Peel had spent most of Saturday 10 April 1993 up in Sheffield. He’d travelled up there to take part in a panel discussion at one of the events being held for Sound City ‘93. He then returned to London to present his regular show. Waiting for him, in the Radio 1 office, was a 12 inch called In My World by High on Love, aka Chris Rushby and Roland Armstrong, two DJs otherwise known by the frankly superior name of Stoned Democracy. Armstrong would later go on to form Faithless. He’s also Dido’s brother, proving that John Peel shows are often little more than a variant on the six degrees of separation game.
Peel was so taken by In My World - which fuses together reggae, gospel and dance music - that he reworked the running order for that evening’s show so that he could play it, just hours after hearing it for the first time. Indeed, it featured fairly frequently over the coming weeks.
At 32 years’ distance, parts of In My World sound laughably dated now. I’m thinking particularly of the farting saxophone sounds which were ubiquitous at the time. But, its ambition can’t be faulted as it tries to create a late 20th Century Summer of Love vibe, with its references to where “Candlestick Park and Haight and Ashbury meet” combined with theories about God owning a pink umbrella and second hand shoes. Overall, what’s most remarkable about In My World is the way it manages to be simultaneously chill and aggressively humane. Some of the calls for racial tolerance in this sound like they’ve been learnt from the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprasy school of public speaking, but please don’t let that put you off.
Video courtesy of Freddy Loves.
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