I missed the whole John Peel thing, but I've been listening to one of the many double disk john peel collections ("right time, wrong speed:1977-1987", fact fans) and it's pretty much all gold.
I'm particularly enjoying the wedding present, the birthday party, the sugarcubes, half man half biscuit, the fall and cocteau twins.
I know nothing about any of these bands, so where to start?
Also, say any other particularly John Peel related stuff that should be known.
CHYEAH.
I can help with
Cocteau Twins and The Birthday Party...
Best albums to start your soon-to-be obsession with Cocteau Twins are 'Blue Bell Knoll' and 'Heaven or Las Vegas' as they're both accessible while still being completely bloody weird and wonderful. General rule is, the earlier you go with CT, the weirder, wilder music you get. Also their BBC sessions double discer is well worth picking up (and will have some of the stuff they did for Peel on it too). Liz Fraser simply has the most incredible voice of all time. She could be singing out her damn grocery list for all I know, but it does something to my inner squishy bits that I love.
The Birthday Party didn't release a whole lot of stuff and you'd be a-ok picking up their best of which really does what it says on the tin. If you like The Birthday Party, there's always Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds to have fun with... and frankly, you cannot go wrong.
i still miss listening to the John Peel show
even to this day.
No other radio show has or ever will come close to the character and the uniqueness of his radio one show.
I think it was the closest ive come to tears when hearing about the death of a 'celebrity'.
You'll probably find various 'Fall' threads floating around on DiS.
Radio died the same day John Peel did for me.
And I'm not being overly melodramatic. I've literally felt no impulse to turn on a radio and listen since. I won't stop other people and if I'm in someone's car it's not like I've an option, but it's not the same, and it never will be. The man was my musical sugardaddy and one of my top 3 fantasy dads. I still miss him.
The Falls
best one is live at the witch trials which is the most punk but hex enduction hour is about as good so get whatever one is cheaper. The birthday party's best is junkyard and the only wedding presen talbum I have is george best but that is generally considered the best I think.
re: wedding present
go for george best or seamonsters. Seamonsters is one of my favourite records ever. Loving the Gedge!
A good place to start
Is here:
http://www.jonhorne.co.uk/jptapes/jptapes.html
You'll you'll find tons of great John Peel radio shows that people have recorded and put online. Loads of fantastic stuff to discover for yourself. I highly recommend it and it's wonderful to hear his voice again.
Hope this helps!
joe - www.anewbandaday.com
the john peel torrent compilation
that was mentionned on here about a month ago has been keeping my peel-loving juices flowing.
i regret not listening to every single show i ever could and realising how amazing he was.
also- joespro - thanks for that link :-)
.
ah peel! i still have loads of his shows on cassette. i'm gonna listen to them one day. trail of dead live in 2000 - WOW.
half man half biscuit, nice one! the link joespro gave is a definite one to check out.
The Fall - The Complete Peel session of course
Hex Encuxtion Hour
Grotesque
Dragnet
Slates
PErverted By Lanuguage
This Nations Saving Grace
Oh get them all
Birthday Party
Junkyard
Wedding Present
George Best
Sea Monsters
Bizarro
Peel Sessions
HMHB
Cammel Laird Social Club
Back In The DHSS
Back In The DHSS Again
Leaden Pall
McIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt
oh get them all
I guess you already have the only Sugarcubes track worth owning will leave the Cocteaus for someone else
Oh and I forgot
He was a hell of a man.
Well done for enjoying the Sugarcubes.
I love them.
Here today tomorrow next week is a personal favourite.
I met JP once as well.
Didn't speak to him, the music was too loud, just shook his hand.
wedding present:
seamonsters
birthday party: junkyard
sugarcubes: life's too good
half man: back in the dhss
the fall: hex enduction hour
cocteau twins: treasure
enjoy :D
if you know how to download torrents, go to http://isohunt.com/torrents/?iht=-1&ihq=john+peel+torrent+compilation
and get the first two of 17: inside them is every festive fifty compilation ever done on peel. so much amazing music.
A world of pleasures awaits you!
Miss the man. Recorded 2 x sessions for the show. Highlight of my musical career (for want of a better phrase:). Listened to the show for 20 years, met the man once and shook his hand. He was lovely.
i first got into HMHB
this christmas with their first album/EP together on one cd. its probably as good a place as any to start.
God i owe this man so much
he introduced me to so much amazing music, for which i'll always be grateful.
For Cocteaus please listen to Hitherto, Lazy Calm and the harmonies, oh the harmonies, in Know Who You Are at Every Age and tell me you found heaven on Earth.
I heard he was a massive cokehead
bright eyes= cockfiend extraordinaire
after that comment. i wanted to climb on stage and kick his face off
i've never heard the Cocteau Twins
but be careful when buying their CDs. Many audiophiles put the recently issued ones forwards as being "the worst remasters ever", so you're probably better going for the early CD issues or vinyls etc.
also, Hex Enduction Hour. Like, totes
Bullshit.
DJ with quite good taste in music. Dies and suddenly earns Godlike status for it.
Really gay. So he gave little bands his attention. Praise be! I'm pretty sure about ten million other people do the same thing, including journalists and record label people.
Its not as if he was some sort of creative force. He just played other people's music.
All this shit about him 'Championing the voiceless' is cliched and overstated.
try harder
No need:
"His favourite single is widely known to have been Teenage Kicks by The Undertones; in an interview in 2001, he stated "There's nothing you could add to it or subtract from it that would improve it.""
Mother, I think he's trying to shock us
6/10
balls and hair.
in that order.
oh
wrightypoo
Oh dear...
I didn't claim he was anything "godlike"
Just that I had a compilation and it was pretty much all good.
I, as you were I imagine, were too young for that "whole thing", so I dunno, shut it?
Remind me to stick "FAO Everyone apart from _yes"
at the start of my posts, just so I make sure not to cause any tartan tears.
I have no time for you.
Four very well-reasoned responses there,
in defence of The Legend That Is: John Peel.
He changed your lives, and all you can say is "oh wrighty".
BE ASHAMED.
nah
those answers contained as much knowledgeable debate as your original post.
No one claimed he was godlike
he just played good music, and gave a helping hand to some good bands. He himself realised that and was a generally decent bloke. Thats why people like him.
Now stop trying to wind everyone up.
"No one claimed he was godlike"
Were you alive when he died? It was like the death of Ghandi or something.
Stop trying to wind yourself up by pretending you even know who he is.
You talking about John Lennon?
and we will leave it there shall we?
ooh
controversial
Wrong wrong wrong
He championed the good, gave the 'little bands' his attention, and, most importantly, had a taste in music that went beyond the next five minutes. Check out one of the many John Peel comps, I'm sure you'll see why he was so important...
wrightylew that was naive bullshit and you know it
many people (myself included) credit John Peel for introducing them to a whole world of music that they never knew was out there.
many many bands credit John Peel with giving them their first radio play/session time/influencing their career in a positive way.
How many dj's can you name who would play such a wide range of music? Pigs big 78 from the 20s to obscure 70s reggae to punk to techno to hiphop, not to mention the vast back catalogue of sessions from an array of musicians spanning 30 years or so.
Little bands like David Bowie?
Don't use 'gay' as a perjorative.
Get out of my classroom.
Ignore the troll
Too late.
About twenty million people took the bait.
If you've never read margave of the marshes
then you're in for a treat. i'd say its the best 'music book' there is.
^This.
It's a superb read indeed.
Wrightlew
is like a baby that craps its pants because it wants attention.
Bad boy. Let mummy clean you up.
if you didnt spend time actually
listening to his show then to cast opinion is completely pointless,and wrightylew i respect your opinion but your points were naive and laughable.
Artery
(are great)
wedding present:
seamonsters or bizarro. they're both available cheaply as deluxe reissues with loads of great bonus tracks. but you can't really go wrong with any of their albums!
also worth a mention as they're usually overlooked, but Cinerama (David Gedge's other band) were really good as well. disco volante is as good as the WP albums mentioned up there.
i only have one Birthday Present CD, it's like a compilation of some EPs or something, but it has a track where Nick Cave barks like a dog. it's pretty rad.