Peel sessions of note

[plastic37]

Here in the UK BBC Radio 6 have been trailing a celebration of what would have been the 75th birthday of John Peel.

I was doing some home based tasks today so i rigged up my tape deck and dusted off a box of about 100 tapes that contain recordings of Peel programmes. They are not all all Peel. Many are live tapes/lps backed by a couple of session. Very few complete programmes when i would just let the tape run. It seams my policy was to tape two sessions per side which left space for a couple of extra bits an bobs. My peak Peel years were 1988-1990. I'm really pleased that my technique would be to tape the session track and then let the tape run to get the full 'link' and maybe a few seconds of the subsequent track. On many occasions i get the whole of the subsequent song. I've also got the full broadcast of his Desert Island Discs. There is more than one instance where i appear to have taped both broadcasts of the same session. I suspect this was a case of getting into a band live! First broadcast is only partially captured but I've made damn sure I was ready for the repeat six weeks later. Static charged cellophane flaked off and in the bin, finger over the pause button, one eye on the clock, knowing that 15 or so minutes had passed and intently listening for the telltale cues that the next session track was coming. Another inlay card waiting to be neatly scribed from rough notes with my specially brought fine line pen.

Ahh, sigh, deeper sigh

I wondered what sessions other members really distinctly remember - or any Peel moments? Perhaps the stuff that was killer as a session but the released version didn't cut it? Or maybe things that never got released? Or maybe his deprecating ramblings. Or a particular moment listening to his show?

Ahh, sigh, deeper sigh

There's one really ominous moment from early 1991 when i have taped a news broadcast about the Iraq war.

A question: Did Peel ever broadcast on Radio 6? Did he ever go on record with his views of it? Do you think he would approve - how might he tweak it?

I think my top Peel session is from The Waltones. The versions they recorded were head and shoulders above what was later released. I also really enjoyed a House of Love session from 1990 when they were "between guitarists".

Another moment from today's listening was an African pop version of Happy Birthday To You broadcast around the time of his 50th.

Of course the early Spiritualized session is also killer. Does anyone have that recording? I might have it - i'm sure i would have recorded it but it didn't turn up today. I'd be very interested to hear what Peel had to say about those recordings. I can imagine him coming on the mike after Angel Sigh and saying something noteworthy. I do remember hearing it on his show in about 1994 and i'm sure it was broadcast in full - no breaks, no commentary. Of course this may be a memory of hearing someone's recording on which they had cut the chatter. The youtube recording

Also, did anyone ever see John Peel at a Spiritualized gig?

[niamhm]

Like a lot off music fans in the UK , listening too `Peel` was a regular thing for me, I would say `83/4 till 89` roughly, If some band I liked was doing a session, leading into a new album, I was glued. In fact this is where I first heard Spacemen 3, Peel playing Walking With Jesus, and me thinking it sounded a bit JAMC`y

[olan]

I was given an FM radio for Christmas in 1977. At the time in Ireland there was no official FM station that I was interested in, and the Pirate radio was rubbish. As a result I started listening to BBC Radio 1 regularly (when I could pick up a signal). The Peel show (and later Janice Long to an extent) was really important in shaping mys taste in music. I first heard Joy Division on there, and remember being very impressed by their first session and then tremendously frustrated at not being able to buy Unknown Pleasures as nobody stocked the damn thing in Dublin, or at least none of the shops I could get to did.

It was via Peel that I first heard records by The Sex Pistols, The Durutti Column, Spacemen 3 and Suicide for example. More importantly in many ways were the sessions where I first heard Siousxie and The Banshess, The Fall (whose sessions later became a social event of sorts as a bunch of us would get together each time a new one was broadcast), The Smiths, Cocteau Twins, Galaxie 500 and The Heads, to name but a few.

I spoke with Peel twice, firstly at a New Order gig at the Royal Albert Hall in October 1986 where I nervously tried to thank him for his work and ended up thoroughly embarrassing us both. I also ran into him at a gig by The Fall at The Astoria in 1991. As far as I could tell he was very nice but he seemed a very shy bloke at the time. Perhaps this was just a defence mechanism , because with hindsight I would not imagine we were that interesting a bunch of blokes to talk to.

Gone but not forgotten.

[Ian]

The December 1986 Smiths Peel Session has to be their pinnacle. Four previously unheard songs, all first rate. Is It Really So Strange and Sweet And Tender Hooligan were released as B-sides, but the superior Peel versions of London and Half A Person (my single favourite Smiths recording) are still unreleased (as far as I know). I know I've got a cassette of it somewhere, with Peel's amusing comments after the tracks.

Met him backstage at Reading 93 and gave him a birthday cake with a musical candle, which refused to stop playing Happy Birthday...

[olan]

The December 1986 Smiths Peel Session has to be their pinnacle. Four previously unheard songs, all first rate. Is It Really So Strange and Sweet And Tender Hooligan were released as B-sides, but the superior Peel versions of London and Half A Person (my single favourite Smiths recording) are still unreleased (as far as I know). I know I've got a cassette of it somewhere, with Peel's amusing comments after the tracks.

Met him backstage at Reading 93 and gave him a birthday cake with a musical candle, which refused to stop playing Happy Birthday...

His introduction to Siouxsie and The Banshees at that 1993 Reading Festival was hilarious. He described, in the most sarcastic tones possible, how having the chance to play Siouxsie's intro tape was the high point of his career, and then "Ladies and Gentlemen, Siouxsie and The Banshees' into tape". Siousxie did not look best pleased, to say the least....

[plastic37]

Great stories guys.
That's what i was looking for.
I only saw him once at a gig - Mudhoney, Hole and Captain America at the Astoria in August 1991. No interaction.

In fact my dad saw John Peel more often that i did. He worked on/near Wood Lane sometimes and i can remember at least two mentions of seeing John Peel. One time my the subject was brought up with the line: "I saw your friend again today..."

I was given an FM radio for Christmas in 1977.

This reminded me that my beside radio is the one that i would listen to Peel with.

Another stand out session that i remember but don't have was from The Shamen - early 1988. I distinctly remember a track called Nature of A Girl. When i got the record it didn't live up to my memory of the session version.

I listened to some more tapes today. One of them is from the week of Hillsborough - nothing too heavy but still compelling half a lifetime later.

[spzretent]

When I was over in May I bought both John Peel books Margrave Of The Marshes and The Olivetti Chronicles. So far i have read Margrave Of The Marshes. Cant read with this giant cast on my left arm so... anyway. He passed away about half way thru Margrave and the second half of the book reads like a love letter from his wife who finished it.
I too have loads of Peel seesions tapes someone used to send over here and my customers used to dub them for us. We used to pay them in the shop. I can take a look if someone is after a particular one.
The man was even influencing a lot of people on this side of the Atlantic.
Quite a life.

[MODLAB]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBE_vK71yxk

So beautiful.


I remember him DJ'ing at ATP in 2004 when Mogwai headlined that evening.
Great evening! He had an amazing ear for different types of music.


M