Keeping It Peel: The John Peel Thread

[JohnnyCashFan]

Thought I would share my Peel trip this month. Please feel free to join in.

John, never got rid of ANY music he was sent!

John Peel's 120,000 album collection being curated to other artists by his son, BBC's Tom Ravenscroft

Artists open up John Peel's historic vinyl collection

Damon Albarn and Nubya Garcia discover the late DJ John Peel's astonishing collection of vinyl.

www.bbc.com

An Archive of 1,000 “Peel Sessions” Available Online: Hear David Bowie, Bob Marley, Elvis Costello & Others Play in the Studio of Legendary BBC DJ John Peel

Before he became the most influential music broadcaster of all time on the BBC, John Peel had to become John Peel.

www.openculture.com

His autobography

Margrave of the Marshes

Through nigh-on forty years of laconic brilliance on Ra…

www.goodreads.com

 

[Selaws]

I wasn't really sure where to share this but seeing that the most recent guest is Nubya Garcia, this seems as good a place as any.

John Peel was a legendary British DJ that really did launch the careers of countless groups and musicians. He was famous for his staggering record collection. Musicians knew how open he was to hearing new music and would send him demos and albums in the hopes that he would hear it and potentially play his favourite tracks on his show. Peel was an obsessive and listened to EVERY SINGLE RECORD that was sent his way, even going as far as adding a label to them which highlighted the track times (he would time them himself and often highlight disparities from what was officially stated) plus a star system per track. His biography, which he unfortunately didnt get to finish himself, is full of incredible stories and well worth a read.

After his passing, he left behind 120,000 records at his home, Peel Acres, and over the years small projects have made use of them including a project by Mr Thing. Check out the youtube video here

Anyway, what brings me here today is a new series by Tom Ravenscroft (Peel's son) that sees a musician or group visit Peel Acres and dig into the vinyl to create a playlist of tracks that means something to them. The most recent one is Nubya Garcia.

The Collection - Peel Acres - Nubya Garcia - BBC Sounds

Jazz saxophonist Nubya Garcia joins Tom Ravenscroft for a dive into his dad's collection.

www.bbc.co.uk

Nice idea! I will dump the post I put up the other day here as well as there are a couple of good links in there. The Mr Thing video is really interesting and the one that took me down the John Peel rabbit hole.

There is also this BBC doc that aired quite a while ago now. After his passing a box was found in the house which contained Peel's favourite records of all time. The "John Peel's Record Box" highlights each of these with musicians and celebs giving comments.



Then there is also this youtube vid where Peel himself shares some of his rarities.

 

[Nee Lewman]

I was confused and read Jordan Peele and was like why is this in the vinyl forum?