John Peel (1939-2004)

Teenage dreams. So hard to beat.
When Radio One began in 1967, it was the establishment's final acceptance of teenage, popular culture. Being part of the establishment resulted in a skewed, Americanized station, where the new djs all spoke in cod American accents, as if to accentuate their hipness. These djs included Tony Blackburn and Dave Lee Travis, who, remarkably, are even more ridiculous now than they were then. However, the BBC also took on John Peel, albeit reluctantly. For thirty-seven years he championed the new, the strange and the wonderful. And whilst just before Peel's death, Tony Blackburn was rebelling against his new employers by playing two Cliff Richard records back to back, John Peel was still playing the unplayable (and by that I don't mean Cliff).

For most of his life, Peel seemed to brush fame and history rather than embrace them. After attending public school (his accent wasn't entirely genuine either), he profited from Beatlemania, getting a job as a radio dj in the US. Whilst working in Dallas, he happened to be at the press conference when Jack Ruby shot dead Lee Harvey Oswald. This was how he seemed to like it: to be present at the making of history, but not to have too great a prominent part.


Just about anybody who was anybody, and quite a few who were nobody, played on Peel's shows, from Jimi Hendrix to Belle & Sebastan, Led Zeppelin to Orbital. He rode and supported all the new musical waves that came along, from prog to punk to indie to dance. He promoted bands before they became famous and then let them get on with it once they achieved some success. He was no hanger-on, just wanting to be the medium by which we the listeners heard the bands. By not trying to be cool he became cool.

The whole time spent at Radio One was a battle for Peel. He was too original, playing what he wanted, ever to be accepted fully. But while others came and went, he remained, and by the end, at sixty-five, was the station's only dj playing good new music. In a way, he was always an anomaly. In an industry where everyone toes the line of the day, he never did.