anguish at arm's length all day, was receiving a photocopy of a letter in the mail - one sent from another great BBC broadcaster to a friend in response to the kind words my friend had sent him upon his (not entirely voluntary) retirement. We lose these people and they are not replaced. Not at all.

Does Whiley even like music?

MES Gurning on Newsnight last night!

I thought Mark E. Smith was a disgrace last night. Sod that stupid, ugly, complacent, tuneless, drunken boor.

not sure if you've seen it but here's the tracklisting for last night:

John Peel Tracklistings -26/10/04

The Fall - 'Rebellious Jukebox' - (Peel Session)
Culture - 'Lion Rock' - (Peel Session)
Orbital - 'Chimes' - (Peel Session)
Laura Cantrell - 'I Lost You But I Found Country Music' - (Peel Session)
Jimi Hendrix - 'Little Miss Lover' - (Peel Session)
Delgadoes - 'Mr Blue Sky' - (Peel Session)
The Dammed - 'I'm Bored' - (Peel Session)
Joy Division - 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' - (Peel Session)
Nirvana - 'Son Of A Gun' - (Peel Session)
Half Man Half Biscuit - 'Trumpton Riots' - (Peel Session)
Ronnie Ronalde - 'Mocking Kill Yolde' - (Peel Session)
Smashing Pumpkins - 'Girl Named Sandoz' - (Peel Session)
Sisters of Mercy - 'Alice' - (Peel Session)
Pulp - 'Birthday Special Peter Gun' - (Peel Session)
Faces - 'Had Me A Real Good Time' - (Peel Session)
PJ Harvey - 'Rid Of Me' - (Peel Session)
Super Furry Animals - 'Yte' Mlad' - (Peel Session)
The Smiths - 'What Difference Does It Make?' - (Peel Session)
T. Rex - 'Ride A White Swan' - (Peel Session)
The Cure - 'Boys Don't Cry' - (Peel Session)
Hefner - 'Gabriel In The Airport' - (Peel Session)
Syd Barrett - 'Gigolo Aunt' - (Peel Session)
Melys - 'Camino El Camino' - (Peel Session)
Billy Bragg - 'A New England' - (Peel Session)
Jesus and Mary Chain - 'Some Candy Talking' - (Peel Session)
Extreme Noise Terror - 'False Prophet' - (Peel Session)
Undertones - 'Here Comes The Summer' - (Peel Session)

the memory that's shaken me, though, is the time i was listening and heard him say "and this record is for j*** b******, who was born today to kevin and tamzin". kevin's an old friend who later became my phd supervisor; i was playing with the now 5 year old j*** yesterday. remembering this is making me well up.

xpost

(several xposts)

Amongst how many people's first thoughts - 'My record will never be played on John Peel'? Therein lies the greatness of the man.

I'm glad I didn't see Smith, now.

I shared a room with him perhaps twice, and he once said my name on air. That's nothing at all. I am thinking of his family, now.

Last night pissed me off as he failed to play a single track that meant anything to me. I know that's selfish but where was the Mogwai or magoo or, Boards of Canada, Plaid, Asuza Plane, Jim o'Rourke, Roni Size, Photek, Radioboy, Stereolab, Godspeed you black emperor many other session tracks that would have represented my mid-nineties Peel years.

I expect that Mary Anne Hobbs tonight will represent some of those 90s/00s artists [and more] that both JP and Mary Anne Hobbs enjoyed.

Thus, presumably, the move to the 11-1 slot.

I suppose that's what we get when we take people too much for granted.

OTM, it was a beautiful thing, and a fitting tribute I reckon.

:(

I did still listen to all his advert voiceovers though.

Great line from MJ about the voiceovers. But actually, I missed most of those too, as I usually turn the sound off when adverts come on.

I think that might have been his last radio broadcast (Sat Oct 16th).

I hope the Mr and Mrs Christmas song that samples John Peel that was played on Underworld's show last week turns up some time soon. (From a quick look on www.dirty.org, Mr and Mrs Christmas seem to be a pseudonym for Underworld to try out stuff)

(flat top yeah?)

"But now he's gone and he's far, far away... "

PASSIONATE, HONEST, GENEROUS, INTELLIGENT
FUNNY
A TRULY GREAT MAN
WE WILL MISS HIM TERRIBLY

ROBERT

I hope he'd done a substantial amount of his autobio and that either friends and family can round out what's not been addressed or else it can be released as is. I very much doubt that most bios and autobios are written chronologically - hopefully he'd have written the interesting bits first.

Also, as I suspected: Lamacq and Hobbs to fill in for him for the next few weeks, and then the slot will most likely disappear. All to placate non-existent "younger listeners" to a publicly-funded radio station.

I'd hope Lamacq would be given Peel's slot ona regular basis. His live show is only once a week, and apart from that he doens't appear to be doing anything much.

With the autobiog, I reckon that they'll let Sheila finish it for him. In fact they'll encourage it.

Lamacq is a genre specialist - one night a week, or 2 maximum is enough for any genre specialist.

I hope they won't even try to replace him, it can't be done, unless they just pick up some weirdo music obsessive w/a pleasant manner off the street somewhere.

In my dream world, they'd rotate the pick of ilx as double acts - marcello/stelfox - momus/suzy - ned/kate - pinefox/carmody etc etc. Ha, that would be great.

Radcliffe is a good shout, but I get the idea that he's grown slightly musically conservative lately.

Radcliffe on R2 is still OK as a DJ but is lumbered with having to play R2 playlist things and sounds a bit beleaguered in what is, let's face it, an R2 graveyard slot.

for those in or around glasgow: bbc scotland have set up a book of condolence at their reception desk in queen margaret drive if anyone wants to write a message to be passed on to john's family. the last day for signing is wednesday november 3.

i'm not entirely sure this is a bad thing, but, by the same token, don't think he'd be interested in the gig, it is possibly the ultimate poisoned chalice (in terms of DJing, obv. i mean prime minister of iraq is probably worse, but you know what i mean)...

xpost

Only other name I'd throw into the pot would be 6 Musics Gideon Coe, but even then I'd guess he's too much of an indie genre specialist. I bet DJ Martian has a few ideas though.

All to patronise, er, please, those Younger Listeners, of course.

That reminds me of a funny joke Chris Morris made about Peel in his Six Months That Changed A Year 9/11 spoof:

'Tony Blair triumphantly announces his UK delegation has persuaded the UN Afghan Conference that the broadcaster John Peel should be the new leader of Afghanistan. Says the Foreign Office: ‘John will appeal both to the conservative Pashtun south – who prefer men to wear beards – as well as to the northern tribes who like music.’ Blair says The Americans gave their approval after he told them Peel is ‘the British Tom Hanks’. Peel will be required to repair Afghanistan's shattered infrastructure, restore relations with Iran and Uzbekistan, unify the volatile stand-off between rival factions in the south-west, and continue with his Radio 4 series Home Truths on Saturday mornings, against his will if necessary. On the BBC’s Newsnight, the US ambassador allows Jack Straw to confirm the news and then announces that Hamid Karzai has been installed in Kabul.'

So, obviously, Chris Morris for the job.

Would be great to have him back on the radio.

What I remember of the early part of this period was his enthusiasm for Rod Stewart. He was very star struck by him and the whole 'birds and football', yer genuine working class thing. Whenever I see something about Rod Stewart's goings on in Hollywood I think about Peel being his fan and how ironic it is that Rod Stewart should have become the person he is today.

a: experience of researching new bands, including sorting sessions out
b: John Kennedy has played a wide variety of music on his shows including drum n bass, post rock, rock, techno, elecro, breaks, synth pop, electronic jazz, IDM/ experimental electronic, hip hop, post punk, plus now and again some metal ...plus genres that i don't care for including twee, garage rock, alt country etc
c: he has a genuine / natural broadcasting style with a pleasant personality without the celebrity ego trappings

Previously radio 1 have gone to Xfm to get Zane Lowe so they would be aware of John Kennedy.

It's a good question? Shall we answer it, some time?

he's not scottish, you know.

Bogshed, Stump, Shrubs, the bleedin Weddoes, the Mackenzies, HMHB, Big Flame, Age of Chance. C86 was not all hair-slides and lollipops.

camera obscura played for his at christmas and burns' night and his birthday, I think.

I remember a time when you and Cook and I were walking around Glasgow and listing the Scottish hall of pop fame, and we suddenly realized that Rod was the great missing member. Did you object then? I am unsure. It was a good conversation, anyway.

x-post: I like the song 'Little Donkey'.

(all, of course, acknowledging that the other half of what made Peel great - his personality - is gone). There's a suggestion in search of feedback here. If people like it, we'll write to Radio One or something. I was going to email a few of you to ask for thoughts (is it mental?), and probably still will, but reading this thread, I'll post it here too.

Moyles is too thick to realise he was appointed only because of a mistaken desperation and an idea that the BBC has to chase youth and that all youth are drawn to cunts in a '90s/Loaded way, right?

Annie Nightingale has it about right. The Peel Session of "Is Vic there?" in among a load of new stuff. I love her all over again!

Is anyone else listening to the radio with a teenage sense of wonder again?

r.e. Morley; exactly as playful and droll as is needed, but altogether lacking in the cosiness - the domesticity - of Peel, that genuinely did entice so many people. I do actually think he'd be great, however, and far preferable to many possibilities...

I'd like to hear Jon Kennedy, by the sounds of it.

Chris Morris *needs to return to radio*, in whatever guise. Listening to "On The Hour", GLR, his 1994 R1 show, "Blue Jam": the man - with appropriate collaborators - is a master seducer. And with a good musical taste; Beefheart, Neil Young, Prefab Sprout, Aphex Twin, "#9 Dream", "Surf's Up", Labradford, "Oh Lori".....

I'll remember the day , yesterday , that I heard that John Peel was dead as vividly as I remember the day that as a member of a sappling band, all four of Bauhaus boldly walked up to the reception at the BBC radio house and nigh on demanded to go up and give John our first ever recording. A twelve inch single entitled Bela Lugosi's Dead newly released on a miniature but cool indi label Small Wonder Records. To our suprise Auntie Beeb's henchmen somehow succumbed and within two minutes there we were trapesing into the cramped control room where John was doing his 10-12pm radio show . Well some called it a radio show but by any standards it was more akin to a bloke at home playing whatever came his way (well at least once was his promise- and that, he kept to). ‘hello chaps, who are you?' WE are Bauhaus and you ‘HAVE to play this record' came the retort from this ever so beautiful and arrogant four men from the Murder Mecca of the Midlands; Northampton Town. With an accent that echoed our own , (a kind of mardy ironic drawl) John eyed the cover remarking that with the song at a full nine and a half minutes long, he'd play it, but it would be the first and last time that he would. After a congenial chat we left . The news came a short while later that once John played our opus opener , the phone lines at the Beeb (BBC) were jammed with requests to hear the song again and again and again. And who was John to refuse his listeners, he did play it again ( and again) and Bela became the mainstay in the top ten alternative charts for at least five years thereafter in the UK. The rest for Bauhaus is well known by any underground officianado. Lets forget Bauhaus, and remember this; that the passing of John Peel is the passing of an era. That meeting was my first and last. In fact I have no sense of the mans life other than from those turnpoint ten or so minutes. What is certain was, that in that brief time it was not rocket science to undersatnd that here was a man with such integrity and natural warmth and willingness to champion anyone, and I mean anyone with a hope to make a record, John Peel was the proverbial ‘good bloke'. I owe him a great deal and pass on my condolences to his family and love to his soul. Telegram Sam ….you're my main man.

He went on a cruise with Sheila, Alan Hansen and his wife?
He chose Mark Lawrenson to give him a Variety Club award?

Another great quote though - "Whenever they complain about having Anfield as a middle name I point out that if I'd been a Shrewsbury Town fan then it would have been Gay Meadow."

rip JP

A friend of mine was behind the letter she apparently read out about having a minute's noise on Sunday, because that's what John Peel was about: forcing your music on others. I'd like to apologise on behalf of his ignorant ass.

As for Tony Blackburn, I remember his love of Motown but I can't remember hearing much of the rootsier side of soul on his show as TP claims.

he'd complained a few times on air about the late finish when his show finished at 12 (mainly to do with getting back to his hotel late and the landlady there not being too pleased and, on one occasion, giving his room to someone else). he was 65. i have trouble staying awake til 1 and i'm nowhere near 65.

there was a picture of him and Archie published in the guardian a couple of weeks ago and looking at it again (it's a great picture) he does look tired.

(he played Marley as recently as 1st September - One Drop 7" (Tuff Gong Records))

i heard the news after spending 5 oblivious hours as a guest of "British Rail" on the way home for my grandad's funeral. part of me still doesn't want to believe it despite all the news coverage. it's hard to accept something that's been there for 25 years suddenly not being.

Take it from someone Who Was There (cue LCD Soundsystem) - Blackburn pretty much stuck to the Motown/Philly pop side of soul. Peel played Marley's stuff on Top Gear more or less from day one, and was first on the ball when it came to playing reggae in general - on a weekly basis he had to deal with abusive letters from pissed-off hippies accusing him of playing skinhead music.

As far as the rootsier, harder-edged soul stuff was concerned - Mike Raven and Emperor Rosko were the ones playing it on R1 at the time.

(julie burchill too whilst i'm here and in a poxing frame of mind)

it's not the small bands he made big that are important to me (he'd pretty much drop them as soon as they became popular, concentrating on smaller acts). the thing that will hit me over time, i think, is not hearing the small bands on the radio anymore. hyper kinako, melt banana, cow cube, bearsuit, isan, steveless, shitmat, stuff like that, stuff that'll never be 'daytime', not world changing stuff but stuff that'd just brighten your day or make you sit up and wonder what it was you just heard.

Kershaw's tribute was good (Radio3).
Janice's too (Radio6). she had quite a stint doing the 8-10 slot before peel's 10-12 and always did TOTP with him until she got sacked for being a mother.
have the three from last week archived somewhere but haven't heard them yet.

i was doing ok yesterday until i heard Andrew Collins play 'My Favourite Dress' which is usually enough to get me going on its own.

Most of all I feel awful for his family who could have expected another 20 or so years of his curmudgeonly, loving warmth. RIP John.

Dr C you're being disingenuous and you know it. I've got more chance of getting into Girls Aloud than into Broadcasting House.

Anyway, as I said above, Sinker's the ideal ILxor for the job.

I have told Sinker in the past how wrong he was about U2. Surely the BBC don't need to do the same.

http://www.nme.com/media/images/cover_021104_M.jpg

CHECK OUT PART ONE OF A CLASSIC NME JOHN PEEL FEATURE!
'O Lucky Man! part 1' from NME August 18, 1979

Interview by Paul Morley.
http://www.nme.com/features/110405.htm

The Radio Times writes of someone standing in for Peel for four weeks; hadn't heard of the chap before, but one can only wish him well - must be a thankless task to take on.

Also, I see that Channel 4 have had the grace to schedule repeats of "John Peel's Sounds of the Suburbs", IIRC on Wednesdays from next week, appropriately enough at a late hour. Also, BBC2 have an hour and a half's tribute to him on Saturday night.

will be doing the 11-1 slot this week on radio 1
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/schedule/tuesday.shtml?hp_lhn

Rob da Bank [originally planned to be a guest presenter for Peel last week]

Rob da Bank's Diary
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/dance/blueroom/robdabankdiary_october.shtml

27th October 2004
Oh, what a day … the saddest day at Radio 1 and probably my life as we heard of Peely’s death in Peru. There’s nothing that really can be added to all the great anecdotes and wise words of all his chums in bands and fellow Radio 1 DJs but he was so important to me ... and I know Chris Coco agrees.

"I'd probably be a traffic warden if it wasn’t for Peely"

Like Bernard Sumner says about New Order, without him I certainly wouldn’t be on the radio and quite probably wouldn’t possess my rabid taste for eclectic music from all over the world.

In fact I’d probably be a traffic warden if it wasn’t for Peely! … and I still got excited every time he came into the office and ambled across with his plastic bags of records - all it needed was a nod and murmur in my direction to make my day. Pathetic, but true!

Selfishly it was a particularly strange day as I was gearing up to sit in for the great man while he was away, doing his Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night shows. I honestly can’t describe how amazingly excited I was that I’d been asked to dep for my total hero. I’d spent the last week with his ace production team Louise and Hermeet digging out old Peel sessions (we chose The Cure, New Order and an hilarious Happy Mondays sesh!), being introduced to some fantastic new and crazy music and having lots of laughs about how I was gonna undo the 36 years of hard work he’d put in over the course of the three shows I was sitting in for him. Those days preparing the shows to sit in for John were easily the most enjoyable things I’ve ever done.

In the end Steve Lamacq wisely agreed to broadcast the slot last night so me and Josie (the wife!) went down to Radio 1, drank vast quantities of red wine with Mary-Anne Hobbs, Colin and Edith, the Coco man, the lovely Reajuka and loads of his radio mates and raised a toast or five to him!

Anyway I felt I should say those bits because if you are a Blue Room fan (if you’re not you’re on the wrong page you wally!) we should all be grateful to John for being the catalyst to get us on the radio in the first place and to continue his good work of breaking new music.

Lastly thanks for listening and keep it Blue!

Voting starts next Tuesday

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio1_promo.shtml

who was the ex-everton player who gave him tickets to the FA cup? there was no name flashed up on screen.

Alan Hansen was a surprise. as was Delia.

he'd always say bad things about norwich city but i guess this was because of last year's promotion playoffs.

At the beginning, Peel says: "let's get onto the Mountain Goats. Not literally..." It's the first time I've heard his voice since his death and it took me a few seconds to cotton on. Fuck.

Sigh.

Got a major case of the blubs looking at the photos Ned described. But at the same time, if you look at his kids, they've all got the same nose (and one of his sons is the spit of him) which turned the howls into laughter-type ones. That's the spirit, I thought. RIP.

he was also there when jack ruby shot lee harvey.

I was noticing that as well -- they couldn't be any more of their father's kids.

He started in Dallas first at a station where he co-hosted with the man who became the voice of Big Tex (!) when the Beatles broke and became a local celebrity. He fled to OKC after a scandal involving an underage girl.

And to his credit it was kind of assumed he knew the Beatles b/c he was from Liverpool so he just played along.

Peel came out on top I think.

http://peelplayer.com/

Every track from every festive 50

He liked Dreadzone a lot more than I remember

People voting for the Festive 50s liked Dreadzone, but they were always a bit different from what he actually played on his shows anyway.

(By "always" I mean since the, erm, mid-90s)

There was a lot of people voting for stuff that would please him, towards the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfwf6JuwYDw&feature=player_embedded

A very very young Mark Radcliffe. Also this was so long ago that the bass player's haircut is fashionable again.

interesting to hear Peel talk of being in a fallow period for music. very 1985.

Remember watching that when it went out and discussions about it at school the next day. 26 YEARS!!!

this is cool

From FACTmag:

Peel’s collection is being made available to the general public, in the form of an “interactive online museum” [via NME].

The collection is understood to comprise around 25,000 LPs, 40,000 singles and “many thousands” of CDs. It’s going to be represented online as part of The Space, a new “experimental digital service” managed and largely funded by the Arts Council, with support from the BBC.

Tom Barker, Director of the John Peel Centre for Creative Arts, comments: “It is the first step in creating an interactive online museum with access to the entire collection, one of the most important archives in modern music history.”

Frank Prendergast of Eye Film And Television adds: “The idea is to digitally recreate John’s home studio and record collection, which users will be able to interact with and contribute to, while viewing Peel’s personal notes, archive performances and new filmed interviews with musicians.”

“We’re very happy that we’ve finally found a way to make John’s amazing collection available to his fans, as he would have wanted,” says Peel’s widow, Sheila Ravenscroft. This project is only the beginning of something very exciting.”

Precisely how this “interactive online museum” will work, and what users will actually be able to do with it, are ambiguous at present. What is known is that The Space will be live over the period May-October 2012, across various platforms – including PCs, smartphones and digital freeview TV. The project is receiving up to £3.5m of funding from Arts Council England.

RIP, very tragic news

maybe this is a better place...

What should become of John Peel's record collection now?

http://www.mixcloud.com/peel600/mix/

The last decade seems to have played at the wrong speed (too fast).
RIP

Impossible to find a single Peel show to stream nowadays.