Entertainment For Lively Minds
Vintage John Peel ahoy!
Check out http://kats-karavan.blogspot.com/ for loads of old John Peel programmes, including his first ever Nightride from March 1968!
Most of the downloadable programmes are pre-1970, which is just fine by me. But there's, er, some stuff from 2002. It may be a while before I devote any hard disc space to these. Which brings me on to - was John Peel any good after, say, 1980?
I'd have to say, er, probably not. Post punk, listening to his show became for me more and more of a chore although most times that I tuned in I would find myself scribbling down the name something that was worthy of further investigation.
What do other readers think?
I must add that in the late 70s Peel's show was still great fun. I remember in 1977 Peel played a Desperate Bicycles single followed by all of side 2 of the latest Santana album. Now that's what I call radio. Yeah! And in 1978, he played Radio Birdman and The Slits directly after 3 tracks from the first Dave Gilmour solo album... http://www.radiorewind.co.uk/radio1/john_peel_page.htm
You'll need to register first to hear the Radio Rewind stuff but doing so is very, very worthwhile. Here he is introducing, for the first time on radio, White Riot by The Clash http://www.radiorewind.co.uk/radio1/john_peel_page.htm
On a techy note, the kats-karavan downloads are in FLAC, for which you'll need a media player such as Winamp (http://www.winamp.com/player) or VLC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/).
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Peel
My suspicion is that most music lovers have a 'Peel phase' - I listened to him religiously between about 1987 - 1991, and thought he was brilliant. Whenever I tuned in subsequently I still liked what I heard, and I didn't feel the need to join the congregation, but I think that was more to do with me than him.
I like to think that was the point -
his eclectic enthusiasm stayed largely the same, and we each listened when we shared that youthful open mindedness, and then we gradually moved on. I'm glad to say I took up with him up again on Radio 4.
the main thing about Mr Ravenscroft
is you had to know when to let him go. From the 60's to the mid 80's every record I bought was first heard on his programme. After that, except for the odd song, the songs were for "the kids" although I'm forever in his debt for Laura Cantrell.
I had a devotional spell as well
From about 13 years old through to when I left education at 18. A point that was made by Mick Wall in his book on Peel also.
Did love Home Truths though and listened to that semi-religiously.
Seem to remember
that he was quite keen on Shakin' Stevens at one point. I may have started to drift away about then ...
Did he do a Peel Session?
'Green DawAH' perhaps?
I listened in fairly regularly up until about 1980
but dipped in maybe once a month after that. It was reassuring to know that he was there, playing stuff that would challenge me, whether it was Capt Beefheart in 1970, The Fall in 1980 or Autechre in 1990
Ta
Excellent post, going to check out these links over the weekend. Cheers.
Favourite Peel Times
I grew up in a village in North Yorkshire.
Radio 270 was our epiphany - pop music all day long (except for the Garner Ted Armstrong religious hour).
Them Radio One arrived.
All very normal, except for Sunday afternoons - Top Gear with John Peel. Must admit we all laughed at the names of the groups featured.
Always remember the day he played Sabre Dance by Love Sculpture, and was so enamored that he played it again at the end of the show.
Magic times
Under the covers, after lights out.
Boarding school.......
I would say 1969. Did he have an evening show then? I particularly remember an Albion Country Band session, playing a (morris, I fear)tune I have never heard before or since, with the best simple bassline I have ever heard, a simple repetition, with a short "paradiddle" every 8th bar or so. (Can a bass paradiddle?)
Probably set me on the road to ruin, beset by Morris On, Son of Morris On, Compleat Dancing Master etc etc etc and 10 years doing the darn dancing as well! Thanks, John!
I next tuned in on any regular basis between 1977 and 9, but usually when drunk, falling asleep until my upstairs room mate came down and told me to turn that bloody row off.
With my drummer's head on...
No, a bass can't paradiddle. Strictly speaking, a paradiddle is played using two sticks as follows:
RLRR LRLL RLRR LRLL RLRR LRLL RLRR LRLL
so it needs two hands (and a drum).
(In case anyone cares, a 'diddle' is two consecutive strokes played with the same hand.)
I stopped listening around 92
and for some reason it never felt the same for me then it was no longer 10-12 Mon-Thurs. Once they started cutting his times back and moving his days around it was as though Radio 1 didn't want him any more. I think Peel's heart wasn't in it so much, having to give up some of his slots for people that weren't fit to tie his boots.
1979-1989
were my Peel years, I can recall hearing things like The Fall, Theatre Of Hate, Altered Images amongst many others for the first time on his show.
I always had some paper and pen handy so I could note down a little shopping list ready for the weekend trip to the record store.
I always found the anticipation of what could be coming next quite exciting - it made the unlistenable avant-garde wailings bearable, yeah, this might be a goddawful racket, but just what masterpiece could he be putting on next?
On the Albions front, Retropath...
...i believe the complete Albion '70s radio 1 sessions are out on CD soon (an upgrade on a partial previous collection)...
He played records by 2 bands I was in
He played the Primevals early records, and gave us a session (shortly after I left the band, unfortunately for me), and that was a great help.
When Peel played my next band's first single (The Beat Poets, "Glasgow, Howard, Missouri"), I was thrilled beyond words - straight after Sonic Youth! - then he said some positive things about us.
I still treasure that memory. It wasn't the only time he played us, but that definitely felt like a breakthrough.
I know that there were many bands like us who took sustenance from his support.
I listened keenly from 76ish to 83ish and off and on after that. I remember driving home late one night around 1990 listening to him and I was really struggling with the music - but that was the point, he moved on relentlessly.
Cool!
Must be a great feeling to have your record introduced by THAT voice.
I'm currently listening to the Kats Karavan compilation
80 tracks in chronological order - including some Peel sessions - complete with (in some cases) Peel's introductions and comments.
It's like stepping back 30 years
He's just put an Aswad record on at the wrong speed and explained at some length how it happened :-)