¶ John Peel has died. This brings me great sadness. A legend if ever there was one, Peel’s gentle patter and eclectic (and loud) music kept me company through many a long drive and Winter evening. The whole point of John Peel’s radio shows were freedom – freedom from playlists; from the mainstream; from convention.
I had the pleasure of meeting John at Maida Vale studios when I won a ticket to see Cinerama recording a session – he was as modest and charming as listeners to his shows would expect. I’ll miss him and his shows greatly.
Some John Peel links:
- Obituary on the Independent. In depth and touching.
- Special Report in the Guardian Arts section. Lots more articles and tributes.
- John Peel on Wikipedia.
- BBC Radio Show. BBC tributes and Sessions info. If you can bear downloading RealPlayer the tribute show with Steve Lamacq is well worth a listen.
- FABRICLIVE.07: John Peel. Peely’s only compilation album and exemplary of his broad musical taste. One of my faves.
Comments
1
Amen.
I once read an interview with John where he was asked who he had in mind as the audience of his show. He said the only thought he had was of a guy at university, possibly feeling a bit lonely, who felt a bit better listening to the kind of radio show you can’t get elsewhere. Like so many other people, that’s just what I got out of it.
The night before one of my finals, he played a record by The Catheters for me. I got my second best mark in that one, completely against any expectations.
My sincerest sympathies to his family.
2
An immeasurable loss. A bastian for real music and a true gentleman, in every sense of the word. I’ll miss him a great deal.
3
Just browsing the comments on the BBC website after the sudden death of John Peel:
So that’s the whole gamut then.
Anyway, moment of silence for someone I thought would always be bumbling away in the wee small hours for me to stumble upon and remember to try to listen to more. That happened when I was driving back from Glastonbury last winter, dead of night, no cars but me on the windy roads and something that probably was Autechre pounding away.
4
It’s so devastating it almost seems unreal. I could fully expect to hear John’s voice if I turned on the radio at 11 tonight.
I think possibly the worst point is that there has hardly ever been a time when contemporary music hasn’t relied on Peel.
5
For the full story of John Peels Private Passions including audio files follow An Overgrown Path to this link – http://theovergrownpath.blogspot.com/2005/11/john-peels-private-passions.html
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