A Sad Day
I am really sad to hear of the death of John Peel. I first encountered his show aged about 15, when I was just discovering the alternative scene (Ned's Atomic Dustbin and so on!) and a mate put the radio onto this show late one night and there was this crazy mix of music blasting out – I was impressed. Especially as I'd written Radio 1 off as a sick-pop puppy with nothing to interest me. I was not a regular listener but did pop in now and then to hear the familiar and comforting tones of Peely. Like the shipping forecast, if you could hear John play a speedmetal track at 45 (rather than 33) then the world still had hope left. About a year ago my connection to his show grew – for two reasons. First the BBC's streamed radio service got much better and so I could catch his show whenever online. I listened a lot more than before and often listened to some shows twice as they had so many good tracks (e.g. the Jawbone live blues show he did.) Secondly, Parasite's record label, Death$ucker, had the Bong Ra 'Riddim Wars' 7" played on the show – this rocked. My mates music was on John Peel, for fucks sake! The world was ours! Since then I noticed that Peely had played lots of stuff on his show from Death$ucker including Gusset, D'Kat as well as other top acts Big Joan and Movietone to name but a few.

It’s a sad day for music. RIP, John.