john peel is dead
John Peel is dead.
Now I feel like I can write something about this. Massive respect to John Peel. A dude. He could pronounce Llwybr Llaethog. He sobbed on air the day after Hillsborough (football stadium disaster in which 96 Liverpool FC fans died), the most honest thing I have ever heard on radio. He ran the Festive 50 every year, jotting up all the votes in a big ledger. I'm blown away by the tributes people have paid him on MetaFilter and at Radio 1, my God, he changed so many people's lives. He played records at the wrong speed. He dedicated requests to schoolkids, myself among them. Time to get the old tapes out - Peel seems to go hand in hand with cassettes, and vinyl - and play the John Peel Sweet Eating Game.
Comments
Commenting on my own post. Fuck it. Memories of Peel: My friends in a crap band approaching him on Kensington High Street and handing him a demo tape. He said thanks a lot, sorry, can't stop and chat, off to buy a toaster ... The best music ever. Half Man Half Biscuit followed by African Headcharge. "Extreme Noise Terror there, and now, a Ukrainian band whose name I don't know, but it sounds good." ... Listening to his show late at night knowing that there was a whole world out there, all listening to Peel.
The Fall Quote Generator.
Terribly sad when I heard the news.
Posted by: gwen | October 26, 2004 7:35 PM
If there was ever a time I believed the phrase:
"God took his loved one home," it would be now.
Goodbye, Mr. Peel.
Posted by: hk | October 27, 2004 12:14 AM
I used to catch the tail-end of his show sometimes. Funny, humble with keen antennae for interesting sounds.
Posted by: allaboutgeorge | October 27, 2004 8:57 AM
Thanks for that post, Gwen. More on NPR and in the Washington Post.
Posted by: nedlog | October 27, 2004 9:24 AM
90% of the music he played had never been played on radio before, according to the Telegraph obit. Ninety percent. Just perusing the NPR and WP links now, thanks.
Posted by: gwen | October 27, 2004 10:08 AM
From the excellent Telegraph obituary:
Peel estimated the flagellation rate in his first term at "once every three days . . . when I was 13 I was rather lovely, and much sought-after by older boys who, if they developed an appetite for you, could have you beaten on a number of pretexts. Several of them have gone on to achieve positions of some eminence in the financial world. I'm sometimes tempted to turn up with a little rouge on my cheeks and say, 'I'm ready for you now, my angel', to some ageing captain of industry."
Posted by: gwen | October 27, 2004 10:22 AM