Radio silence

[hirez]

[This one starts quietly]

Phonecall from mum: "Are you sitting down?"

"Oh bloody hell" I think, "Who's died?" I'm running out of relatives and I rather like the set I've still got.

It's Peelie though, and it's not until a good five minutes after I've put the phone down and watched the news start to dominate LJ that it comes to me that there'll be no more Festive Fifties. That was like being hit with a rock.

As one who's scoffed somewhat at 'outpourings of grief' it seems a bit rich of me to join in with yet another blokily-gruff post, but if I don't do this now I'm going to go off like a landmine at some stage over the weekend, and that would be a Bad Thing.

The truth of the matter is that John Peel is/was directly responsible for the state of a large percentage of my record collection and the fact that it's a complete and sprawling mess of musics and genres. Ever since I clambered onto the school bus with a cheap guitar in one hand and was yelled at by two chaps who were about to be my best friends: "Oi! Hawkesreed! You're in our band now. Listen to John Peel and buy the NME!" ... And from then on it was off into the strange territory of Peel Sessions and the Fall and Husker Du singles and New Order and some funny band called the Sisters or something who were like the Three Johns but not as good and discovering Adrian Sherwood via the Yu-Gung 12" and Fats Comet and Ivor Cutler, Strawberry Switchblade, JAMC, Curve, PWEI, Public Enemy, Sewer Zombies, Orbital, MBV...

... I don't think I've ever been one of the cool people - I'm too much of a hacker and have one too many Farmer's Boys records for that to happen - but the cool people started speaking to me when one of the punks in the year above me at school handed me a photocopy of his handwritten listing of the 1981 Festive Fifties because he knew that I was one of the four other people who'd want something like that.

The strange thing is that until recently I thought it was just me who'd listened to the chap religiously. I mean, I knew there were many thousands of others, but I didn't know any of them, so it was just me and the blokes who ran the record shops who I'd bother about odd 12-inchers on Dutch East India, Zickzack or Factory.

[Grams: Picking the blues]

[Edit: I think that's playing at the wrong speed]

LJ Festive Fifty. Vote soon.

Comments

[red-mel.livejournal.com]

I imediatley though of you. I was just getting into home truths and learning abot Peelie. He will be sadly missed. Love you XXX

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

I can't stop crying. This is ridiculous, I didn't even know the bloke.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Me either - I think my only contact with him was getting a fax or two read out and a Fall (probably) record played for my mum.

But I think after my parents, he would be one of the largest positive influences on my life thus far, and I think one's allowed to get choked up for that sort of thing.

[twicezero.livejournal.com]

yeah, me too. I didn't even tune in that much, though the more i think, back in my youth i think he and andy kershaw was what my dad listened to a lot, when it came to radio 1. I think he had a big effect on my music listening by proxy, he was always around and, just looking at the festive 50s i was really amazed to see he had picked records that i spent years buying loosing and looking for again that i don't think anyone else that i know owns. Sorry i'm not making sense, i just want a Peel day, each year on the 26th October, starting at 11pm

[reddragdiva]

Hey, I didn't even get to hear John Peel until 2002 and I know what sort of influence he had on everything I'd heard since 1982.

[redcountess]

Likewise! :-(

[medusa.livejournal.com]

Oh bless you! This post is the only one today that has made me really see what he really meant to people and why everyone is so upset. :(

I won't annoy you with *hugs* but you get my general drift...

[evilmandykins.livejournal.com]

when i heard he had died, i immediately thought, "how is hi-rez going to take this?" which is odd in a way, but fitting. i never bothered much with the radio until you rambled on about peel. so, knowing you had both eclectic and interesting taste in music, i gave the man a listen. and i very much like what i heard, past and present. he will be sorely missed.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Not well, in truth.

I'm not looking forward to the weekend.

[lee-chaos.livejournal.com]

Me neither.

Would rather spend it at home working chronologically backwards through all the sessions archived on the Beeb website. I hope their server is suitably robust; I can only hope his legacy is even more potent than his life and that many new people are introduced to his genius through the mourning.

They could re-issue every one of his shows on a giant DVD box-set and it still wouldn't be enough though, would it?

Fuck. Sigh.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

ogg or mp3 the entire set and bung it all on a massive meejah server somewhere. Then maybe I could hear the Sophie & Peter Johnson session again.

(And now they're playing 'Alice' from the Sisters session)

[evilmandykins.livejournal.com]

;/
if i were going i would commiserate with you. ;/

[reddragdiva]

I thought the same thing ;-)

[sheepthief.livejournal.com]

Ah, listening in on the crappy old radio under the blankets, jumpers for goalposts, marvellous, etc.

[fross.livejournal.com]

i was never a radio person, though whenever i came across one of his shows i would listen. but his name is one of the few stamps of approval i would actually respect, and have picked up several bands i would never have discovered without him.

just a quick glance through amazon (213 hits!) for peel sessions shows the amazing diversity. teenage fanclub, the wedding present, autechre, meat beat manifesto, happy mondays, smashing pumpkins, the fall, boards of canada, cocteau twins, t-rex, the cure, babes in toyland, the damned, a guy called gerald, laibach, jesus and mary chain, xymox, OMD, new order, uk subs, plaid, prong, gary numan, jimi hendrix, the orb...

from goth to idm to punk to drum n bass, he was right there and always *listened*, and what's better, shared the secret.

i'm with you on this.

[tethis.livejournal.com]

His show was pretty much the only thing I listened to on my first transistor radio back in the 70's.

Back when I lived in Clapha, about 10 years ago, our down doors neighbours used to tape every Peel session, and the tapes covered most of one bedroom wall even then.

[liz-lowlife.livejournal.com]

Still in tears...this is bloody ridiculous...

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Not really.

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Can you make it to the party (http://www.livejournal.com/users/azekeil/177465.html)?