John Peel

At the time of writing this comment, there is only one release in discogs on John Peel's page. John Peel was not a producer, not a DJ in the modern sense of the term. This goes no way at all to giving an indication of just how important Peel was to music during his long career. Search under releases containing the word "Peel" and you might come across a tiny fraction of the music that he helped introduce to the world...

I'd never cared about a "celebrity" dying until I heard the news of John Peel’s death in October 2004. Peel had a very direct influence on me in the very late 80s and early 90s. One of my all time biggest influences and favourite artists, Godflesh, I heard first in their Peel Session broadcast on his show.

Seeing and hearing him DJ at Sonar 2003 in Barcelona was one of the highlights of the festival. It says a lot about him that at the end of a party that had featured sets by Laurent Garnier, Jeff Mills, Francois Kevorkian, DJ Krush, John Peel and others I've since forgotten, the clamours at the end from the crowd were all for John Peel.

As rarely as it happened, there was nothing quite like clicking on the radio and hearing some bizarre music, wondering "what the hell is this", only to hear his voice come in at the end telling us "well, that was a lovely ditty from Disembowled Zombie" or something like that.

Even though I never met the guy, and in fact hardly caught the show in it's last 10 years, the familiarity of his voice and the influence he had on me musically really made him into someone I thought would always be around.

Reading some of the news reports the morning after his death, even those on the BBC, his home of so many years, just goes to show how completely out of touch people in the media really are about modern music and the myriad of genres he championed...from gabber to Afropop via Mongolian goat bothering anthems. The tributes given by his listeners seem far more appropriate.

Shortly after hearing the news of his death I spoke to my dad on the phone. He described his own experiences of "lying in bed late at night with a little Japanese transistor radio under the pillow, listening to Peel". This was in the 60s...years before I was even born.

Peel was the first person who had me staying up late into the night for the purposes of hearing good music. When his show moved to the late night weekend slot in the early days of the 1990s, I'd stay up until 90 mins before the end, then leave a tape recording the rest of the show.

John Peel even played one of my tracks on his show once in early 2002. I didn't get to hear it unfortunately, but just knowing it happened was and is amazing to me. Hearing his voice introduce it would probably have made me swoon.

Apparently he died in Peru fulfilling a lifetime ambition to visit the place. Cool.

Through the years I've listened more to John Peel than I have to my own dad. I met him twice, both times at Maida Vale when I won competitions to see Luke Slater and Richie Hawtin do live sets for his show. If it wasn't for Peelie I'd still be listening to the Scorpions. A more humble, witty and deeply human guy I have never met.

Peel's DJ style was unique. He couldn't (or wouldn't) beat-match and he often played records at the wrong speed (sometimes on purpose 'cos he thought it sounded better). "Eclectic" doesn't cover half of it: he would segue a furious, pummelling Berlin techno tune into a 78rpm British music hall record from the 1930s, follow it with a shouty all-girl Japanese punk band and then put on a slab of deep roots reggae he'd bought in Ipswich because he liked the colour of the vinyl.

He was in that tiny minority of radio DJs who actually still bought records and obviously cared deeply about the music, being instrumental in kickstarting the careers of literally hundreds of bands. And yet he never got a big head, and was at his happiest with a glass of red wine, a mushroom biryani and his family around him.

In his final years he found out he was diabetic, yet still he was pushed into ever later slots by the BBC, and shortly before his death he confided to fellow DJ and friend Andy Kersahw he feared this would kill him.

I still can't believe he's gone.

John Peel, OBE, born 30.08.1939 died of a heart attack on 25th October 2004 in Peru, aged 65

My thoughts go out to John's immediate family and his worldwide family of fans. Like Mary Ann Hobbs recently admitted on air after going to his birthday party, I was also one of countless millions of music fans that listened to his shows on a am-tranny under the bed sheets in the early 70's. Later progressing to mono-cassette recorders and trying to stay awake to tape the last track of that particular night’s session band and all the new good new stuff. The following day, the few like-minded mates would enthuse about the shows at School. The countless enjoyable hours we spent together in 2-hour stints were like listening to your favourite Uncle. The debt the record industry and music fans owe to John is immeasurable. The greatest promoter of music in all its forms. And thanks to the BBC for sticking with him (and John Walters) throughout the years. I only met him once in the early 1980’s in the crowd of New Order’s first London gig and whilst intimidated at being near to your boyhood hero felt compelled to say, “Hello and that I always listened to his show”. Probably having heard such remarks many times, he dryly but politely replied, “So do I”. I hope he could hear the crowd’s applause prior to last night’s crowd at Bournemouth v Cardiff City when the PA announced the news and played ‘Teenage Kicks’ as a tribute. It’s times like these when you realise that you weren’t one of the few who appreciated what he achieved but one of many. Ranging from Top Gear, Top of The Pops, T.V appearances (there was that series on Channel 4 on new bands in Europe), Glastonbury, Home Truths and his World Service programmes, even his writings in Sounds to the Radio Times touched so many, he will never to be forgotten. Thank you John. RIP.