Keeping It Peel 2018

On the 14th anniversary of the death of John Peel once again it's time to celebrate musically by Keeping It Peel.

I have chosen 30 John Peel Sessions spanning the years (the oldest dating back to 1968) and taking in many different musical styles just like his Radio Shows of old did back in the day.

I hope you enjoy them.

Keeping It Peel Playlist


On The Playlist
Roxy Music 1972
The Cramps 1986
The Psychedelic Furs 1979
T.Rex 1970
Leonard Cohen 1968
The Slits 1977
Linton Kwesi Johnson 1979
The Sisters of Mercy 1984
Killing Joke 1979
Joe Jackson 1979
Joy Division 1979
The Human League 1978
Motorhead 1978
Wire 1978
The Adverts 1977
Elvis Costello and The Attractions 1978
The Vapours 1979
The Ruts 1979
Ultravox! 1977
Culture 1982
Buzzcocks 1977
The Fall 1985
Siouxsie and the Banshees 1977
The Cranberries 1992
The Only Ones 1978
Prince Far-I and Creation Rebel 1978
The Damned 1979
Graham Parker and The Rumour 1976
The Motors 1977
Half Man Half Biscuit 1985  

40 Years of Punk & New Wave 1977: Eddie and The Hot Rods Debut Peel Session

 

On this day in 1977 John Peel Broadcast the Debut Session of Eddie and THe Hot Rods.

 

They would actually record another session in 1977 that spotlighted a couple of songs from their Life On The Line Album and would feature Graeme Douglas on Guitar who had joined after being in The Kursaal Flyers.

 

 

 

 Recorded 15th February 1977
Broadcast 21st February 1977

 

Tracks
Teenage Depression
Keep On Keeping On
On The Run
Why Can't It Be

 

Production and Studio Engineering: Jeff Griffin and Mike Robinson

Keeping It Peel 2016 - Reggae Peel Sessions

John Peel played all sorts of music on his shows including pop, reggae, indie pop, indie rock, alternative rock, punk, hardcore punk, breakcore, grindcore, death metal, British hip hop, electronic music, jungle and dance music. It's always good to remember that bands and artists who had only just begun (and some didn't even have a record contract) got a good leg up from recording a Peel Session. Many bands owe a tremendous debt to him for basically making their careers happen!

Reggae Music was always very popular on his shows and he played many tracks that would never have gotten an airing on any other radio show on the BBC at the time. 

When it came to the Peel Sessions he was on the ball bringing in a wide variety UK Reggae bands like Aswad, Black Roots, Matumbi, Misty in Roots, Reggae Regulars, Steel Pulse, UB40 and Zion Train. Occasionally he would have overseas Reggae "Stars" and there is nothing so sweet as hearing the sessions from Prince Far I (his only session and a magnificent one indeed), Culture, Mad Professor, Mikey Dread and The Twinkle Brothers. He even had Bob Marley & The Wailers back in 1973 do two sessions.

I have not included any of the Two Tone Sessions in the Playlist below. That would be deserving of a playlist in its own right.

Keeping It Peel 2016

Reggae Peel Sessions

Let The Day Be Peel...Let The Day Start!: Day 299 - Keeping It Peel

On this day in 2004 the news broke that beloved DJ John Peel had died of a heart attack in Peru whilst on a working holiday. Peel of course was more than a DJ, he wrote columns for newspapers, presented Home Truths on Radio 4, was like part of the furniture on live tv broadcasts like Glastonbury and also an occasional presenter on Top of the Pops.

In addition to his Radio 1 show (he was one of the longest serving DJ's on the station dating back to 1967), Peel broadcast as a disc jockey on the BBC World Service, on the British Forces Broadcasting Service (John Peel's Music on BFBS) for 30 years, VPRO Radio3 in the Netherlands, YLE Radio Mafia in Finland, Ö3 in Austria (Nachtexpress), and on Radio 4U, Radio Eins (Peel ...), Radio Bremen (Ritz) and some independent radio stations around FSK Hamburg in Germany. As a result of his BFBS programme he was voted, in Germany, "Top DJ in Europe".

Here's the final show that John Peel broadcast for the BBC from his home (Peel Acres) on 14th October 2004 featuring a session by Trencher.

When Punk arrived on the scene John Peel was quick on the uptake playing the many of the bands from America associated with Punk/New Wave like the Ramones as early as May 1976 when he played Judy is a Punk and the night after played three tracks from the debut album by the band, The Runaways, Richard Hell, Suicide, Pere Ubu, and The Fast. He was also the first DJ to play New Rose by The Damned, (I'm) Stranded by The Saints and Anarchy in the UK by the Sex Pistols a full week before it's official release. He played artists on Stiff Records (playing Nick Lowe's So It Goes five shows in a row), had The Vibrators as the first Punk band to do a Studio Session followed in December by The Damned's first session that was broadcast one Friday evening as part of a spotlight on the whole Punk Scene (not that all the music he played as you will hear below was actually "Punk").

The Punk Show

10th December 1976

John Peel's Desert Island Discs.

A Comprehensive List of All John Peel Sessions.

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

Magazine - The John Peel Sessions 1978-1980

Since we were thinking about Howard Devoto and Magazine I thought it would be good to post their sessions for John Peel recorded between 1978-1980.

1st Peel Session

Broadcast 20th February 1978

Touch and Go.

The Light Pours Out of Me.

Real Life.

My Mind Ain't So Open.

2nd Peel Session

Broadcast 31st July 1978

This from the Repeated Session on 28th August 1978

Boredom.

I Love You, You Big Dummy.

Burst.

Give Me Everything.

3rd Peel Session

Broadcast 14th May 1979

This is from the repeated Broadcast on 5th June 1979

Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself Again.

TV Baby.

Permafrost.

4th John Peel Session

Broadcast 14th January 1980

Song From Under The Floorboards.

20 Years Ago.

Look What Fear Has Done To My Body.

Model Worker.

An S4L Peel Day Playlist 2015

I hadn't forgot that today is John Peel Day. To honour the day I thought I'd stick together a playlist of some of my favourite Peel Sessions spread over the course of many years and involving a number of very different bands and styles.

I've chosen 60 (though a couple of the vids include Complete Sessions - The Smiths that kicks it off, Joy Division, Jesus and Mary Chain, Napalm Death, and there's also a live session with The White Stripes which I recall was pretty exceptional). Some of the other artists included are for example: The Fall, Cocteau Twins, The Damned, Prince Far I and Creation Rebel, Culture, Syd Barrett, Pulp, XTC and Fugazi, The Models, The Bodysnatchers, Billy Bragg, The Men They Couldn't Hang, Steel Pulse, The Wedding Present and Million Dead to name but a few.

I also felt that this should be posted as it got dark because Peel was on the radio at night mostly and it's when many of these Sessions were first heard. Not that you can only listen to them in the dark because you may not have time to do that now. Whenever you get the chance to listen I hope you enjoy them. On any number of Peel Sessions there would be songs that maybe were later released as singles or album tracks etc and many of the bands got their first airplay (or even their only airplay) on Peel's show on BBC Radio One as a result of a session or a single.

Keepin' It Peel

As it's the day that John Peel was born way back in 1939 I thought maybe a good way of Keepin' It Peel today would be to blast out some The Peel Sessions.

Here's a playlist of 100 Sessions that includes Public Image Ltd, Psychedelic Furs, Au Pairs, Revillos, The Cure, New Order, The Quads, Pulp, Penetration, The Undertones and so much more.

Iggy Pop - The John Peel Lecture 2014

Here's a transcript of The 2014 John Peel Lecture. This year Iggy Pop delivered the address in Manchester last night.

Warning: Lecture does contain language that might offend.

Free Music In A Capitalist Society

 "Hi, I'm Iggy Pop. I've held a steady job at BBC 6 Music now for almost a year, which is a long time in my game. I always hated radio and the jerks who pushed that shit music into my tender mind, with rare exceptions. When I was a boy, I used to sit for hours suffering through the entire US radio top 40 waiting for that one song by The Beatles and the other one by The Kinks. Had there been anything like John Peel available in my Midwestern town I would have been thrilled. So it's an honor to be here. I understand that. I appreciate it

Some months ago when the idea of this talk came up I thought it might be okay to talk about free music in a Capitalist society. So that's what I'm gonna try to talk about. A society in which the Capitalist system dominates all the others, and seeks their destruction when they get in its way. Since then, the shit has really hit the fan on the subject, thanks to U2 and Apple. I worked half of my life for free. I didn't really think about that one way or the other, until the masters of the record industry kept complaining that I wasn't making them any money. To tell you the truth, when it comes to art, money is an unimportant detail. It just happens to be a huge one unimportant detail. But, a good LP is a being, it's not a product. It has a life-force, a personality, and a history, just like you and me. It can be your friend. Try explaining that to a weasel.

As I learned when I hit 30 +, and realized I was penniless, and almost unable to get my music released, music had become an industrial art and it was the people who excelled at the industry who got to make the art. I had to sell most of my future rights to keep making records to keep going. And now, thanks to digital advances, we have a very large industry, which is laughably maybe almost entirely pirate so nobody can collect shit. Well, it was to be expected. Everybody made a lot of money reselling all of recorded musical history in CD form back in the 90s, but now the cat is out of the bag and the new electronic devices which estrange people from their morals also make it easier to steal music than to pay for it. So there's gonna be a correction.

When I started The Stooges we were organized as a group of Utopian communists. All the money was held communally and we lived together while we shared the pursuit of a radical ideal. We shared all song writing, publishing and royalty credits equally – didn’t matter who wrote it - because we'd seen it on the back of a Doors album and thought it was cool, at least I did. Yeah. I thought songwriting was about the glory, I didn't know you'd get paid for it. We practiced a total immersion to try to forge a new approach which would be something of our own. Something of lasting value. Something that was going to be revealed and created and was not yet known.

We are now in the age of the schemer and the plan is always big, big, big, but it's the nature of the technology created in the service of the various schemes that the pond, while wide, is very shallow. Nobody cares about anything too deeply expect money. Running out of it, getting it. I never sincerely wanted to be rich. There is a, in the US, we have this guy “Do you sincerely wanna be rich? You can do it!” I didn’t sincerely want to be rich. I never sincerely felt like making anyone else that way. That made me a kind of a wild card in the 60's and 70's. I got into the game because it felt good to play and it felt like being free. I'm still hearing today about how my early works with The Stooges were flops. But they're still in print and they sell 45 years later, they sell. Okay, it took 20 or 25 years for the first royalties to roll in. So sue me.

Some of us who couldn't get anywhere for years kept beating our heads against the same wall to no avail. No one did that better than my friends The Ramones. They kept putting out album after album, frustrated that they weren't getting the hit. They even tried Phil Spector and his handgun. After the first couple of records, which made a big impact, they couldn't sustain the quality, but I noticed that every album had at least one great song and I thought, wow if these guys would just stop and give it a rest, society would for sure catch up to them. And that's what's happening now, but they're not around to enjoy it. I used to run into Johnny at a little rehearsal joint in New York and he'd be in a big room all alone with a Marshall stack just going "dum, dum, dum, dum, dum" all my himself. I asked him why and he said if he didn't practice doing that exactly the way he did it live he'd lose it. He was devoted and obsessive, so were Joey and Deedee. I like that. Johnny asked me one day - Iggy don't you hate Offspring and the way they're so popular with that crap they play. That should be us, they stole it from us. I told him look, some guys are born and raised to be the captain of the football team and some guys are just gonna be James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause and that's the way it is. Not everybody is meant to be big. Not everybody big is any good.

I only ever wanted the money because it was symbolic of love and the best thing I ever did was to make a lifetime commitment to continue playing music no matter what, which is what I resolved to do at the age of 18. If who you are is who you are that is really hard to steal, and it can lead you in all sorts of useful directions when the road ahead of you is blocked and it will get blocked. Now I'm older and I need all the dough I can get. So I too am concerned about losing those lovely royalties, now that they've finally arrived, in the maze of the Internet. But I'm also diversifying my income, because a stream will dry up. I'm not here to complain about that, I'm here to survive it.

When I was starting out as a full time musician I was walking down the street one bright afternoon in the seedier part of my Midwestern college town. I passed a dive bar and from it emerged a portly balding pallid middle aged musician in a white tux with a drink in one hand and a guitar in the other. He was blinking in the daylight. I had a strong intuition that this was a fate to be avoided. He seemed cut off from society and resigned to an oblivious obscurity. A bar fly. An accessory to booze. So how do you engage society as an artist and get them to pay you? Well, that's a matter of art. And endurance.

To start with, I cannot stress enough the importance of study. I was lucky to work in a discount record store in Ann Arbor Michigan as a stock boy where I was exposed to a little bit of every form of music imaginable on record at the time. I listened to it all whether I liked it or not. Be curious. And I played in my high school orchestra and I learned the joy of the warm organic instruments working together in the service of a classical piece. That sticks with you forever. If anyone out there can get a chance to put an instrument and some knowledge in some kids hand, you've done a great, great thing.

Comparative information is a key to freedom. I found other people who were smarter than me. To teach me. My first pro band was a blues band called The Prime Movers and the leader Michael Erlewine was a very bright hippy beatnik with a beautifully organized record collection in library form of The Blues. I'd never really heard the Blues. That part of our American heritage was kept off the major media. It was system up, people down. No Big Bill Broonzy on BBC for us. Boy I wish! No money in it. But everything I learned from Michael's beautiful library became the building blocks for anything good I've done since. Guys like this are priceless. If you find one, follow him, or her. Get the knowledge.

Once in secondary school in the 60's some class clowns dressed up the tallest guy in school in a trench coat, shades and a fedora and rushed him in to a school dance with great hubbub proclaiming "Del Shannon is here, Del Shannon is here." And until they got to the stage we all believed them, because nobody knew what Del Shannon looked like. He was just a voice on some great records. He had no social ID. By the early 60's that had really changed with the invasion of The Beatles and The Stones. This time TV was added to the mix and print media too. So you knew who they were, or so you thought anyway. I'm mentioning this because the best way to survive the death or change of an industry is to transcend its form. You're better off with an identity of your own or maybe a few of them. Something special.

It is my own personal view having lived through it that in America The Beatles replaced our assassinated president Kennedy, who represented our hopes for a certain kind of society. Didn’t get there. And The Stones replaced our assassinated folk music which our own leaders suppressed for cultural, racial, and financial reasons. It wasn't okay with everybody to be Kennedy or Muddy Waters, but those messages could be accepted if they came through white entertainers from the parent culture. That's why they’re still around.

Years later I had the impression that Apple, the corporation, had successfully co-opted the good feelings that the average American felt about the culture of the Beatles, by kind of stealing the name of their company so I bought a little stock. Good move. 1992. Woo! But look, everybody is subject to the rip off and has to change affiliations from time to time. Even Superman and Barbie were German before America tempted them to come over. Tough luck, Nietzche.

So who owns what anyway. Or as Bob Dylan said "The relationships of ownership." That’s gates of Eden. Nobody knows for long, especially these days. Apparently when BBC radio was founded, the record companies in England wouldn't allow the BBC to play their master recordings because they thought no one would buy them for their personal use if they could hear them free on the radio. So they were really confused about what they had. They didn’t get it. And how people feel about music. ‘Cause it’s a feel thing, and it resists logic. It’s not binary code. Later when CD's came in, the retail merchants in American all panicked because they were just too damn tiny and they thought that Americans want something that looks big, like a vinyl record. Well they had a point but their solution was a kind of Frankenstein called "The Long Box." It didn't fool anybody because half of it was empty. It had a little CD in the bottom. You’d open it up and it was empty. Now we have people in the Sahara using GPS to bury huge wads of Euros under sand dunes for safe keeping. But GPS was created for military spying from the high ground, not radical banking so any sophisticated system, along with the bounty it brings, is subject to primitive hijacking.

I wanna talk about a type of entrepreneur who functions as a kind of popular music patron of the arts. It’s good to know a patron. I call him El Padron because his relationship to the artist is essentially feudal, though benign. He or she (La Padrona) if you will, is someone, usually the product of successful, enlightened parents, who owns a record company, but has had benefit of a very good education, and can see a bigger picture than a petty business person. If they like an artists’ style and it suits them, they'll support you even if you’re not a big money spinner. I can tell you, some of these powerful guys get so bored that if you are fun in the office, you’ll go places. Their ancestors, the old time record crooks just made it their business to make great, great records, but also to rip off the artist 100%, copyright, publishing, royalty splits, agency fees, you name it. If anyone complained the line was "Pay you? We worship you!" God bless Bo Diddley.

By the time I came along there was a new brand of Padron. People like this are still around and some can help you. One was named Jack Holzman. Jack had a beautiful label called Elektra Records, they put out Judy Collins, Tim Buckley, the Doors and Love. He'd started working in his family record store, like Brian Epstein. He dressed mod and he treated us very gently. He was a civilized man. He obviously loved the arts, but what he really wanted to do was build his business - and he did. He had his own concerns, and style, and you had to serve them, and of course when he sold out, as all indies do, you were stranded culturally in the hands of a cold clumsy conglomerate. But he put us in the right studios with the right producers and he tried to get us seen in the right venues and it really helped. This is a good example of the industry.

Another good guy I met is Sir Richard Branson. I ended up serving my full term at Virgin Records having been removed from every other label. And he created a superior culture there. People were happier and nicer than the weasels at some other places. The first time he tried to sign me it didn't work out, because I had my sights set on A&M, a company I thought would help make me respectable. After all they had Sting! Richard was secretly starting his own company at the time in the US and he phoned me in my tiny flat with no furniture. He said he'd give me a longer term deal with more dough than the other guys and he was very, very polite and soft spoken. But I had just smoked a joint that day and I couldn't make a decision. So I went with the other guys who soon got sick of me. Virgin picked me up again later on the rebound. And on the cheap. Damn. My own fault.

Another kind of indie legend who is slightly more contemporary is Long Gone John of the label Sympathy for the Record Industry. Good name. John is famous with some artists for his disinterest in paying royalties. He has a very interesting music themed folk art collection – its visible online - which includes my leather jacket. I wish he'd give it back. There are lots of indie people with a gift for organization who just kind of collect freaks and throw them up at the wall to see who sticks. You gotta watch 'em.

When you go a step down creatively from the Padrons who are actually entrepreneurs you get to the executives. You don't wanna know these guys. They usually came over from legal or accounting. They have protégés usually called A&R men to do their dirty work. You can become a favorite with them if your fame or image might reflect limelight on their career. They tend to have no personalities to speak of, which is their strength. Strangely they're never really thinking about the good of their parent company as much as old number one. Avoid them. If you’re an artist, they’ll make you sick or suicidal. The only good thing the conglomerate can do for you – and they’ve done it recently for me - is make you really, really ubiquitous. They do that well. But, when the company is your banker, then you are basically gonna be the Beverly Hill Billies. So it's best not to take their money. Especially when you’re young. These are very tough people, and they can hurt you.

So who are the good guys?! They asked me when they read this thing at BBC 6 Music. Well there are lots of them. If fact, today there are more than ever and they are just about all indies, but first I want to mention Peter Gabriel and WOMAD for everything they've done for what seems like forever to help the greatest musicians in the world, the so called world musicians to gain a foothold and make a living in the modern screwed up cash and carry world. Traditional music was never a for profit enterprise, all the best forms were developed as a kind of you’re job in the community. It was pretty good, it was “Yeah, I’m a musician, I’m gonna skip like doing the dishes or taking the trash out.” It's not surprising that all the greatest singers and players come from parts of the world where everybody is broke and the old ways are getting paved over. So it's crucial for everyone that these treasures not be lost. There are other people of means and intelligence who help others in this way like Philip Glass through Tibet House, David Burn with Luaka Bop, Damon Albarn through Honest John Records. Shout out to Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. Almost all the best music is coming out on indies today like XL Mattador, Burger, Anti, Apitaph, Mute, Rough Trade, 4 A D, Sub Pop, etc. etc.

But now YouTube is trying to put the squeeze on these people because it's just easier for a power nerd to negotiate with a couple big labels who own the kind of music that people listen to when they're really not that into music, which of course is most people. So they've got the numbers. But the indies kind of have the guns. I've noticed that indies are showing strength at some of the established streaming services like Spotify and Rhapsody – people are choosing that music. And it's also great that some people are starting their own outlets, like Pledge Music, Band Camp or Drip. As the commercial trade swings more into general show biz the indies will be the only place to go for new talent, outside the Mickey Mouse Club, so I think they were right to band together and sign the Fair Digital Deals Declaration.

There are just so many ways to screw an artist that it's unbelievable. In the old vinyl days they would deduct 10% "breakage fees" for records supposedly broken in shipping, whether that happened or not, and now they have unattributed digital revenue, whatever the **** that means. It means money for some guy’s triple bypass. I actually think that what Thom Yorke has done with Bit Torrent is very good. I was gonna say here: “Sure the guy is a pirate at Bit Torrent” but I was warned legally, so I’ll say: “Sure the guy a Bit Torrent is a pirate’s friend” But all pirates want to go legit, just like I wanted to be respectable. It’s normal. After a while people feel like you’re a crook, it’s too hard to do business. So it’s good in this case that Thom Yorke is encouraging a positive change. The music is good. It’s being offered at a low price direct to people who care.

I want to try to define what I am talking about when I say free. For me in the arts or in the media, there are two kinds of free. One kind of free is when the process is something that people just feel for you. You feel a sense of possibility. You feel a lack of constraint. This leads to powerful, energetic, sometimes kind of loony situations.

Vice Media is an interesting case of this because they started as a free handout, using public funds, and they had open, free-wheeling minds. Originally a free handout was called Voice and these kids were like “Just get rid of the old! I don’t wanna be Vice, yeah!” Okay. By taking an immersive approach with no particular preconceptions to their reporting, they've become a huge success, also through corporate advertising, at attracting big, big money investment hundreds of millions of dollars now pumped into Fox Media and a couple of others bigger than that in the US. And they get it because they attract lots of little boy eyeballs. So they brought us Dennis Rodman in North Korea. And it’s kind of a travesty, but it’s kind of spunky. It's interesting that capital investment, for all its posturing, never really leads, it always follows. They follow the action. So if it's money you're after, be the yourself in a consistent way and you might get it. You’ll at least end up getting what you are worth and feel better. Just follow your nose.

The second kind of freedom to me that is important in the media is the idea of giving freely. When you feel or sense that someone that someone is giving you something not out of profit, but out of self-respect, Christian charity, whatever it is. That has a very powerful energy. The Guardian, in my understanding, was founded by an endowment by a successful man with a social conscience who wanted to help create a voice for what I would call the little guy. So they have a kind of moral mission or imperative. This has given them the latitude to try to be interesting, thoughtful, helpful. And they bring Edward Snowden to the world stage. Something that is not pleasant for a lot of people to hear about, but we need to know.

These two approaches couldn't be more different. To justify their new mega bucks Vice will have to expand and expand in capital terms. Presumably they'll have to titillate a dumb, but energetic audience. Of course all capitalist expansions are subject to the big bang – balloon, bust, poof, and you’re gone. As for the Guardian I would imagine that the task involves gaining the trust and support of a more discerning, less definable reader, without spending the principal. There is usually an antipathy between cultural poles, but these two actually have a lot in common in terms of the energy and nuisance to power that they are willing to generate. I wish red and blue could come together somehow.

Sometimes I'd rather read than listen to music. One of my favourite odd books is Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry by Clinton Heylin. I bought the book in the 90's because a couple of my bootlegs were mentioned. I loved my bootlegs. They did a lot for me. I never really thought about the dough much. I liked the titles, like Suck on This, Stow Away DOA or Metalic KO. The packaging was always way more creative and edgy than most of my official stuff. So I just liked being seen and heard, like anybody else. These bootleggers were creative. Here are two quotes from the dust jacket by veteran industry stalwarts on the subject of bootlegs in 1994.

"Bootleg is the thoroughly researched and highly entertaining tale of those colorful brigands, hapless amateurs, and true believers who have done wonders for my record collection. Rock and roll doesn't get more underground than this." – that was David Fricke, the music editor of Rolling Stone.

"I think that bootlegs keep the flame of the music alive by keeping it out of not only the industry's conception of the artist, but also the artist's conception of the artist." – that was Lenny Kaye from the Patti Smith group, musician, critic and my friend. Wow!! Sounds heroic and vital!

I wonder what these guys feel about all of this now, because things have changed, haven't they? We are now talking about Megaupload, Kim Dot Com, big money, political power, and varying definitions of theft that are legally way over my head. But I know a con man when I see one. I want to include a rant from an early bootlegger in this discussion because it's so passionate and I just think it's funny.

This is Lou Cohan "If anybody thinks that if I have purchased every single Rolling Stones album in existence, and I have bought all the Rolling Stones albums that have been released in England, France, Japan, Italy, and Brazil that if I have an extra $100 in my pocket instead of buying a Rolling Stones bootleg I am going to buy a John Denver album or a Sinead O'Conner album, they are retarded."

So the guy is trying to say don't try to force me. And don't steal my choice. And the people who don't want the free U2 download are trying to say, don't try to force me. And they've got a point. Part of the process when you buy something from an artist. It’s a kind of anointing, you are giving people love. It’s your choice to give or withhold. You are giving a lot of yourself, besides the money. But in this particular case, without the convention, maybe some people felt like they were robbed of that chance and they have a point. It’s not the only point. These are not bad guys. But now, everybody's a bootlegger, but not as cute, and there are people out there just stealing the stuff and saying don't try to force me to pay. And that act of thieving will become a habit and that’s bad for everything. So we are exchanging the corporate rip off for the public one. Aided by power nerds. Kind of computer Putins. They just wanna get rich and powerful. And now the biggest bands are charging insane ticket prices or giving away music before it can flop, in an effort to stay huge. And there's something in this huge thing that kind of sucks.

Which brings us to Punk. The most punk thing I ever saw in my life was Malcolm McLaren's cardboard box full of dirty old winkle pinkers. It was the first thing I saw walking in the door of Let It Rock in 1972 which was his shop at Worlds End on the Kings Road. It was a huge ugly cardboard bin full of mismatched unpolished dried out winkle pickers without laces at some crazy price like maybe five pounds each. Another 200 yards up the street was Granny Takes a Trip, where they sold proper Rockstar clothes like scarves, velvet jackets, and snake skin platform boy boots. Malcolm's obviously worthless box of shit was like a fire bomb against the status quo because it was saying that these violent shoes have the right idea and they are worth more than your fashion, which serves a false value. This is right out of the French enlightenment.

So is the thieving that big a deal? Ethically, yes, and it destroys people because it's a bad road you take. But I don't think that's the biggest problem for the music biz. I think people are just a little bit bored, and more than a little bit broke. No money. Especially simple working people who have been totally left out, screwed and abandoned. If I had to depend on what I actually get from sales I’d be tending bars between sets. I mean honestly it’s become a patronage system. There’s a lot of corps involved and I don’t fault any of them but it’s not as much fun as playing at the Music Machine in Camden Town in 1977. There is a general atmosphere of resentment, pressure, kind of strange perpetual war, dripping on all the time. And I think that prosecuting some college kid because she shared a file is a lot like sending somebody to Australia 200 years ago for poaching his lordship's rabbit. That's how it must seem to poor people who just want to watch a crappy movie for free after they’ve been working themselves to death all day at Tesco or whatever, you know.

If I wanna make music, at this point in my life I'd rather do what I want, and do it for free, which I do, or cheap, if I can afford to. I can. And fund through alternative means, like a film budget, or a fashion website, both of which I've done. Those seem to be turning out better for me than the official rock n roll company albums I struggle through. Sorry. If I wanna make money, well how about selling car insurance? At least I'm honest. It's an ad and that's all it is. Every free media platform I've ever known has been a front for advertising or propaganda or both. And it always colors the content. In other words, you hear crap on the commercial radio. The licensing of music by films, corps, and TV has become a flood, because these people know they're not a hell of a lot of fun so they throw in some music that is. I'm all for that, because that's the way the door opened for me. I got heard on tv before radio would take a chance. But then I was ok. Good. And others too. I notice there are a lot of people, younger and younger, getting their exposure that way. But it's a personal choice. I think it’s an aesthetic one, not an ethical one.

Now with the Internet people can choose to hear stuff and investigate it in their own way. If they want to see me jump around the Manchester Apollo with a horse tail instead of trying to be a proper Rockstar, they can look. Good. Personally I don't worry too much about how much I get paid for any given thing, because I never expected much in the first place and the whole industry has become bloated in its expectations. Look, Howling Wolf would work for a sandwich. This whole thing started in Honky Tonk bars. It's more important to do something important or just make people feel something and then just trust in God. If you're an entertainer your God is the public. They'll take care of you somehow. I want them to hear my music any old which way. Period. There is an unseen hand that turns the pages of existence in ways no one can predict. But while you’re waiting for God to show up and try to find a good entertainment lawyer.

It's good to remember that this is a dream job, whether you're performing or working in broadcasting, or writing or the biz. So dream. Dream. Be generous, don’t be stingy. Please. I can't help but note that it always seems to be the pursuit of the money that coincides with the great art, but not its arrival. It's just kind of a death agent. It kills everything that fails to reflect its own image, so your home turns into money, your friends turn into money, and your music turns into money. No fun, binary code – zero one, zero one - no risk, no nothing. What you gotta do you gotta do, life's a hurly-burly, so I would say try hard to diversify your skills and interests. Stay away from drugs and talent judges. Get organized. Big or little, that helps a lot.

I'd like you to do better than I did. Keep your dreams out of the stinky business, or you'll go crazy, and the money won't help you. Be careful to maintain a spiritual EXIT. Don't live by this game because it's not worth dying for. Hang onto your hopes. You know what they are. They’re private. Because that's who you really are and if you can hang around long enough you should get paid. I hope it makes you happy. It's the ending that counts, and the best things in life really are free."

Watch Iggy Pop's lecture on BBC Four on Sunday 19 October, 8-9pm.

For readers in the UK you can listen to the lecture here.

John Peel - Would have been 75 today!

Born on this day in 1939, John Peel, BBC radio DJ. journalist and TV presenter, born John Robert Parker Ravenscroft. He was the longest running BBC Radio 1 and the most influential British DJ ever. He was one of the first broadcasters to play psychedelic rock and progressive rock records on British radio, and is widely acknowledged for promoting artists working in various genres, including pop, reggae, indie rock, alternative rock, punk, hardcore punk, breakcore, grindcore, death metal, British hip hop, and dance music. Peel died in Cuzco, Peru of a heart attack on 25th October 2004 aged 65.

Click on the links to enjoy the music.

Desert Island Discs with John Peel.

John Peel's Room 101.

John Peel's TV Hell.

John Peel Plays 'Teenage Kicks' twice in a row on Radio 1 - 25th September 1978.

John Peel HARDtalk Pt1.

John Peel HARDtalk Pt2.

The Peel Sessions

(Dates Are Broadcast Dates).

The Smiths - 2nd Peel Session - 8th December 1983.
This Charming Man Back

 To The Old House 

Still ill 

This Night Has Opened My Eyes.

Joy Division Peel Sessions.
Exercise One

Insight

She's Lost Control

Transmission

Love Will Tear Us Apart

Twenty Four Hours

Colony

Sound of Music.

Cocteau Twins Peel Session 15th July 1982.

Wax And Wane
Garlands
Alas Dies Laughing
Feathers Oar/Blades.

Swell Maps Peel Session 27th October 1978.

Another Song
 Full Moon In My Pocket / Blam!! / Full Moon etc
Harmony In Your Bathroom
International Rescue
Read About Seymour.

The Jam Peel Session 5th November 1979.

1. Thick As Thieves
2. The Eton Rifles
3. Saturday's Kids
4. When You're Young.

New Order Peel Sessions.

1.Truth 2. Senses 3. I.C.B. 4. Dreams Never End 5.Turn the Heater On {Keith Hudson Cover} 6. We All Stand 7. Too Late 8. 5-8-6 .

Gang of Four Peel Session 9th July 1979.

1. Natural's Not In It
2. Not Great Men
3. Ether
4. Guns Before Butter.

Stiff Little Fingers Peel Session 18th September 1978.

1. Johnny Was
2. Law And Order
3. Barbed Wire Love
4. Suspect Device.

The Slits Peel Session 27th September 1977.

1. Love Und Romance
2. Vindictive
3. New Town
4. Shoplifting.

The Boys Peel Session 15th May 1978.

1. T.C.P.
2. Brickfield Nights
3. Classified Susie
4. Boys.

Madness Peel Session 27th August 1979.

1. The Prince 

2. Bed And Breakfast Man 

3. Land Of Hope And Glory
4. Stepping Into Line.

Echo and the Bunnymen Peel Session 22nd August 1979.

1. Read It In Books
2. Stars Are Stars
3. I Bagsy Yours
4. Villiers Terrace.

Loads more Peel Sessions can be found on You Tube.

 

In Honour of John Peel

In honour of what would have been the birthday of the late great John Peel it's time to remember a few of the great sessions that he had on his show down through the years. All dates are the broadcast date (where possible). Click on the links to enjoy the music.

The Cure 11/12/78.

1. Killing An Arab.

2. 10.15 Saturday Night.

3. Fire In Cairo. 

4. Boys Don't Cry. 

Swell Maps 16/10/78.

1. Another Song.

2. Full Moon In My Pocket / Blam!! / Full Moon etc.

3. Harmony In Your Bathroom.

4. International Rescue.
5. Read About Seymour. 

The Skids 01/09/78.

1. Dossier (Of Fallibility).

2. The Saints Are Coming.

3. Hope And Glory.

Girls At Our Best 23/02/81. 

(One of my favs).

1. China Blue.

2. This Train.

3. Getting Beautiful Warm Gold Fast From Nowhere.

The Ruts 18/02/80.

 1. In A Rut.

2. Secret Soldiers.

3. Staring At The Rude Boys.

4. Demolition Dancing.

The Lurkers 22/10/77.

1. Freak Show.
2. Total War.
3. I'm On Heat.

 4. Then I Kissed Her.
5. Be My Prisoner.

UK Subs 31/05/78.
1. I Couldn't Be You.

2. Tomorrow's Girls.
3. Disease.

4. C.I.D. 

5. Stranglehold.

The Beat 05/10/79.

1. Tears Of A Clown.

2. Mirror In The Bathroom.

3. Ranking Full Stop.

 4. Click Click.

 5. Big Shot.

The Specials 29/05/79.

 1. Gangsters 

2. Too Much Too Young 

3. Concrete Jungle 

4. Monkey Man 

The Mo-dettes 04/02/80.

1. Norman (He's No Rebel).
2. Dark Park Creeping.

 3. Kray Twins.
4. Bitter Truth.

Rollerskate Skinny 03/07/93.

1. Bow Hitchhiker.
2. Abba's Song.
3. Violence To Violence.

The Psychdelic Furs 30/07/79.

 1. Imitation Of Christ.
2. Fall.
3. Sister Europe.
4. We Love You.

Subway Sect 24/10/77.

 1. Chain Smoking.
2. Parallel Lines.
3. I Don't Split It.
4. Nobody's Scared.

Half Man Half Biscuit 20/10/85.

 1. D'ye Ken Ted Moult?

2. Arthur's Farm.
3. All I Want For Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit.
4. The Trumpton Riots.
5. Ol' Tige.

Echo and the Bunnymen 22/08/79.

1. Read It In Books.
2. Stars Are Stars.
3. I Bagsy Yours.
4. Villiers Terrace.

The Members 13/04/81.

 1. Boys Like Us.
2. Chairman Of The Board.
3. Working Girl.
4. Birmingham.

Scars 06/03/80.

 1. She's Alive.
2. So Strong.
3. Author! Author!

4. Je T'Aime C'Est Le Mort.

The Rezillos 30/12/77.

1. (My Baby Does) Good Sculptures.

 2. No.
3. Fight Amongst Youselves (It Gets Me).
4. Top Of The Pops.

Teenage Fanclub 30/09/80.

1. God Knows It's True.
2. So Far Gone.
3. Alcoholiday.
4. Long Hair.

Billy Bragg 03/08/83.

 1. A New England.
2. Strange Things Happen.
3. This Guitar Says Sorry.
4. Love Gets Dangerous.
5. Fear Is A Man's Best Friend.
6. A13 - Trunk Road To The Sea.

 

John Peel

Would have been John's birthday today.

Still missed.

John Peel Record Collection Goes Live Today

John Peel's Record Collection goes live today. Check out this blog for details of how it's going to happen.

Go Here to The Space

Soundtrack4Life Albums of 2011 Compilations

Well. as the year is drawing to a close (just a month to go) I thought now was as good a time as any to list the albums that have been my favs this past year.

Best Compilations

01. Movement - Various Artists

This is clearly my favourite compilation of the year gathering together 41 artists that recorded sessions for John Peel between 1977-79, and what a bunch of bands: The Jam, The Rezillos, The Flys, XTC, Dr Feelgood, Joy Division, Killing Joke and Madness just to name a few. Brought back a lot of memories for me of being a 14 year old lad listening to Peel on a transistor radio under the covers!

I hope that they are going to release some more compilations like this as there were so many great sessions over the years.

02. A Guided Tour - Madness

There has of course been a fair few Madness compilations over the years and this 3CD and 1DVD collection doesn't really cover any new ground apart from the inclusion of 'La Grand Pantalon' that they did for a recent beer commercial and a few tracks from the excellent 'The Liberty of Norton Folgate'. There's a few duffers on it (in particular the tracks from 'The Dangermen Sessions'. Only two singles are missing from the collection but they are not missed when some of their brilliant b-sides have been included. The DVD is the 'Madstock' gig from 1992 (getting it's DVD debut) which of course is a fine live testament to their greatness.

03. National Treasures - Manic Street Preachers

 

I have never been a huge fan of the Manics. There are songs that I have absolutely loved of theirs and there has been stuff that I have not liked at all. One thing about them though is that they consistently released good singles - they didn't always top the charts, but that's not what they were seeking to do. This collection is much better than the previously released 'Greatest Hits' album 'Forever Delayed' and gathers together all the singles plus a new rendering of the classic The The track 'This is the Day' (which some people loathe but I actually like!).

04. Live at the BBC - The Beautiful South

They were not everyone's cup of tea but I have a fond affection for The Beautiful South. This collection comprises sessions and live material from the BBC archives and includes a DVD of performances from Later with Jools Holland and a Top of the Pops performance of 'Old Red Eyes is Back'. A couple of years ago a 2CD collection was released of the BBC Sessions but this one is far more detailed and the 2nd CD captures the band live in Blackburn's King George's Hall and shows what a force they were in concert.

05. Walk Out To Winter: The Best of - Aztec Camera

For £3.99 from Amazon this little 37 track compilation brings together some of the fine music that Roddy Frame released under the banner of Aztec Camera. The only thing missing from it are the singles released on Postcard but that is forgiven when you see the tracklisting. Drawn from the single releases and album tracks and a couple of cover versions thrown in for good measure (Van Halen's 'Jump', Cyndi Lauper's 'True Colours' and 'If Paradise is (Half as Nice), orginally done by Amen Corner and features Andy Fairweatherlow on vocals). It's a good reminder that Frame is a great songwriter who is often forgotten when people consider the best Scottish writers.

Listen to every track from every John Peel Festive Fifty

Listen to every track from every John Peel Festive Fifty

John Peel - Turn That Racket Down!

The other day was John Peel Day and I should have posted this one. A great wee documentary from 1999 and first shown on BBC2.

Part One


Part Two


Part Three


Part Four

John Peel Day 2011 - Studio Sessions pt01

Over the years John Peel had some excellent studio sessions. It is well worth picking up the book 'The Peel Sessions'

That book gives a great history of the sessions and details dates recorded and broadcasted as well as details of the Festive 50's etc. A good investment I think.


Pickin' the Blues - John Peel Theme


The Slits - Love and Romance


New Order - Transmission (to celebrate Peel's 40th Anniversary I think?)


The Damned - Fan Club


The Cure - Grinding Halt


The Specials - Stereotypes



Stiff Little Fingers - Law and Order/Barbed Wire Love/Suspect Device Feb 12th 1980


The Wedding Present - Happy Birthday


The Beat - Ranking Full Stop


The Sundays - My Finest Hour



Sonic Youth - My New House (The Fall cover)



Jimi Hendrix - Daytripper

John Peel Day 2011

A Minute's Noise For John




A MINUTE'S NOISE FOR JOHN
by Mitch Benn and the Distractions

Let's have a minute's noise from all the girls and boys
Who understand that they lost a friend the other day 'cos
To have a minute's silence somehow would be wrong,
Let's have a minute's noise for John.

Let's have a minute's row from everyone remembering how
He soundtracked all our misspent youths
From Teenage Kicks right to Home Truths.
To stand in wordless contemplation's just not on,
Let's have a minute's noise for John.

So DJs rip up your playlists, remember better stuff exists
Now that he has left us how'll we save the world from Simon bloody Cowell?
Let's have a minute's racket, though he isn't coming coming back it
Seems we understand the need to play something loud and at the wrong speed.
Cos a minute's silence wouldn't show him how we feel,
Let's have a minute's noise for Peel

It's hard to believe that today marks the 7th anniversary of the passing of one of the legends of radio, John Peel. I am hard pressed to think of another Disc Jockey that through his show was able to impact musical culture for a good number of decades. Whether it was Punk, Reggae, Ska, Indie, Electronic, House Music, Hip Hop, Speed Metal, African music, and a whole host of other Musical Genres, John Peel had his finger on the pulse. Without his commitment to play everything from the totally obscure to introducing the world to Wham (yep we have Uncle John to thank for that!)he left a great legacy behind.

This little blog today will have a few posts dedicated to some of the music that John introduced to the world.

To begin with though I thought I'd post the links to the This Is Your Life show in which Michael Aspel presented John Peel with the big red book.

This Is Your Life John Peel - Part 1

This Is Your Life John Peel Part 2

This Is Your Life John Peel Part 3

Gems From My Collection - John Peel

I was thinking about John Peel today. I tend to do that from time to time especially when playing music and a tune pops up and says that it's taken from a Peel Session. I have quite a few in my collection that I prize very highly (Adam & The Ants, The Models, Stiff Little Fingers, The Ruts, Penetration, That Petrol Emotion, The Slits, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Specials, Madness, The Jam, The Cure, The Shop Assistants and The Darling Buds to name just a few).

I remeber meeting John Peel a couple of times in my life when he was DJ at Reading Festival and a show I was working at with a band called the Disco Zombies in Northampton. That Northampton show was the first time I met him and I asked him if he could play a UK Subs record for the some of my mates on his show. The following Monday night show he did indeed play the UK Subs and gave the dedication to our little gang known as the Forest Hill Punks. A top bloke indeed.

He was in my mind one of the most important people on Radio because he played music that you would never hear during the daytime and he showcased so many great bands down through the years that you wonder if we ever would have heard of them had they not been given the platform of the John Peel Session.It wasn't only those who had sessions of course that benefitted from getting airplay because Peel played everything on his show from Death Metal, Reggae, Belgian House, Hip Hop, Indie, Punk, World Music and a whole lot more. His influence on the business is outstanding and he just saw himself as someone who loved music and wanted to share it with others.

When John Peel passed out of this world the BBC Radio 1 put together a fantastic show presented by Jarvis Cocker entitled 'Teenage Dreams So Hard To Beat' that includes tributes and stories of Peel and some funny moments of Peel playing tracks at the wrong speed. I had a wee listen to it again today and it set me thinking a lot about the man. If you want to listen to the show Then Click Here to Download It.