John Peel

John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE (30 August, 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was a British disc jockey, radio presenter, and journalist.

BBC career

BBC Radio 1

When Wonderful Radio London closed down on August 14, 1967, John Peel joined the BBC's new pop music station, Radio 1, 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 broadcast at the same time as the talk and light music of BBC Radio Two. The pirate stations had been successful partly because they played records continuously, but the BBC was gagged by a Musician's Union and record company restriction called "needle time". While The Perfumed Garden had been spontaneously produced and introduced by John Peel, BBC regulations demanded that Peel anchor a show produced by John Walters called Top Gear. Peel recalled:

Related Topics:
BBC - Radio 1 - Musician's Union - John Walters - Top Gear

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

From the start Peel displayed his eclectic and avant-garde taste in music. He was largely responsible for introducing BBC listeners to punk rock, reggae and hip-hop. In 1973 he played both sides of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells in full, and helped establish Richard Branson's Virgin music label. He was the first English DJ to play a record twice in a row — "Teenage Kicks" by The Undertones in 1978 — though he played a record twice in the same broadcast a number of times before and after this event. Peel championed the long-running Manchester band The Fall, who played 24 sessions for the show, including one on Peel's 60th birthday. He once liked a Cocteau Twins album so much that he played a whole side, non-stop, without interruption. His avant-garde musical tastes brought him into conflict with other more conservative DJs at the BBC such as Tony Blackburn and Simon Bates, and he remained a dominant force in independent music, both in the UK and across Europe, until his death. His radio show was latterly sometimes broadcast from his home, named "Peel Acres", in Suffolk and had a homely air, with his wife, Sheila, whom he affectionately referred to as The Pig (because of her laugh) and his daughter, Flossie, often being involved or at least mentioned.

Related Topics:
Punk rock - Reggae - Hip-hop - 1973 - Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells - Richard Branson - Virgin - The Undertones - 1978 - Manchester - The Fall - Cocteau Twins - Tony Blackburn - Simon Bates - Suffolk

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Needle Time

Peel's show featured the famous John Peel sessions which were a restriction that Peel turned into an opportunity. Due to restrictions imposed on the BBC by the Musicians' Union and Phonographic Performances Limited which represented the record companies dominated by the EMI cartel, 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. However, Don Pierson who created Wonderful Radio London, stated in an interview that EMI used to send runners to the station's offices in London to deliver the latest batches of records free of charge, while denouncing the stations in the press. Pierson said in the interview that he finally told EMI to cut out the hypocrisy or he would expose their activities in the press. (For more information about the relationship between the record industry, "pirate radio" and "needle time", see IFPI.)

Related Topics:
Musicians' Union - Phonographic Performances Limited - EMI - Cover versions - 1960s - British laws - Needle time - Don Pierson - London - IFPI

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The BBC employed its own house bands and orchestras and it also engaged outside bands to record exclusive tracks for its programs in BBC studios. This was the reason why Peel was able to use "session men" in his own programs. 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. Many classic Peel sessions have been released on record, particularly by the Strange Fruit label. Latterly the show also regularly featured live performances, mostly from Maida Vale in London, but occasionally in the Peel Acres living room.

Related Topics:
Strange Fruit - Maida Vale

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Peel also played many older records on his show, specifically in two sections he introduced:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• "The Pig's Big 78": Sheila, John's wife, chose a 78 rpm record, which he played.
• "The Peelennium": broadcast over his last 100 shows of 1999, this covered the music of the 20th century. Each show covered a different year in turn—four records from the year would be played and main news stories covered.

Besides the countless bands he championed, Peel also supported the rare and the unusual, often in the form of the spoken word. If not for John Walters and John Peel, it's possible that Vivian Stanshall's Sir Henry at Rawlinson End might never have been heard.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

An annual tradition of the show was the Festive Fifty—a countdown of the best tracks of the year as voted for by the listeners. Despite Peel's eclectic playlist, the Festive Fifty tended to be composed largely of "white boys with guitars," in Peel's words. This frustrated Peel somewhat, and in 1991 he went so far as to cancel the rundown. Topped inevitably by Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", this Phantom Fifty was eventually broadcast at the rate of one track per programme, some years later. The 1997 chart was, unusually, a Festive Thirty-One.

Related Topics:
Festive Fifty - White boys with guitars - Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There is a happy hardcore track entitled "John Peel is Not Enough" by the artist CLSM. Peel was so impressed by it that not only did he play it on his show several times, but dedicated an entire show to happy hardcore, in hopes that it could spawn its own show. Peel also championed a wealth of other musical genres from reggae to death metal.

Related Topics:
Happy hardcore - CLSM - Reggae - Death metal

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Many bands and artists of many different musical styles from different decades credit Peel as a major boost to their careers, the list includes T-Rex, David Bowie, The Faces, Bolt Thrower, The Sex Pistols, Pink Floyd, The Clash, Napalm Death, The Undertones, Buzzcocks, The Cure, Joy Division, Def Leppard, Pulp, Orbital, The Smiths, F.S.K and The White Stripes. Peel's reputation as the most important DJ breaking unsigned acts into the mainstream was such 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.

Related Topics:
T-Rex - David Bowie - The Faces - Bolt Thrower - The Sex Pistols - Pink Floyd - The Clash - Napalm Death - The Undertones - Buzzcocks - The Cure - Joy Division - Def Leppard - Pulp - Orbital - The Smiths - F.S.K - The White Stripes - 1983 - Billy Bragg - Biryani

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Peel remained on Radio 1 for 37 years, until his death in 2004. Coincidentally, the last track he played on his final show was "Time 4 Change" from the album No One's Listening Anymore (by Klute).

Related Topics:
No One's Listening Anymore - Klute

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

BBC World Service

In addition to his Radio 1 show, he broadcast as a disc jockey on the BBC World Service, 30 years on the British Forces Broadcasting Service BFBS, VPRO Radio3 in the Netherlands, YLE Radio Mafia in Finland, and on Radio Eins in Germany. His audience also broadened to include listeners around the world listening to internet audio broadcasts.

Related Topics:
BBC World Service - BFBS - VPRO Radio3 - Netherlands - Finland - Radio Eins - Germany - Internet

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

BBC Television

In 1969, John acted as chauffeur to Captain Beefheart on his UK tour. He was an occasional presenter of Top of the Pops on BBC1 from the late 1960s until the 1990s. In 1971 he appeared not as presenter but performer, alongside Rod Stewart and The Faces, pretending to play mandolin on "Maggie May."

Related Topics:
1969 - Chauffeur - Captain Beefheart - Top of the Pops - BBC1 - 1960s - 1990s - 1971 - Rod Stewart - The Faces - Mandolin - Maggie May

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Peel, as the most senior and well known "alternative" DJ often presented the BBC's television coverage of music events, notably Glastonbury Festival.

Related Topics:
BBC - Glastonbury Festival

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~