Page 5 of John Peel Dead

What a shock - bizarre, I havent felt sound gutted about someones death in years, A real loss to broadcasting.......hope Sheila `the pig` is holding up!..

Best wishes to family etc

I`ve reproduced my gushing eulogy to John Peel below from The Fall message board where I am also a moderator (The Fall were Peel`s favourite band and he hosted them 24 times to record the infamous Peel session betwixt 1978 and 2004) :



I was in London when I heard the news today (about twenty to six), and all thoughts of running for the train that left in 2 minutes disappeared as I stood, stunned, slack-jawed, and with tears welling up, by the Evening Standard newstand taking the "LATEST NEWS" banner in - I was actually mid-sentence with a colleague and eventually finished the sentence some two minutes later after issuing a few well-chosen expletives in anger at the death of another of my great heroes.

Andy Kershaw, interviewed on BBC News, summed up Peelie`s attitude to broadcasting perfectly - he didn`t play to an audience, he played to just you - the listener.

To me, Peel was a massive influence on my musical taste - I listened to him religiously between 1986 and 1990 and during that time, JP introduced me to the wonders of acid house long before it transmogrified into horrendouse hardcore-you-know-the-score rave s***e - he was playing Guy Called Gerald and 808 State well before anyone else had even heard of them.

He also got me into Napalm Death (I seem to recall him building up "You Suffer" for hours before letting rip with the track, which lasted 1 second) and all that Earache stuff, and countless other bands who I`d never have gone out and bought without his broadcasting - New FADS, Kitchens of Distinction, Sidi Bou Said, Linoleum, Thrilled Skinny, SMASH, Blessed Ethel, hell these are just the ones at the front of my brain. Various genres, opened my eyes, and shaped me as the person I am now. Hell, I even bought a Four Brothers album on the strength of Peels` enthusiasm for Zimbabwean folk music - that was just out of sheer respect for the guy (and it`s a great album too !).

Peel to me was the most dignified bloke (I`ll steer clear of "celebrity" because JP never considered himself to be one) to ever walk this earth, in my opinion - self-effacing, incredibly modest, seemingly rather bashful, a very proud father of his four kids, clearly a very deep sense of gratitude to Sheila, his wife, for allowing him to nurture his passion for music, very very laconic, (some would say lugubrious, but I don`t think that), a warm and funny bloke and most importantly completely 100% genuine - his crying on air after the Hillsborough tragedy after playing a glorious version of You`ll Never Walk Alone touched me in a way no-one else has ever come close to.

A very large part of music died with John Peel today.

R.I.P mate - sort out Heaven`s turntable and get that bleedin` harp s*** taken off the air and blast out some good vibes up there for the rest of us.


===========================

Clayts, Moderator, DVD Reviewer
UK webmaster for Area 450 the independent Sampo/Maxent DVD site

Quote:
A very large part of music died with John Peel today.

clayts....I fully concur with you.....I`d even share a fag with you on this one!! :o

Yep, it`s a very sad day indeed. The BBC`s glastonbury coverage wont be the same without him there..
God bless..

Rocky..

"How come we play war and not peace? Too few role models."

Awful news. :(

Me and a few mates have sat up all night drinking, writing a song, then we recorded it and came up to put it on the computer to discover a legend has left us.

He will be missed.

Peely mentioned a number of times on "Home Truths" that he was in the process of writing his autobiography. I wonder how far he got, and whether it will ever be published. I don`t usually go in for "celebrity" autobiographies as all too often they`re insubstantial, self-congratulatory tosh. Peely`s would be rather different, I imagine!

This morning Radio 1 played an advert for a show going out on Sunday 13:00 on 6 Music:

John Peel Remembered

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04g785v

Quote:
This year John Peel would have been 75 years old. To celebrate his birthday and to mark the 10th Anniversary of his passing 6 Music remembers John with contributions from Steve Lamacq, Lauren Laverne, Annie Nightingale, Don Letts, Mary Anne Hobbs with a mixture of Peel sessions and extracts from his legendary Radio shows.

Good grief, was this a decade ago????

---------

Si Wooldridge
Reviewer

http://synth.myreviewer.com