I saw Badly Drawn Boy tonight. We did a minute of silence for him.
Even though I have never heard his actual show, I own several Peel sessions and I am familiar with his handiwork. Hopefully someone can fill his shoes, lest British radio falls into the same derivative, nonadventurous mold that American radio has been trapped in for the past decade.
Thats really about it. Never heard a single session live on the radio due to location, but crap. So so so so many of the bands I’ve loved have been helped by that man.
I’ll be off to bed to a Wedding Present Peel session disc tonight.
The only public figure where I’ve ever felt genuinely sad about their death. Like a long-distance mate.
A minutes SILENCE? Surely a minute of Extreme noise terror would have been more appropriate.
You young folks probably have no recollection of just how rank Radio One was in the 70s (on 247 medium wave). We had the smashy and nicey of DLT and Simon Bates not to mention wankers like Kid Jensen, Tony Blackburn, and so on all playing a tightly controlled playlist of about 100 songs - almost all of them by Barry Bloody White or the Detroit Bloody Spinners. There was always one or two token non-pop records (usually Bolan or Bowie) and that was it.
Local Radio was even worse (although a big shout goes out to Brian Padwicks “Hour of Power” on Radio Victory which played metal \mm/ \mm/ ).
There was only one place you could here anything other than anodyne soul or bubblegum pop - that was Peel’s show.
I am too old to listen to Radio 1 now (all modern music sounds to me like people throwing dustbins down lift shafts and shouting over the top of it), but I do dispair that the last route open to young, innovative musicians is closed.
We might as well give it to Clear Channel now.
Owl - grumpy old man.
Not quite, Owl. You could hear punk stuff on Radio Luxemburg in late 76; I cannot remember whose show it was, but it was on at about 9 o’clock blighty time. Of course the reception was shite. - in Kilburn at least.
But Peel’s show reached a much greater audience.
I’m presuming it was a cover version of Brian Eno’s silence. John would have been proud.
Pardon me for a moment, while I beat this disrespectful fool’s skull to a bloody pulp.
<FX: CLANGbashwallopTHUDSMASHsquelch>
Thank you.
The other most important broadcaster was Dewey Phillips, the first man to play an Elvis record on the radio and brought him to the attention of the big labels.
Playing Orange Juice’s peel session tonight in honor.
Street Heat by Stuart Henry!
Can you remember radio luxembourg’s magazine - Fab 208, which was full of John Travolta, David Cassidy and similar stuff?
He had a half page in that that was the most out-of place thing I’ve seen - a bit like having “Readers’s wives” in Reader’s digest.
In sunny hampshire reception was so bad after dark that it meant that you only listened to it in the high summer.
Owl - now feeling REALLY old.
Ah, Stuart Henry. “Ma friends!!”
John was insturmental in Pentangles success. I just purchased
"Pentangle The Lost Broadcasts 1968-1972 (BBC) Peel is dooly credited.