Revisiting the final Peel tapes

After a mere 16-year break, I've been delving back into the world of the John Peel show. John Peel, Peelie - Saint Peel of late-night radio: The Fall, Teenage Kicks, happy hardcore, "and here's another one from Melys in session tonight", The Pig's Big 78, blah blah blah. Yes, a strange experience. After a decade-and-a-half of putting it off, I've finally got around to moving about 20 JP shows (from 2004) I'd recorded on minidiscs (which were new for me in 2004) onto C90 cassettes. Now all my JP recordings are on tape - shelves and shelves of the bloody things. From 1986 onwards, I used to record John Peel's show using trusty old cassette tapes. Was I such a hardcore Peel fan? Maybe, but as I said in a post from years ago on this self-same blog, I always had a few misgivings about his programme, his broadcasting style and his whole anti-showbiz (but still showbiz) persona. This time around, all these years later listening to his 2004 shows back to back for several days, I especially noticed - generally excellent broadcaster that he was - that he had a definite tendency to show off and even to slightly patronise his listeners. The odd texter into the programme (texting was clearly still a novelty in 2004) would be ticked off about the way they'd written something. He would also sometimes use his producers (usually off-mic in the background) as foils for his humour and all-round command of the microphone. And he could be a bit repetitive. He trails a forthcoming Fall session ("the 24th for the programme") for one of these last-ever shows about 20 times in the space of a fortnight. 

Lossless disc-to-tape transfer: John Peel in the mix 

Hmm, maybe I'm being a bit harsh. The discs/tapes I listened back to covered the last few months of his show and, to be fair, the music he played was almost uniformly excellent. Bands/artists like the Polysics, the Detroit Cobras, Trencher, Plasticman, Help She Can't Swim, Steveless etc, etc. There are very few duds, and not too much reliance on old "classic" stuff. He's also, for the most part, crisp and to the point: prioritising the music not the chat. Anyway, after all this time it's a distinctly strange experience going back to these programmes. From the age of about 14-15 when I first heard the show on a crackly transistor radio under the bedclothes (yes, cliche I know), gaining my first real exposure to bands like Thin Lizzy (!), the Lurkers, Spizzoil (and masses of other 1978/79-era stuff), to the period of religiously taping as many programmes as I could (1986-to the end), John Peel was a big part of my musical life. There were unquestionably lots of gigs I only went to because I'd heard about them from his programme - and records I bought (or at least borrowed from record libraries) for the same reason. The real impact was obviously a lot deeper though. It was trying to be similarly open to diverse forms of music, especially things I'd never heard before. Yes, yes, everybody: all hail mighty John Peel! When I heard about his death in 2004 I was slightly in shock. In my office we used to have the daily newspapers and I photocopied all the main obituaries intending to read them when I got home. Instead, I ended up putting them all - unread - in a drawer because I couldn't face them. Nor have I ever read the several books I've got about or by him (one day, maybe ...). It was all a bit too raw somehow. Listening again now to those final few shows from September and October 2004 is completely different. Not emotionally difficult in any way, but just a bit sad as you hear him mentioning his forthcoming "break" (ie his trip to Peru where he died) and what he'll have on the show when he "gets back". Sad, but ... well, we've all got to die. For people of my generation (and quite a few other generations), Peel's contribution to serious/underground/progressive music is surely unrivalled. Revisiting the final tapes was a bitter-sweet experience but probably long overdue. Am I still keeping it Peel? Well, I'm not going to be listening back to his shows every day. Or banging on about Peel/Peelie. But I guess - in my own way - I'll be keeping it Peel until my own untimely death in an ancient Inca city far from home and with my plans for the following weeks left undone ...