John Peel described a visit he paid to Russia with his wife some time when Yeltsin was president. He said they actually found these two guys who knew he was a BBC radio DJ and one of them led them to Tchaikovsky's grave site. Anyway, Peel wrote that while they were walking in this cemetary:
"Inside the cemetary walls it appeared to be a strictly monochrome world, the massive black of the tombstones and the occaisional patch of unfrozen footpath like a Factory Records sleeve against the snow."
This is just trippy, cause I mean if I ever went to Tchaikovsky's grave site, I would flip. I mean what an honour. I seem to remember listening to Tchaikovsky a lot as a child. My dad was crazy about classical music so I guess that makes sense.
John Peel
I wish I could change the subject of this thread
What I want this thread to be is stuff specifically about the John Peel book "Margrave of the Marshes" which Stuart lent me and is an absolute hoot to read. He'll make you smile with his humour on just about every other paragraph.
Here's another quote:
"For my 45th birthday, an important anniversary for the old-school DJ, along with 33 1/2 and 78, Sheila [Peel's wife] arranged for the children to be recorded singing along with Roy Buchanan's band and had the results pressed up in a limited edition of six 7" singles [or 45's to the layman]. Also on the record are each of the children and their mother separately singing 'Happy Birthday', William, then eight, saying, as he often did , 'It's not fair!', Alexandra (six) shouting 'Shuddddupppp!', Thomas (four) bellowing his mantra, 'Will you wipe my bottom?' and Florence (two) gurgling while the rest of the family giggled at her. This, as you might imagine, is a record I can't listen to without bursting into torrents of tinkling, faerie tears."
Here's another quote:
"For my 45th birthday, an important anniversary for the old-school DJ, along with 33 1/2 and 78, Sheila [Peel's wife] arranged for the children to be recorded singing along with Roy Buchanan's band and had the results pressed up in a limited edition of six 7" singles [or 45's to the layman]. Also on the record are each of the children and their mother separately singing 'Happy Birthday', William, then eight, saying, as he often did , 'It's not fair!', Alexandra (six) shouting 'Shuddddupppp!', Thomas (four) bellowing his mantra, 'Will you wipe my bottom?' and Florence (two) gurgling while the rest of the family giggled at her. This, as you might imagine, is a record I can't listen to without bursting into torrents of tinkling, faerie tears."
Almost finished with the book now. I'm delighted that he shared my long-held opinion that the sight of British men in baseball caps is upsetting. He felt it was like the decline of European culture.
Found out there was a TV movie about an obscenity trial he was a witness for in the late 60's and guess who played Peel in the movie? Nigel Planer, better known as "Neil" on The Young Ones. This is actually quite fitting as Peel was a major hippie back then.
Peel apparently nailed a tennis shoe (trainer as they say in the UK) to the ceiling of the room with all his records in it. He said he did this to show his son what surrealism was. Brilliant. You can see the shoelaces dangling in a photo inside the book of him standing amongst his records. I'm going to buy my own copy of the book for that photo alone.
He kept all his Fall records in a completely separate place than his other records, he loved them so much. He had photos of Mark E. Smith on the wall in his home.
He was an admittedly emotional bloke, and cried easily.
I was thinking the other day about how I've never heard his opinion on Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground. I wondered if he was even aware of VU when they started out, for it seems a lot of people weren't. He had been in Texas around that time. Anyway so I went googling around and found a website that contains a bit of him on the air with another man discussing the first VU album and playing a track from it. I was kindof surprised, really. He knew about them even then.
Here's the website. You have to scroll down, it's right above the photo where he's got a keychain around his neck.
http://www.offshoreradio.co.uk/peel.htm
Another thing is his wife said he would start listening to music in the morning and wouldn't quit til late at night. His kids had no need to have record collections of their own, they just got scraps from his room. If his son was going to go to London, he would get advice from dad on what new and happening bands he could go see.
Found out there was a TV movie about an obscenity trial he was a witness for in the late 60's and guess who played Peel in the movie? Nigel Planer, better known as "Neil" on The Young Ones. This is actually quite fitting as Peel was a major hippie back then.
Peel apparently nailed a tennis shoe (trainer as they say in the UK) to the ceiling of the room with all his records in it. He said he did this to show his son what surrealism was. Brilliant. You can see the shoelaces dangling in a photo inside the book of him standing amongst his records. I'm going to buy my own copy of the book for that photo alone.
He kept all his Fall records in a completely separate place than his other records, he loved them so much. He had photos of Mark E. Smith on the wall in his home.
He was an admittedly emotional bloke, and cried easily.
I was thinking the other day about how I've never heard his opinion on Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground. I wondered if he was even aware of VU when they started out, for it seems a lot of people weren't. He had been in Texas around that time. Anyway so I went googling around and found a website that contains a bit of him on the air with another man discussing the first VU album and playing a track from it. I was kindof surprised, really. He knew about them even then.
Here's the website. You have to scroll down, it's right above the photo where he's got a keychain around his neck.
http://www.offshoreradio.co.uk/peel.htm
Another thing is his wife said he would start listening to music in the morning and wouldn't quit til late at night. His kids had no need to have record collections of their own, they just got scraps from his room. If his son was going to go to London, he would get advice from dad on what new and happening bands he could go see.