The last DJ
The Undertones, "Teenage Kicks"
Whatever small success I had as a musician was due less to talent or determination than it was to the intervention of a few key people, who, for whatever reason, decided to help my old band out. One of them just died. I'm personalizing this because John Peel made me, and millions of other young dopes, feel connected to the imposing world of pop music. If you wrote John Peel, he wrote you back, even if you were a nerd from Virginia who wanted to know where he could find some of the records you heard the man play on the apartment-fridge-sized shortwave radio you'd dragged out of your grandparents' garage. Later on when I was in a band myself, John Peel played our first British single on his short-lived daytime show, sandwiching us between Whitney Houston and Leftfield and Lydon singles. He even included us in one of his "Festive Fifty" broadcasts, a year-end roundup of his favorite singles. He arranged for a couple of Radio One sessions for us and for me when I quixotically went solo.
The first time we showed up for a "Peel session" we were surprised to find out that we weren't just going on his radio show and playing in the next room. Those were real recording sessions, in a spaceship-like studio with TWO engineers who would present you with an intentionally crappy cassette of the results as you left. If you wanted to hear the songs with decent quality, you had to record them off the radio or talk your record company into licensing the recordings, which as I recall was not an inexpensive proposition.
So when I first met John Peel (in I think 1995) I was wondering how connected he actually was to music. By god, he was like a robot. He asked me about every band I was ever in; he remembered a bunch of records I'd forgotten about, and he even managed to cough out a few unearned compliments about my solo stuff. Then he did the exact thing with the person next to me. We were both giddy afterwards.
Anyway, as stupid and rambling as my stories are, SO many people in music have better ones. Whether you were a fan or a musician or for some lucky folks (not me) a friend, John Peel could well have changed your life. I remember reading a few years ago that Peel wanted a couple of Undertones lyrics--"Teenage kicks / So hard to beat"--as his epitaph. So download the song if you don't have it already, and give 'em to him.
Whatever small success I had as a musician was due less to talent or determination than it was to the intervention of a few key people, who, for whatever reason, decided to help my old band out. One of them just died. I'm personalizing this because John Peel made me, and millions of other young dopes, feel connected to the imposing world of pop music. If you wrote John Peel, he wrote you back, even if you were a nerd from Virginia who wanted to know where he could find some of the records you heard the man play on the apartment-fridge-sized shortwave radio you'd dragged out of your grandparents' garage. Later on when I was in a band myself, John Peel played our first British single on his short-lived daytime show, sandwiching us between Whitney Houston and Leftfield and Lydon singles. He even included us in one of his "Festive Fifty" broadcasts, a year-end roundup of his favorite singles. He arranged for a couple of Radio One sessions for us and for me when I quixotically went solo.
The first time we showed up for a "Peel session" we were surprised to find out that we weren't just going on his radio show and playing in the next room. Those were real recording sessions, in a spaceship-like studio with TWO engineers who would present you with an intentionally crappy cassette of the results as you left. If you wanted to hear the songs with decent quality, you had to record them off the radio or talk your record company into licensing the recordings, which as I recall was not an inexpensive proposition.
So when I first met John Peel (in I think 1995) I was wondering how connected he actually was to music. By god, he was like a robot. He asked me about every band I was ever in; he remembered a bunch of records I'd forgotten about, and he even managed to cough out a few unearned compliments about my solo stuff. Then he did the exact thing with the person next to me. We were both giddy afterwards.
Anyway, as stupid and rambling as my stories are, SO many people in music have better ones. Whether you were a fan or a musician or for some lucky folks (not me) a friend, John Peel could well have changed your life. I remember reading a few years ago that Peel wanted a couple of Undertones lyrics--"Teenage kicks / So hard to beat"--as his epitaph. So download the song if you don't have it already, and give 'em to him.
posted by Andrew Beaujon at 11:05
1 Comments:
First Dave Grodin and now John Peel.
Two pretty influential voices in the UK.
I've posted one of Eggs' Peel Sessions over at my site should you feel like reminiscing or sharing.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home