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If John Peel was still alive

18 votes
? by gowman

would he be on BBC 6 Music? Which would mean there was no room for George Frickin Lamb.

gowman | 08 Apr '08, 15:21 | Send note | Report this | Reply

I miss john peel.

Quite alot.

vonmusic | 8 Apr '08, 15:23 | Send note | Report this | Reply

Me too.

Sigh.

gowman | 8 Apr '08, 15:25 | Send note | Report this | Reply

I do too

I play 'I Miss You' by Blink 182 once a day and think about his appearance on bongos alongside T-Rex on Top of the Pops.

jmags | 8 Apr '08, 15:27 | Send note | Report this | Reply

I just re-read his Radio Times column

I have them all, filed in alphabetical order in lever arch files under a topic name of my choosing.

bamos | 8 Apr '08, 15:28 | Send note | Report this | Reply

You read all of them since seeing this post?

You're some sort of wow.

jmags | 8 Apr '08, 15:30 | Send note | Report this | Reply

I'm like Commander Data.

I think I'm making a Star Trek reference. It hurts.

bamos | 8 Apr '08, 15:36 | Send note | Report this | Reply

I think you may have been

but I can't say for certain. Sci-fi kind of passed me by. Did he have some sort of superpowers like Hulk Hogan then?

jmags | 8 Apr '08, 15:46 | Send note | Report this | Reply

RE: Commander Data

Excellent name for a band.

Or perhaps awful. It's so hard to tell these days.

hip_young_gunslinger | 8 Apr '08, 15:53 | Send note | Report this | Reply

RE Commander: Data

Would be better. As a song, anyway. Like a school-themed Electric Six.

HE WANTS TO BE RE COMMANDER
READING OUT THE BIBLE FOR FUN
HE WANTS TO BE RE COMMANDER
YOU KNOW THAT JESUS: THE ONLY ONE

A Star Trek joke and some Electric Six lyrics. I think we're doing John Peel proud here.

bamos | 8 Apr '08, 15:57 | Send note | Report this | Reply

RE Commander: Data (Literal Reading Remix)

You!
I wanna take you to a gay bar,
I wanna take you to a gay bar,
I wanna take you to a gay bar, gay bar, gay bar.

I'll show you its wrong, with a biblical song,
At the gay bar, gay bar, gay bar.
Pray!
For the gay bar.
Now Tell me have ya?, have ya heard of Leviticus?
He said gaying is wrong,
and so are gay bars, gay bars, gay bars

God, my imagination is quite the thing.

jmags | 8 Apr '08, 16:24 | Send note | Report this | Reply

i wonder

if he would still liek biffy clyroo nwo that have turned in the foos

dejaetendu | 8 Apr '08, 15:27 | Send note | Report this | Reply

I think he'd still play the more obscure sounding ones off the lp

They have Zane "i didnt like the early stuff" Lowe to champion them now anyway.

What bands do you reckon he'd be championing if he was alive? I def think Deerhunter/Atlas Sound for sure.

stumbeleine04 | 8 Apr '08, 15:29 | Send note | Report this | Reply

The greatest session

I ever heard of his was when the Little Killers played at Peel Towers (I think). Awesome. Not that their second album was anywhere as good as their first.

gowman | 8 Apr '08, 15:35 | Send note | Report this | Reply

me too

a helluva lot.

vacuouspop | 8 Apr '08, 15:35 | Send note | Report this | Reply

I also wonder what he would think...

...about some of the horrendous bands that are in the tent named after him at Glastonbury though...

I miss the guy too...

LeifErikson | 8 Apr '08, 15:40 | Send note | Report this | Reply

don't worry there's the john peel stage at Glastonbury

Look at last years Peel-tastic line-up

Friday 22nd June
Hot Chip
The Maccabees
Mumm-Ra
Jack Penate
The Hold Steady
The New Pornographers
Tokyo Police Club
Good Shoes
The Annuals
Disco Ensemble
Fear of Music
Look See Proof

Saturday 23rd June
The Twang
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly
Patrick Wolf
Bat For Lashes
Pigeon Detectives
Calvin Harris
You Say Party We Say Die
Holy Fuck
The Heights
The Rushes
The Hours
Grim Northern Social
Blue Bullet

Sunday 24th June
Gossip
Jamie T
Just Jack
Mark Ronson
Scott Matthews
Young Knives
Rumble Strips
The Horrors
Noisettes
Tiny Dancers
Aqualung
Shoot The Moon

guyofthelondonzoo | 8 Apr '08, 15:40 | Send note | Report this | Reply

I think Peel

would literally roll in his grave if he saw this line up. I mean Mark Ronson and Pigion Detectives?

It makes me sad because his show was a gateway into alternative music (whatever genre) which you often might have missed out on. Most of these are all bands being shoved at us via MTV and the NME.

stumbeleine04 | 8 Apr '08, 15:50 | Send note | Report this | Reply

exactly.

For me the whole point of his show was to listen to music I'd never hear elsewhere. A lot of it I didn't like and a lot of it I never heard again but I've loads of pieces of paper with random band names on that mean nothing to me now.

gowman | 8 Apr '08, 15:55 | Send note | Report this | Reply

The Twang

The Twang?
The Twang!?
THE CUNTING TWANG?!

TheSoundofBastards | 8 Apr '08, 16:33 | Send note | Report this | Reply

I think John Peel would turn in his grave

because he has been turned into some sort of Princess Di figure. I think it's the last thing he would have wanted. I always like Mark E. Smiths behaviour on Newsnight of destroy the gushing eulogies from the Undertones fellow. That's the sort of mischief Peel would have liked, he would have chuckled at that.
The sad thing is Peel is going to miss a truly great new Fall album.

ElasticMan | 8 Apr '08, 15:56 | Send note | Report this | Reply

The Fall were/are shit, and Peel knew that.

He only used to let them record so many sessions to piss of the big wigs at the BBC. In reality, he hated them.

ClicheGuevara | 8 Apr '08, 16:02 | Send note | Report this | Reply

I'm not sure about that :O

But yeah all the gush about Peel is crap. The man played some fantastic music (and some random rubbish) but he always sounded genuienly excited to be playing a cdr soemone had sent him or a new release by an established band.

Mark E Smith is a funny old git. I'm not sure about the latest lp. Didnt do much for me. Heads roll was the last thing they did which blew me away.

stumbeleine04 | 8 Apr '08, 16:05 | Send note | Report this | Reply

^ i agree with this

there was an interesting Pitchfork article recently which said the martyrdom that Peel had found was detrimental to the state of popular radio as a whole. The idea of him as a one-off or an inimitable figure means that people are less likely to try to replicate his style, which is something sorely missing from current broadcasting

douchebag | 8 Apr '08, 16:03 | Send note | Report this | Reply

Totally

It seems to be forgotten that John Peel was an inimitably scattergun talent when it came to unearthing new music. About 50% of that he played as 'faves' was unfathomable guff. The 50% which wasn't chaff was quite obvious to those with ears and receives similar platforms in other places nowadays - this site being a perfect example.

I do admire him as a broadcaster though, his work on Radio 4 I always liked, as I did his manner with guests and genuine enthusiasm but find the piety of some fans who stoop to describe him as some sort of messianic figure is more than mildly ridiculous in my opinion.

jmags | 8 Apr '08, 16:11 | Send note | Report this | Reply

I agree with you for the most part

that making him some sort of perfect individual... 'oh what would john peel say' everything he likes is great... is detrimental. But he was pretty good.

fucktherave | 8 Apr '08, 16:26 | Send note | Report this | Reply

He'd surely still be at Radio 1

although he wouldn't like being under that In New Music We Trust banner. I wonder what sort of influence he'd have, though, in this age of Myspace, message boards and an increased live scene presence that's sprung up in the years since his death.

simon_t | 8 Apr '08, 16:05 | Send note | Report this | Reply

aye, i reckon he'd still be there too

albeit at an even later time, and maybe even less frequent but i doubt radio 1 would even have the whole "in new music we trust" thing had he not died...

vacuouspop | 8 Apr '08, 16:11 | Send note | Report this | Reply

he'd love

the ting tings and jolene and the ting tang tong too, obviously.....

vacuouspop | 8 Apr '08, 16:12 | Send note | Report this | Reply

Here is A Quote of Steve Albini Quoting John Peel that I always liked

Before he died, John Peel said something that I thought was really profound. He said when he gets a record from somebody and he doesn't like it, he assumes that it's his problem and that the band would not have made that record if there wasn't something valuable about it. And I kinda feel like that's an appropriate perspective.

http://citizine.net/music/music-0506_stevealbini1.htm

ElasticMan | 8 Apr '08, 16:23 | Send note | Report this | Reply

What?

Times have hardly changed since 2004 - as regard to musical distribution. He'd still be on Radio 1, same slot. They've struggled to ever recover their weeknight evenings since.
Although I have to say, Colin Murray is an enjoyable listen at that time of night.

They had myspace and downloads and message boards and busy festivals when he died. It's hardly a new musical landscape.

redsleepingrichey | 8 Apr '08, 16:33 | Send note | Report this | Reply

oh...

and he'd be a huge fan of Scouting For Girls.

redsleepingrichey | 8 Apr '08, 16:35 | Send note | Report this | Reply