All (yesterday) afternoon I’ve been listening to the radio as people talk about the late John Peel. And it seems there is nothing else to say. I never met him, I never spotted him at a festival but I feel I’ve known him all my life. And he has been part of my life since 1968 when I used to listen to a programme called Top Gear. John Peel is the broadcaster who opened my ears to the music outside the charts. He led me to some of the best music ever – excepting Tiny Tim’s Tiptoe Through The Tulips. After several hours exposure to Peely Herman’s Hermits and Gerry and the Pacemakers were all forgotten and I found myself listening to Jefferson Airplane, Captain Beefheart and Country Joe and the Fish. You see I met him in his West Coast underground period.
The first person I wanted to speak to when I heard the news was my ex-hubby Mick who is the only guy I know who kept the faith in new music like John Peel did. I didn’t get to speak to Mick but I know he’ll read this, and get in touch with his thoughts.
Miss you, John. Sixty-five was way too young to say goodbye.
I wrote the above yesterday but couldn't post due to technical difficulties. Today I was in Help The Aged with Mum and Peely was being talked about on Talkback. The elderly lady who works there commented "he appealed to all age groups." Maybe she listened to Top Gear too when she was a young 'un.
4 comments:
Peelie was a well respected man - Blogland is filling up with tributes to him, which just goes to show what an inspirational person he was.
Zoë
Still can't believe that John Peel is dead. They even had a tribute to him on "football Focus" today. Saw him a few times at all-nighters at Buxton Pavilion Gardens introducing acts such as Chicken Shack, Fleetwood Mac and Taste. In between time he would be in the audience chatting to people. Kev Tunnicliffe stood next to him in the burger queue. Am now awaiting the ultimate B.B.C. tribute to him hopefully featuring such acts as The Magic Band, Loudon Wainwright. The Fall, Undertones, White Stripes, some Easter European death metallers, along dead unknown Memphi blues legend and Kenny Dalglish. Mick
Cant quite believe he's dead either, I must admit I didn't listen to him as much as I should of, but whatever I did hear him say was pretty much always taken as gospel. His death has had quite an impact on even us young 'uns who've grown up listening to the radio less and less, which I guess show's that his presence was alot more than just a voice on the radio.
Mikey
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