John Peel

[themoth]

How sad it was to hear about the death of John Peel. I am sure that we all have memories of listening to him under the bed covers. He was in my opinion a true DJ who played the music that I wanted to hear. He will be greatly missed but not forgotten. He gave me my love for music. :~(

[Brizer2k2]

Very true

I always was interested to hear what he had to say about football and music.

He always seemed to make sense.

[zappster]

a true music ambassador for the new/different & obscure, he'll be sadly missed :(

[squidge]

When i was a teenager my parents thought John Peel was TERRIBLE!!!!!!

Lately they have avidly listened to his highly entertaining Saturday Morning Show on Radio 4.

John Peel was the voice of my teenage years and listening to him under my covers on my orange transistor radio, with the white plastic ear piece in my ear, a torch and a book was a recipe guaranteed to get me a row.

I think that he will be missed and that radio and television will be poorer for losing his particular brand of wit and musical taste.

[George Brims]

I have been away from Britain a long time, and late night John Peel on the radio is one of the things I always missed. Sad to think everyone will from now on.

One of the bands Peelie promoted and encouraged was the JSD Band, a folk/rock outfit very popular in Caithness. I remember an insane number of us cramming into a friend's car to drive from Wick to Thurso then back to Wick because they were playing at Thurso Town Hall and the Wick Assembly Rooms in the one night!

Peelie was always fun to listen to even when you didn't like the stuff he was playing. Often enough it might have started that way but it would grow on you. How many white Brits ever listened to reggae before Peelie pushed it? And of course he had a big hand in promoting punk.

[mike.mckenzie]

Truly is the loss of a great broadcasting talent. I went to see Franz Ferdinand last night at Manchester Apollo, and they played Teenage Kicks in tribute.

[spittalpunks]

Aye sad news indeed

He was always a wag and had a good sense o humour and played top tunes

He was so eclectic and funny it made his shows a treat

Lets face it we will never have another DJ as talented and witty as him

Anybody who could play Leonard Cohen, Afrika Bambatta (probably spelt wrong I do apologise), some obscure Croatian ambient dub and then total grindcore nonsense like Bolt Thrower says it all

Radio 1 might as well close, Thom Yorke said it all in his comments

[DrSzin]

Truly sad news indeed. Like many others, I used to listen to JP under the bedclothes late at night, plastic earpiece plugged into my wee cream tranny.

I too was a fan of the JSD band. I probably still have their first two albums "Country of the Blind" (autographed) and "JSD Band" somewhere or other. I saw them live in two successive years in the high school hall at the Thurso Folk Festival; this must have been '71 & '72 (plus or minus a year), and the first concerts I ever went to. Might have seen ya there George.

Peel also pushed T Rex (before they were famous) & Medicine Head, the latter being a rather laid-back melodic two-piece band that was one of his favourites in the early to mid 70s. One of the most enjoyable concerts I have ever been to was Medicine Head at Strathclyde Uni Student Union circa 1975, and I have Peel to thank for that.

We shared the same taste in other things too. Whereever you are now Peelie, I'm sure "You'll Never Walk Alone".

[themoth]

Dr SZin

Trivia about Medicine Head which you may or may not know.
They were advsied by their record label (Dandelion I think it was) to change the name of their latest album that was due for release in early '70's as a bigger act wanted to use the same title.
The act was Pink Floyd and of course the title "Dark Side of the Moon"

Also you may be interested to learn that the JSD Band are still releasing new material

'For the Record' is a selection of their music from '69 to '74 including Sarah Jane,Goin' down the road,Over and over & Groundhog. Line up of Sean O"Rourke, Chuck Fleming, Jim Divers and Colin Finn. Released on Village Music Records No.VMCD001

'Pastures of Plenty' released in '98 with line up of Jim Divers, Sean O"Rourke, Des Coffield, Colin Finn, Rob Mairs and Chuck Fleming. 12 trad. tunes and songs arranged by the Band including The Spanish Lady, The Gypsy Laddie and Shady Grove. Pure, dead brilliant as they say. Released by Lochshore Records No CDLDL 1274

[DrSzin]

Thanks for the JSD Band info themoth. I will take a look at that stuff.

I remember the album-title business. I'm a Floyd fan too, I'm afraid. Everyone was awaiting the new Floyd album, provisionally entitled Dark Side of the Moon, when Medicine Head popped up with their offering of the same name. So Floyd changed the working name of their opus to Eclipse. However, by the time it was finished, the Floyd album was so late that everyone had forgotten the Medicine Head one, and the instant-classic recovered its original name. I actually remember all this stuff happening, again listening to either John Peel or Scene & Heard on Saturday afternoons on my wee cream tranny in my bedroom in Thurso. I didn't look it up on the web! But you can find much the same story here. (http://www.pinkfloydonline.com/history2.html)

[George Brims]

In those days the Floyd weren't actually that big a band in terms of sales, but had a loyal cult following. I remember starting at Edinburgh Uni in 1972 and being told the Floyd had played there at the Student Center (a really awful venue but all we had) the year before. The Dark Side of the Moon hit the shops and they just took off.

I have the JSD "Pastures of Plenty" CD, I agree it's really great. I play it a lot. But like many a band their recorder output just can't capture the excitement of how they were live. As the late Mr Peel said on the liner notes of one of their other offerings, they were like Lindisfarne and The Faces in thinking audiences actually wanted to have fun!

[spittalpunks]

Pink Floyd?


zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

oh my theres some girders rusting much more enjoyable to watch that than waste time listening to that drivel sorry but its dullsville

Also I thought this thread was about the late great DJ surely this tangent should be discussed on the music section

[George Brims]

Ah well to each his own. From your username spittalpunks I assume you would be a devotee of punk, but then some of us can appreciate more than one kind of music.

The thread has wandered a bit but it is still about the music to which the late great Peelie introduced us. He was certainly the first DJ I heard play the Sex Pistols, Stranglers etc in the late 70s.

[dpw39]

De ye ken John Peel, aye a very sad loss indeed, at least he's the only DJ who has a Scottish song after him (Ouch). DLT is still the best though.

Ciao,

Dave the Rave :cool:

[George Brims]

Scottish? The John Peel in the song was English. See http://home.mweb.co.za/sa/salbu/JohnPeel.html

[JAWS]

Don't be silly, dpw39, DLT can't hold a candle to Tony Blackburn.

The John Peel in the song was from Cumbria.

[dpw39]

Apollogies George, :confused

Hey JAWS! who's Tony Blackburn? [lol] keep him in the jungle, he's no celebrity

Ciao,

Dave :cool:

[JAWS]

Tony Blackburn? He was one of the DJs who helped drag the Beeb, kicking and screaming, out of the 1920s, with Victor Silvestor playing Slow, Slow, Quick, Quick, Slow! (Ask your Great-Grandparents, they might remember him), and into the 1960s where it has been stuck ever since with it's outdated attitudes towards Pop Music.

Radio 1 is forty years old and as up to date as Cliff Richard and Val Goonican! It's time it retired and sat by the fire with it's slippers on!
It's that old even I can only just remember it starting!!!

[George Brims]

Hehe. I remember Peelie always used to refer to him as "Timmy Bannockburn". I don't think there was much overlap in their musical tastes, or view of the world in general.

[spittalpunks]

Tony Blackburn

do me a favour he was dreadful and as rightly stated was one of the reasons R1 was soooo bad

[tides of pentland firth]

Did anyone hear Home Truths (john's radio 4 program) today. It was excellent. It showed that this was a man who just cared about other people, and hated the term 'celebrity'. If you didnt hear it I recomend you listen on the beeb's website. :)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hometruths/

[JAWS]

Tony Blackburn was just a case of "Shoot the Messenger". I'm not sure how Peelie managed to do what he did, he must have had a way of getting his own way with his bosses.

DJs can only usually broadcast records off a Play List and can only be given "Needle Time" a certain number of times during the day.

The BBC has an agreement with the Record Companies that in the main only records that are in the Charts are played, once they drop out of the charts they cannot then be played until they become "Golden Oldies" after a period of time, twelve months I think. This is so that people will go out and buy new records to keep the industry going.

The BBC also have an agreement with the Musicians Union that quite a good period of time must be given to "Live Music" to kep their members in employment. I can only think that Peelie convinced them that he was using some of that time by introducing the new Bands "Live". I would assume that this was the reason h had to pay out of his own pocket
for one Band to go to the Studios to play.

Radio One's problems is that it has the dead hand of the BBCs pompous rulers with their snobbish attitude of "We have a duty to "Educate" the ignorant plebs in order to "Improve" them. If we give them what they want they will just choose Rubbish!"

It says a lot for John Peel that he managed to introduce new sounds despite having to work within the BBC.

[Zael]

I think that once JP had started, there would have been mass protest if he had been taken off the air or made to change what he did.

He always seemed to be the musicans DJ as almost every muso I ever knew listened to his show and was well impressed by the kinds of music he was willing to play/inflict on the masses. Also, apart from the few mentioned, how many other careers were set in motion (or given a good nudge) by otherwise impossible to get airtime given by John Peel. I dont think many people realise just how influential someone like JP could be in the music industry and how much our listening interests were changed by the types of music he was willing to play.

As for home truths, well radio 4 changed a great deal once that show was on the air. Talk about a great slice of radio to wake up to :) Beat "whoever in the morning" on radio 1 hands down. Here's hoping some of the current or upcoming DJs will take note of why JP was such a popular DJ and try to follow his example.