A proper eulogy to our dj—by Bulb.
Gorjus made me do it: “bulb, why don’t you write a proper eulogy that we can post on catoptric? you’re one of the only ones that can.”
I decided against writing a “proper” eulogy because there are enough of them out there: two of the best being by Sasha-Frere Jones of The New Yorker and Dave Morley of NME and The Art of Noise. Instead I’ll write an appreciation of what John Peel meant to me personally, and I assume the musically-minded amongst you feel similarly.
I first really picked up on John Peel in 1985 when on a fellowship year in England I heard his classic 10-12 midnight show. Then in early 1987, these great 12” Peel Sessions produced by Strange Fruit Records started appearing at my local No Cal indie bin. On innumerable occasions in London after that, I heard something on his show and headed for Berwick Street or Rough Trade the next day to try and find it; sometimes it was even readily available for the hoi polloi like myself.
And that’s the thing about the rightness of his aesthetic. Sure he played a lot of ?bscure tracks. But the show was never about obscurantism for its own sake. He also didn’t give a rat’s ass about hipness. None of you probably realize that Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Freebird” appeared on the year ending Festive Fifty as late as 1978! The greatness of the John Peel Show was its absolute randomness and the catholicity of his taste: 3rd wave Dub, New Zealand cowboy yodeling, old British swing 78s, Zeppelin in Top Gear, Captain Beefheart, “white boys w/jangly guitars,” and always always The Fall.
And then there’s his connectedness to the pop culture of the last 40 plus years. He came to America in 1960 and worked at WRR in Dallas where, Zeliglike, people claim he saw Ruby assassinate Oswald. That’s not true, but he did meet them both at a press conference three days earlier. Then he worked on the famous North Sea pirate station Radio London before becoming an original presenter at BBC Radio One in 1967. He was the only presenter from that group still with the station.
A few years ago I set about to chronicle the local Starkville music scene on a “self-produced” cassette featuring a lot of bands with catoptric connections: including Skeleton Crew, John Black Attack, The Men from Nantucket, The WPs, Saint IV, and Emma Peale. It had to be subtitled “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Peel.” So tonight I’m gonna crank The Weddoes at full volume and raise a glass of red plonk to the genius of John Peel .
A lovely reminiscence, bulb. I remember an interviewer once asking Peel why he thought he’d never taken a liking to certain bands, one of which was U2. His response: “I thought they were shite then; I think they’re shite now.” HAW!! (Although I love U2.)
One more thing from Will Sergeant:
I remember when we did our first
Peel session he said “And here we
have the mighty Echo and the
Bunnymen”, and we were so chuffed.
I loved the way he introduced groups. On the one hand taking the piss out of the usual DJ hyperbole, but on the other meaning it with all his heart and soul. Mighty indeed!
damn fine eulogy, bulb. i remember first seeing Peel Session discs in the “import” bin at my local hastings. had no idea what they were at the time, but over the last 20 years i’ve come to associate them with bands who (for better or for worse) are capable of reproducing their sound in a radio studio. after last weekend’s a.simpson debacle, it seems more respectable than ever.