John Peel, RIP



The BBC is reporting this morning that John Peel, Radio 1 host since the station's launch in 1967, has died of a heart attack while on vacation in Peru.

In a radio universe where free form is often just another word for bad taste (and said bad taste is generally preferable to playlist-controlled crud), Peel was a rarity. In a country without the benefit of college radio, that Peel had free reign to play whatever he liked on a nationally broadcast, publicly-funded outlet, was nothing short of astonishing. That much of what he played was good-to-great, and that the man's programming decisions were uninfluenced by the labels and pluggers who conspire to make radio so homogenious, cannot be underemphasized.



I'm sure many of us have our own lists of artists that we heard for the first time on Peel's show. And for those living in far-flung corners of the universe, the BBC World Service and internet transmissions of Peel's programs were undoubtedly influential. I'm not a big believer in the afterlife, nor do I know if a good reference can get one into heaven. But if such a thing were the case, Don Van Vliet, Mark E. Smith and David Gedge might be sneaking their ways in. I'm not so certain about Napalm Death, but if anyone can could pull that off, it would be John Peel.

Posted: Tue - October 26, 2004 at 08:43 AM      

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