The sudden death of John Peel last October came as a horrible shock. For those of us who spent our adolescence and many years afterwards glued to his radio shows, Peel was not just a constant source of great music but an inspirational beacon of benign nonconformity. As Paul Morley said, “It was like your favourite footballer, favourite musician, favourite comedian and favourite uncle all dying at the same time.”
I interviewed John in the early 1990s, and we became quite friendly. For all his gruff image and living-legend status, John was modest and generous to a fault. Indeed, his egalitarian principles bordered on the pathological at times. For this reason, I suspect he might have had mixed feelings about the upcoming orgy of concerts, albums and radio programmes organised in his name. He always seemed uneasy about events that elevated his personal celebrity above the music he played. This is a man who would insist on hiring local bands out of his own pocket when he was booked to play DJ sets. When we ran into each other at rock festivals, it was often a battle of wills to prevent him from paying for my meals and hotel rooms.
This is pure speculation, but some aspects of the current Peel jamboree might have sat uneasily with the man himself. The double tribute album And this One Fades in Quietly, for example, offers a rich spread of acts that have enjoyed his patronage over the years, from Jimi Hendrix to Joy Division, PJ Harvey to Pulp. But the album’s heavy reliance on guitar rock of a predominantly male, white and Anglo-American character is hardly a true reflection of his musical agenda. There is no hip-hop or house music, both Peel specialities. Orbital are the token techno act, despite John’s wide-ranging interest in electronic music. The absence of voices from Africa, Russia, Germany, Bulgaria and other favourite Peel destinations undersells his contribution to World Music.
At least Radio 1’s John Peel Day celebrations are a truer testament to his quixotic spirit. The opening concert at the Festival on London’s South Bank next Wednesday may feature the old warhorses New Order and the Fall, but it also includes the raw 21st-century blues of Jawbone, the vintage reggae rhythms of Misty In Roots and the splenetic electronic jabber of Venetian Snares. The next day dozens of associated concerts will take place across Britain and Ireland. Besides famous names such as Bloc Party, Dizzee Rascal and Jethro Tull, countless unsung local acts are also turning out to pay homage. In Ammanford in South Wales, for example, a talk is scheduled on John’s fervent support for Welsh-language bands.
More than any all-star concert or album anthology, it is in these more offbeat grassroots events that John’s true spirit survives. For, before internet file-sharing dragged every last obscure bootleg recording from the vaults, the John Peel Show offered a unique public service. It was not John’s flair for discovering future superstars that made him indispensable — although he helped plenty to find fame, from Marc Bolan to Nirvana to the White Stripes. His tireless championing of the weird, the wonderful and the wildly uncommercial proved just as valuable, if not more so. He played music for its own sake, for novelty or irritant value, or sometimes just because he liked a band’s silly name.
Arguably, John’s legacy is all around us. On Radio 1, a small army of passionate, eclectic enthusiasts like Zane Lowe and Rob Da Bank struggle to cover some of his old stomping ground. And yet, for all the memorials and fond tributes, John’s unique mix of experience and enthusiasm is irreplaceable. His death was not just a tragic loss to family and friends but also to the past, present and future of music. And this, ultimately, is the only serious flaw in John Peel Day — the fact that he won’t be around to enjoy it.
And this One Fades in Quietly is released by Warner on Oct 17. John Peel Day is on Radio 1 on Thursday, beginning at 7pm
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The stars come out for Peelie
“John Peel was a privileged man who drooled on about schoolgirls and did TV commercials for toilet paper. I am in agreement with the late Bill Hicks here, who said that once a man had taken the advertising shilling he could never be believed again. His family suffered a great loss when he died, but to make his death a public event is inappropriate, to say the least" JULIE BURCHILL
“Peel was shoddy as a broadcaster in the traditional sense, and made a virtue of it. A real tribute would be to allow someone of Peel’s ilk to happen again, which will almost certainly never happen. The idea of a tribute day is a good idea; giving people the chance to hear more music is what Peel wanted” MARK LAMARR
“He would probably be mildly amused by the whole thing, but pleased to have left his legacy. If I were organising it, I would get lots of unsigned bands to play music you can barely listen to: that would represent John best. If he played someone’s music in the early days and they became successful, he’d consider his job done. If it weren’t for John championing Altered Images I’m not sure we’d have made it" CLARE GROGAN
“He was quite a complex character. He appeared to be anti-celebrity and joked about how he didn’t fit into the showbiz world, but I think he did like it. There’s a bit of vanity in all of us, and if someone makes you OBE or does a tribute night for you, it’s obviously pleasurable. I think he would have been touched by John Peel Day, but he would have played it down” DAVID GEDGE, THE WEDDING PRESENT
“Peel was very clever — he always played what the cool kids between 15 and 20 liked. He was always on the sharp edge of everything. But he wasn't defining them as trends, he just defined them as cool stuff” ROBIN GUTHRIE, COCTEAU TWINS
“His self-effacing style and evident integrity lent huge weight to all his musical crusades. I only knew him slightly but trusted him completely. His legacy lies with all the generations who learned humility and wisdom at his knee." ROGER WATERS, PINK FLOYD
“I introduced him to weird substances, an artichoke I think it was. I think he wondered if he was required to eat it or smoke it. Consequently I like to think that even in later years John saw me as truly avant-garde” NICK MASON, PINK FLOYD
