Throughout 1992, John Peel had been a staunch ally of The Wedding Present during their monthly campaign of releasing a new single for each month of the year. However, after playing The Queen of Outer Space on this show, he admitted that he had received a number of letters from listeners stating that they were looking forward to a period of silence from the band. As the old showbusiness adage should go, “You gotta let ‘em forget you before they want to hear you again.”
The playlist contained both the sickliest record I’ve heard Peel play and a recommendation to check out the Swingers EP by Los Angeles band Slug due to its cover art, however anyone rushing to buy a copy expecting something controversial or outrageous would instead find themselves subjected to something approaching mindless good taste. He was also touched that Mercury Rev had included their Peel session on their latest release as well as the comment, Lord, protect John Peel in the sleevenote.
The recording was of the full 2 hour broadcast and included the news bulletin from BFBS. Highlights included the Queen returning to live at Windsor Castle a week after after the fire there. Meanwhile, then Chancellor of the Exchequer and post Black Wednesday punchbag, Norman Lamont was under fire for using Treasury money to evict a sex therapist from a flat they were renting from him. Just writing that down reminds me that Peel shows between 1992-97 went out against a backdrop of Tory Party sex/finance/ethics scandals. Watch out for more long forgotten names from the past as the years go by, though Lamont was never truly forgettable, not least for the extraordinary way his eyes and his eyebrows seemed to merge together whenever he smiled, making him look like a kind of mandarin, alien insect.
There were at least four tracks which I slated for inclusion, but which ultimately didn’t make the cut:
Drop Nineteen - Mandy After opening the show with this, Peel remarked, I don’t remember Barry Manilow’s original version but I bet it was a corker. Unfortunately, Drop Nineteens didn’t manage to repeat the oracle of their Madonna cover, much as I was open to them doing so. On this one, I suggest sticking with Bazza.
The Irresistible Force - Spiritual High Peel revealed that the Irresistible Force was a pseudonym for My mate, Mixmaster Morris (Morris Gould). Well, I carry his records around at Glastonbury. This one should have stayed in the case. I think it might have kept me onboard had the meditative, relaxation voiceover been used throughout the track, but once it is removed all we’re left with is a further 5 minutes of ambient tedium structured around a rhythm that sounds like a radio stuck between a pair of static medium-wave frequencies. Relaxation ebbs into irritation, very quickly.
Pavement - Shoot the Singer By this point, I have to wonder whether I’m ever going to like anything by this band, apart from Two States.
Freefall - Mirror This probably should have been included on the metaphorical mixtape because in common with other Freefall tracks that I’ve heard Peel play, parts of it are tremendous. The music is epic and sweeping. At times, Mirror succeeds in transporting the listener off into another world in the way that great music can do....and then - just as with other Freefall tracks that I’ve heard Peel play - those God-awful vocals come in and drain all the life out of the track. Even when the music is soaring and bursting with life, you can’t fully feel it because you know that at any moment, their lousy singer is going to open his mouth and bring everything crashing down from the stratospheric to the mundane. It was a conundrum which Freefall could not solve adequately, and nothing more was heard from them beyond the Dehydrate E.P.
Merry Christmas everyone and here’s to happy and healthy new year. In 2022, we will wrap up 1992 and then move into 1993, a year in which I was doing shows pretty much continuously, so we’ll get our first uninterrupted year of music from John Peel shows. I can’t wait.
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