Equus: The Best of John Peel (2 January - 27 March 1993)

 I really should have posted this yesterday, given that 14 October is the anniversary of John Peel’s final show on Radio 1 and this year marks 20 years since then. But my wife had spent the weekend away in Amsterdam with friends and I wanted to get the house looking nice for her return. I’m also loath to tie myself to that particular anniversary given the poignancy of what it means.

Nevertheless, by the time Castaway Theatre Company had wrapped up its production of Equus, there were still well over a thousand Peel shows to go, and having reached the end of another play soundtracked by John Peel playlists, it’s time to look back over the last two years’ worth of posts and pick out the tracks that would make up the Equus mixtape, which I would have given to cast and crew, back in the day, as a memento. The rules as ever are that there would be just one track selected from each of the shows covered between 2 January - 27 March 1993, albeit with the caveat that timing issues on files meant that three weeks of programmes were skipped between late February and mid-March ‘93.  I have also included a bonus track from the run of shows for reasons which will be obvious when you read the blogpost.

Equus mixtape - 2 January - 27 March 1993

Huggy Bear - Her Jazz [Peel Session] (2 January 1993)

The Giant Mums - I Wove Myself In (8 January 1993)

Soukous Stars - I Yelele (10 January 1993)

Foreheads in a Fishtank - Mr. Whippy (17 January 1993)

Toiling Midgets - Faux Pony (24 January 1993)

Digable Planets - Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like That) (29 January 1993)

Polygon Window - Quoth (30 January 1993)

The Fall - Pay Your Rates (7 February 1993)

Strangelove - Hysteria Unknown (12 February 1993)

Aurlus Mabele - Evelyne (14 February 1993)

11:59 - The Ticket (21 February 1993)

Velocity Girl - Copacetic (20 March 1993) (starts at 2:52 on the video).

Marxman - Do You Crave Mystique (26 March 1993)

The Congos - Neckodeemus (27 March 1993)

Bonus track - Mickey Lee Lane - Tutti Frutti (27 March 1993)

Dedicated to the cast and crew of Equus and Top Girls presented by Castaway Theatre Company on 26/27 March and 31 March/1 April 1993.

Coming next: A short diversion before we start soundtracking my next production. Peel Goes Pop looks at the extraordinary week of 5-9 April 1993 when Peel found himself hosting a Radio 1 daytime show. Would the daytime playlist survive? And what leftfield tunes was Peel going to be able expose his temporary new audience to? Brickbats and bouquets flew in both directions, but which ones would have made a mixtape?

Photography by David Gregg.

Other show mixtapes

Oliver! (November 1991 - April 1992)

The Comedy of Errors (May - July 1992)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (October - December 1992)