John Peel

Wild man Fischer, Zappa, Beefheart, cooder, the undertones, zeppelin – the list is, almost, endless………

Teenage Kicks – I agree with him there.

Fond memories of Peel at Reading, with the assembled crowd yelling as loudly as they could “John Peel’s a c***”
Oh, how we all laughed! 😀

Mixed feelings….. man’s clearly a legend and my musical tastes would be massively different were it not for the nights spent listening to the John Peel show under the covers on my radio.

But he’s also not unsullied in the BBC Radio sex offender saga, not in the Savile league but certainly not perfect either, and all this naming of stages and lecture and awards after him doesn’t sit quite right with me.

He certainly changed the beebs attitude to music, changed a lot of mainstream musicians in the making to entertain their own musical talents rather than the soft sounds of the day.

IMO if it wasn’t for him, we’d have very very little independent music and a whole independent musical tranche wouldn’t exist.
High praise indeed, but one landed fair and square on his shoulders.

As to his personal life, I had no idea that side of him existed… which is a sad reflection 😕

But he’s also not unsullied in the BBC Radio sex offender saga, not in the Savile league but certainly not perfect either, and all this naming of stages and lecture and awards after him doesn’t sit quite right with me.

^This.

^This.

+1

Teenage Kicks

A fitting title for someone with his background.

As above, the way he is fêted and certain things ignored is deeply uncomfortable.

Am I the only person who didn’t really appreciate his taste in music?

Got invited by him to go to Broadcasting House to visit and sit in on his show back in 1980, having played our stuff on it quite a lot.

So we turned up. He walked through the lobby and apart from saying hello, walked straight past us and disappeared into the lift.

Helps me feel unconflicted when hearing about his taste for child sex.

I had no idea that side of him existed

Me neither. I started reading his book and found him a bit unlikeable which was a disappointment.

Another of an age where listening to John Peel “late at night” was part of my youth and such a contrast to the mainstream radio. He played a somg from my Uni flatmates band they had got the nod he would so we duly tuned in and all sat around the radio – seems quite bizarre now. Was lucky enough to see the Undertones a few times in their pomp, all pogo-ing and gobbing at the band.

having played our stuff on it quite a lot

Who’s that then Woppit?

someone enlighten me to the whole sex offender thing? i have no idea peel was involved

We all tuned in . At the time Radio 1 was AM only but 1 joined 2 late at night so he was on glorious FM.
Some of his stuff was a bit strange but would probably enjoy it now. The Beeb treated him like shit ,reducing the amount of time he was on air. Which just makes his canonisation even more hypocritical.
If he ever did TOTP we knew the music wouldn’t be any better but he’d at least try and slag the bands off.
Musically his finest moment was the session by Thee Hypnotics. Immense.

he married a 15? Year old, when he was 26, working in Dallas, and divorced when they moved back here

There was also a daily mail allegation he got a 15 year old pregnant

I’m not sure if he was investigated as part of yewtree?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-20732805/john-peel-jane-nevin-regrets-tabloid-story

I too am conflicted. John Peel had a massive influence on my musical upbringing and taste. Massive.

But he definitely blurred the lines in the sex thing (didn’t he marry a fifteenteen year old in the states?). I also read quotes from him about ‘not asking for birth certificates’ off school girls offering blowjobs (or something of that ilk). I’ve declined to read further as a result but definitely left a bitter aftertaste….

Some people have dodged the all out denigration (see Jimmy Page also) for their underage proclivities. I don’t know if it’s perceived as well that’s how things were back then and that it was a blurred era or that perhaps it was seen as ‘consenting’ rather than the Saville thing…

I bought the Richard Hell autobiography and had to stop when he was rapsodising over a 15 yo groupie….

ETA: yeah pigfaces link, kind of what I was getting at. yeah kimbers, that’s what I thought about his first wife….

sadexpunk – Member
having played our stuff on it quite a lot

Who’s that then Woppit?

Sorry sadex, thought it was general knowledge…

The Sound

I would start with Live In The Hothouse.
In my younger years Silent Air was my break up song.
I’m sure The Killers must have a few Sound albums.
A fantastic group.
When I met my wife to be , we were talking about music . She was firmly in the Celine camp so I reeled off my favourite bands which she had never heard of until I got to the Sound.
Adrian had been in her circle of friends.
I was so impressed I married her!
Off to go and play some now while we cook breakfast.

Thanks. Regards to the Mrs…

Woppit at work. In the 80s I’m sure a girl covered this and it got a lot of daytime play on Radio 1.

I don’t want to hijack the thread, but I thought you might be interested in this…

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yunki – Member
Am I the only person who didn’t really appreciate his taste in music?

No you’re not. Listening to his shows, to me John Peel had no filter. He seemed to play an awful lot of rubbish and the good stuff formed about 2% of his output. (No disrespect to Mr Woppit, I’m not saying you were part of the former).

Is this common knowledge

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b095cmz4

Today @ 1pm, doesn’t seem to have been mentioned

Am I the only person who didn’t really appreciate his taste in music?

Agreed, he was a cult leader for those who valued pretentious obscurity over quality, the fact that he occasionally played some decent stuff was just down to playing lots.

It is not a bad thing to have dj’s playing lots of relatively unknown music so you can discover things you like that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. But that doesn’t make him a music guru.

Thanks Woppit. Sorry hadn’t heard of you/them but I’ll have a look at those links tonight 🙂

I still can’t believe Bill Wyman got away with it.

No you’re not. Listening to his shows, to me John Peel had no filter. He seemed to play an awful lot of rubbish and the good stuff formed about 2% of his output. (No disrespect to Mr Woppit, I’m not saying you were part of the former).

That’s all down to personal taste, though, innit. He had an extraordinary wide ranging taste, and there would always be people listening who would like something he played, irrespective of what it was. Stuart Maconie’s ‘Freak Zone/Freakier Zone has some really weird stuff on it, much not to my taste at all, but I still find plenty to like, and there’s going to be listeners who’s tastes are the reverse of mine.
Same with Tom Ravenscroft, but then, he’s John Peel’s son, and has inherited his dad’s voice and eclectic taste in music.

Agreed, he was a cult leader for those who valued pretentious obscurity over quality

The fact you didn’t like what he played does not make the listeners pretentious or the music of low quality.
As for cult leader, don’t know wtf you are on about with that one.

Julie Bitchkill

The attraction of Peel was because it was so eclectic – some dirty blues followed by death metal followed by jangley indie guitar pop followed by hardcore techno, maybe even at the right speed.

To say you liked it all would be to say you had no real taste, surely the point of having so many different types of music is so that people can like different stuff.

Maybe to me it was only 20% that was to ‘my’ taste – but what a 20% it was. So many bands I first heard on JP are such an important part of my life for many reasons, I can’t help but be thankful that he existed.

As to the other side. I can’t condone his past, even if it was ‘different’ back then. In defence, if there is any – he never denied it and I believe regretted it – and dredging up past quotes from past times does not IMHO reflect who he became. Still not right, but it’s a league away from people that continued to offend and deny it.

Same with Tom Ravenscroft, but then, he’s John Peel’s son, and has inherited his dad’s voice and eclectic taste in music.

And job

My hero. Awesome music for so many years. Didn’t like everything he played, but that was the joy of it. He didn’t stand still with one type of music.

Personal life of no interest. his taste for child sex. is almost libel ffs. Removed my link to the Borland docu for that bollocks. Read Pigface’s link – there was 1 15 yo groupie. Same old bores bring it up everytime his name is mentioned. Doesn’t make any difference to his legacy of contribution to the music industry to me.

Oh well. So it goes.

Perhaps I went in a bit strong.

The 15-year-old wife plus the English groupie and his tales of American 13-year-olds definitely leaves a sour taste, though.

Here’s a comment from another forum which offers a way out of The World Of Jimmy Savile for him, I guess:

I think the difference is he settled down into a long marriage, had four children.. he wasn’t a serial abuser… He was also a victim of rape….

Poor old John Peel.

When he passed the Beeb went completely overboard gushing at his passing, way, way overboard – there was a obvious and equally overboard backlash which tried to portray him as another Jimmy Savile.

I was never a fan, most of the stuff he played was total crap so the hipsters (or whatever badge they hated back then) could act superior about knowing, he didn’t earn the gushing outpouring of woe when he passed and he certainly didn’t deserve the hatchet job the Daily Mail and co did to him afterwards.

i can honestly say, that he is the only “celeb” who i was genuinely upset about when they died (weirdly i was in Peru at the same time), i’m no hipster, but working as a chef for much of my younger years he was always on at 9-10pm and i discovered music that i wouldn’t have heard elsewhere. A lot of it was tripe, but he also championed bands like Nirvana, White Stripes etc as well genres like reggae and techno that you just wouldn’t hear on other shows.

With regards to the allegations, i’ve read his autobiographies and i think he was quite open about his young wife, but wasn’t he in Texas where the law was 14, so whilst it is wrong really, he was at least open and honest about it, so not condoning it but i still get a huge wave of nostalgia when i hear his voice on the recent 6Music shows where they’ve repeated a few of his shows.

his taste for child sex. is almost libel ffs

I don’t want to cause anyone any Joe Cocker moments, but I’m afraid that won’t be possible..

His son was in my year at school and he was a governor on the school committee. Seemed like a lovely bloke, was hilarious when he organised the school fete and got the local grunge band to play. Loads of 12 year olds jumping around whilst parents looked on in dismay….

A. Marrying a 15 year old is not paedophilia or sexual abuse, particularly in a place where it is legal. You may find it a bit pervy for a man in his 20s but that’s not the same thing. Savile was a rapist and an arch-manipulator of vulnerable people.

B. Although he championed a lot of unlistenable noise rather than more accessible stuff, he made it clear that this was because he felt that there were plenty of others playing the accessible stuff. Similarly with the old stuff (“why don’t you play Pink Floyd or the Incredible String Band any more?”). He liked to give a break to those unlikely to get it elsewhere.