Entertainment For Lively Minds
Fond Festive Fifty Memories
Posted by fedoraboy on 10 February 2010 - 10:56pm.
After recently, ahem, acquiring some digital recordings of Peel's Festive Fifty's, I have been reliving those winter nights spent by the stereogram with a pack of C90s, waiting for appropriate gaps to change sides of the tape and praying that the snow didn't upset my glorious FM signal. Happy times that are now sadly missed. Any other fond memories from the massive of this glorious musical institution?
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Happy Days
Great memories of the Peel show, for about 8 years I sat next to my trusty Hitachi radio/recorder of an evening with three cassettes poised at the ready, one for the sessions, one for the reggae, and one for the rest. I went to great lengths to avoid getting Peel's voice on the beginning and end of tracks, but usually failed.
Listened to 2001's FF...
...for the first time in yonks last summer.
I used to make a tape of the best bits from a tape of the whole show. But I discovered the unedited version and played it while driving through North Wales. It was a real treat, especially as Betws-y-Coed's finest Melys were number one.
Other highlights - Belle and Sebastian, White Stripes, Half Man Half Biscuit, Hefner and Super Furry Animals.
Mogwai still sounded terrible - like dropping a tennis ball on a guitar string for 10 minutes - and Cuban Boys were still irritating.
But whatever happened to Saloon and Ball Boy?
Best of all were the deadpan tones of the great man himself and the especially poignant: "We'll have a session from them next year."
I, like so many, used to religiously
listen to Peel with my finger poised over the record button. It was probably from 79 - 83 when I would listen to it every weekday night (fri night was rock night if i remember right), and collected a series of TDK c90's full of treasures, many of which remind me of those crackly cassette recordings when I hear them now.
Home taping not killing music
Yes, Tommy Vnass as I think Peel called him was on Fridays.
There must have been something about the FM/tape hiss and the compression applied to the music as broadcast that made some of the scratchier DIY recordings sound better on those tapes. Often when I got a record from hearing it on Peel, it would seem something was missing when played on the hi-fi.
My Era
Was more 88-92 and it's these I have been eagerly replaying. Agreed it's Peel's bits inbetween that illuminate the most, particularly when songs made it into the fifty that he didn't care for. His dismissal of Stone Roses as sounding 'rather like Herman's Hermits' tainted my view of The Roses for some time.
I also would discover at least one life changing song a year, including this gem that topped the charts in 92 or 93, I think.
There are some good blogs out there
Fades In Slowly blogspot and Teenage Kicks, which are devoted to the late great Peelie and his 50s/sessions.
Damn nice people involved in them too.
74-88
was my era and the first place I heard The Sisters, the rest (as they say) is history. Sir Henry was religiously taped.
76-85
Was my stint. Don't recall the Nolan girls tho'
My heart always sank when he played reggae
in much the same way as I couldn't understand what possessed SLF to put a 10 minute Bob Marley cover in the middle of their excellent Hanx! live album.
Roll forward a quarter century and of course Johnny Was is the best thing on that album, and I wish I'd paid more attention to the great man's gentle attempts to introduce us to music not made by white boys with guitars and trendy haircuts.
76-80
This'll take you right back there(theme):