John Peel, BBC Radio Disk Jockey, Dies at 65

[aquanaut]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/alt/johnpeel/

I'm sure i'm late with this...i don't read the newspaper.



John Peel, the BBC radio disc jockey who was a champion of innovative and independent music for nearly four decades, died on Monday night in Cuzco, Peru. He was 65 and was a longtime resident of Great Finborough, a village in Suffolk.

The BBC reported that he suffered a heart attack while on holiday with his wife, Sheila.

A broadcasting icon in Britain and perhaps the only British D.J. known by name to American rock fans, Mr. Peel had been on the BBC's Radio 1 since its inception in 1967 and had a reputation for playing cutting-edge music from around the world.

Though most American listeners could not hear his show until the advent of the Internet, fans were well familiar with the phenomenon of "Peel Sessions." From the first days of his program, Mr. Peel invited groups into the studio for live performances that were, by practical necessity, scrappy and unembellished.

The bands, chosen by Mr. Peel and his staff, were often unfamiliar to most listeners; many were on Mr. Peel's show even before they had recording contracts.

The sessions, which in recent years were taped in the weeks before a broadcast, were often circulated in bootleg recordings and were sometimes released commercially.

Over the years hundreds of bands recorded on Mr. Peel's show, from Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd to the Damned, Napalm Death, the Smiths, the Birthday Party, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, and the Pixies. More recently the guests included Clinic, Elastica, Mouse on Mars, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, the Make-Up, Cat Power and Neko Case.

He was an unabashed advocate for new, hungry bands. When the Undertones, a poppy British punk group, released their song "Teenage Kicks" in 1978, it did not reach the pop charts but Mr. Peel played it relentlessly on his show, and has long raved about the band as one of his favorites; after his death was announced, Radio 1 played "Teenage Kicks" in tribute.

Born John Ravenscroft in Heswall, near Liverpool, Mr. Peel began his radio career in America. He worked for a number of American stations in the early 1960's, including WRR in Dallas, and when he returned to England in 1967 went to work for Radio London, a pirate station that broadcast from a ship outside British territorial waters. Later that year he was hired as one of the first D.J.'s on the BBC's new all-pop station, Radio 1.

His live studio performances began as a way to comply with broadcasting rules. A legal requirement of radio stations at the time, known as "needleplay," limited the amount of time that could be devoted to playing records on air; the Radio 1 crew met the requirement by bringing in new groups eager for radio play.

Mr. Peel was on Radio 1 three times a week, and since 1998 also had a magazine program on Radio 4 called "Home Truths."

He was awarded an Order of the British Empire in 1998. Besides his wife, his survivors include four children.

Mr. Peel's show has remained a popular attraction for young bands seeking exposure and, more important, the imprimatur of a Peel Session. In an interview in 2002, Mr. Peel said he received more than 200 CD's a week, but he was modest about his influence as a tastemaker.

"You get a lot of credit for putting these bands on the radio, but the fact is that it's like being the editor of a newspaper - you don't claim credit for the news," he said.

"It's not up to me to discover them - bands discover themselves," he said. "They make the records, the records arrive. I think, 'Let's play it on the radio,' and when they come over here I think, 'Let's book them for a session.' That's how the process works. It's very little to do with me to be honest."

[paul e.]

he will be greatly missed...

10 Reasons Why John Peel Was Cool

http://chartattack.com/damn/2004/10/2602.cfm

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