Entertainment For Lively Minds
Pulp and John Peel
Sitting here, as I am, trying to avoid studying too hard for an upcoming exam, I tuned into my iPod - you know the way sometimes it's just background, then something comes on that you just HAVE to sit up (or sit back) and listen to?
Anyway, it was a live version of Pulp's 'Sunrise' from their Peel Sessions. A really stormingly good version, so good that part of me is incredibly jealous that my husband & 17-year-old son will be seeing them live at Glastonbury. I know that I'd hate much about Glastonbury, but I'd so love to see Jarvis in all his pomp again. Anyway, I'm rambling.
The thing that made me write this is that as I sat there musing on the greatness of Pulp, Jarvis ended the set with a heartfelt thanks to John Peel - I think this was a celebration of his 60th birthday. And then the great man came in with a typically dry "Help the aged, indeed".
And just hearing his wonderful voice again made me fill up, with a huge lump in my throat. I was truly filled with sadness that we'll never have him on the radio again.
Sorry for the rambling.
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I know what you mean
I've got dozens of tapes of John Peel's show stuffed in the loft of my parents' house. I haven't listened to them for years so it will be a strange experience when I do so again.
Even today if I hear a great new song or band on the radio I still express in my head my liking for the song or band in Peelisms. Even today many of my friends, old and new, drop a Peelism into their conversation as a method of referencing their appreciation for something.
Just this morning I was reading about him again in the book Electric Eden, about his Perfumed Garden on pirate radio, his first Radio 1 outing on Top Gear and his close relationship in the late 60s with Marc Bolan. As I read it I was transported back to my bedroom as a teenager with the radio cassette player by the bed and the thumb and forefinger poised over the record and play buttons (which you had to press together) in readiness for Pickin' The Blues.
He was unique, so much more than just a DJ and his voice is as culturally signficant as The Archer's theme or the Shipping Forecast. Even if you didn't like a track or an artist you felt grateful that John Peel would uncritically adopt it despite its manifest flaws and find it a home with someone out there listening to his show.
Aaah, the radio cassette player
As part of my ongoing quest for a degree in later life, I took a course in Popular Music Studies last year - great fun.
One of my assignments was a presentation which I did, on Powerpoint (of course!), about the various forms of portable music hardware we've had access to over the years, from the home gramophone to the iPhone etc.
One of the photos I found was of an old tape recorder, the type that was black, long & flat, with the 'Record' button red, just in case you couldn't find it otherwise. When I explained to some of the kids in the class that I used to hold this up to the speaker on the radio to tape my favourite songs off the Top 40, cause we didn't even have a radio-cassette at first, they looked at me as if I was at least 76.
I'm 39.
And they were such large
and cumbersome buttons. I remember having to physically lift myself up off the pillow to get enough down force on my hand to get the bloody things to synchronise correctly. And then if the tape heads didn't line up correctly...aargh!
You two are giving me...
...'Nam-style flashbacks!
What I remember most about taping off the radio in this way was the horrendous 'CLUNK-K-K' as you started recording or paused between taping tracks.
I also seem to recall the matchless Peel being extremely noble about not talking over the end of songs. Helping the listeners 'edit'.
Pulp at Glastonbury?
Did I miss the memo?
They *could* be one of the 'special guests' on the Park stage but no official announcement...
Sorry...
... I might have meant T In the Park. They're going to both - my boys I mean, not necessarily Pulp.
I'm positive that my husband is positive that he's seeing them this summer. Mind you, he's also positive that the van with windows in our driveway will be a fully-fledged campervan by festival season, so...
I think it is T
You had my hopes up there for a minute...
Pulp?
One of the more overrated bands of the past 20 years. You could snugly fit their outstanding songs on an EP, I reckon.
That was nice of you.
On the subject of Pulp...
Listening to 'Cocaine Socialism', a b-side from the This is Hardcore era. It's a fantastic foot-stomping political rant, complete with a squealing brass section. How on earth it was left off the album, which included such snore-fests as 'Seductive Barry' and 'Sylvia', is beyond me.
This is really spooky but...
I had the exact same experience yesterday, with exactly the same album.
I always grab a few random CDs and put them in a CD wallet in the car, and yesterday my wife Joanne and I were listening to this one on the way to work. I had forgotten that there was a bit of Peely on there and it was quite startling, but raised a smile.
That is my favourite Pulp song as well (Sunrise) - I have been playing We Love Life quite a bit recently, hugely underrated I think, probably why I 'randomly' pulled this CD out to play!
But what a coincidence!
That is nicely...
spooky :)
If Peel has a natural successor..
..then my money would be on Jarvis. Dry northern wit, a genuine love of music (encyclopedic knowledge displayed on Pop Quiz back in '94 where he was teamed up with Des'Ree and Chesney Hawkes) and his Sunday Service is a joy. The evening slot vacated by Radcliffe and Maconie would have made perfect sense.