My gratitude to the people who recorded John Peel shows in the early 1990s and have subsequently uploaded them to the Internet is infinite and heartfelt. Without them, this blog would not exist and I would have never had the opportunity to listen either to so much great music or to the great man in his pomp. But with a new play to soundtrack, my journey to the John Peel Wiki page for 1992 threw up an issue with what was available from his Radio 1 broadcasts over October-December 1992. My rule when it comes to listening to files for Peel shows is that I won’t listen to files which are less than 45 minutes long i.e the length of one side of a 90 minute cassette tape. Unfortunately for me, most of Peel’s Radio 1 shows from the period in which I rehearsed and performed A Midsummer Night’s Dream are chopped up into multiple files under 45 minutes or as fragments of multiple shows condensed onto one file. Most unsatisfactory for my purposes. However, help was at hand in the form of the archive of shows which Peel recorded for British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) which went out for 2 hours every Sunday. These will form the basis of the selections for tracks from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Although tracks from BFBS shows have been presented here before, what I hadn’t realised until listening to a series of them was that Peel recorded them live at the BFBS studios in London. I had assumed they were pre-records, but no and with Peel doing his Radio 1 shows on Friday and Saturday, it made sense for him to stay in London and record on the Sunday. He described himself, going into this edition of John Peel’s Music as “the world’s most tired man” having been up since 5:30am. The show opened with Two States by Pavement, whom Peel had gone to see in Cambridge during the week with his wife and two youngest children. “The family which goes to see Pavement together is in good shape.”
He admitted to being somewhat behind the trends in mainstream pop music at that time but related that he had just seen Michael Bolton performing on a monitor in the studio. He was appalled by the sight of Bolton’s hairstyle, as all right thinking people were at the time. Nevertheless, it gives me the opportunity to link to my favourite thing he’s ever done: “Hi, I’m Michael Bolton”.
Peel played The Envictor by Buzz Hungry which had been released as a single via Bob Mould’s Singles Only Label. Peel was staggered by a quote from Mould in which he revealed that he didn’t pay the bands on his label anything, but put the records out for them as a favour. Peel was left wondering what favour Mould thought he was doing the bands with this arrangement. Though would his own Dandelion label have lasted longer had he followed this business plan? Probably, though he clearly wouldn’t have been able to live with himself as a result.
The selections from this show were taken from a 93 minute long file. There was one track I would have liked to share but was unable to do so. However, the artist involved is going to crop up quite frequently over the coming months:
Wawali Bonane - Fatoumata - Peel fell hard for the Congolese guitarist after picking up a copy of his album, Wawali Bonane et Generation Soukouss Enzenzé Vol 1a couple of weeks before this programme. Tracks from it were on heavy rotation across subsequent shows and the album was included in his list of 20 favourite albums for a Guardian interview in 1997.
In terms of tracks which failed to make the cut, I found myself in a much less benevolent mood than I was with some borderline inclusions during The Comedy of Errors shows:
Marxman - Ship Ahoy [Full mix] - Celtic hip-hop with fiddles, penny whistles, Sinead O’Connor on backing vocals - all very impressive but a bit of a chore to sit through subsequently. Still, they got Peel’s seal of approval despite the fact that, “At the fourth time of playing it, I realised that the woman yodelling in the background was Sinead O’Connor, but I already liked the record by then so had to overcome my natural prejudice against her.”
Therapy? - Teethgrinder - A few months after this programme went out, Therapy? released the Shortsharpshock EP featuring the mighty Screamager and winning me over to their charms. Teethgrinder has long been regarded as a key track from their pre-major label days, but listening back to it, I was amazed at how bland it sounded. A real “truth about Father Christmas” moment for me. Peel not only played this version of the song but also the Tee Hee Hee Dub Mix which was indistinguishable from the original version save for a brief new guitar line and the addition of some tablas.
150 Volts - Hi I’m Chucki (Wanna Play?) [Shut Up And Dance remix] - My issue here was not musical but moral. Several times in subsequent years, Peel would receive letters/emails from people who remembered the track with its Child’s Play sample and wanted to know who had done it. I was all set to include it here until my research led me to read an article on something I vaguely remembered from late 1992, namely the torture and murder of Suzanne Capper (caution advised). Her tormentors used Hi I’m Chucki (Wanna Play?) as a signal to her that they were ready to inflict another round of torture on her. With this in mind, I really didn’t feel as though I wanted to write something which would essentially amount to “Banging choon- if you can ignore the baggage”. No blame on Stu Allan aka 150 Volts who never put another record out under that monicker but I’m afraid that I couldn’t ignore it.
The Flaming Lips - The Magician vs The Headache - God bless The Flaming Lips but this had a question mark against it from the start and didn’t stand up when it was revisited. Also, those final 20 seconds simply couldn’t be borne.
Anything else? Oh yes, happy 81st birthday, John.
Full tracklisting
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