John Peel

I am physically shaking at work here! Is that normal.

I felt I knew him.

Jonathan

What a loss.

I don't normally feel greatly upset at the death of people I have not met, but this has shaken me.

From what he did for music right through to Home Truths on a Saturday morning, I shall miss him.

Rod

I think we all did. I feel I've lost a member of my family.
I can't think of anyone more universally loved.

I am totally gutted by this news.

May he rest in peace.

Dev

Ditto

What can I say except thanks for everything Peely and goodbye.

John Peel introduced me to more new music than anyone else ever will.

He is irreplacable.

I'm stunned. He'll be greatly missed.

Steve

What a loss.

A genuine lover of music.

Regards

Mike

Spending money I don't have on things I don't need.

A great loss for music lovers. I'll miss his enthousiasm.

Rob.

Much respect to him.

The last (great) survivor of the original Radio 1.

R.I.P.

jon

Even those of us who couldn't hear his shows were well aware of his influence.

I think his kind of mind, one genuinely interested in and excited about what people are doing now without judging it against the past, is quite valuable.

I feel like I've lost an uncle. I must have spent hundreds of hours in the 80s listening to his show. For a melancholy youth it was one of the highlights of the week.

I've hardly listened to it in recent years but whenever I did there was always something worth hearing.

He will be greatly missed.

Paul

Irreplaceable.

I've just read on another Forum - "Thanks for Joy Division, now Ian Curtis can thank you in person."

Regards

Mike

Spending money I don't have on things I don't need.

There's another thread running on this sad news over in The Padded Room.

John.

Shocked. He made me listen to music I'd never before thought I would like.

We are on our own now.

Goodbye John

Very sad news indeed. I fondly remember listening to his weekly show on the World Service - even though it faded in and out, it was about what he was playing and not how it sounded. A unique voice in radio in more ways than one.

Dan

My musical muse is gone.

I grew up with him and started by listening in my room to avoid my parents tusk tusking at the "terrible row" coming out of the radio.

Very sad, irreplacable.

"Just trying to make a NAIM for myself"

I'm really stunned. I just sort of assumed he would go on for ever. Time for the Mighty Fall at extremely high volume.

Am I alone in my dismay that corporate w*nkers like Simon Bates and M Read are now being wheeled out to 'pay tribute'?

Tim

quote:

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John Peel introduced me to more new music than anyone else ever will.

---

That's what its about really. Like other posters, I never met Peel, but did stand next to him at a few concerts way back. My collection is crammed with music that he introduced me to - and it did feel like a personal introduction. I started listening to Peel in the early 70s, on a tiny Philips radio, in bed with an earpiece. I could spend the next month playing records that bring that back - some of which Im sure he, like me, would be slightly embarrassed about, but also hearing Beefheart or Can on a Saturday afernoon while working at a petrol station aged 14. By the late 70s it was the place where punk happened from my Hertfordshire bedroom, and then the glory of post punk - the Au Pairs, Gang of Four, Scriti Politi, hearing the Fire engines cover "Fascist Groove Thing", then hearing Love Will Tear Us Apart for the first time while s student, then the festive 50s which were always a chance to catch up with great music I'd missed, Stereolab or Niko Case. Peel has always been my role model in not just listenign to music from my past but looking out difficult, angular and provocative new sounds.

Can I suggest another thread, mainly for the British posters, stuff I heard for the first time from Peel?

A very, very sad day.

Kevin

I met Peely a couple of times in a professional capacity, he was always a considerate and kind interviewee (as long as you steered clear of the subject of Marc Bolan), but here's a little story which illustrates just the kind of man he was.

Back in 1993, I was at the Reading Festival (waiting to see New Order). I had a couple of backstage passes so I took my mate to have a look round. He suddenly tapped me on the shoulder and said something to the effect of "Oooh look! there's John Peel over there!". He had a demo tape of his band in his pocket, so he asked me if I would introduce him to the great man. So I did (Peel naturally didn't recognise me, but was gracious enough to pretend that he did!). He accepted the tape, and then proceeded to take the time to ask my mate about the band, what kind of music they made, what new stuff they were listening to, etc. He needn't have done that. He must have listened to their demo as well, because he played a track from it on air, and, later, when they signed to an indie label, he broadcast their singles a few times.

Someone just said on Radio 4 that he was possibly the single most influential person in the history of popular music here in the UK, and it's a reasonable claim. Think of how much so many people, from the Floyd and Led Zep, Rod & The Faces and Bolan, through to Pulp, Blur, Joy Division and countless thousands of others, owe to him.

It's a great loss to his family and friends, but it's a massive loss to anyone who cares about music, too. I owe him a great deal, as I'm sure many others on this forum do also.

Who's going to champion new music with that sort of passion now?

Kevin (A Guy Called Gerald: Tranquility on Phobos)

I got home this evening feeling numb and it was on the BBC news so I guess it must really be true.

With a lump in my throat I went over to my record collection dug out "Teenage Kicks" and played it and shed a quiet tear. Then Miss seagull (age 4) bounced in with a huge grin on her face and demanded that I play "Jimmy Jimmy" her favourite 'Tones song.

That broke the spell for me.

Then Malcolm Davey rang, he's not near a PC or his record collection he'd just heard the news on the radio. He just had to talk to someone else who would understand his loss.

That started me off again. Oh well I can listen to "Teenage Kicks" all night...

King John is Gone but he will NEVER be forgotten.

What a life he had

How he touched mine he'll never know but those memories will linger forever.

P

A great loss. Integrity, modesty and humanity are three qualities that we could learn from John Peel. He always seemed genuinely embarrassed, almost apologetic, about the influence he had on our listening tastes and the musical careers of others.

An abiding happy memory is of him playing 9 to 5 by Sheena Easton when he compered the Reading Festival, and getting the mud-caked hordes singing along. A nice way to remember him - he crossed all the musical boundaries.

Kev.