Like most of us, I was saddened last week to hear of the death of UK DJ John Peel, who introduced the world to many of my favorite bands of the last thirty years. Somehow, however, we all seem to have missed that a figure of similar importance on this side of the ocean died about week earlier, on October 19th: Greg Shaw, who started out publishing magazines about music, founded BOMP! records to release a record by the Flaming Groovies that other companies had all passed on, and who went on to release many of the best punk and power pop records of the 1970s and 1980s (including the Groovies, the Plimsouls, Iggy and the Stooges, the Modern Lovers, and many many more). There are plenty of other bands who were encouraged and supported by Shaw, even signed to record deals but who were courted and signed by bigger labels before BOMP got around to releasing anything. Shaw never stood in the way of any of these bands pursuing greater success, even though he must have known in advance that for most of these bands, signing with a big label was the kiss of death. Probably no one other than Lenny Kaye did more to promote the garage-band revival of the 1970s and 1980s than Shaw. He certainly was one of a handful of people who did the most to influence my musical tastes and interests.
RIP Greg, and thanks for everything.
