For many years, in my Opinion, The John Peel Show was the best music show on BBC Radio. It was aired for almost 30 years between 1975 up until the death of the legendary DJ in 2004
The John Peel Show 1975 – 2004
Complete Shows
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The Famous John Peel Show
John Peel was a Disk Jockey who ran his own self titled show for almost 30 years on the BBC Radio Two. But he had already been working with the BBC since 1967 and hosted the music show Top Gear’ on Radio One. But before the BBC recruited him, he had already been a well known DJ on the Pirate Radio Ship’s legendary station ‘Radio Caroline’.
The John peel Show was without a doubt the best music show on the mainstream radio. It was next best thing to Pirate radio. Focus on the music most f all and less on the chatter and trimmings.
Taping it
Back in the old days before digital recording devices and Internet, if you wanted to record music from the Radio, you had to Tape it. In fact, Taping Music was actually a Big thing for many years. If your friend had a New album and you wanted a copy, you’d take a Cassette tape round theirs and record the album as you listened to it. Or on some devices, you could use ‘High Speed Dubbing’ which allowed you to record from One cassette to another and a higher speed than the Real-Time speed of recording a Vinyl LP or later a Compact Disc.
But you could also tape music from the Radio. John Peel knew that most of his listeners would be doing just that and he always made sure he didnt interfere with the music while it was still playing. He had a really good little sequence of playing records. He’d start by Introducing a song and then he’d play Two songs. After the Second song had played out completely, and only then, he would talk. He would tell you what the last track was and Introduce the next. Thus, keeping the talking to a minimum.
By todays standards, this would seem pretty normal. But back then, most DJ’s on BBC radio had a bad habit of interrupting the music with talking. This was an absolute nightmare when you were trying to record a tune you liked. You’d get almost all the way to the end of the Track and some annoying DJ would open his mouth n speak over the song. So annoying. John peel never done that. Just that in itself made him the best DJ on the BBC.
Small Talk
But of course, that wasn’t the only thing that made The John Peel Show the best show on BBC Radio. That was just One factor. But another thing that made his show great was the way John managed his talking schedule. Ideally, had it been up to him, then just like any other decent radio DJ, they would speak at all except for to briefly introduce the tracks. But working on the BBC brought conditions and one of those conditions was that they had to have a certain amount of Talking on each show.
So, in order to make sure that the show wasn’t cluttered up with shit talk, he managed it properly. He would always make sure that he done all his talking at the beginning of the show, so as to Free up the rest of the show to just play music apart from a few seconds between every couple of tracks just to Introduce them.
However, even when it came to the talking, he would always make the most of it. So usually each show, he would focus on One particular band or artist and fill us in on their recent album, or tour or whatever. So, even through the minutes of no music, he was still able to keep it informative and music orientated. Much better than listening to some annoying voiced presenter babbling on about somebody who phoned in about their cat. Another point for John Peel against the rest of the DJs of the time.
New Talent
But I think the thing that the show was most famous for and probably the main winning factor was his support for the Underdog. He always played songs from bands and artists that had never been heard on Radio before. The show was a Beacon of hope for small, up and coming bands. If you had a group or were a solo artist, you could send him your demo and he’d play it. If he could that is.
But there was only so much air time John had and he got a lot of Demos sent his way. The show was usually only on air Twice a week for Two hours per show. But each time he got to his office, he’d have to shoulder the door open because there was so much mail lying behind it. All Jiffy bags with Demos in them from bands from all over and of all different genres.
When he died in 2004, the massive barn on the farm he’d bought was packed full of Demos that he still hadn’t got around to listening to yet. thats how much music he was a sent by aspiring artists and groups, all hoping to be heard on the show.
Peel Sessions
However, for the lucky few bands and artists that did get played by Peely, especially the ones he took a shine to personally, there was opportunity. Regularly, he would have both New and Old groups and solo artists in the studio to play a live session. Each act would play maybe Four or Five songs and some acts would come back for another session. Some groups that were favourites of Peely, ended up playing several sessions.
There were hundreds of ‘Peel Sessions’ recorded at Maida Vale by the DJ by many singers and groups who would later gain worldwide renown. Some of these groups included Aphex Twin, Chumbawamba, The Pogues and Half-Man Half-Biscuit whom Peely was a big fan of. Along with another fave of his, The Fall, John would play a couple of tracks per show from their albums every time they released a new One. For a group like The Fall, that was pretty regular. So you’d hear at least One track from The Fall on almost every show.
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