This show may be my favourite so far of all the Peel shows I’ve listened to over the course of doing this blog. It’s not just the music but a real sense of joy permeates the whole broadcast. This was always true of John Peel’s broadcasts after he’d enjoyed a change of scene for any period of time longer than 48 hours and in this instance it was down to him being able to indulge in one of his great passions in life. Namely, watching near lethal high-speed motor sport on the Isle of Man. “About the only thing, I didn’t do was win the wet T-shirt contest, 3rd again, I’m afraid.”
Among the many people he met out there, he gave a shout out to Robert Miles and Timothy Henderson, two listeners to his show who had gone out to see the TT Races due to Peel raving about the experience, a year earlier. They certainly seemed to enter into the spirit of the thing by attempting to ride a bike down the street. Unfortunately, they ended up in a magistrates court as they were naked apart from wearing crash helmets and boots when they did it. Still, at least they adhered to some form of road safety. A tickled Peel described them as “Men of the match, at least on an amateur level”.
Peel doubted whether any of the competitors at the race would be listening to his show, but not for the first time, Andy Kershaw - who often accompanied Peel to the races - phoned in to tell him that he was listening to the show in a pub with some of the racers, including future motor cycling superstar, Carl Fogarty.
The other big sporting event of that week, Euro 92 had got underway on Wednesday 10 June. Peel had passed up the opportunity to watch some Stock car racing in Douglas to watch what he described as an “abject” England performance in a goalless draw with eventual (and surprise) tournament winners, Denmark. There would be much worse to come. Scotland, by contrast, were praised for their spirited performance in a 1-0 defeat to Holland. Peel also reminded me of the incredible, and at times baffling, diversity of sport that Channel 4 used to cover. They were about to start broadcasting Football Italia and would end the decade with the broadcast rights to Test Match Cricket, but in the late 1980s/early 1990s, their sport output was made up of events that did get attention such as horse racing and NFL Gridiron as well as more niche sports such as Australian Rules Football and most memorably, Sumo wrestling. It was in this latter sport that Channel 4 were starting to lead British sports broadcasting down a slippery slope by bringing celebrities into the commentary box. Now, I wouldn’t describe actor Brian Blessed as a nonentity (definitely not to his face), but I haven't a clue why anyone would have thought he was a suitable choice to be a commentator for the sport. Unless Channel 4 were hoping to get Blessed to go “BOOM!!!! FEEL THE EARTH SHAKE AS THESE TWO FAT BASTARDS COLLIDE! THAT’S IT! GET THAT FAT, OVERGROWN BABY OUT OF THE RING! ON HIS ARSE! CRUSH THE MIDGETS AT RINGSIDE, THE LAZY BASTARDS!”
Nevertheless, Peel wasn’t convinced it was a good idea. Footage of Channel 4’s sumo wrestling coverage seems thin on the ground, but Amazon are selling the station’s tie-in guide if you’re tempted to see what the fuss was about. For more on the golden age of Channel 4 Sport, go to TV Cream.
Away from sport, the news included George Bush defending the USA’s environmental record while simultaneously refusing to sign up to a bio-diversity treaty (things have changed so little). The UK saw the birth of the world’s smallest baby, Tyler Davidson of Lincoln measured just 6 inches on birth. It ran in the family clearly because his brother only weighed 2lbs. I’ve heard of weak sperm, but this is ridiculous. The Queen’s birthday honours were also announced and with the good judgement and sense that we associate with the Royal Family included a life peerage for Jeffrey Archer, who would remain a peer for life, and a convict for 2 years.
The selections from this show were taken from a full 3 hour show. Some tracks which didn’t make the cut included Rain King from an Estonian release of Sonic Youth’s 1988 album, Daydream Nation which was sent to him by Robert Nightingale; another listener sent him The Epic Ride of John H. Glenn by Walter Brennan in order to increase the number of records about astronauts in Peel’s record collection, “Doubled it in fact.” The one downside of his week in the Isle of Man was time away from his wife, and he still wasn’t going to see her until Sunday, so he played For Your Precious Love by Geater Davis for her. Aaaaaah....
This show also featured the naming of winners of a prize to go to a launch party on 18 June for The Orb’s new album UFOrb which was being held at The London Planetarium which sounds the perfect setting to listen to tracks like Blue Room. One of the winners, Julia Metcalfe, was faced with getting down to London from West Scotland. Peel intended to check with her that she was definitely coming given that transport or accommodation were not included in the prize. If she was going to decline, he resolved to send her a suitable consolation prize.
I was pretty fortunate that pretty much everything I wanted to include was available, with one exception:
E.C. Groove Society - Tiny Little Rebel Yell - Eton Crop go dance with a track which my notes describe as an “Excellent dance track featuring samples of what sound like the Budweiser frogs intoning the title of the track.” The ending caught Peel out due to it containing broken up speaking.
Which of these did Carl Fogarty like best?
Brian Blessed sports commentary courtesy of Room 101
Video courtesy of bigmossman
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