Here’s a good little Episode for lovers of Punk and New Wave. This episode of The John Peel Show was first broadcast on the 18th of September,1978. This was right in the heart of a time when the Punk movement was in its Hey day and New Wave also being the tunes of the day. Peeli gives us almost Two hours of non stop classics.
If you think the Tracklisting be slow has a mistake in it where it lists the Undertones classic ‘Teenage Kicks’ Twice, it’s not. He actually plays it Twice in a row. This was John Peels favourite song. He always said that when he dies, he wants the songs lyrics ‘Teenage Dreams, So Hard To Beat’ inscribed on his grave stone.
The John Peel Radio Show, September 25 1978
Tracklisting
01. Radio Stars: ‘No Russians In Russia (LP-Holiday Album)’ (Chiswick)
02. Europeans: ‘Europeans (7″)’ (Heartbeat)
03. Skids: ‘Hope And Glory’ (Peel Session)
01. David Bowie: ‘Ziggy Stardust (2xLP-Stage)’ (RCA Victor)
01. Motörhead: ‘Louie Louie’ (Peel Session)
01. Brinsley Schwarz: ‘I Cried My Last Tear (7″-(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love And Understanding)’ (United Artists
01. Penetration: ‘Firing Squad (7″)’ (Virgin)
01. Tubeway Army: ‘Bombers (7″)’ (Beggars Banquet)
01. Roman Stewart & Barrington Spence: ‘No Peace Until (7″)’ (Hungry Town)
10. John Cooper Clarke: ‘Valley Of Lost Women (LP-Disguise In Love)’ (CBS) S CBS 83132
11. Skids: ‘The Saints Are Coming’ (Peel Session)
12. Saints: ‘Every Day’s A Holiday, Every Night’s A Party (LP-Prehistoric Sounds)’ (Harvest)
13. Motörhead: ‘Keep Us On The Road’ (Peel Session)
12. Black Sabbath: ‘A Hard Road (LP-Never Say Die!)’ (Vertigo)
12. Wire: ‘Practice Makes Perfect (LP-Chairs Missing)’ (Harvest)
12. Whirlwind: ‘Tore Apart (Compilation LP-It’s Rock And Roll Vol Two)’ (Super Beeb).
12. Cravats: ‘Gordon (7″)’ (Small Wonder)
12. Lyn’s All Stars: ‘Return Dub (7″-Norris Reid, Got To Return)’ (Lucky Star)
12. Skids: ‘Dossier Of Fallibility’ (Peel Session)
20. Motörhead: ‘Tear Ya Down’ (Peel Session)
21. Jam: ‘Down In The Tube Station At Midnight (7″)’ (Polydor)
21. Undertones: Teenage Kicks (EP) Good Vibrations
23. Undertones: Teenage Kicks (EP) Good Vibrations
21. Leyton Buzzards: ‘Villain (7″-19 And Mad)’ (Small Wonder)
21. Devo: ‘Space Junk (LP-Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!)’ (Virgin)
21. Damned: ‘New Rose (7″)’ (Stiff)
21. Frankie Miller: ‘Darlin’ (7″)’ (Chrysalis)
21. Skids: ‘Six Times’ (Peel Session)
21. Dennis Brown Meets Jah Bop: ‘Tribulation (12″)’ (3 In 1) starts at wrong speed
30. Rich Kids: ‘Young Girls (LP-Ghosts Of Princes In Towers)’ (EMI)
31. Motorhead: ‘I’ll Be Your Sister’ (Peel Session)
31. Buzzcocks: ‘Sixteen Again (LP-Love Bites)’ (United Artists)
The John Peel show
The John Peel show was a Radio Show on BBC Radio 2 which ran for years up til the DJs death in 2004. He was one of the first broadcasters to play Psychedelic Rock and Progressive Rock records on British Radio. He was most famous for his promotion of small, obscure Bands that wee unheard of and promoted them. Way back before the days of the Internet, if you had a band, you sent your demo tape into John Peel and hope it got heard by him and played.
However, he got thousands of Demo tapes sent into him. I once saw a documentary where he’d enter his office of a normal day and his door would have a massive pile of mail lying piled up behind it. He’d have to shoulder the door to get in. So you can imagine the backload of tracks he had to play. But when he died, the barn that he owned was stacked full of stuff that he still hadn’t had a chance to listen to yet.
Respect for the Tunes
But I think the thing I loved most about John Peel as a D.J was the fact that he let each single play fully right to the end before he said a word. Most DJs rabbit on over the music. Disturbing it. So annoying. Again, Back in the pre internet days before MP3 Downloads that take a few seconds, we used to tape things from the radio.
This required putting a cassette tape in the player and pressing record n play to capture songs we liked on the Radio. Since Peeli was an ex pirate ship radio D.J from the Radio Caroline days, he was onboard with this. So he always made sure he let the track play right to the end before talking. He also liked to be constructive when he did talk. As far as John Peel was concerned, he was there to play music.
However, broadcasting rules required DJs to have a certain amount of taking in the 2 hour slot he’d gave on a Tuesday and Thursday nights between 8pm and 10pm. So instead of just babbling Luke most D JJ s seemed to do for the same of it, he’d use the time wisely. Between every second song he would tell you the song that had just played and introduced the next track. But every half hour or so, hed spend about Five minutes telling all about a group or a new release, etc
What do you think?
Well then. What did you think of that? Did you enjoy it? Or didnt you like it? Whatever your thoughts and opinions are on the show, we’d love to hear them in the comments below. Here at The Collective Jukebox, we just love to chat about music and always keen to read what others have to say about the music we share.
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