Does anybody know a more influential radio journalist than John Peel?
John Peel (not his real name) was a BBC radio journalist from 1967 to his death in 2004.
He was most known for his incredible taste in music in which he was able to "discover" a lot of indie artist he like though his "Peel Sessions" which were recorded live in the BBC studios. Over these year he recorded as many as 4000 of these sessions with app 2000 artists which just seems incredible especially when you take into account of these sessions with artists as wide as Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Wedding Present, The Free, etc; in some cases before they were known.
And now for this really fantastic thing: someone collected a lot of these sessions on one site:
The oldest one I could find there was this one:
Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac - Peel Session 1967
and you can see that one of this most favorite bands were the Fall with 9 recorded sessions.
It also contains one of the first recordings of Nirvana in 1990 before Never Mind, a cover of Waiting For The Man by David Bowie in 1973 and many other gems.
Some of these sessions landed on albums via Peel's own record label Strange Fruit but many remained unrecorded.
Wouldn't it be a good idea that people listen to the sessions they might like (in many cases there are many sessions per artist), that people comment on the session and that other people would react on it if they feel like it.
I'll start with what I think are about the least likely artists you can think of for these sessions because not really indie, Status Quo, but it makes sense if you known that this particular was recorded in 1973.
It contains the following tracks:
Paper Plane
Softer Ride
Don't Waste My Time
Most of these versions remain fairly close to the album versions but Don't Waste My Time is a much bluesier and longer version than on Piledriver.
All in all a good session.
What also would be interesting is that we listen to some of the artists which finally didn't really make it. Who ever heard of 23 Skidoo or Appendix Out or American TV Cops; perhaps John Peel saw something in them the rest of the world didn't.
More to come and I would really like if this would become a really interactive thing: there's so much to discover here it is just mind boggling.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy aka Will Oldham's from March, 1999. It's a fantastic one, although the only song I knew before was Another Day Full Of Dread. I've listened to roughly half of his 90s output so was a bit disappointed with the barely recognizable tracklist, but the performances are great. Another Day Full Of Dread is much less minimal than the album version, but it worked. If there ever was a modern troubadour, it's surely Will.
1. I Send My Love To You
2. Another Day Full Of Dread
3. Stablemate
4. O Let It Be
5. What's Wrong With The Zoo
Bonnie "Prince" Billy aka Will Oldham's from March, 1999. It's a fantastic one, although the only song I knew before was Another Day Full Of Dread. I've listened to roughly half of his 90s output so was a bit disappointed with the barely recognizable tracklist, but the performances are great. Another Day Full Of Dread is much less minimal than the album version, but it worked. If there ever was a modern troubadour, it's surely Will.
1. I Send My Love To You
2. Another Day Full Of Dread
3. Stablemate
4. O Let It Be
5. What's Wrong With The Zoo
Edit: and oh yeah, this site is a gold mine. Thanks dihansse!
Indeed again not a lot of the best known songs but I do agree with you that this is a great session. He sounds a lot more potent than mostly on his albums and I must say I liked it especially on Send My Love To You and O Let It Be.
It seems he did 7 sessions under his different monikers (Palace Brothers/Music and of course under his own name).
And he released a Peel Sessions album (but none of the tracks of this session appear on it):
No artist recorded more sessions than The Fall. They are all on this boxset. It might be the greatest non-'greatest hits' compilation ever put together. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
No artist recorded more sessions than The Fall. They are all on this boxset. It might be the greatest non-'greatest hits' compilation ever put together.
I Couldn't find the compilation on Apple Music but I listened to most of the eighties sessions on Youtube and all in all I liked those sessions more than I like their regular albums.
I Only started listening to The Fall recently because for one reason or another I missed them earlier in my life which is maybe the reason I'm not into them as in many of those other great eighties/nineties bands (Pavement and the likes).
But I did enjoy listening to those sessions.
Last edited by dihansse on 05/23/2020 15:07; edited 2 times in total
I listened to the Twa Toots session of 1983. Indeed one of those favorite bands of John Peel who recorded one album, did a Peel session and then vanished off the earth. Not bad twee pop with a bit of ska rhythms but the childish voices put me off a bit.
At the start of 1979 they did a session which is available with the original John Peel comments (with funny jokes about Mancunians: I though this favorite band, the Fall, also were Mancunians). These are very good versions of well know Joy Division tracks and all four of the tracks here sound great:
1. Exercise One (0:21)
2. She's Lost Control (3:05)
3. Transmission (7:3
4. Insight (11:49)
In fact they also did a session later on in that year but I haven't found the original recording but the two sessions were compiled on this album:
and the four other tracks are:
14:38 Love Will tear Us Apart
18:04 24 Hours
22:14 Colony
26:22 Sound of Music
After Ian Curtis's death, the remaining JD members started New order and also recorded a number of John Peel Sessions.
The first one dated of 1981 and their sound is still very much in line with the sound of Joy Division in which Bernard Sumner really tries to sound like Ian Curtis and in my opinion these tracks aren't that great although they are very different with the versions on their album Movement. But there's one exception: Dreams Never End sounds exceptionally good but then again this one is sung by Peter Hook.
1. Truth (0:07)
2. Senses (4:27)
3. I.C.B. (8:52)
4. Dreams Never End (14:12)
The second session dates from 1982 and still isn't completely the New Order sound as we would start to know it later although 2 of the tracks landed on Power, Corruption and Lies. There is also a cover of a reggae song by Keith Hudson to be found here. OK songs but nothing shockingly fantastic:
1. Turn The Heater On (0:07)
2. We All Stand (5:07)
3. Too Late (10:31)
4. 38934 [5-8-6] (14:09)
And then comes the 1998 session which is quite special. It also starts with their version of Isolation which is of course very different from the JD version and in the opinion of many people might be called blasphemy but in my opinion New Order has every right to do this and this version sounds absolutely fantastic. At the end there' also a version of Atmosphere, originally a latter day JD song but best known from the version on Substance by New Order. Again not bad.
On this session there is also a very different version of one of the best New Order songs, True Faith. However this version never matches the quality of Substance.
1. Isolation (0:07)
2. Touched By The Hand Of God (2:50)
3. True Faith (7:30)
4. Paradise (13:04)
5. Atmosphere (17:09)
I didn't listen to their last John Peel session of 2001.
John Peel started his DJ career in the States but really made it when he joined Radio London in 1967, a more alternative pirate radio station than Radio Caroline which broadcasted from ships in extra-territorial waters because they were illegal. When Radio London was dismantled he joined BBC Radio 1 by the end of 1967 and quickly started his John Peel Sessions.
One of the first was with Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac in 1967 with the following tracks:
1. Long Grey Mare (0:07)
2. Baby Please Set A Date (2:59)
3. Got To Move (5:59)
4. I Believe My Time Ain't Long (8:55)
5. Looking For Somebody (11:55)
It seems they did 9 of those sessions from 1967 to 1971 (none in their mid-seventies period) and this is another one I listened to, now as Fleetwood Mac in 1969 with the following tracks:
1. Blues With A Feeling (0:07)
2. You'll Never Know What You're Missing Til You Try (3:02)
3. Heavenly (5:53)
4. I Can't Believe You Wanna Leave (8:30)
5. Tallahassie Lassie (11:55)
6. Early Morning Come (15:19)
Especially Blues With A Feeling is very good and also from the rest of the tracks you can feel the musicianship in these fairly standard blues tracks.
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