John Peel
 John Peel (born John Ravenscroft) cut his teeth as a DJ in the USA, working on stations
in Dallas, Oklahoma and San Bernadino, California.
He joined Radio 1 at its launch in 1967 and is credited as
being the first UK DJ to give airtime to punk, reggae, hip-hop and
rap, long before any of it crossed into the mainstream.
Between 1967 and 2004, Peel invited more than 2000 artists to
record sessions for his legendary Radio 1 show.
Although he prepared his radio shows meticulously, he loved
carelessness - in performance and in attitude to posterity. He
found beauty in music with friction between its components, and he
loved music that unsettled. No wonder The Fall were his dream act
. . .
Kats Karavan was the name of Peel's very first radio
show in the USA. Thereafter he wrote it on the top of all
log-sheets regardless of the actual name of the radio show he was
working on. Part superstition, part OCD impulse, part fuck-you - a
typical Peel quirk.
Around the first anniversary of John's death, a wooden box was
found, containing 142 singles that he kept close to him. According
to his son, Tom Ravenscroft, these were some of his favourites.
The box contained records by (amongst others) The Alan Price
Set,
Status Quo, The Undertones (three copies of their Teenage
Kicks EP), The Beatles, MC5,
The Yardbirds, Medicine
Head, Harry Nilsson, Buzzcocks,
Sheena Easton, Aussie new
wavers XL Capris and rockabilly pioneer
Charlie Feathers.
 Most of the records I play I
don't know anything
about. I know that I like 'em so I stick them on the
radio, but I don't know the people involved. I don't "hang
out", as it were. People are always
disappointed by this because they think you'll be able to
tell them lots of interesting stories about famous people but I
don't know them. I'm an old bloke, I live in the
country and they don't come and visit".
John
Peel. 2002
|
