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John Peel Dead
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Billy Milk
Billy Milk
2045 posts

Re: John Peel Dead
Oct 26, 2004, 15:16
I only met John Peel once and that was on the deck of a cross channel ferry. I was on my way to play a gig in Amsterdam with my band Knights of the Occasional Table. He was charming, irascible and genuinely pleased to be cornered by a fan.
It had been five years earlier when we'd released our first album, a home-recorded, no-budget, self-released CD. Naturally we sent Peel a copy. A week later I returned home from work to find a message from him on my answerphone. I still have the microcassette and can remember every word.
He said: "I've been having a really miserable day and just played your album. It's cheered me up immensely and I wanted to tell you. Thanks . . ."
He left his number and I called him back. We had a long chat about music. Tonto's Expanding Headband and the Prats figured largely in the conversation I recall. He invited us to record a session for his show which we duly did. It remains one of the top five proudest moments of my life.
It's a statement often trotted out in obituaries: "He/she was irreplaceable", but in the case of John Peel, it is so very true. The significance of his death hasn't even begun to sink in. Without a doubt, he was the most important music broadcaster ever to hit the airwaves. Unlike his Smashy and Nicey contemporaries, Peel was a cultural phenomenon.
Without him the world's musical landscape would be different. Arguably more influential than the Beatles, the list of bands he championed is almost endless. From the Perfumed Garden of the British psychedelic underground in the 1960s, through the prog rock dark ages, he kept up his enthusiasm. My generation owes him a debt of gratitude for championing punk rock in 1976 when the rest of the media was declaring it the end of civilisation as we know it.
Similarly, he provided a platform for proper Jamaican roots reggae and the many labyrinthine strands that music has followed over the years. Contrary to lazy critical opinion, there is no such thing as a typical "John Peel band" as the weekly playlists posted on the Radio One website prove. If what he played often proved unlistenable, baffling or just simply obscure, nobody ever questioned his right to play it.
The nagging question now is what will happen at Radio One. So many bands old, new and not yet formed have lost a vital outlet for their work. The knock-on effect of Peel's passing won't be fully appreciated for many years.
I'll remember him announcing the death of Ian Curtis on air and playing Joy Division's Atmosphere for the first time, a truly heart-rending moment. I'll remember the many times he played records at wrong speeds. I'll remember his intelligent Home Truths show on Radio Four.
Most of all I'll remember that phone call and meeting. John Peel. What a guy . . .
In reply to:
John Peel Dead (anthonyqkiernan)		 Replies:
Re: speaks for itself... (Billy Milk)
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END OF AN ERA (Jim Tones)
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