Tomorrow is
John Peel Day, which seems to be less a celebration of the man's life and more a chance for Radio 1 to do some self promotion along the lines of "See! We used to have good DJ's, it hasn't all been
Colin and Edith,
Zane Lowe and
Chris Fucking Moyles around here, you know". Never mind though, as we're happily jumping on the bandwagon ourselves as we present for your enjoyment ten entirely true and in no way made up facts about the bestest uncle you never had:-
- His trademark beard was actually fake, and he used to remove it at weekends to allow him to wander the streets unrecognised.
- The combined total number of chart weeks for every band who was ever played on his show is 7.
- If every record in his collection was melted down, there'd be enough plastic to form a lifesize replica of Japan.
- The music career of The Fall started off as an elaborate practical joke which got way out of hand.
- Everyone knows that Teenage Kicks by The Undertones was his favourite song, but few realise that it was superseded in 1997 when he first heard Vanilla's No Way No Way. He didn't think much of follow up, True to Us, however.
- John's wife, Sheila, was affectionately known as 'The Pig' due to the sound of her laugh, ability to sniff out truffles and cute, curly tail.
- Thanks to the vast amount of demo tapes which he felt duty bound to plough through, John has listened to more shit music than the rest of us put together.
- Home Truths is the most middle-class programme ever to be broadcast by Radio 4, and that includes Veg Talk, a half hour programme dedicated to, umm, talking about vegetables.
- To commemorate the man, Peel Acres is in the process of being converted into a theme park. Most of the attractions, however, will be relatively sedate, and the main danger and excitement will come from wondering whether the bloke in charge of the ride is going to run it at the right speed or not.
- He really was a star.
music john peel
