Guys and Dolls: John Peel Show - Friday 14 May 1993 (BBC Radio 1)

My notes describe this show as being …at times, like a Peel Show version of Junior Choice. This is because at least two of the records played on the show were inspired by children. He played Open the Door, Richard! by Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five, originally recorded in 1947, in response to a fax he had received from James Turner, aged 6, from Cardiff. James wrote to say that he liked Peel’s show, that he had a tape of Jordan’s music and wanted to know whether Peel liked him too. Peel dedicated Open the Door, Richard! to James, claiming that this, and Silver Dollar, were the first songs in his life that he had learned the words to.

Meanwhile, Peel’s son, Tom, was away on a school trip to Normandy, so he dedicated 33% Free by Ford to him, just in case he was able to hear the programme on a long wave frequency. According to the John Peel wiki though, Peel ended up playing the other side, Friendly, which ended up delaying the 11:30pm news by an extra minute.

Other dedications included Enna Garrib by Harram, which went out to the taxi driver who had taken Peel from Stowmarket to Colchester earlier in the week. This was the longest journey he had ever done by cab, though he didn’t specify which roads he’d been taken on. 

A14/A12 covers 28.6 miles, A14/A12/A134 would have been 28.7 miles, with the A14 alone offering the longest journey of all at 30.2 miles.  If he was using “Stowmarket” to encompass a pick up from Peel Acres, then the distances increase to 31.2 miles via A14/A12, 31.4 miles if using Combs Lane before the A14/A12, but the quickest journey of the lot - in terms of distance - would have been via the B1115, which was only 26.2 miles, though it was the longest journey in terms of time, at 48 minutes.

Perhaps Peel had needed to use the taxi in order to take him to see The Fall, who he had seen in Cambridge, earlier in the week, and whose performance he described as at their most non-commital. He opened the show by playing Everything Hurtz, which would have made a nice partner to a similarly named REM hit which was clogging up the airwaves around April/May 1993.

This show was also to have featured the naming of winners for a competition relating to Sebadoh, but he had received no entries for it. Peel blamed himself for this as he had given out what he termed a silly address for the entries to be sent to and realised in retrospect that this may have put people off.

The show was notable for Peel being thrown into a state of alarm when he realised, halfway through the programme, that he had mistimed the music he was going to play through the various hours of his show. One hour had 75 minutes’ worth of music programmed in, while another hour only had 45 minutes’ worth. This was problematic because he also had to ensure that the news bulletins came in at the right time.

One record which was unaffected by all this was Ritmista! by Astrospider, which was the first fruit of Peel’s hookup with the Belgian label, Wonka Beats. Peel had made contact with them during his Grand Tour of Europe, the previous autumn, and they had promised to send him all of their future releases.

The selections from this show were taken from a full 3 hour programme. Everything which made my initial list of selections was available, but five choices fell from favour on relistening:

Blade - Keep It Goin’ On - UK rapper, Blade, made history in June 1993 when he released the double-album, The Lion Goes From Strength to Strength. This was one of the first albums ever to be released via crowdfunding:

The original crowd funded album, just goes to show how far ahead of the game Blade was. I sent off my cheque (for £25 from memory) to Blade months before the album was released and my name is in the album. Every mail order piece of vinyl I bought from Blade had a hand written note from him included. Absolute legend of the UK rap scene. (A messageboard comment by sskelly on Discogs, 13 August, 2021).

Keep It Goin’ On was the opening track on The Lion Goes From Strength to Strength. It always had a question mark against it, because it was OK, but not OK enough to make me want to keep it. I then did that thing I occasionally do where I listen to an album that a track has been taken off to see whether it would ultimately make my mind up for me - see Gallon Drunk on the previous Friday’s Peel Show. I need to stop doing this, because, apart from setting it in context, it really isn’t a particularly relevant method of choosing whether to include a single piece of music by comparing it to potentially better pieces of music by the same artist. Make no mistake, some of the tracks I heard from The Lion Goes From Strength to Strength (I didn’t listen to the whole album) were very good indeed. For instance, Gripper the Pitbull (The Approach) would have got on without any problems at all. But ultimately, doing this only caused me to wish that Peel had been playing that instead of this. As I listened to the other tracks I became quite beaten down by the aggression and attack, it all seemed to become rather one note. Hence, why my summary of  For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hyper, which I listened to after some prolonged exposure to Blade, was so succinct. After all the moaning, it was a necessary blast of effervescence. Still, I have a Blade track down on my list of selections from Friday 28 May 1993, so maybe he will end up in the mixtape after all.

Ohio Players - Walt’s First Trip - 1970s funk and a track recorded for their 1972 album, Pleasure, which appears to have been a companion album to another album they released the same year called Pain. A look at their album covers suggests that the team behind This is Spinal Tap may have had both them and Roxy Music in mind when it came to the idea around the Smell the Glove album cover.  I sometimes get blindsided with surprise when Peel plays a funk/soul track because of a misconception I have about him not being keen on the genre. This is palpably untrue and is most likely down to me constantly making the touristy mistake that because Peel preferred the output of labels like Stax over Motown, that any soul based record appearing on his show is a surprise. As a result it means that I’ll initially include pleasant if unremarkable instrumentals like this one. It’s only on re-listening that I find myself thinking less about how I would dance to the tune and more about what I would be ordering for a starter if it was playing in a restaurant. And speaking of pleasant but wholly unremarkable…

The Edsel Auctioneer - Philled/Summer Hit [Peel Session] - Oh lads, lads, lads….another name to add to the list alongside Stereolab and The Hair and Skin Trading Company of artists who regularly make my initial list of inclusions but who fall from favour at the moment that I would be pressing the record button on the metaphorical mixtape. This is the third occasion that I’ve left The Edsel Auctioneer out in the cold. I’m not going to lie, their name is a big turn-off for me, but ultimately they are far too bland for me to want to keep hold of. My notes say that I agreed with Peel that Summer Hit was the best track of the session.  

Both Philled and Summer Hit ended up on The Edsel Auctioneer’s second album, The Good Time Music Of…, released in 1995. Looking at the track titles, my interest was piqued by it including a track called 11th September ‘94*. Morbid curiosity provoked me to listen to it to see whether the band had any kind of foresight for the terrible events that would take place on that date, seven years later. But all I got was, what d’you know, a pleasant but inessential instrumental track, which is notable only for the fact that it has commentary from Leeds United’s 2-1 win over Manchester United, which was played on the same day, in the background.

The full session is available including two additional songs called Simple and State of Grace.

Candy Machine - The Merchant’s Square/Macrobot - Peel played three tracks from the Baltimore band’s eponymous debut album on this show. These two made my initial list, The Constant didn’t. Having listened back to the tracks, I see now that the only reason I chose them to start with is because I liked the band’s name. The Edsel Auctioneer were always up against it, and ultimately they missed out because the quality wasn’t good enough. Candy Machine’s name promised sweet treats, but the music was gnarlier and lumpier than I thought it would be or that I could stand it being. The Candy Machine album is available for listening. The Merchant’s Square and Macrobot are the first two tracks.

Admiral Bailey - Can’t Keep a Good Man Down - This started out quite promisingly, but I lost patience with it when halfway through, the Admiral abandoned what he was doing and started to perform Psalm 23 - The Lord Is My Shepherd instead.

Full tracklisting

*By curious quirk of fate, the Peel Show that I’ve just finished listening to for this blog was the one from exactly a year before The Edsel Auctioneer recorded that instrumental.

Equus: John Peel Show - BBC Radio 1 (Friday 8 January 1993)

It’s always interesting when acts that formed part of my musical diet in the mid-1990s start turning up on John Peel programmes in the early 1990s. This edition of  Kat’s Karavan saw Peel give a play of Moonshine by Cornershop, taken from their debut EP, In the Days of the Ford Cortina.  Peel played the track on the limited edition curry coloured 7-inch, though he didn’t remember ever having a curry which looked anything like the same colour as the vinyl. Moonshine missed out on a place on the metaphorical mixtape due to the crime of Excessive Feedback Wankery.

Although Peel got through what I heard of the show without making any mistakes such as playing records at the wrong speed, he did balls up some of his wider responsibilities towards Radio 1.  A fax from A.C. Temple promoting a gig supporting The Edsel Auctioneer (more on them shortly) which was set for January 12 in Newcastle reminded Peel that he had left a load of promotional material for upcoming Radio 1 activities in the North East at home.

Selections from this show were taken from the first 2 hours of the programme. There were two tracks I would have liked to share but couldn’t - and as they didn’t have a note on them a la The Giant Mums, I haven’t gone back to check on them.

Calvin Party - Mass: Peel promised to stop mentioning that this was the new name for the band formerly known as Levellers 5. The track ended up as the finale to their debut album, Life and Other Sex Tragedies

Hula Hoop - Blues From a Vaseline Gun [Peel Session] : Purveyors of highly competent indie rock which on several occasions during this session fell into the same hole as The Hair and Skin Trading Company, where I find myself thinking, “It’s good. It’s good....I don’t like it.” This would have got in though it doesn’t appear to have any connection to the peerless Blues From a Gun by The Jesus and Mary Chain.  The track was ultimately recorded alongside other exotically titled tracks for their debut album, My Sweet Amputee.

There were a couple of tracks which were slated for inclusion but which failed to stand the longevity test when they were returned to.

The Edsel Auctioneer - Stomachful : Maybe it sounded more impressive on the radio recording but with those whiny vocals and a guitar solo that sounds like it’s being played through a straw, I think I’d have spent January 12 going to the Bigg Market after A.C. Temple had finished their set.

The Eternals - Rockin’ in the Jungle : From 1959, this slice of novelty doo-wop presents Tarzan, Jane, Cheeta and Boy having a party in the jungle. It’s immaculately performed as you’d expect and Peel found himself wishing he could make the sounds in it which he thought sounded like Lenny Henry’s Katanga character. When I revisited the song though, I found that it made me uncomfortable for precisely those reasons. Political correctness hadn’t registered with me in early 1993, but in 2022 I am much more choosy. I love doo-wop, but I can live without this one.  Had Peel wished to play a Tarzan themed record, I wish he’d gone with Paul Jones.

And a couple of older women.

Video courtesy of DIG IT! Dusty Grooves.

Full tracklisting

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: John Peel’s Music - BFBS (Sunday 6 December 1992)

 In common with many actors - both professional and amateur - if you gave me the choice of doing a play in front of an audience in which I had to spend the whole time naked, or write and deliver a speech on a topic while fully clothed, it’s likely that I would choose to do the naked play.  I may not be wearing a stitch of clothing, but I would have the armour of a character to hide behind and a script to stop me sounding foolish - and if I did sound foolish, I could always blame the script.  But to be up in front of people, as myself, and have to entertain or inform them?  I can think of nothing more nerve racking.  I have given a few speeches in my life, such as my groom’s speech at my wedding or reports to amateur dramatic society AGMs.  Also, I work as a teacher delivering content that I've created and know, so I’m not un-used to public speaking but in each of those contexts I’m delivering to people I know.  When I’m doing a play, the vast majority of the audience are strangers but I don’t feel any nervousness about being in front of them because, with the exception of the curtain call, I’m not presenting myself to them, but rather a character/persona.  So it was for John Peel, who for over 40 years could talk into a microphone on live broadcasts to millions of people, as though it was the most natural thing in the world.  Furthermore, he could make mistakes in front of those millions of listeners contrary to the ethos that live radio shows should be smooth, well oiled operations, and yet he could laugh them off and subsume them into his radio personality without wanting to hide in a dark room, never to emerge and sit behind a microphone again.  Yet, in the week ahead of this edition of John Peel’s Music, he found himself having to make a speech to the Radio Academy.  According to Peel it was only the third time in his life that he had ever had to make a speech and he described it as an embarrassing experience, though this appears to have been because of the isolating nature of speech making rather than because of anything he said or did.  For him, the most difficult thing about making a speech of the kind that he had had to deliver was knowing how to end it, especially as he wanted to end on an upbeat note.  Clearly the speech made some kind of impact though, because the following year, at the Academy’s National Radio Awards Ceremony, he won the National Broadcaster of the Year Award.  In 2008, for their 25th anniversary, he was posthumously awarded the Broadcasters’ Broadcaster Award.

If making a speech caused him stress, the best way to assuage it was to go to a gig. That week saw Peel at the Powerhouse to watch Codeine and Love Child.  Codeine’s set was blighted by one berk down the front, with his mates, who kept talking loudly through all the quieter pieces.  He kept shouting, because he obviously thought this was hilarious,‘Faster! Faster!’ You’d have thought after he’d done it once or twice and there hadn’t been much of a reaction to this witty sally that he’d have stopped doing it, but no, he kept doing it all night.  Codeine weren’t having a particularly happy time in the UK.  During December, they recorded a Peel Session, as did Love Child, though Codeine’s was the only one of the two to be broadcast. However, the session proved to be an unhappy experience for them, apparently because engineer Dale Griffin was drunk.

The postbag brought letters asking why Peel wasn’t playing as much rap music now as he had once been. He attributed this to the increasingly sexist content which was characterising many of the rap records he’d heard recently. As a married man with two daughters, he didn’t feel comfortable playing such content on the radio.  He acknowledged that this point of view sounded very close to censorship, but he had no intention of changing his mind on the issue.  

Sexism may have been beyond the pale, but psychosis was still acceptable given that his playlist for this show featured a track called Vile by Melvins which had appeared on a compilation album called Mesomorph Enduros, the Latin name for an active chemical found in the neck gland of all known serial killers.  I passed on that one, as well as a couple of other tracks which I had originally slated for inclusion:

The Edsel Auctioneer - Monuments - one of those tracks which probably should have been included but sounded like it was trying too hard and so ended up turning me off it.  Had I been listening to this show in 1992, I may have included it as a gesture of support towards the band, who were going through a tough time. Peel had had a chat with one of them at the Codeine gig and had been moved by just how distressing their tale of the previous 18 months spent trying to record for independent music labels had been. Their Wikipedia page shows just how sluggishly they progressed over a seven year stint, mainly because of things beyond their control.

Phleg Camp - Twilight Pink - Apparently big things were predicted of this band and Peel felt that this slice of funky-metal was a good start for them.  They made my shortlist for this show but it didn’t bear repeat listening.

Lisanga - Melina  - a case of “it’s not you, it’s me” in this rejection.  It’s a perfectly pleasant, if unremarkable, piece of Soukous, but while blogging about this show, I’ve also been putting together my own Festive Fifty for 1992, which will be going up here in about 10 posts time.  No spoilers, but a soukous record is currently sitting at Number 4 in my provisional standings and while I was listening to Melina, I kept thinking of that Number 4 tune and it meant that what stood out for me about Melina was its unremarkableness rather than its pleasantness.

Bivouac - Two Sticks - another track which failed on the longevity test, which is a bit of a shame given that my notes describe it as what Sting would sound like if he specialised in Murder ballads.  I’m not imagining it, am I? I mean that riff on the verses of Two Sticks, from around the 22 second mark does sound like the piano part on Every Little Thing She Does is Magic, doesn’t it?

Full tracklisting