John Peel
Encyclopedia
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE
(30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1
DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004. He was known for his eclectic taste in music and his honest and warm broadcasting style.
He was one of the first broadcasters to play psychedelic rock
and progressive rock
records on British radio, and he is widely acknowledged for promoting artists working in various genres, including pop, reggae
, indie rock
, alternative rock
, punk
, hardcore punk
, breakcore
, grindcore
, death metal
, British hip hop
, and dance music
.
Peel's Radio 1 shows were notable for the regular 'Peel sessions', which usually consisted of four songs recorded by an artist live in the BBC's studios, and which often provided the first major national coverage to bands that later would achieve great fame. (These 'sessions' are similar to 'Live Lounge
' sessions recorded today for the station.) Another popular feature of his shows was the annual Festive Fifty
countdown of his listeners' favourite records of the year.
Peel appeared frequently on British television as one of the presenters of Top of the Pops
in the 1980s, and he provided voice-over
commentary for a number of BBC programmes. He became popular with the audience of BBC Radio 4
for his Home Truths
programme, which ran from the 1990s, featuring unusual stories from listeners' domestic lives.
on the Wirral Peninsula, near Liverpool
, and grew up in the nearby village of Burton. His father was an upper middle class
cotton
merchant
, and he was sent away to be educated as a boarder at Shrewsbury School
.
His housemaster, R H J Brooke, whom Peel described as "extraordinarily eccentric" and "amazingly perceptive," wrote on one of his school reports, "Perhaps it's possible that John can form some kind of nightmarish career out of his enthusiasm for unlistenable records and his delight in writing long and facetious essays." In his posthumously published autobiography, Peel revealed that he had been raped by an older pupil while at Shrewsbury.
After finishing his National Service
in 1959 in the Royal Artillery
as a B2 radar
operator, he worked as a mill operative at Townhead Mill in Rochdale
and travelled home each weekend to Heswall on a scooter borrowed from his sister. Whilst in Rochdale Monday to Friday, he stayed in a bed-and-breakfast in the area of Milkstone Road and Drake Street. Peel was a vegetarian.
as the presidential candidate and his running mate, Lyndon B. Johnson
, who were touring the city during the 1960 Presidential election campaign.
Following Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, Peel passed himself off as a reporter for the Liverpool Echo
in order to attend the arraignment of Lee Harvey Oswald
, and he and a friend can be seen in the footage of the November 22/23 midnight press conference at Dallas Police Department when Oswald was paraded before the media. He later phoned in the story to the Liverpool Echo.
While working for the insurance company, Peel filed card
programs for an early IBM 1410
computer (which led to his entry in Who's Who
noting him as a former computer programmer), and he got his first radio job, albeit unpaid, working for WRR (AM) in Dallas. There, he presented the second hour of the Monday night programme Kat's Karavan, which was primarily hosted by the American singer and radio personality Jim Lowe
. Following this, and as Beatlemania
hit the United States, Peel got a job with the Dallas radio station KLIF as the official The Beatles
correspondent on the strength of his connection to Liverpool. He later worked for KOMA
in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
until 1965 when he moved to KMEN
in San Bernardino, California
, using the name John Ravencroft to present the breakfast show.
While in Dallas, in 1965, he married his first wife, Shirley Anne Milburn, in what Peel later described as a "mutual defence pact". The marriage was never happy and although she accompanied Peel back to Britain in 1967, they were soon separated. The divorce became final in 1973.
station Radio London
. He was offered the midnight-to-two shift, which gradually developed into a programme called The Perfumed Garden
(some thought it was named after an erotic book famous at the time - which Peel claimed never to have read). It was on "Big L" that he first adopted the name John Peel (the name was suggested by a Radio London secretary) and established himself as a distinctive radio voice.
Peel's show was an outlet for the music of the UK underground
scene. He played classic blues
, folk music
and psychedelic rock
, with an emphasis on the new music emerging from Los Angeles and San Francisco. As important as the musical content of the programme was the personal—sometimes confessional—tone of Peel's presentation, and the listener participation it engendered. Underground events he had attended during his periods of shore leave, like the UFO Club
and "The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream
", together with causes célèbres like the drug "busts" of the Rolling Stones and John "Hoppy" Hopkins, were discussed between records. All this was far removed from Radio London's daytime format. Listeners sent Peel letters, poems, and records from their own collections, so that the programme became a vehicle for two-way communication; by the final week of Radio London he was receiving far more mail than any other DJ on the station.
After the closure of Radio London in 1967 Peel wrote a column under the title The Perfumed Garden for the underground newspaper the International Times
(from autumn 1967 to mid-1969), in which he showed himself to be a committed, if critical, supporter of the ideals of the underground. A Perfumed Garden mailing list was set up by a group of keen listeners, which facilitated contacts and gave rise to numerous small-scale, local arts projects typical of the time, including the poetry magazine Sol.
, which began broadcasting the following month. Unlike Big L, Radio 1 was not a full-time station, but a hybrid of recorded music and live studio orchestras. Peel recalled, "I was one of the first lot on Radio 1 and I think it was mainly because ... Radio 1 had no real idea what they were doing so they had to take people off the pirate ships because there wasn't anybody else." Peel presented a programme called Top Gear
. At first he was obliged to share presentation duties with other DJs (Pete Drummond and Tommy Vance
were among his co-hosts) but in February 1968 he was given sole charge of Top Gear; he continued to present the show until it ended in 1975. Peel played an eclectic mix of the music that caught his attention, which he would continue to do throughout his career.
During 1969, after hosting a trailer for a BBC programme on VD on his Night Ride programme, Peel received significant media attention because he divulged on air that he had suffered from a sexually transmitted disease
earlier that year. This admission was later used in an attempt to discredit him when he appeared as a defence witness in the 1971 Oz
obscenity trial.
The Night Ride programme, advertised by the BBC as an exploration of words and music, seemed to take up from where The Perfumed Garden had left off. It featured rock, folk, blues, classical and electronic music. A unique feature of the programme was the inclusion of tracks, mostly of exotic non-Western music, drawn from the BBC Sound Archive
; the most popular of these were gathered on a BBC Records LP, John Peel's Archive Things (1970). Night Ride also featured poetry readings and numerous interviews with a wide range of guests, including personal friends Marc Bolan
, journalist and musician Mick Farren
, poet Pete Roche, and singer-songwriter Bridget St. John and stars such as the Byrds
, the Rolling Stones and John Lennon
and Yoko Ono
. The programme captured much of the creative activity of the underground scene. Its anti-establishment stance and unpredictability did not find approval with the BBC hierarchy, and it ended in September 1969 after 18 months. In his sleeve notes to the Archive Things LP Peel calls the free-form nature of Night Ride his preferred radio format. His subsequent shows featured a mixture of records and live sessions, a format which would characterise his Radio 1 programmes for the rest of his career.
After separation from his first wife, Peel's personal life began to stabilise, as he found friendship and support from new Top Gear producer John Walters - and from his girlfriend Sheila Gilhooly, who he identified on-air as "the Pig". Peel married Sheila on 31 August 1974. The reception was in London's Regent's Park
, with Walters as best man. Peel wore Liverpool football colours (red) and walked down the aisle to the song "You'll Never Walk Alone
". Their sheepdog
, Woggle, served as a bridesmaid
.
Peel's enthusiasm for music outside the mainstream occasionally brought him into conflict with the Radio 1 hierarchy. In early 1977 station controller Derek Chinnery
contacted John Walters and asked him to confirm that the show was not playing any punk, which he (Chinnery) had read about in the press and disapproved of. Chinnery was evidently somewhat surprised by Walters' reply that in recent weeks they had been playing little else. In 1979 Peel stated: "They leave you to get on with it. I'm paid money by the BBC not to go off and work for a commercial radio station...I wouldn't want to go to one anyway, because they wouldn't let me do what the BBC let me do."
Peel's reputation as an important DJ breaking unsigned acts into the mainstream was such that young hopefuls sent him an enormous amount of records, CDs, and tapes. When he returned home from a three week holiday at the end of 1986 there were 173 LPs, 91 12"s and 179 7"s waiting for him.
Another example in point is that in 1983 unsigned artist Billy Bragg
drove to the Radio 1 studios with a mushroom biryani
and a copy of his record after hearing Peel mention that he was hungry, the subsequent airplay launching his career. Another example is that John Peel's favourite record for over a year in the late seventies/early eighties was Mopsie Beans EP
"One Out" .
In the 1970s Peel and Sheila moved to a thatched cottage in the village of Great Finborough
near Stowmarket
in Suffolk
, nicknamed "Peel Acres". In later years Peel broadcast many of his shows from a studio in the house, with Sheila and their children often being involved or at least mentioned. Peel's passion for Liverpool F.C.
was reflected in his children's names:
William Robert Anfield
, Alexandra Mary Anfield, Thomas James Dalglish
, and Florence Victoria Shankly
. His later shows also regularly featured live performances (broadcast live, unlike the pre-recorded Peel sessions), mostly from BBC Maida Vale Studios
in West London, but occasionally in the Peel Acres living room.
In addition to his Radio 1 show, Peel broadcast as a disc jockey on the BBC World Service
, 30 years on the British Forces Broadcasting Service BFBS (John Peel's Music on BFBS), VPRO Radio3 in the Netherlands, YLE Radio Mafia in Finland, Ö3 in Austria (Nachtexpress), and on Radio 4U, Radio Eins (Peel ...), Radio Bremen
(Ritz) and some independent radio stations around FSK Hamburg in Germany. As a result of his BFBS programme he was voted, in Germany, 'Top DJ in Europe'.
Peel was an occasional presenter of Top of the Pops
on BBC 1 TV from the late 1960s until the 1990s, and in particular from 1982 to 1987 when he appeared regularly. In 1971 he appeared not as presenter but performer, alongside Rod Stewart
and The Faces, pretending to play mandolin
on "Maggie May
". He often presented the BBC's television coverage of music events, notably Glastonbury Festival
.
. In 1998, Offspring grew into the magazine-style documentary show Home Truths
. When he took on the job presenting the programme, which was about everyday life in British families, Peel requested that it be free from celebrities, as he found real life stories more entertaining. Home Truths was described by occasional stand-in presenter John Walters as being "about people who had fridges called Renfrewshire". Peel also made regular contributions to BBC Two's humorous look at the irritations of modern life Grumpy Old Men. His only appearance in an acting role in film was in 1999 as a "grumpy old man who catalogues records" in Five Seconds to Spare, although he had provided narration for others.
He appeared as a celebrity guest on a number of TV shows, including This Is Your Life
(1996, BBC), Travels With My Camera (1996, Channel 4
TV) and Going Home (2002, ITV
TV), and presented the 1997 Channel 4 series Classic Trains. He was also in demand as a voice-over artist for television documentaries, such as BBC One's A Life of Grime
.
At the age of 62 he was diagnosed with diabetes, following many years of fatigue.
In April 2003, the publishers Transworld
successfully wooed Peel with a package worth up to £1.6 million for his autobiography, having placed an advert in a national newspaper aimed only at Peel. Unfinished at the time of his death it was completed by Sheila and journalist Ryan Gilbey. It was published in October 2005 under the title Margrave of the Marshes. A collection of Peel's miscellaneous writings, The Olivetti Chronicles, was published in 2008.
on 25 October 2004, on a working holiday in the Inca city of Cusco
in Peru
. Shortly after the announcement of his death, tributes began to arrive from fans and supporters both in and out of public life. On 26 October 2004 BBC Radio 1
cleared its schedules to broadcast a day of tributes. London's Evening Standard boards that afternoon read "the day the music died".
Peel had often spoken wryly of his eventual death. He once said on the show Room 101
, "I've always imagined I'd die by driving into the back of a truck while trying to read the name on a cassette and people would say, 'He would have wanted to go that way.' Well, I want them to know that I wouldn't."
At one point, he said that if he died before his producer John Walters, he wanted the latter to play Roy Harper
's "When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease
". Walters having died in 2001, it was left to Andy Kershaw
to end his tribute programme to Peel on BBC Radio 3
with the song. Peel's stand-in on his Radio 1 slot, Rob da Bank
, also played the song at the start of the final show before his funeral. Another time, Peel said he'd like to be remembered with a gospel song. He stated that the final record he would play would be the Rev C. L. Franklin
's sermon "Dry Bones in The Valley".
On his Home Truths
BBC radio show John once commented about his own death; this is a direct quote from a recording made of the show; "I definitely want to be buried, although not yet. I'm 61 on Wednesday - just a working day for me, I'm afraid - so actuarily (sic) I should have a mile or two left in me, but I do want the children to be able to stand solemnly at my graveside and think lovely thoughts along the lines of 'Get out of that one, you swine', which they won't be able to do if I've been cremated. I think I want 'Teenage dreams, so hard to beat' on my gravestone and every night at dusk the trumpeters of the 5th Battalion King's Shropshire Light Infantry to play Misty in Roots
' Mankind over the grave. Lovely."
Peel's funeral, on 12 November 2004, in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
, was attended by over a thousand people, including many of the artists he had championed. Eulogies were read by his brother, Alan Ravenscroft, and DJ Paul Gambaccini
. The service ended with clips of him talking about his life and his coffin was carried out to the accompaniment of his favourite song, The Undertones
' "Teenage Kicks
". Peel had written that, apart from his name, all he wanted on his gravestone were the words, "Teenage dreams, so hard to beat", from the lyrics of "Teenage Kicks". A headstone engraved in accordance with his wishes was placed at his grave in 2008.
and Phonographic Performance Limited
which represented the record companies dominated by the EMI
cartel. Because of these restrictions the BBC had been forced to hire bands and orchestras to render cover versions of recorded music. The theory behind this device was that it would create employment and force people to buy records and not listen to them free of charge on the air. One of the reasons why all of the offshore broadcasting stations of the 1960s were called "pirates" was because they operated outside of British laws and were not bound by the needle time
restriction on the number of records they could play on the air.
The BBC employed its own house bands and orchestras and it also engaged outside bands to record exclusive tracks for its programmes in BBC studios. This was the reason why Peel was able to use "session men" in his own programmes. Sessions were usually four tracks recorded and mixed in a single day; as such they often had a rough and ready, demo-like feel, somewhere between a live performance and a finished recording. Peel remained on BBC Radio 1
for 37 years, until his death in 2004. During that time over 4000 sessions were recorded by over 2000 artists. Many classic Peel Sessions have been released on record, particularly by the Strange Fruit
label.
—a countdown of the best tracks of the year as voted for by the listeners. Despite Peel's eclectic play list, the Festive Fifty tended to be composed largely of "white boys with guitars", as Peel complained in 1988. In 1991 the broadcast of the chart was cancelled due to a lack of votes, although many have speculated that it was because it didn't feature a single entry from the dance acts that Peel had been championing that year. Topped by Nirvana
's "Smells Like Teen Spirit
", this Phantom Fifty was eventually broadcast at the rate of one track per programme in 1993. The 1997 chart was initially cancelled due to the lack of air-time Peel had been allocated for the period, but enough "spontaneous" votes were received over the phone that a Festive Thirty-One was compiled and broadcast.
Peel wrote that "The Festive 50 dates back to what was doubtless a crisp September morning in the early-to-mid Seventies, when John Walters and I were musing on life in his uniquely squalid office. In our waggish way, we decided to mock the enthusiasm of the Radio 1 management of the time for programmes with alliterative titles. Content, we felt, was of less importance than a snappy Radio Times billing. In the course of our historic meeting we had, I imagine, some fine reasons for dismissing the idea of a Festive 40 and going instead for a Festive 50, a decision that was to ruin my Decembers for years to come, condemning me to night after night at home with a ledger, when I could have been out and about having fun, fun, fun."
After his death, the Festive Fifty was continued on Radio 1 by Rob Da Bank
, Huw Stephens
and Ras Kwame
for two years, but then given to Peel-inspired Internet radio station Dandelion Radio
, which continues to compile it to this day.
(named after his pet hamster) so he could release the debut album by Bridget St John
, which he also produced. The label released 27 albums by 18 different artists before folding in 1972. Of its albums, There is Some Fun Going Forward
was a sampler intended to present its acts to a wide audience, however Dandelion was never a great success, with only two releases charting in national charts: Medicine Head
in the UK with "(And The) Pictures In The Sky" and Beau
in Lebanon
with "1917 Revolution".
As Peel stated:
Peel appeared on one Dandelion release: the David Bedford
album Nurses Song with Elephants, recorded at the Marquee Studios, as part of a group playing twenty-seven plastic pipe twirlers on the track "Some Bright Stars for Queen's College".
In the 1980s Peel set up the Strange Fruit Records
with Clive Selwood to release material recorded by the BBC for Peel Sessions.
of the Marshes, that the band of which he owns the most records is The Fall. Regulars in the Festive 50, and easily recognised by vocalist Mark E. Smith
's distinctive delivery, The Fall became synonymous with Peel's Radio 1 show through the 1980s and 1990s. Peel kept in contact with many of the artists he championed but only met Smith on two, apparently awkward, occasions.
The Misunderstood
is the only band that Peel ever personally managed—he first met the band in Riverside, California in 1966 and convinced them to move to London. He championed their music throughout his career; in 1968, he described their 1966 single "I Can Take You to the Sun
" as "the best popular record that's ever been recorded." and shortly before his death, he stated, "If I had to list the ten greatest performances I've seen in my life, one would be The Misunderstood at Pandora's Box, Hollywood, 1966 ... My god, they were a great band!"
His favourite single is widely known to have been "Teenage Kicks
" by The Undertones
; in an interview in 2001, he stated "There's nothing you could add to it or subtract from it that would improve it." In the same 2001 interview, he also listed "No More Ghettos in America" by Stanley Winston, "There Must Be Thousands" by The Quads
and "Lonely Saturday Night" by Don French as being amongst his all-time favourites.
A longer list of his favourite singles was revealed in 2005 when the contents of a wooden box in which he stored the records that meant the most to him were made public. The box was the subject of a television documentary, John Peel's Record Box
. In 1999 Peel presented a nightly segment on his programme titled the Peelennium
, in which he played four recordings from each year of the 20th century.
s DJ of the year, Sony
Broadcaster of the Year in 1993, winner of the publicly-voted Godlike Genius Award from the NME
in 1994, Sony
Gold Award winner in 2002 and is a member of the Radio Academy
Hall of Fame. At the NME awards in 2005 he was Hero of the Year and was posthumously given a special award for "Lifelong Service To Music". At the same event the "John Peel Award For Musical Innovation" was awarded to The Others
.
He was awarded many honorary degree
s including an MA from the University of East Anglia
, doctorates (Anglia Polytechnic University and Sheffield Hallam University
), various honorary degrees (University of Liverpool
, Open University
, University of Portsmouth
, University of Bradford
) and a fellowship of Liverpool John Moores University
.
He was appointed an OBE
in 1998, for his services to British music. In 2002, the BBC conducted a vote to discover the 100 Greatest Britons
of all time, in which Peel was voted 43rd.
, previously known simply as 'The New Bands Tent' was renamed 'The John Peel Stage' in 2005, while in 2008 Merseytravel
announced they would be naming a train after him.
In 2009 the first blue plaque to bear his name was unveiled in Heywood, part of Rochdale, Greater Manchester to recognise Peel's contribution to the local music industry in financing Tractor
's recording studios.
On 13 October 2005, the first "John Peel Day" was held to mark the anniversary of his last show. The BBC encouraged as many bands as possible to stage gigs on the 13th, and over 500 gigs took place in the UK and as far away as Canada and New Zealand, from bands ranging from Peel favourites New Order
and The Fall, to many new and unsigned bands. A second John Peel day was held on 12 October 2006, and a third on 11 October 2007. The BBC had originally planned to hold a John Peel Day annually, however Radio 1 has not held any official commemoration of the event since 2007, though a number of gigs still take place around the country to mark the anniversary.
At the annual Gilles Peterson's World Wide Awards, the "John Peel Play More Jazz Award" award was named in his honour.
In his Heswall birthplace a pub was opened, named The Ravenscroft, in his honour.
A number of Peel-related compilation albums have been released since his death, including John Peel and Sheila: The Pig's Big 78s: A Beginner's Guide
, a project Peel started with his wife that was left unfinished when he died, and Kats Karavan: The History of John Peel on the Radio (2009), a 4 CD box set. Rock music critic Peter Paphides
said in a review of the box set that "[s]ome artists remain forever associated with him", including ...And the Native Hipsters
with "There Goes Concorde Again", and Ivor Cutler
with "Jam". A sizable online community has also emerged dedicated to sharing recordings of his radio shows.
Peel's adult sons Tom
and William Ravenscroft have followed him into radio DJing and music journalism, with an emphasis on spotting new talent.
In 2011, BBC 6 Music
inaugurated the annual John Peel Lecture, named in honour of the DJ.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004. He was known for his eclectic taste in music and his honest and warm broadcasting style.
He was one of the first broadcasters to play psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
and progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
records on British radio, and he is widely acknowledged for promoting artists working in various genres, including pop, reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
, indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
, alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
, punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
, breakcore
Breakcore
Breakcore is a style of electronic music largely influenced by hardcore techno, drum and bass and Intelligent dance music. Its sound is largely characterized by a high-tempo, well-timed mingling of distorted kick drums , break beats arranged from samples of the Amen break, and audio samples from a...
, grindcore
Grindcore
Grindcore is an extreme genre of music that started in the early- to mid-1980s. It draws inspiration from some of the most abrasive music genres – including death metal, industrial music, noise and the more extreme varieties of hardcore punk....
, death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
, British hip hop
British hip hop
British hip hop is a genre of music, and a culture that covers a variety of styles of hip hop music made in the United Kingdom. It is generally classified as one of a number of styles of urban music...
, and dance music
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
.
Peel's Radio 1 shows were notable for the regular 'Peel sessions', which usually consisted of four songs recorded by an artist live in the BBC's studios, and which often provided the first major national coverage to bands that later would achieve great fame. (These 'sessions' are similar to 'Live Lounge
Live Lounge
The Live Lounge is a segment on the British radio station BBC Radio 1. Originally hosted by Jo Whiley on her mid-morning radio show and now hosted by Fearne Cotton, it exhibits well-known artists usually performing one song of their own and one by another artist, in an acoustic format...
' sessions recorded today for the station.) Another popular feature of his shows was the annual Festive Fifty
Festive Fifty
The Festive Fifty was originally an annual list of the year's fifty best songs compiled at the end of the year and voted for by listeners to John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show...
countdown of his listeners' favourite records of the year.
Peel appeared frequently on British television as one of the presenters of Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
in the 1980s, and he provided voice-over
Voice-over
Voice-over is a production technique where a voice which is not part of the narrative is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations...
commentary for a number of BBC programmes. He became popular with the audience of BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
for his Home Truths
Home Truths
Home Truths was a weekly BBC Radio 4 programme which began on 11 April 1998 and was usually hosted by the DJ John Peel until his death in October 2004. In the Saturday 9-10am slot, it gradually became one of Radio 4's most successful programmes....
programme, which ran from the 1990s, featuring unusual stories from listeners' domestic lives.
Early life
Peel was born in Heswall Cottage Hospital in HeswallHeswall
Heswall is a town in Wirral, in the county of Merseyside, England. Administratively, it is a ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. At the time of the 2001 Census, the total population of the ward was 16,012 , which included the nearby villages of Barnston and Gayton...
on the Wirral Peninsula, near Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, and grew up in the nearby village of Burton. His father was an upper middle class
Upper middle class
The upper middle class is a sociological concept referring to the social group constituted by higher-status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term "lower middle class", which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle class stratum, and to the broader term "middle...
cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
merchant
Merchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
, and he was sent away to be educated as a boarder at Shrewsbury School
Shrewsbury School
Shrewsbury School is a co-educational independent school for pupils aged 13 to 18, founded by Royal Charter in 1552. The present campus to which the school moved in 1882 is located on the banks of the River Severn in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England...
.
His housemaster, R H J Brooke, whom Peel described as "extraordinarily eccentric" and "amazingly perceptive," wrote on one of his school reports, "Perhaps it's possible that John can form some kind of nightmarish career out of his enthusiasm for unlistenable records and his delight in writing long and facetious essays." In his posthumously published autobiography, Peel revealed that he had been raped by an older pupil while at Shrewsbury.
After finishing his National Service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
in 1959 in the Royal Artillery
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery , is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...
as a B2 radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
operator, he worked as a mill operative at Townhead Mill in Rochdale
Rochdale
Rochdale is a large market town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the foothills of the Pennines on the River Roch, north-northwest of Oldham, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester. Rochdale is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan...
and travelled home each weekend to Heswall on a scooter borrowed from his sister. Whilst in Rochdale Monday to Friday, he stayed in a bed-and-breakfast in the area of Milkstone Road and Drake Street. Peel was a vegetarian.
United States
In 1960, he went to the United States to work for a cotton producer who had business dealings with his father. Once this job finished, he took a number of others, including working as a travelling insurance salesman, remaining in the United States until 1967. While in Dallas, Texas, where the insurance company he worked for was based, he spoke to John F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
as the presidential candidate and his running mate, Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
, who were touring the city during the 1960 Presidential election campaign.
Following Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, Peel passed himself off as a reporter for the Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
The Liverpool Echo is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is published Monday to Saturday, and is Liverpool's evening newspaper while its sister paper, the Liverpool Daily Post, is the morning paper...
in order to attend the arraignment of Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...
, and he and a friend can be seen in the footage of the November 22/23 midnight press conference at Dallas Police Department when Oswald was paraded before the media. He later phoned in the story to the Liverpool Echo.
While working for the insurance company, Peel filed card
Punched card
A punched card, punch card, IBM card, or Hollerith card is a piece of stiff paper that contains digital information represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions...
programs for an early IBM 1410
IBM 1410
The IBM 1410, a member of the IBM 1400 series, was a variable wordlength decimal computer that was announced by IBM on September 12, 1960 and marketed as a midrange "Business Computer". It was withdrawn on March 30, 1970. The 1410 was similar in design to the very popular IBM 1401, but it had one...
computer (which led to his entry in Who's Who
Who's Who (UK)
Who's Who is an annual British publication of biographies which vary in length of about 30,000 living notable Britons.-History:...
noting him as a former computer programmer), and he got his first radio job, albeit unpaid, working for WRR (AM) in Dallas. There, he presented the second hour of the Monday night programme Kat's Karavan, which was primarily hosted by the American singer and radio personality Jim Lowe
Jim Lowe
Jim Lowe is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his 1956 number-one hit record, "The Green Door". He also served as a disc jockey and radio host and personality, and has been considered an expert on the popular music of the 1940s and 1950s.-Biography:Born in Springfield, Missouri, Lowe...
. Following this, and as Beatlemania
Beatlemania
Beatlemania is a term that originated during the 1960s to describe the intense fan frenzy directed toward The Beatles during the early years of their success...
hit the United States, Peel got a job with the Dallas radio station KLIF as the official The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
correspondent on the strength of his connection to Liverpool. He later worked for KOMA
KOKC (AM)
KOKC is a talk radio station located in Oklahoma City among a cluster of stations in the market owned by Pennsylvania-based Renda Broadcasting. KOKC is an affiliate of the CBS Radio Network.-The early years:...
in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...
until 1965 when he moved to KMEN
KKDD
KKDD is a commercial radio station located in San Bernardino, California, broadcasting to the San Bernardino-Riverside Metropolitan Area on 1290 AM. Owned by Clear Channel Communications, KKDD airs children's music programming syndicated by Radio Disney...
in San Bernardino, California
San Bernardino, California
San Bernardino is a city located in the Riverside-San Bernardino metropolitan area , and serves as the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States...
, using the name John Ravencroft to present the breakfast show.
While in Dallas, in 1965, he married his first wife, Shirley Anne Milburn, in what Peel later described as a "mutual defence pact". The marriage was never happy and although she accompanied Peel back to Britain in 1967, they were soon separated. The divorce became final in 1973.
Return to Britain
Peel returned to England in early 1967 and found work with the offshore pirate radioUK pirate radio
UK pirate radio was popular in the 1960s and experienced another surge of interest in the 1980s. There are currently an estimated 150 pirate radio stations in the UK...
station Radio London
Wonderful Radio London
Radio London, also known as Big L and Wonderful Radio London, was a top 40 offshore commercial station that operated from 16 December 1964 to 14 August 1967, from a ship anchored in the North Sea, three and a half miles off Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, England...
. He was offered the midnight-to-two shift, which gradually developed into a programme called The Perfumed Garden
The Perfumed Garden (radio show)
The Perfumed Garden was the title given by John Peel to his 1967 late-night programme on the British pirate radio station, Radio London. After several years of work in US commercial pop radio, Peel joined the station in March 1967, on returning to the UK from California. As well as various slots on...
(some thought it was named after an erotic book famous at the time - which Peel claimed never to have read). It was on "Big L" that he first adopted the name John Peel (the name was suggested by a Radio London secretary) and established himself as a distinctive radio voice.
Peel's show was an outlet for the music of the UK underground
UK underground
The Underground was a countercultural movement in the United Kingdom linked to the underground culture in the United States and associated with the hippie phenomenon. Its primary focus was around Ladbroke Grove and Notting Hill in London...
scene. He played classic blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
and psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
, with an emphasis on the new music emerging from Los Angeles and San Francisco. As important as the musical content of the programme was the personal—sometimes confessional—tone of Peel's presentation, and the listener participation it engendered. Underground events he had attended during his periods of shore leave, like the UFO Club
UFO Club
The UFO Club was a famous but shortlived UK underground club in London during the 1960s, venue of performances by many of the top bands of the day.-History:...
and "The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream
The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream
The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream was a concert held in the huge Great Hall of the Alexandra Palace, London, on 29 April 1967. The fund-raising concert for the International Times was organised by Barry Miles and John "Hoppy" Hopkins and David Howson...
", together with causes célèbres like the drug "busts" of the Rolling Stones and John "Hoppy" Hopkins, were discussed between records. All this was far removed from Radio London's daytime format. Listeners sent Peel letters, poems, and records from their own collections, so that the programme became a vehicle for two-way communication; by the final week of Radio London he was receiving far more mail than any other DJ on the station.
After the closure of Radio London in 1967 Peel wrote a column under the title The Perfumed Garden for the underground newspaper the International Times
International Times
International Times was an underground newspaper founded in London in 1966. Editors included Hoppy, David Mairowitz, Pete Stansill, Barry Miles, Jim Haynes and playwright Tom McGrath...
(from autumn 1967 to mid-1969), in which he showed himself to be a committed, if critical, supporter of the ideals of the underground. A Perfumed Garden mailing list was set up by a group of keen listeners, which facilitated contacts and gave rise to numerous small-scale, local arts projects typical of the time, including the poetry magazine Sol.
BBC career
When Radio London closed down on 14 August 1967, John Peel joined the BBC's new pop music station, BBC Radio 1BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
, which began broadcasting the following month. Unlike Big L, Radio 1 was not a full-time station, but a hybrid of recorded music and live studio orchestras. Peel recalled, "I was one of the first lot on Radio 1 and I think it was mainly because ... Radio 1 had no real idea what they were doing so they had to take people off the pirate ships because there wasn't anybody else." Peel presented a programme called Top Gear
Top Gear (radio show)
Top Gear was originally a short-lived pop music show on the BBC Light Programme in the mid-1960s.- Origin and format :It was one of the Corporation's few attempts to compete with the pirate radio stations and Radio Luxembourg, who had attracted large audiences of young British pop music listeners...
. At first he was obliged to share presentation duties with other DJs (Pete Drummond and Tommy Vance
Tommy Vance
Tommy Vance was a British pop radio broadcaster, born in Eynsham, Oxfordshire. He was one of the few music broadcasters in the United Kingdom to champion hard rock and heavy metal in the early 1980s, providing the only national radio forum for both bands and fans...
were among his co-hosts) but in February 1968 he was given sole charge of Top Gear; he continued to present the show until it ended in 1975. Peel played an eclectic mix of the music that caught his attention, which he would continue to do throughout his career.
During 1969, after hosting a trailer for a BBC programme on VD on his Night Ride programme, Peel received significant media attention because he divulged on air that he had suffered from a sexually transmitted disease
Sexually transmitted disease
Sexually transmitted disease , also known as a sexually transmitted infection or venereal disease , is an illness that has a significant probability of transmission between humans by means of human sexual behavior, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex...
earlier that year. This admission was later used in an attempt to discredit him when he appeared as a defence witness in the 1971 Oz
Oz (magazine)
Oz was first published as a satirical humour magazine between 1963 and 1969 in Sydney, Australia and, in its second and better known incarnation, became a "psychedelic hippy" magazine from 1967 to 1973 in London...
obscenity trial.
The Night Ride programme, advertised by the BBC as an exploration of words and music, seemed to take up from where The Perfumed Garden had left off. It featured rock, folk, blues, classical and electronic music. A unique feature of the programme was the inclusion of tracks, mostly of exotic non-Western music, drawn from the BBC Sound Archive
BBC Sound Archive
The BBC Sound Archive is a collection of audio recordings maintained by the BBC and founded in 1936. Its recordings date back to the late 19th century and include many rare items including contemporary speeches by public and political figures, folk music, British dialects and sound...
; the most popular of these were gathered on a BBC Records LP, John Peel's Archive Things (1970). Night Ride also featured poetry readings and numerous interviews with a wide range of guests, including personal friends Marc Bolan
Marc Bolan
Marc Bolan was an English singer-songwriter, guitarist and poet. He is best known as the founder, frontman, lead singer & guitarist for T. Rex, but also a successful solo artist...
, journalist and musician Mick Farren
Mick Farren
Michael Anthony 'Mick' Farren is an English journalist, author and singer associated with counterculture and the UK Underground.-Music:...
, poet Pete Roche, and singer-songwriter Bridget St. John and stars such as the Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
, the Rolling Stones and John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
and Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
. The programme captured much of the creative activity of the underground scene. Its anti-establishment stance and unpredictability did not find approval with the BBC hierarchy, and it ended in September 1969 after 18 months. In his sleeve notes to the Archive Things LP Peel calls the free-form nature of Night Ride his preferred radio format. His subsequent shows featured a mixture of records and live sessions, a format which would characterise his Radio 1 programmes for the rest of his career.
After separation from his first wife, Peel's personal life began to stabilise, as he found friendship and support from new Top Gear producer John Walters - and from his girlfriend Sheila Gilhooly, who he identified on-air as "the Pig". Peel married Sheila on 31 August 1974. The reception was in London's Regent's Park
Regent's Park
Regent's Park is one of the Royal Parks of London. It is in the north-western part of central London, partly in the City of Westminster and partly in the London Borough of Camden...
, with Walters as best man. Peel wore Liverpool football colours (red) and walked down the aisle to the song "You'll Never Walk Alone
You'll Never Walk Alone (song)
"You'll Never Walk Alone" is a show tune from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel.In the musical, in the second act, Nettie Fowler, the cousin of the female protagonist Julie Jordan, sings "You'll Never Walk Alone" to comfort and encourage Julie when her husband, Billy Bigelow, the...
". Their sheepdog
Herding dog
A herding dog, also known as a stock dog or working dog, is a type of pastoral dog that either has been trained in herding or belongs to breeds developed for herding...
, Woggle, served as a bridesmaid
Bridesmaid
The bridesmaids are members of the bride's wedding party in a wedding. A bridesmaid is typically a young woman, and often a close friend or sister. She attends to the bride on the day of a wedding or marriage ceremony...
.
Peel's enthusiasm for music outside the mainstream occasionally brought him into conflict with the Radio 1 hierarchy. In early 1977 station controller Derek Chinnery
Derek Chinnery
Charles Derek Chinnery was the controller of BBC Radio 1 from 1978 to 1985.-Career:He joined the BBC in 1941 aged 16. From 1943-7 he was in the RAF. He returned to the BBC in 1947, becoming a producer in 1952....
contacted John Walters and asked him to confirm that the show was not playing any punk, which he (Chinnery) had read about in the press and disapproved of. Chinnery was evidently somewhat surprised by Walters' reply that in recent weeks they had been playing little else. In 1979 Peel stated: "They leave you to get on with it. I'm paid money by the BBC not to go off and work for a commercial radio station...I wouldn't want to go to one anyway, because they wouldn't let me do what the BBC let me do."
Peel's reputation as an important DJ breaking unsigned acts into the mainstream was such that young hopefuls sent him an enormous amount of records, CDs, and tapes. When he returned home from a three week holiday at the end of 1986 there were 173 LPs, 91 12"s and 179 7"s waiting for him.
Another example in point is that in 1983 unsigned artist Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...
drove to the Radio 1 studios with a mushroom biryani
Biryani
Biryani, biriani, or beriani is a set of rice-based foods made with spices, rice and meat, fish, eggs or vegetables. The name is derived from the Persian word beryā which means "fried" or "roasted"....
and a copy of his record after hearing Peel mention that he was hungry, the subsequent airplay launching his career. Another example is that John Peel's favourite record for over a year in the late seventies/early eighties was Mopsie Beans EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
"One Out" .
Great Finborough
Great Finborough is a rural village in Suffolk, England about south west of Stowmarket and near one of the sources of the River Gipping. It has a population of 755....
near Stowmarket
Stowmarket
-See also:* Stowmarket Town F.C.* Stowmarket High School-External links:* * * * *...
in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, nicknamed "Peel Acres". In later years Peel broadcast many of his shows from a studio in the house, with Sheila and their children often being involved or at least mentioned. Peel's passion for Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...
was reflected in his children's names:
William Robert Anfield
Anfield
Anfield is an association football stadium in the district of Anfield, Liverpool, England, with a seating capacity of 45,522. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892 and was originally the home of Everton F.C. from 1884 to 1892, before they moved to Goodison Park...
, Alexandra Mary Anfield, Thomas James Dalglish
Kenny Dalglish
Kenneth Mathieson "Kenny" Dalglish MBE is a Scottish former footballer and the current manager of Liverpool F.C.. In a 22-year playing career, he played for two club teams, Celtic and Liverpool, winning numerous honours with both. He is the most capped Scottish player, with 102 appearances, and...
, and Florence Victoria Shankly
Bill Shankly
William "Bill" Shankly, OBE was a Scottish football player and manager, most noted for managing Liverpool between 1959 and 1974. One of Britain's most successful and respected football managers, Shankly was also a fine player whose career was interrupted by the Second World War...
. His later shows also regularly featured live performances (broadcast live, unlike the pre-recorded Peel sessions), mostly from BBC Maida Vale Studios
Maida Vale Studios
Maida Vale Studios is a complex of seven BBC studios on Delaware Road, Maida Vale, London.It has been used to record thousands of classical music, popular music and drama sessions for BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4 from 1946 to the present...
in West London, but occasionally in the Peel Acres living room.
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
, 30 years on the British Forces Broadcasting Service BFBS (John Peel's Music on BFBS), VPRO Radio3 in the Netherlands, YLE Radio Mafia in Finland, Ö3 in Austria (Nachtexpress), and on Radio 4U, Radio Eins (Peel ...), Radio Bremen
Radio Bremen
Radio Bremen , Germany's smallest public radio and television broadcaster, is the legally mandated broadcaster for the city-state of Bremen...
(Ritz) and some independent radio stations around FSK Hamburg in Germany. As a result of his BFBS programme he was voted, in Germany, 'Top DJ in Europe'.
Peel was an occasional presenter of Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
on BBC 1 TV from the late 1960s until the 1990s, and in particular from 1982 to 1987 when he appeared regularly. In 1971 he appeared not as presenter but performer, alongside Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
and The Faces, pretending to play mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
on "Maggie May
Maggie May
"Maggie May" is a song written by singer Rod Stewart and Martin Quittenton and recorded by Stewart in 1971 for his album Every Picture Tells a Story....
". He often presented the BBC's television coverage of music events, notably Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
.
Later years
Between 1995 and 1997, Peel presented a show about children, called Offspring, on BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
. In 1998, Offspring grew into the magazine-style documentary show Home Truths
Home Truths
Home Truths was a weekly BBC Radio 4 programme which began on 11 April 1998 and was usually hosted by the DJ John Peel until his death in October 2004. In the Saturday 9-10am slot, it gradually became one of Radio 4's most successful programmes....
. When he took on the job presenting the programme, which was about everyday life in British families, Peel requested that it be free from celebrities, as he found real life stories more entertaining. Home Truths was described by occasional stand-in presenter John Walters as being "about people who had fridges called Renfrewshire". Peel also made regular contributions to BBC Two's humorous look at the irritations of modern life Grumpy Old Men. His only appearance in an acting role in film was in 1999 as a "grumpy old man who catalogues records" in Five Seconds to Spare, although he had provided narration for others.
He appeared as a celebrity guest on a number of TV shows, including This Is Your Life
This Is Your Life
This Is Your Life is an American television documentary series broadcast on NBC, originally hosted by its producer, Ralph Edwards from 1952 to 1961. In the show, the host surprises a guest, and proceeds to take them through their life in front of an audience including friends and family.Edwards...
(1996, BBC), Travels With My Camera (1996, Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
TV) and Going Home (2002, ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
TV), and presented the 1997 Channel 4 series Classic Trains. He was also in demand as a voice-over artist for television documentaries, such as BBC One's A Life of Grime
A Life of Grime
A Life of Grime is a BBC reality series following the work of environmental health inspectors...
.
At the age of 62 he was diagnosed with diabetes, following many years of fatigue.
In April 2003, the publishers Transworld
Transworld (company)
Transworld Publishers Inc. is a British publishing division of Random House and belongs to Bertelsmann, one of the world's largest media groups. It was established in 1950, and for many years it was the British division of Bantam Books. It publishes fiction and non fiction titles by various...
successfully wooed Peel with a package worth up to £1.6 million for his autobiography, having placed an advert in a national newspaper aimed only at Peel. Unfinished at the time of his death it was completed by Sheila and journalist Ryan Gilbey. It was published in October 2005 under the title Margrave of the Marshes. A collection of Peel's miscellaneous writings, The Olivetti Chronicles, was published in 2008.
Death
Peel died suddenly at the age of 65 from a heart attackMyocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
on 25 October 2004, on a working holiday in the Inca city of Cusco
Cusco
Cusco , often spelled Cuzco , is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region as well as the Cuzco Province. In 2007, the city had a population of 358,935 which was triple the figure of 20 years ago...
in Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
. Shortly after the announcement of his death, tributes began to arrive from fans and supporters both in and out of public life. On 26 October 2004 BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
cleared its schedules to broadcast a day of tributes. London's Evening Standard boards that afternoon read "the day the music died".
Peel had often spoken wryly of his eventual death. He once said on the show Room 101
Room 101 (TV series)
Room 101 is a BBC comedy television series based on the radio series of the same name, in which celebrities were invited to discuss their pet hates and persuade the host to consign them to a fate worse than death in Room 101, named after the torture room in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which is...
, "I've always imagined I'd die by driving into the back of a truck while trying to read the name on a cassette and people would say, 'He would have wanted to go that way.' Well, I want them to know that I wouldn't."
At one point, he said that if he died before his producer John Walters, he wanted the latter to play Roy Harper
Roy Harper
Roy Harper is an English folk / rock singer-songwriter and guitarist who has been a professional musician since the mid 1960s...
's "When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease
When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease
"When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease" is a track on the Roy Harper album HQ. Released as a single twice, in 1975 and 1978, it is possibly Roy's best-known song. The song captures the atmosphere of a village cricket match and is an elegy to a previous age...
". Walters having died in 2001, it was left to Andy Kershaw
Andy Kershaw
Andy Kershaw is a British broadcaster, known for his interest in world music.His shows feature a mix of country, blues, reggae, folk music, spoken word performance from the likes of Ivor Cutler, and other music from around the world.- Early Life :Kershaw and his sister, fellow broadcaster Liz...
to end his tribute programme to Peel on BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
with the song. Peel's stand-in on his Radio 1 slot, Rob da Bank
Rob da Bank
Robert John Gorham, known by the pseudonym Rob da Bank, is a British disc jockey. He presents a Friday-night/Saturday-morning show, Rob da Bank, on BBC Radio 1 from 5am-7am, focused on promoting new left field music...
, also played the song at the start of the final show before his funeral. Another time, Peel said he'd like to be remembered with a gospel song. He stated that the final record he would play would be the Rev C. L. Franklin
C. L. Franklin
Clarence LaVaughn Franklin , was an American Baptist minister, a civil rights activist, and father of the legendary soul and gospel singer Aretha Franklin.-Background:...
's sermon "Dry Bones in The Valley".
On his Home Truths
Home Truths
Home Truths was a weekly BBC Radio 4 programme which began on 11 April 1998 and was usually hosted by the DJ John Peel until his death in October 2004. In the Saturday 9-10am slot, it gradually became one of Radio 4's most successful programmes....
BBC radio show John once commented about his own death; this is a direct quote from a recording made of the show; "I definitely want to be buried, although not yet. I'm 61 on Wednesday - just a working day for me, I'm afraid - so actuarily (sic) I should have a mile or two left in me, but I do want the children to be able to stand solemnly at my graveside and think lovely thoughts along the lines of 'Get out of that one, you swine', which they won't be able to do if I've been cremated. I think I want 'Teenage dreams, so hard to beat' on my gravestone and every night at dusk the trumpeters of the 5th Battalion King's Shropshire Light Infantry to play Misty in Roots
Misty in Roots
Misty in Roots began life as a Southall-based British roots reggae band in the early 1970s. Their first album was 1979's Live at the Counter Eurovision, a record full of Biblical Rastafarian songs. It was championed by BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, helping to bring roots reggae to a white audience...
' Mankind over the grave. Lovely."
Peel's funeral, on 12 November 2004, in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, was attended by over a thousand people, including many of the artists he had championed. Eulogies were read by his brother, Alan Ravenscroft, and DJ Paul Gambaccini
Paul Gambaccini
Paul Matthew Gambaccini is a radio and television presenter in the United Kingdom...
. The service ended with clips of him talking about his life and his coffin was carried out to the accompaniment of his favourite song, The Undertones
The Undertones
The Undertones are a punk rock/new wave band formed in Derry, Northern Ireland, in 1975.The original line-up of the Undertones released thirteen singles and four studio albums — The Undertones , Hypnotised , Positive Touch and The Sin of Pride — before disbanding in July 1983.Music guide Allmusic...
' "Teenage Kicks
Teenage Kicks
"Teenage Kicks" is a 1978 song originally recorded by Northern Irish punk rock group The Undertones. Composed by the band's principal songwriter, John O'Neill, it was championed by DJ John Peel, and was his all-time favourite song.-John Peel:...
". Peel had written that, apart from his name, all he wanted on his gravestone were the words, "Teenage dreams, so hard to beat", from the lyrics of "Teenage Kicks". A headstone engraved in accordance with his wishes was placed at his grave in 2008.
Peel sessions
A feature of Peel's BBC Radio 1 shows were the famous John Peel Sessions, which usually consisted of four pieces of music pre-recorded at the BBC's studios. The sessions originally came about due to restrictions imposed on the BBC by the Musicians' UnionMusicians' Union (UK)
-About the MU:The Musicians' Union is an organisation which represents over 30,000 musicians working in all sectors of the UK music business.-Campaigns:The MU stages regular campaigns in relation to relevant musical and industrial issues...
and Phonographic Performance Limited
Phonographic Performance Limited
PPL is the London-based United Kingdom music licensing company which undertakes collective rights management of recorded music and music videos for public performance, broadcast and new media use...
which represented the record companies dominated by the EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
cartel. Because of these restrictions the BBC had been forced to hire bands and orchestras to render cover versions of recorded music. The theory behind this device was that it would create employment and force people to buy records and not listen to them free of charge on the air. One of the reasons why all of the offshore broadcasting stations of the 1960s were called "pirates" was because they operated outside of British laws and were not bound by the needle time
Needle time
Needle time was created in the United Kingdom by the Musicians' Union and Phonographic Performance Limited, in order to restrict the amount of recorded music that could be transmitted by British Broadcasting Corporation during the course of any 24-hour period. Until 1967 the BBC was allowed to...
restriction on the number of records they could play on the air.
The BBC employed its own house bands and orchestras and it also engaged outside bands to record exclusive tracks for its programmes in BBC studios. This was the reason why Peel was able to use "session men" in his own programmes. Sessions were usually four tracks recorded and mixed in a single day; as such they often had a rough and ready, demo-like feel, somewhere between a live performance and a finished recording. Peel remained on BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
for 37 years, until his death in 2004. During that time over 4000 sessions were recorded by over 2000 artists. Many classic Peel Sessions have been released on record, particularly by the Strange Fruit
Strange Fruit Records
Strange Fruit Records was an independent record label in the United Kingdom.The label, established by Clive Selwood and John Peel in 1986, was the primary distributor of BBC recordings, including Peel Sessions....
label.
Festive Fifty
An annual tradition of Peel's Radio 1 show was the Festive FiftyFestive Fifty
The Festive Fifty was originally an annual list of the year's fifty best songs compiled at the end of the year and voted for by listeners to John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show...
—a countdown of the best tracks of the year as voted for by the listeners. Despite Peel's eclectic play list, the Festive Fifty tended to be composed largely of "white boys with guitars", as Peel complained in 1988. In 1991 the broadcast of the chart was cancelled due to a lack of votes, although many have speculated that it was because it didn't feature a single entry from the dance acts that Peel had been championing that year. Topped by Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
's "Smells Like Teen Spirit
Smells Like Teen Spirit
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" is a song by the American grunge band Nirvana. It is the opening track and lead single from the band's second album, Nevermind , released on DGC Records...
", this Phantom Fifty was eventually broadcast at the rate of one track per programme in 1993. The 1997 chart was initially cancelled due to the lack of air-time Peel had been allocated for the period, but enough "spontaneous" votes were received over the phone that a Festive Thirty-One was compiled and broadcast.
Peel wrote that "The Festive 50 dates back to what was doubtless a crisp September morning in the early-to-mid Seventies, when John Walters and I were musing on life in his uniquely squalid office. In our waggish way, we decided to mock the enthusiasm of the Radio 1 management of the time for programmes with alliterative titles. Content, we felt, was of less importance than a snappy Radio Times billing. In the course of our historic meeting we had, I imagine, some fine reasons for dismissing the idea of a Festive 40 and going instead for a Festive 50, a decision that was to ruin my Decembers for years to come, condemning me to night after night at home with a ledger, when I could have been out and about having fun, fun, fun."
After his death, the Festive Fifty was continued on Radio 1 by Rob Da Bank
Rob da Bank
Robert John Gorham, known by the pseudonym Rob da Bank, is a British disc jockey. He presents a Friday-night/Saturday-morning show, Rob da Bank, on BBC Radio 1 from 5am-7am, focused on promoting new left field music...
, Huw Stephens
Huw Stephens
Huw Stephens is a radio presenter currently broadcasting shows on BBC Radio 1.-Early life and career:Stephens was born in Cardiff, Wales, the son of the author and literary journalist Meic Stephens...
and Ras Kwame
Ras Kwame
Ras Kwame is a British radio DJ and presenter. He started in the music industry as a club DJ playing hip hop, R&B and reggae in the early 1990s. He then moved on to promoting for Kiss100's groundbreaking Starlight Club night and the Mean Fiddler’s Subterranea Club, bringing over talent from the US...
for two years, but then given to Peel-inspired Internet radio station Dandelion Radio
Dandelion Radio
Dandelion Radio is an internet radio station founded in June 2006 with the aim of pursuing the musical legacy of the popular and influential BBC Radio 1 disk jockey John Peel...
, which continues to compile it to this day.
Dandelion Records and Strange Fruit
In 1969 Peel founded Dandelion RecordsDandelion Records
Dandelion Records was a British record label started in 1969 by the British DJ John Peel as a way to get the music he liked onto record. Peel was responsible for "artistic direction" and the commercial side was handled by Clive Selwood of Elektra Records and his wife Shurely...
(named after his pet hamster) so he could release the debut album by Bridget St John
Bridget St John
Bridget St John is a British singer and songwriter, best known for the three albums she recorded between 1969 and 1972 for John Peel's Dandelion label. Peel produced her debut album Ask Me No Questions. She also recorded a large number of BBC Radio and Peel sessions and toured regularly on the UK...
, which he also produced. The label released 27 albums by 18 different artists before folding in 1972. Of its albums, There is Some Fun Going Forward
There is Some Fun Going Forward
There is Some Fun Going Forward is the only sampler album released by John Peel's Dandelion Records label, and was marketed by Polydor. As one might expect from Peel, the artists featured were not necessarily mainstream, and in fact, the only artists featured who enjoyed chart success are Clifford...
was a sampler intended to present its acts to a wide audience, however Dandelion was never a great success, with only two releases charting in national charts: Medicine Head
Medicine Head
Medicine Head were a British blues rock band, active in the 1970s. Their biggest single success was in 1973, with "One and One is One", a Number 3 hit in the UK Singles Chart.-Main personnel:The group worked as a duo for most of its career, consisting of...
in the UK with "(And The) Pictures In The Sky" and Beau
Beau
Beau is a specialist twelve-string guitar player who first became known in the late 1960s through his recordings for John Peel's Dandelion Records label...
in Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
with "1917 Revolution".
As Peel stated:
It was never a success financially. In fact, we lost money, if I remember correctly, on every single release bar one. I did quite like it but it was terribly indulgent. Not as indulgent as it would have been had I not had a business partner, admittedly... I liked having a label. It enabled you to put out stuff that you liked without, in those days, having to worry about whether it was going to work commercially. I've never been a good business man.
Peel appeared on one Dandelion release: the David Bedford
David Bedford
David Vickerman Bedford , was an English composer and musician. He wrote and played both popular and classical music....
album Nurses Song with Elephants, recorded at the Marquee Studios, as part of a group playing twenty-seven plastic pipe twirlers on the track "Some Bright Stars for Queen's College".
In the 1980s Peel set up the Strange Fruit Records
Strange Fruit Records
Strange Fruit Records was an independent record label in the United Kingdom.The label, established by Clive Selwood and John Peel in 1986, was the primary distributor of BBC recordings, including Peel Sessions....
with Clive Selwood to release material recorded by the BBC for Peel Sessions.
Production (albums)
- 1969: Mike Hart Bleeds - Mike HartMike Hart (poet)Mike Hart was a Liverpool based singer/songwriter and poet.In 1962 he founded the band The Roadrunners, before leaving in 1965 to join The Liverpool Scene, a poetry and music collective, with Adrian Henri, Andy Roberts and Mike Evans...
- 1969: The Year of the Great Leap Sideways - Occasional Word Ensemble
- 1969: Soundtrack - Principal Edwards Magic TheatrePrincipal edwards magic theatrePrincipal Edwards Magic Theatre was a 14-member communal performance art collective in the United Kingdom made up of musicians, poets, dancers, and sound and lighting technicians.-History:...
- 1970: New Bottles Old Medicine - Medicine HeadMedicine HeadMedicine Head were a British blues rock band, active in the 1970s. Their biggest single success was in 1973, with "One and One is One", a Number 3 hit in the UK Singles Chart.-Main personnel:The group worked as a duo for most of its career, consisting of...
- 1970: Burnin' Red Ivanhoe - Burnin' Red Ivanhoe (co-produced w/ Tony ReevesTony ReevesAnthony 'Tony' Reeves is an English bass guitarist/contrabassist, noted for his "extremely prominent and complex bass sound" and use of electronic effects...
) - 1970: The Going's Easy - The Greatest Show on EarthThe Greatest Show on Earth (band)The Greatest Show on Earth were a British rock band, who recorded two albums for Harvest Records in 1970, who became well known for their European hit Real Cool World....
- 1970: Horizons - The Greatest Show on Earth
- 1970: The Asmoto Running Band - Principal Edwards Magic TheatrePrincipal edwards magic theatrePrincipal Edwards Magic Theatre was a 14-member communal performance art collective in the United Kingdom made up of musicians, poets, dancers, and sound and lighting technicians.-History:...
- 1972: Bugger Off!Bugger Off!Bugger Off! is the second album by Stack Waddy, released in 1972 on Dandelion Records. The album liner notes indicate each song was done in a single live take and when the producer wanted them to do some overdubbing a band member yelled "Bugger Off!", hence the title.-Track listing:# "Rosalyn" –...
- Stack Waddy - 1976: Between The Poppy and the Snow - Robert MacLeod
Favourite music
John Peel wrote in his autobiography, MargraveMargrave
A margrave or margravine was a medieval hereditary nobleman with military responsibilities in a border province of a kingdom. Border provinces usually had more exposure to military incursions from the outside, compared to interior provinces, and thus a margrave usually had larger and more active...
of the Marshes, that the band of which he owns the most records is The Fall. Regulars in the Festive 50, and easily recognised by vocalist Mark E. Smith
Mark E. Smith
Mark Edward Smith is the lead singer, lyricist, frontman, and only constant member of the English post-punk band The Fall.-Early life:...
's distinctive delivery, The Fall became synonymous with Peel's Radio 1 show through the 1980s and 1990s. Peel kept in contact with many of the artists he championed but only met Smith on two, apparently awkward, occasions.
The Misunderstood
The Misunderstood
The Misunderstood were a psychedelic rock band originating from Riverside, California in the mid-1960s. The band moved to London early in their career, and although they recorded only a handful of songs before being forced to disband, they are considered highly influential in the then-emerging...
is the only band that Peel ever personally managed—he first met the band in Riverside, California in 1966 and convinced them to move to London. He championed their music throughout his career; in 1968, he described their 1966 single "I Can Take You to the Sun
I Can Take You To The Sun
"I Can Take You To The Sun" is a psychedelic rock song that was composed and recorded by The Misunderstood at Philips Studio in London in 1966...
" as "the best popular record that's ever been recorded." and shortly before his death, he stated, "If I had to list the ten greatest performances I've seen in my life, one would be The Misunderstood at Pandora's Box, Hollywood, 1966 ... My god, they were a great band!"
His favourite single is widely known to have been "Teenage Kicks
Teenage Kicks
"Teenage Kicks" is a 1978 song originally recorded by Northern Irish punk rock group The Undertones. Composed by the band's principal songwriter, John O'Neill, it was championed by DJ John Peel, and was his all-time favourite song.-John Peel:...
" by The Undertones
The Undertones
The Undertones are a punk rock/new wave band formed in Derry, Northern Ireland, in 1975.The original line-up of the Undertones released thirteen singles and four studio albums — The Undertones , Hypnotised , Positive Touch and The Sin of Pride — before disbanding in July 1983.Music guide Allmusic...
; in an interview in 2001, he stated "There's nothing you could add to it or subtract from it that would improve it." In the same 2001 interview, he also listed "No More Ghettos in America" by Stanley Winston, "There Must Be Thousands" by The Quads
The Quads
The Quads were a new wave band from Birmingham, England, active in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Their 1979 single "There Must Be Thousands" was a favourite of the BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel...
and "Lonely Saturday Night" by Don French as being amongst his all-time favourites.
A longer list of his favourite singles was revealed in 2005 when the contents of a wooden box in which he stored the records that meant the most to him were made public. The box was the subject of a television documentary, John Peel's Record Box
John Peel's Record Box
John Peel's Record Box is a documentary film made by Elaine Shepherd, released on 14 November 2005 on Channel 4. It was nominated for Primetime Emmy Award....
. In 1999 Peel presented a nightly segment on his programme titled the Peelennium
Peelennium
The Peelennium was a selection of songs by BBC Radio DJ John Peel from 1900 to 2000 in order to celebrate the last 100 years of music leading up to the millennium. It was carefully timed to play out over the 100 remaining shows of 1999, starting with Thursday 13 May.-History:For the Peelennium John...
, in which he played four recordings from each year of the 20th century.
Awards and honorary degrees
Peel was 11 times Melody MakerMelody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
s DJ of the year, Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
Broadcaster of the Year in 1993, winner of the publicly-voted Godlike Genius Award from the NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
in 1994, Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
Gold Award winner in 2002 and is a member of the Radio Academy
Radio Academy
The Radio Academy is a registered charity that is dedicated to 'the encouragement, recognition and promotion of excellence in UK broadcasting and audio production'....
Hall of Fame. At the NME awards in 2005 he was Hero of the Year and was posthumously given a special award for "Lifelong Service To Music". At the same event the "John Peel Award For Musical Innovation" was awarded to The Others
The Others (band)
The Others are an English rock band, signed to Poptones in July 2004 and their eponymous debut album was released on 31 January 2005.-Career:...
.
He was awarded many honorary degree
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
s including an MA from the University of East Anglia
University of East Anglia
The University of East Anglia is a public research university based in Norwich, United Kingdom. It was established in 1963, and is a founder-member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities.-History:...
, doctorates (Anglia Polytechnic University and Sheffield Hallam University
Sheffield Hallam University
Sheffield Hallam University is a higher education institution in South Yorkshire, England, based on two sites in Sheffield. City Campus is located in the city centre, close to Sheffield railway station, and Collegiate Crescent Campus is about two miles away, adjacent to Ecclesall Road in...
), various honorary degrees (University of Liverpool
University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool is a teaching and research university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration. Founded in 1881 , it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic...
, Open University
Open University
The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...
, University of Portsmouth
University of Portsmouth
The University of Portsmouth is a university in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. The University was ranked 60th out of 122 in The Sunday Times University Guide...
, University of Bradford
University of Bradford
The University of Bradford is a British university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The University received its Royal Charter in 1966, making it the 40th University to be created in Britain, but its origins date back to the early 1800s...
) and a fellowship of Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool John Moores University is a British 'modern' university located in the city of Liverpool, England. The university is named after John Moores and was previously called Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts and later Liverpool Polytechnic before gaining university status in 1992, thus...
.
He was appointed an OBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1998, for his services to British music. In 2002, the BBC conducted a vote to discover the 100 Greatest Britons
100 Greatest Britons
100 Greatest Britons was broadcast in 2002 by the BBC. The programme was the result of a vote conducted to determine whom the United Kingdom public considers the greatest British people in history. The series, Great Britons, included individual programmes on the top ten, with viewers having further...
of all time, in which Peel was voted 43rd.
Legacy
Since his death various parties have recognised Peel's influence. A stage for new bands at the Glastonbury FestivalGlastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
, previously known simply as 'The New Bands Tent' was renamed 'The John Peel Stage' in 2005, while in 2008 Merseytravel
Merseytravel
Merseytravel Merseytravel Merseytravel (MPTE, or Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive, is the Passenger Transport Executive responsible for the coordination of public transport in the metropolitan county of Merseyside, England...
announced they would be naming a train after him.
In 2009 the first blue plaque to bear his name was unveiled in Heywood, part of Rochdale, Greater Manchester to recognise Peel's contribution to the local music industry in financing Tractor
Tractor (band)
Tractor is a band founded in Rochdale, Lancashire, England by guitarist/vocalist Jim Milne and drummer Steve Clayton in 1971. Both had been members of a beat group, The Way We Live since 1966. They are notable both for their appreciation by John Peel and Julian Cope, but also for their longevity...
's recording studios.
On 13 October 2005, the first "John Peel Day" was held to mark the anniversary of his last show. The BBC encouraged as many bands as possible to stage gigs on the 13th, and over 500 gigs took place in the UK and as far away as Canada and New Zealand, from bands ranging from Peel favourites New Order
New Order
New Order are an English rock band formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris...
and The Fall, to many new and unsigned bands. A second John Peel day was held on 12 October 2006, and a third on 11 October 2007. The BBC had originally planned to hold a John Peel Day annually, however Radio 1 has not held any official commemoration of the event since 2007, though a number of gigs still take place around the country to mark the anniversary.
At the annual Gilles Peterson's World Wide Awards, the "John Peel Play More Jazz Award" award was named in his honour.
In his Heswall birthplace a pub was opened, named The Ravenscroft, in his honour.
A number of Peel-related compilation albums have been released since his death, including John Peel and Sheila: The Pig's Big 78s: A Beginner's Guide
John Peel And Sheila: The Pig's Big 78s: A Beginner's Guide
John Peel And Sheila: The Pig's Big 78s: A Beginner's Guide is a compilation consisting of music originally published on 78 rpm shellac records. British radio DJ John Peel and his wife Sheila Ravenscroft began compiling the record in 2004, with Sheila completing the project following Peel's death...
, a project Peel started with his wife that was left unfinished when he died, and Kats Karavan: The History of John Peel on the Radio (2009), a 4 CD box set. Rock music critic Peter Paphides
Peter Paphides
Peter Paphides is a British journalist and broadcaster.Between 2005 and 2010 he was employed as the chief rock critic of The Times and presented The Times weekly music podcast for Sounds Music supplement...
said in a review of the box set that "[s]ome artists remain forever associated with him", including ...And the Native Hipsters
...And the Native Hipsters
...And the Native Hipsters was an English post-punk group formed in London in 1979. Centred around the nucleus of musicians William Wilding and Blatt , they are best known for their 1980 single, "There Goes Concorde Again", which attracted the attention of BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, and reached...
with "There Goes Concorde Again", and Ivor Cutler
Ivor Cutler
Ivor Cutler was a Scottish poet, songwriter and humorist. He became known for his regular performances on BBC radio, and in particular his numerous sessions recorded for John Peel's influential radio programme, and later for Andy Kershaw's programme...
with "Jam". A sizable online community has also emerged dedicated to sharing recordings of his radio shows.
Peel's adult sons Tom
Tom Ravenscroft
Thomas James Dalglish Ravenscroft is a radio presenter. He is the son of the late Radio 1 DJ John Peel.He currently presents Global Soundtracks, an experimental music podcast and the Friday 9pm-midnight slot on BBC 6 Music, having previously sat in for other DJs on the station, including Tom...
and William Ravenscroft have followed him into radio DJing and music journalism, with an emphasis on spotting new talent.
In 2011, BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....
inaugurated the annual John Peel Lecture, named in honour of the DJ.
Further reading
- Margrave of the Marshes, Autobiography with Sheila Ravenscroft, Bantam Press, 2005. ISBN 0-593-05252-8
- The Olivetti Chronicles. Articles for The ObserverThe ObserverThe Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, Radio TimesRadio TimesRadio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
a.o., selected by his wife Sheila and their children. Bantam Press 2008. ISBN 9780593060612
External links
- Radio 1's John Peel pages
- John Peel Biography by BBC Radio 1 (PDFPortable Document FormatPortable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
) - A sorted directory of links referencing Peel's working life