Who was John Peel?

[rhod]

Fact is, music is fucking sacred - and he spread the gospel. And literally hundreds of great bands...and, probably more importantly, an entire - and massively influential - musical school of thought (i.e. the ragged glory of DIY; the virtue of not being Clapton when it came to technical ability for a meagre two examples) would simply not have been supplied the oxygen to breathe if it hadn't been for the Peel.

And mainstream radio would have been pretty fucking flat - Simon Bates, anyone?

Totally Agree.

What needs to be emphasised is that Peel was championing "new music" when there was only 1 national music radio station (that didn't really give much of a toss about breaking new ground anyway apart from on the graveyard shifts), only 3 TV channels available to anyone - which rarely broadcast much music outside the charts.

No MTV, or any other specialised music video channel
No DAB radio channels
NO INTERNET
NO MP3 DOWNLOADS
No magazines giving away promo CDs - 12" LPs would have looked silly on a magazine - just the odd flexi-disk 45, maybe.

So if you wanted to listen to anything a bit different, and didn't happen to live near a funky record shop - Peel was your only alternative.

 

[laptop]

So if you wanted to listen to anything a bit different, and didn't happen to live near a funky record shop - Peel was your only alternative.

Last Night a DJ Saved My Life

(Well, many years ago, under the bedclothes in small town...)

 

[William of Walworth]

Same way in which we put up with the slightly questionable teachers who spent far too much time hanging around the 5th formers. It never occurred to us to tell our parents. I remember it being a source of amusement. John Peel reminds me of those teachers, or one of those really embarrassing fathers who were so 'right-on.'

(Am I now going to be pilloried again?)

No, and I'm not going to try and defend his sexual attitudes from the 60s/70s IF they were as dodgy as has been hinted at. Would still need better corroboration than from the very dodgy Burchill though, on that. Is there anything in the biographies?

But the point was that then a large proportion of people only (or predominantly -- I know he was on ToTP as well) encountered Peel on the radio. So his age mattered a lot less given that he was a champion of non mainstream and different music -- something youngsters and plenty of older listeners too, ended up profoundly grateful to him for -- understandably, too.

 

[Balbi]

I've just dug up this thread as I look for a replacement for Peel.



I'm sticking with 6music (which has got a lot more mainstream since they started being advertised on 5live) and buying a couple of music mags (Terrorizer, Mojo...etc)

 

[Firky]

I still can't get over that someone asked who John Peel was

 

[Balbi]

Aye, lots of freshers with not a clue this year. I mean not a clue.

Zane Lowe played the pier, I heard much outpouring over how he plays 'so much new music, without him i'd not have heard of xxxx...'

Bastards.

 

[Firky]

That is why anyone under the age of 18 should be shot

 

[Balbi]

I fully concur. I shall write to the Guardian.

 

[Firky]

Actually make it 25, apart from birds. i like me lolitas

 

[118118]

I do vaguely know who John Peel was. Lol.

 

[Firky]

He's (was rather) bigger than hip hop

 

[Iam]

Actually make it 25, apart from birds. i like me lolitas

Does this mean you will shortly be shooting Balbi?

Poor Balbi.



His name's not *that* bad...



*runs*

 

[Firky]

Anyone who is younger than me, apart from volt, teapea and frogwoman

 

[trashpony]

who's zane lowe?

 

[danny la rouge]

who's zane lowe?

Radio 1 DJ early evening.

 

[boskysquelch]

Think that defined Peely for me and what I don't think will ever be replaced in his Peeliness...lol!...the two particular instances that I really really REALLY remember as being Peeliness affecting my Life in a very personal way...was the death of Malcom Owen of the Ruts..and how Peel dealt with it_cried live describing to listeners how he and the band had pleaded to stop fkkn with himself with the geezer in some cafe jus before it happened...the time he discovered Killing Joke's Killing Joke 10" EP;I think he played it 4 times both sides, in amazement at it...he convinced me, and many others I'm sure, to write directly to the B-52's themselves in Athens,US to get Rock Lobster thru the post...to search the country for Errol Scorcha Frog In the Water(found it in Nottingham..all 500 Uk pressings stacked in a corner of a dub record shop)....oh fkk I could go on innit.

The thing I don't thing they will EVER be able to replace is HIS total editorial control over what HE did in HIS programme...and I think his other work he did in the latter part of his career was the piecemeal sacrifice he HAD to do so as to keep his show to the standard which HE set. And one of the biggies he kept principled over was the way he allowed the MUSIC to speak for the artists not the PR prompters to make the artists consider what they have NOW to consider and perform in addition to the demonstration of their creativity.

Says I!!!1

e2a:: and he did fall asleep IN a speaker after introducing RUSH at some gig...gotta give the guy respect for that!

 

[Iam]

Anyone who is younger than me, apart from volt, teapea and frogwoman

I'm safe, then.

 

[Balbi]

Bollocks, i'm dead.

 

[Iam]

Perhaps you could apply to his Firkness for some kind of assylum?

 

[Sir Belchalot]

T.the two particular instances that I really really REALLY remember as being Peeliness affecting my Life in a very personal way...was the death of Malcom Owen of the Ruts..and how Peel dealt with it_cried live describing to listeners how he and the band had pleaded to stop fk

Two people who behaved like twats when I met them. Sorry to piss on sacred dead cows.