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lprovenIt's a damned shame. I listened to him quite a bit over the years and the show was always interesting, stimulating and listenable, one of the best things on the radio. Particularly since the demise of the free Xfm. I met him twice, first when he DJed a set at Uni -- and to indicate what an uncool SU we had, here's what he said at one point, over the PA:
"This is the only time you're going to hear John Peel play Michael Jackson. Don't tell anyone."
It was Billie Jean from Thriller. The first album I bought with my own money.
Such was necessary to get people onto the floor. The only night the RHBNC SU dancefloor was really crowded was the twice-a-term sixties disco.
And again in a pub near Broadbcasting House (the Yorkshire Grey) when I worked near there myself.
To be honest, I won't directly miss him. I wasn't a regular listener -- radio is a daytime thing for me, these days, when running or something.
He was never formative on me. I was never one of the cool kids who listened to lots of alternative music. I can't name a single record I love I first heard on John Peel's show. Hell, a single record I first heard on Peel. I don't know the Fall or what they sound like and there's little of what I still think of as jangly-guitar Indie music in my modest collection of maybe a few hundred CDs and under a hundred albums, all the latter unplayed for well over a decade. Actually, that's true of most of the CDs, as well.
To be honest, I hated punk when I first heard it. The music that I first loved was Abba and Michael Jackson, pre-puberty, and in my teens, it was Paul Young, Bronski Beat and Dire Straits. Later, it was Guns'n'Roses and ZZ Top and Thomas Dolby. I'm into heavy rock with a sprinkling of electronica, not angry young alternative bands with something to say. Nope, not a goth, either. Don't like Bauhaus, own few goth records. Think I have a tape or two of the Sisters of Mercy somewhere.
I always kinda vaguely wanted to be one of those cool kids, with a deep and thorough knowledge of contemporary music and a lofty disdain for the commercial stuff. The thing is, I didn't actually like their music very much. I think I have a Jesus and Mary Chain tape somewhere. A friend gave it to me. Same mate gave me my only Iggy Pop tape, my only Alice Cooper tape, and my first two Thomas Dolby ones.
I would have liked to have known what cool bands to draw in biro on my bag or in Tippex on my leather jacket, but I had a briefcase and an anorak when I was a sixth-former. When I eventually got a cool jacket, it was a blue denim one, and I sewed motorbike patches all over it. Well, actually, I spent two days sewing one or two on, and Molly, one of the old ladies in my mum's rest home, took pity on me and my bleeding fingers and did the other twenty-odd in about three-quarters of an hour. I still have it. I cut the sleeves off it -- even the one soaked in blood from my first bad bike crash, in '86 -- and sometimes wear it over a leather on the motorbike. My former-cool-kid friends take the piss out of it.
I don't know who Mark E Smith is. I suspect he's not Mark Wahlberg, the actor, who I think used to be Mark E Something.
But you know, I don't really care.
I realised, some years ago now, that I was never going to be one of those cool kids, nor a guitar hero, and I don't really care. It wasn't and isn't me. I care far more about my books than my music. If I kept my book collection, I'd never miss my records, not one of them. I don't listen to loads of music, nor watch TV; I read. Too much online, now, and not enough on paper, but I still read, many hours a day, every day. I used to have music on in the background, but now I don't bother, because I just tune it out; I can no longer listen and read as I could when a youth.
So, farewell, John Peel. I liked your show, your music and you. But I am sorry. You did not influence me. You were not an important part of my teenage years. I was never a loyal or regular listener. I have no records I associate with you. I never bought anything I heard on your show. You did not shape my life. You were just a good DJ to me who played stuff I'd never otherwise hear - before or after I heard it on your show.
But you were bloody good at that, even in your sixties. You championed new music, the sort of thing I'd never dream of buying, and I guess that's good. Even as a grandad, you were cooler than me, and you had been since you started your job, the year I was born.
So, for that, if that alone, I give my respects.
"This is the only time you're going to hear John Peel play Michael Jackson. Don't tell anyone."
It was Billie Jean from Thriller. The first album I bought with my own money.
Such was necessary to get people onto the floor. The only night the RHBNC SU dancefloor was really crowded was the twice-a-term sixties disco.
And again in a pub near Broadbcasting House (the Yorkshire Grey) when I worked near there myself.
To be honest, I won't directly miss him. I wasn't a regular listener -- radio is a daytime thing for me, these days, when running or something.
He was never formative on me. I was never one of the cool kids who listened to lots of alternative music. I can't name a single record I love I first heard on John Peel's show. Hell, a single record I first heard on Peel. I don't know the Fall or what they sound like and there's little of what I still think of as jangly-guitar Indie music in my modest collection of maybe a few hundred CDs and under a hundred albums, all the latter unplayed for well over a decade. Actually, that's true of most of the CDs, as well.
To be honest, I hated punk when I first heard it. The music that I first loved was Abba and Michael Jackson, pre-puberty, and in my teens, it was Paul Young, Bronski Beat and Dire Straits. Later, it was Guns'n'Roses and ZZ Top and Thomas Dolby. I'm into heavy rock with a sprinkling of electronica, not angry young alternative bands with something to say. Nope, not a goth, either. Don't like Bauhaus, own few goth records. Think I have a tape or two of the Sisters of Mercy somewhere.
I always kinda vaguely wanted to be one of those cool kids, with a deep and thorough knowledge of contemporary music and a lofty disdain for the commercial stuff. The thing is, I didn't actually like their music very much. I think I have a Jesus and Mary Chain tape somewhere. A friend gave it to me. Same mate gave me my only Iggy Pop tape, my only Alice Cooper tape, and my first two Thomas Dolby ones.
I would have liked to have known what cool bands to draw in biro on my bag or in Tippex on my leather jacket, but I had a briefcase and an anorak when I was a sixth-former. When I eventually got a cool jacket, it was a blue denim one, and I sewed motorbike patches all over it. Well, actually, I spent two days sewing one or two on, and Molly, one of the old ladies in my mum's rest home, took pity on me and my bleeding fingers and did the other twenty-odd in about three-quarters of an hour. I still have it. I cut the sleeves off it -- even the one soaked in blood from my first bad bike crash, in '86 -- and sometimes wear it over a leather on the motorbike. My former-cool-kid friends take the piss out of it.
I don't know who Mark E Smith is. I suspect he's not Mark Wahlberg, the actor, who I think used to be Mark E Something.
But you know, I don't really care.
I realised, some years ago now, that I was never going to be one of those cool kids, nor a guitar hero, and I don't really care. It wasn't and isn't me. I care far more about my books than my music. If I kept my book collection, I'd never miss my records, not one of them. I don't listen to loads of music, nor watch TV; I read. Too much online, now, and not enough on paper, but I still read, many hours a day, every day. I used to have music on in the background, but now I don't bother, because I just tune it out; I can no longer listen and read as I could when a youth.
So, farewell, John Peel. I liked your show, your music and you. But I am sorry. You did not influence me. You were not an important part of my teenage years. I was never a loyal or regular listener. I have no records I associate with you. I never bought anything I heard on your show. You did not shape my life. You were just a good DJ to me who played stuff I'd never otherwise hear - before or after I heard it on your show.
But you were bloody good at that, even in your sixties. You championed new music, the sort of thing I'd never dream of buying, and I guess that's good. Even as a grandad, you were cooler than me, and you had been since you started your job, the year I was born.
So, for that, if that alone, I give my respects.
