My memories of John Peel - thanks, mate, and RIP

[attila]

Memories of John Peel, his show and the man himself.


1982. A mate of mine, Red Saunders, had just released my first EP ‘Rough Raw and Ranting’ on his Radical Wallpaper label. He was keen. I was sceptical. ‘Poetry on a record? Who’s going to buy that?’
One night a couple of weeks later I was fishing off Southwick Arm, as so many times before and since, listening to the John Peel Show. Suddenly he said
“And now here’s Attila the Stockbroker’........
I nearly dropped my rod in the sea.

Peelie played that EP to death. Not long afterwards, he gave me my first session. Travelled up to London, had a few
beers with the great man, an absolutely lovely bloke. Talked about our football allegiances of course. After it was broadcast I got a deal with Cherry Red Records and a few months later he invited me to do another session.
It was broadcast the week after we knocked Liverpool out of the FA Cup at Anfield.. He started his programme with the sound of seagulls being machine gunned....then played my stuff and congratulated us, tongue firmly in cheek.

The following year, 1984, of course, we did it again - 2-0 at the Goldstone. More machine gunned seagulls! That summer I was wandering across a field at Glastonbury. It was absolutely pissing down. I saw him making a beeline for me. ‘You bastards’ he said ‘You did it again!’

Those memories will live as long as I do.
A lovely, genuine bloke who lived for music..
Thousands of us owe him so much.
RIP John.

 

[e77]

Great story. Just listening to Peter Hook and Damien Albarn tell a similar tale and you imagine many musicians owe their careers to him.

Simply irreplaceable.

 

[Wilka]

John Peel must be mentioned and thanked in more CD's than anyone in History.

A true legend

 

[Kent Seagull]

Top DJ, I often used to listen to his late night show when i was younger. RIP

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

The quality of the music clips being shown on all the news broadcasts tonight says it all. Totally unique - and a lovely bloke. RIP.

 

[Southy]

Top post John. I never met him, but like most first started listening to him under the covers radio under the pillow. The first time I ever heard White Man by The Clash was on his festive 50.

In these days of mass produced popular culture people forget how hard it was to hear alternative music on the radio. Peel stood alone for years long before the days of Steve lamaq and Andy kershaw as the only person playing punk, reggae, new wave when it really did feel like a war, then long before Westwood had left his dads vicarage he started playing hip hop in the early 80's. Always moving forward and truely ecletic, he embodied what music is about.

For me music has always come before football and I have never met anyone seriously into it, who didn't have their formative years listening to his show. I stopped listening religously in my mid 20's, but always tuned in at some point every week for the rest of my life. I cannot believe he will not be around, first Joe, now John, where will we hear an obscure belgian bluegrass band now? There's not many people you can say that truely changed things, but I hobestly believe any half decent band over the last 30 years owes him a debt. A true legend RIP

 

[levski seagull]

couldn't believe it when i turned on the t.v,surely the most in touch 'old man' in britain,will be sorely missed...

 

[Squiggsy]

A top man. Will be sadly missed. Still more in touch with good music at 65 than most people are past 25.

Picked up on so many bands from his late night show in the 80's.

 

[Padders]

Peel was DJing a gig in Manchester (Band on the Wall) the night of the Liverpool FA Cup game. Being avid listeners we were going to see him anyway, and we couldn't resist a little dig.

He was slightly miffed but took it in good heart, and even played a request on his show later that week.

I will always think of him as a friend although he wouldn't have known me obviously.

What will I do without the festive 50?

 

[Jambo Seagull]

Attila, I remember vividly listening to JP the day after we put them out of the cup. I knew he'd have something to say about it and the Seagulls being machine-gunned down was hilarious!

I also remember listening to his show the Monday after Hillsbrough. He started the show by playing Aretha Franklin singin "you'll never Walk Alone". He tried to speak at the end of the record but was too choked.

Ah, the festive fifty! Those were the days. I started listening to him about 79/80 and although he played an awful lot of unlistenable rubbish he also launched a lot of great bands. The festive 50 would sort out the wheat from the chaff. It seems unthinkable that he will no longer be here to present his show on Radio 1. Unlike every other dj there was never any danger of him being put out to graze on Radio 2.

Met him once at a disco where he was djing in the Chambers Street Union at Edinburgh Uni in about 1986/87. I asked him to look after my glasses so I could do my stuff on the dancefloor. I was a bit drunk and totally in awe of him. I seem to remember him being embarrassed about how gushing I was in my thanks when he agreed to my request.

I feel genuinely sad tonight.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

I am really pleased that I sent an e-mail to Home Truths about a month ago. What it said wasn't important, just that it got read out. In a very tiny way, I can now feel that I am part of the John Peel story.

His contribution to my discovery of what I think of as "my" music was enormous - a debt that is impossible to repay.

 

[Jambo Seagull]

I will always think of him as a friend although he wouldn't have known me obviously.

[/B]

I felt the same as well. When I met him very briefly in a haze of drunkenness, I really felt as if I knew him. I almost expected him to say "Alright, Innes, how's it going?"

Of course he didn't but he seemed a genuinely decent bloke.

 

[Padders]

Some quality music being played tonight on Radio 1.

 

[Theatre of Trees]

That was the whole point of listening to Peel's show, you never actually knew what he would play next. The ecleticism of the show was unlike anything else. Admittedly you did have to listen to a lot of stuff you did not like but there was always something that you did. It was quite a badge in the early 80s to say you heard something on Peel before it had even touched mainstream.

I'm like Brixtaan I have never actually felt this way about somebody well known dying before, I can only put it down to the fact that the majority of us when younger listened to it in bed with the headphones which created a kind of intimacy no other radio presenter will ever get close to. You felt he was talking to you.

 

[Gwylan]

I'm still choked up about it. He's not the first famous person I've felt this bad about: Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye, Peter Cook and Joe Strummer come to mind, but this has hit me badly,

Like so many people, I'd never met him, yet almost considered him a mate. He's just been part of my life for so long, from my own teenage years to middle age.

And, as many here have pointed out, it was his eclectism that made his shows fascinating. He taught me that one shouldn't just like one sort of music and close one's ears to something else. He was truly inspiring.

 

[Lush]

Radio is like that. The presenters feel like part of your life (unlike TV, film stars etc).

And someone like John Peel can NEVER be replaced.

R.I.P.

 

[chips and gravy]

I didn't listen to his radio shows much but I always enjoyed his narrative on shows like 'Life of Grime'. This was a part of his work that was much underrated and will be missed by another huge audience who only knew him in that context.

He was always my favourite Top of the Pops presenter - he always looked slightly disdainful of mainstream music and always seemed to manage to get the more interesting chart acts on during his week in charge.

Thanks for everything John - you will be sorely missed

 

[Waterhall Wizard]

To hear of this true legend's demise was such a shock to the sytem. I've had a miserable couple of days and haven't been up for anything.

Another sobering thought is that he was only a couple of years older than I am. I just thought that he would be around for ever.

I used to listen to Peely on the first transitor radio that I owned when he was a 'Pirate DJ'. He always played music that he thought had potential and not what some excutive of a record label wanted plugging. The result was progressive sounds that normally the masses wouldn't have heard.

This gentle sincere person had the guts to stand up for what he believed. He spoke the truth and didn't bullshit.

RIP JOHN PEEL

 

[wadhurstseagull]

The first time I heard Attila was on John Peel - must have been one of the times you mentioned - went on to discover 'Pillows and Prayers' (a Cherry Red compilation) and through this developed a love for Tracey Thorn, Benn Watt, Marine Girls, Eyeless in Gaza, the list goes on. Even now it is my most played record - brings back fantastic memories. That was what I loved about John Peel - through the playing of one track he opened up a whole new world or music. I will always remember John Peel when I listen to Pillows and Prayers - and of course Teenage Kicks.

 

[dougdeep]

The only time I heard Meddle by Pink Floyd was on his show.