John Peel (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004)
Mon, 10/25/2010 - 5:20pm
I feel like it would be a bit of crime to let the day go by and not acknowledge the late John Peel on this anniversary of his death. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Peel
Chances are if you are a fan of rock n roll music he has influenced you in some way or another.
Wed, 10/27/2010 - 2:58pm
#2
I've been trying to write
I've been trying to write this for a day now, but find it very hard to put it into words...
I can't possibly express how important John Peel was to me. So much of the music I love I heard because John Peel played it on his show. So many of the bands that I listen to are bands that John championed when no-one else would consider playing them on the radio. I listen to the music I do because of John. I went to the gig at which I first saw the woman who I married because of the music he played on his show.
So much of the pleasure and happiness in my life I owe to John Peel. It sounds like such an over-blowed statement, but it isn't. Because I know that the same is true for so many other people.
I vividly remember the shell-shocked feeling after he died. Someone that was always there... always playing incredible music on the radio... totally dependable... a constant... was gone.
And the thing is. I'm just a music fan, not a musician. I can't imagine the hole that his passing was for the artists he supported, and for those who will never be able to send their demo tape to John Peel at the BBC.
There are three books I recommend. John's autobiography (finished after his death by Sheila, his wife) - "John Peel: Margrave of the Marshes", a collection of some of his articles "The Olivetti Chronicles: Three Decades of Life and Music" and Ken Garner's "The Peel Sessions: A Story of Teenage Dreams and One Man's Love of New Music".
And, if you never heard his show, or you want to hear the voice of an old friend, I recommend you head over to http://johnpeeldotnet.wordpress.com/downloads/
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 6:15am
#3
Nice one...
I meant to post the link to that wordpress blog after reading your tweet!
Margrave of the Marshes is amazing, but unfortunately John's part is far too brief. I can only imagine the tales he would have told in the book if he'd lived.
Does it have the anecdote about Captain Beefheart asking to be let out of John's car to go and listen to a tree? John imagines Don just meant he needed a piss, and was asking in his own inimitable style, but John used to lament that he'd never know for sure!
I was only just beginning to record music in any kind of organised (if you could describe it as that) manner when I heard he'd died, and it kills me that I'll never get the chance to send something off to him.
Thankfully we have people like Matt, and you Jonny, carrying the torch. I'd like to thank you both for loving music so much you have to do something about it.
Group hug!
I was lucky enough to be able to listen nightly. He would fluff intros, play vinyl at the wrong speed and sometimes play stuff that you just couldn't stomach - but it was always unmissable.
A friend of my Dad's used to record it every night and mail it off to a friend in Germany.
If he ever played a 7 1/2 minute Techno track, i'd flip over to this show: http://www.bbc.co.uk//radio3/latejunction/Sessions_homepage.shtml If you have the means, I highly reccommend it. They do a monthly Podcast: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/ljs
But I always heard something great to tape and listen to on my walkman the next day. 'Kind of Like Spitting' were one such band I discovered on Peel. Of course, then you faced the maddening task of trying to track down a physical copy of one of their records.
There aren't a great many things of which I can say make me proud to be English but I am very proud of, not only John Peel, but the fact that we have a publicly funded corporation such as the BBC that throughout 5 decades recognised John's importance, and kept him on the air.
His importance to world music cannot be overstated.