Thursday 12 February 2015

Oliver: John Peel - Radio Mafia [Finland] (Thursday 28 November 1991)

John Peel's breadth of musical influence was not only material but geographical. From Germany to Finland by way of the United States thanks to British Forces Broacast Services and The BBC World Sevice, he had claim to the most widely heard disc jockey in the world.  And all before the Internet made it easy to listen to whichever radio programme you want to hear. The programmes were almost all pre-recorded and mainly made up of records linked by Peel's inimitable narratives.  The lengths were anything from half an hour (World Service) to 2 hours on BFBS.  I have to say that an hour of Peel seems just right to me.  The onslaught of music he shared was a wondrous thing, but attention can start to drift when you're being exposed to thrash metal after an hour and a half.

The online community has done a great job of making many of Peel's foreign shows available for listening to and where a show is broadcast within the time period of any show I was rehearsing, it will be listened to in case any selections which had slipped past the Radio 1 recordings are included.

This show for Finnish station Radio Mafia seems either to have been an extended 90 minute show or two 45 minute ones.  I selected 6 tracks which would have gone on a mixtape, the only one of which I can't share is:

Perspex Whiteout - You Turn On My World.

Half Man Half Biscuit were nearly included with the track Hedley Verityesque, but after listening to it again a few times, and despite including a splendid barb at the Blockbusters Hand Dance, I decided it wasn't good enough to be included.  Selection is always in the balance until I write these show overviews. Already we've seen tracks included that didn't grab me on initial hearings and others which fell from favour between initial listens and blog post time.  It's a cruel business, but I don't think it will be long till Half Man Half Biscuit are back.

Ohjelma kappalelista

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