John Peel Sessions
davestrickson.blogspot.comFor those who don't know of him, John Peel was a presenter/DJ on BBC Radio 1 from the 60s until his death in the mid 00s.
For as long as I've been aware of it, Radio 1 has followed a format of playing mainstream pop music during the day, with more specialised and esoteric programming in the evening. When I was a teenager, Peel's show was on at 10pm on weeknights, and his main focus was on championing new and undiscovered bands, across many genres. The Peel sessions were part of this show, where a band would come in to record a live performance of a few songs.
I imagine a lot of bands can credit their success to John Peel playing their records and inviting them to record a session.
>I imagine a lot of bands can credit their success to John Peel playing their records and inviting them to record a session.
That dramatically understates the importance of Peel during his heyday. Before the internet, Peel was the way for bands to find an audience outside of their home town. For an entire generation of musicians, sending off a demo tape to Peel was a peculiar act of secular benediction, a message in a bottle cast into the waters in the hope that someone might read it.
His death in 2004 left a void that has never quite been filled. Despite the stalwart efforts of Tom Robinson and the BBC Introducing team, nobody has been able to replicate Peel's unique eclecticism and his remarkable ability to sniff out new talent. His peculiar alchemy attracted a wide audience while also offering an open door to the unknown, the unsigned and the unhinged.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/sep/25/how-john-peel-...
I see Mark Riley's show on 6 music as at least a partial fulfilment, not least the amount of live sessions he does.
... and to underline the diversity of the genres Peel championed: he was both one of the main early radio promoters of punk, but just a few earliers had championed Tangerine Dream's Phaedra as one of his favorite albums of the year.
I think that if you wanted to try and come up with a simple way to describe what connected all the music that Peel championed over his long career, it would have to be something like "new energy". He didn't seem as interested in what a band actually sounded like as where their energy came from and what level it was on.
Looking over a list of Peel sessions:
http://www.thepeelsessions.co.uk/bands.html
I am struck by (a) what a range of extraordinary stuff there was and (b) just how many times he had his favourites on! I don't think i have ever heard of Loudon Wainright III outside the context of John Peel. I don't think i'd ever heard of The Fall outside of John Peel, and that's despite the fact that i was a regular listener to Mark and Lard!
One thing I love about the internet - a couple of years ago I googled some half-remembered lyrics to a song I'd heard a long time ago on John Peel's show, and eventually found it was called Hey Gravity by M.A.S.S., and that someone had uploaded it to YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SOTqFNDhYI).
That was near the top of my favourite festive fifty and as such I often listen to that along with other favourites from that time such as Ballboy. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct1_3mKnutU )
Love that noughties guitar sound.
> Loudon Wainright III outside the context of John Peel
He was a regular guest on Jasper Carrott's UK show in the late 80s. It was most strange context-switching from a genial Brummie comedian to an acerbic American singer.
He also performed several times in MASH, one of the biggest sitcoms of all time.
Edit: Song for Loudon Wainwright III by his daughter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdvk7O3Tz6A. Don't know if he deserves it or not, but it's a remarkable song.
FYI, I appreciate your use of “acerbic”. Thank you for making the Effort to use a “fancy” word.
Didn't he do "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road"?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu5hzc2Mei4
Apparently!
And Ultravox! At least in the U.S. the Foxx-fronted band flew under the radar. We were too busy grooving to Hall & Oates. ;-)
I liked that he would play everything ranging from electronic stuff, drum & bass etc through to industrial and metal. He was truly open minded about music. Back in the 90's his Radio 1 show was followed by Mary Ann Hobbs' The Breezeblock. Another source of great sessions from the electronic music world. She is now on BBC 6 Music, which is probably where Peel would be if he were still with us.
His son Tom is on 6 Music (John Peel's name was John Ravenscroft) and has a good ear.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/5gqg7lDzj9n7mJWsJs...
I never knew that. It does explain why I enjoy his show on 6Music though.
Don't know if they would actually qualify as bootlegs, but some of the most coveted tapes being traded in my highschool days were Peel session recordings. This was in the heart of BFE Texas in the 90s. I still don't know where these tapes came from, but these were my saving as everything else was country <shuddersDownSpine>
He had worked in Texas so it seems appropriate that he should have had fans there.
He was also present when the authorities paraded Lee Harvey Oswald in front of the press (and Jack Ruby): https://peel.fandom.com/wiki/John_F._Kennedy
I vividly remember a track referencing him called "John Peel Is Not Enough", by CLSM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Dhs3K_pECY
Apparently, the brief of exploring more esoteric music was somewhat foisted on him by the BBC and he was initially dubious about it. Maybe in an alternate universe we'd be poring over The Tony Blackburn Sessions.
Tony Blackburn has an massive knowledge of soul and years ago used to do a great show on London Radio.
He also married a 15 year old. He's "fortunate" he passed away before Operation Yewtree [1] got going.
My understanding is he didn't realise she was 15 and the marriage ended when he found out.
There's more to the story than that: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/john-peel-allegations-m...
I didn't realise :( He joins a rather long list of people from my childhood and adolescence who have suddenly been diminished.
Sadly he got abused himself as well: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1500254/In-his-own-w...
As well as music, he also broadcast Home Truths [0] where he interviewed non-celebrities who happened to have interesting stories to tell. This could be extremely poignant at times and although I didn't specifically plan to listen to it, when I did hear it I always liked it.
Cool with some background, thanks. I came across some John Peel Sessions for Thin Lizzy a couple of years ago, awesome material, never really took the time to figure out who this "John Peel" was.
Virgin Records seem to have based their entire 70s/80s A&R strategy on "Find out which bands John Peel is playing and sign them."
I recall Hearing Dire Straits on Peel back when they where this London independent pub rock band - I though oh id love to book them for 18 Plus ( a youth organisation like Rotaract).
He was also present at the JFK assassination :/
To be precise, he was at Lee Harvey Oswald's press conference: https://usvsth3m.tumblr.com/post/98894544278/did-you-know-dj...
Slightly off-topic: I had no idea opening a youtube link with /embed in the right part the URL would make the video go to full screen in the browser window, and thus get rid of the UI noise that is youtube in 2020. I should make this happen for all youtube.com links I open, it's quite a pleasant experience.
I've also found it useful when I want to create a re-sizeable video window to suit whatever else I'm doing, as it conforms to the browser size (I was doing this when I was watching FastAI lectures). As you say, much more pleasant!
Yes! It also solves one of my pet peeves, really a first world problem. Watching 16:9, 1080p videos full-screen on my 32:9 screen lags my PC hard, on basically every video streaming site. The big black bars on either side of the video are apparently very expensive to render (firefox, ubuntu 20.04, ymmv). Theater mode exists on a few of these websites, but I would really like a more general solution. For now, with the help of @boriselec's plug-in, I am satisfied with the /embed trick for youtube.
For now it also allows you to watch age restricted videos without being forced to sign in.
made simple addon to do this https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-embed...
Nice! I was going to fiddle with a greasemonkey script, but this does just what I need. Thanks a lot!
I too learnt this today :)
Curious thing about JP I noticed was how he spoke. Everything he said was spoken a little slowly with a kind of constant measuring of quality with the result that whatever he spoke was worth listening to.
He didn't waste words, he didn't (that I recall) ever 'chatter on'. Every word seemed to count.
Maybe my memory deceives me but I do remember this, and it's something I try to emulate.
Anyway, I'll check all this out. I did love the variety of stuff he played. Thanks, article poster.
My favorite of these was the Velocity Girl session.[0]
Recommended for fans of shoegaze, dreampop, etc.
Edit: Just noticed that list doesn't include the VG session. You can listen to it on YouTube:
Also My Bloody Valentine from 1988:
I have this on a CD somewhere - there was a "Subpop John Peel sessions"[1] CD released in the 90's that had Mudhoney (missing from this archive), Velocity Girl, Seaweed, Pond, Tad and Codeine.
[1] Edit - found a link: https://www.discogs.com/Various-1989-1993-The-John-Peel-Sub-...
I don't see This Mortal Coil being mentioned either; and can't help but mention it here , so it won't get lost
Victim's Family (US) John Peel session # 1. 11th July 1989 (Restored & mastered) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fegGi0sd2aU
Oh hey - forgot about these guys. Nice find!
Maybe add this link to that site's comments and perhaps it will get added.
A year before their minor hit, "I Can't Stop Smiling'.
That’s great. Most people probably haven’t spotted it (took me a few years to clock the connection) but Tom Ravenscroft (on radio 6) is his son. As you’d expect, he has a fairly encyclopaedic knowledge of music and you’ll always pick up good stuff on his shows.
Apart from the wonderful world of music he curated, he was a warm, funny man, and I miss him.
Quotes remembered by listeners:
https://web.archive.org/web/20070712092327/http://www.ilxor....
I listened to him my whole time as a teenager.
When he died, I remember hearing on the day and I was not that effected by it. When I got home, I think maybe seeing the radio or something, it made it very real. I sat on the bed and wept in a way most unlike me (relatives and close friends excepted). I've certainly never even come close to this kind of emotion for any "famous" person before or since. He was a wonderful DJ who introduced so many kinds of music. A real loss for the UK.
And yet clearly here his work lives on, which is great to see.
Along With Elvis and Amy I can remember where I was when I heard that Peely had died
Yes, I felt the same kind of loss, familial, and unique to him over other celebrities for me, just as you describe.
Same. And well put.
Suggesting some of the not-so-popular bands that were invited to John Peel's sessions.
If you're into psychedelic, space, stoner rock, shoegaze, noise rock etc, check out Bardo Pond, Bailter Space, Band of Susans, Lush, Loop, Sonic Youth, Spiritualized, Stereolab, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Jesus Lizard, My Bloody Valentine (missing from the list)
Some other interesting bands: Broadcast, Galaxie 500, The Chills.
And of course there were a ton of popular bands worth checking out.
A good proportion of the famous bands performed sessions before they were famous. Some of them became famous in large part because of John Peel.
You're right. For example Nirvana became mainstream in 1991 with Smells like Teen Spirit. The happened to do a session in 1990. Pretty sure it contributed to their eventual success.
The BBC should 'reissue' these paying the rights holders accordingly. Right now musicians are not getting revenue from PRS as no pubs/shops are playing music right now.
Some 'Peel Sessions' got released on 'Strange Fruit' including the seminal 'the orb' epic track "A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld (Loving You)" that was put together by Jimi Cauty, who subsequently left 'the orb' to be one half of The KLF. Hence the Peel session of The Orb and the original pressing of the aforementioned track were the only truly awesome stuff they released.
Incidentally this excellent blogpost of Peel Sessions does not include this particular 1989 classic.
Note that first time round you would wait until Thursday 11 p.m. to tune in to John Peel on FM radio and record the good stuff with a spare cassette. You might record over that cassette a week or two later. Everything could be ordered through an independent record shop if you wanted it for real, expect one of a thousand pressings though.
You would need to remember names of artists and their tracks from the radio, no rewind unless you had that tape running. Discographies didn't exist like now so you never knew if an alias of an artist was the artist you knew already or a new one.
I respect people that piece all of this together today, however, somewhere in the BBC they have this archived and they could sort out the licensing problems the way it works on streaming platforms.
Licensing problems are mostly due to defunct labels and who gets the royalties. For instance, if in 1988 'A Guy Called Gerald' was part of '808 State' on the 'Creed' label, then, in the Peel session, if it get replayed, where does the money go? The other members of the group went to be signed by ZTT leaving A Guy Called Gerald to do his own stuff in a different direction. The Peel session fell in-between albums with tracks from the old and the new. Sorting out the monies is tricky for the BBC to do but YouTube manage monetisation easy enough.
regarding your last paragraph, I believe it’s not up to the BBC to get performing rights to each artist, they would pay a fixed fee to PRS and others. Registered or recorded airplay and performance gets attributed to artists and they (or the holders of their publishing) get their performance royalties. Whatever is left over is then divided out amongst the lower ranking artists in the form of a flat fee. If you’re an artist you can use an agent like PPL [1] to collect on your behalf. The above mess is why if your friends are recording a song , you should get performance credits for playing the triangle; could be worth £50 a year...
>Jimi Cauty, who subsequently left 'the orb' to be one half of The KLF. Hence the Peel session of The Orb and the original pressing of the aforementioned track were the only truly awesome stuff they released.
The Orb can certainly be a bit weird at times but there are some absolute gems lurking in the back catalogue and at least Alex Paterson is still releasing music, what has Cauty done recently?
Many of his complete shows can be downloaded as mp3's, see the following for instructions: https://peel.fandom.com/wiki/Mooo_Server.
Also there is an online radio station inspired by Peel: http://dandelionradio.com/
You could argue BBC Radio 6 music was inspired by him too.
This is awesome! My fiancee was in the band Comatose that did a Peel Session recording in 1998. I've never heard because we didn't start dating until years later. This is the session. https://www.youtube.com/embed/KtyoQC7zyvU
In New Zealand as a young teen you had to wait until midnight before pop radio was turned over to one of Peel-inspired DJs until five in the morning, playing all this plus Aussie and Kiwi music. Sometimes it was easier to leave a C-90 taping and see what you got the next day. The Fall, The Birthday Party, Hunters & Collectors, Cabaret Voltaire
Literally just signed up to comment this but The Birthday Party's various peel sets are absolutely incredible
If found The Chills, Kiwi-pop band, had done a session. Would have loved to have heard a session by The Clean, Roy Montgomery and a few of the other Flying Nun label artists.
I had no idea Peel had started these back in 1968. For example I didn't think he'd have had Jethro Tull on, I assumed he came after that. Clearly I need to read up.
I listened to these as a teenager in the 1990s. Very nostalgic to hear this now. Also sad to think of the defenestration of radio 1, however at least radio 6 got some of their remit.
Obviously there are loads to listen to, but just to highlight one I'm enjoying right now that wasn't what I expected
Kenickie https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qv987NMRCoY?autoplay=1
Much more melancholy than Hey Punka, which is really cool. I hope that these remain on youtube as all these are links to youtube, which seems a bit brittle.
My appealing memory of Peel is hearing him play the same song twice in one show, he liked it so much.
Edit... just found out that the song in question (Teenage Kicks by the Undertones) was played at his funeral.
That song is like having youth poured into your ears.
Only for people ‘of a certain genderation’ :)
There is a German guy named Klaus Fiehe who has apparently been called “the German John Peel”. He played sax for Geier Sturzflug back in the day, is now with the Bollock Brothers and has been hosting somewhat off-mainstream radio shows for decades now. I love him very much and there is a very humble archive at https://fiehe.info. It only goes back to 2012, unfortunately… Nothing of the scale TFA boasts.
Thanks for sharing this list! John Peel was an international treasure. I'm American and I'm still quite familiar with him.
My biggest gratitude to him is for doing everything in his power to bring my favorite band (and also, his favorite band), The Fall, to a greater public recognition. Without him, who knows if they would have ever got a national TV spot - and for my money it still goes down as one of their best live outings. The video of their national performance on The Tube (1983) is below. As John Peel once said of the Fall: "They are always different; they are always the same". Rest in Peace to both John Peel and Mark E. Smith - both have added an non-quantifiable value to my life.
Awesome list! I'm sure there are many more out there somewhere, hopefully this can grow as more recordings surface?
Brings me back the glory days of labels like Too Pure and Strange Fruit :)
Strange Fruit put out so much quality music
I had heard of Napalm Death, but couldn't find anything until I happened across the Peel Sessions at Tower Records. Loved it. Nobody else did.
I saw them live in '89 headlining an insanely cheap 5 band lineup. Awesome, jaw dropping stuff. I heard that more recently they had a gig booked at London's Victoria and Albert Museum where someone had designed them a sound system that was supposed to disintegrate over the course of the gig. Unfortunately the gig got cancelled due to fears over the structural integrity of the building.
Peel Sessions were the best way for me to discover new music when I was younger. Still have Inspiral Carpets and Buzzcocks originals on vinyl.
Wow what a crazy goldmine. E.g. `Pulp - Peel Session 1981` that is some pretty old Pulp.
the last one on that was really great. interesting that even then, the band had that great style.
Autechre isn't on here - strange. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peel_Session_(Autechre_EP)
it's just a list of session recordings he's found. The full Peel Sessions list is here: http://www.thepeelsessions.co.uk/bands.html
(link from another comment)
It seems to be missing Dead Can Dance recorded June 1984
I see the listing has a unicode problem EinstÃrzende Neubauten
Thank you this is why I love hacker news I can find good music
Epic. Have been searching for this master list for awhile ;)
It's not a complete list. For example, The Rock of Travolta aren't on it, despite having done a Peel session:
The Hot Snakes session is visceral and amazing. Peel had a way of bringing out the raw essence of whatever band paid him a visit. Great stuff.
Holy crap, what a goldmine, thanks for posting that!
It seems to be missing items, like others have noted. The best for me was the New Fast Automatic Daffodils Peel sessions. Great session.
He had his scandals but this guy was a legend. A real defining influence on my teenage years.
It's remarkable how much New Order in 1981 still sounds like Joy Division.
Well that's cool, I didn't know New Order did a 3rd session in 1998!
"John Peel is not enough"
@ sander jordens
And... they're gone. Starting to be DCMA'd one by one.
You're welcome https://gist.github.com/weskerfoot/fc073b38d35e94c27c3444cb2... (yes it's hacky, I did it in 5 minutes)
I'm running it as I type this to back them up before they all get removed.
Note that installing youtube-dl from your package manager will likely give you such an old version it won't work with the current YouTube site.
If you mean the 'video unavailable' message: changing to a normal YouTube URL instead of an embed fixed that for the couple I tried.
Seriously. Imagine if these had been curated and hosted on a public network, instead of a proprietary platform where exposure means death. lynx -dump | youtube-dl it is.
the embed links don't seem to work with youtube-dl very well, I wrote a python script to convert them (in the sibling comment to this)
What seems broken? The latest version of youtube-dl doesn't seem to be having trouble with the embed links. Is this something I'm going to regret later?
When I ran it, it wasn't actually downloading anything. I'm honestly not quite sure why. Maybe there's a difference in versions.
Edit: ah I think it was because of some whitespace getting inserted, so actually not a problem.
You’re looking for the mixing bowl.
This is sad. What's a better platform?
wow