Glastonbury Festival - John Peel OBE, 1939-2004

John Peel OBE, 1939-2004

29 Oct 2004

They say you always remember where you were and what you were doing when significant historical events occur. My parents will never forget exactly what was happening in the moments prior to the newsflash announcing Kennedy's assassination. I was fiddling with a stuck drawer at the bottom of the stairs after one of my friend Justin's legendary parties when I heard of Princess Diana's death. I was in the toilet at work when a colleague told me a plane had slammed into the World Trade Centre and I was walking through the service tunnels of Birmingham Bullring when a text came through from my brother on Tuesday afternoon bearing the four words 'John Peel has died'.

The mentally taxing task of a system installation kept me and my mind from a radio until I left the site at 10:30pm, when flicking through the stations to Radio1 and the static being replaced by 'Teenage Kicks' reality kicked me hard in the stomach. My journey home was surreal as I headed south on the M6, listening to the tributes rolling in with I confess, tears on my cheeks heading in the same direction at one time or another.

Before I continue it must be pointed out that this is not some case of glib Recreational Grief; people are feeling a genuine and tangible sense of loss and bereavement. John's death has resonated with such a cross section of society that not only those who enthuse over new music are sharing in the loss. John's Home Truths Saturday morning programme on Radio4 earned him four Sony Awards in 1999 and this together with his previous Family Album column in the Radio Times saw him earn gravitas within all walks of life. To a sixteen year old in a fledgling band he would be seen as a potential benefactor – somebody who was more likely to play their demo than anybody else on the airwaves. To an established artist he would be the man that championed their cause, fought their corner and made them the band they are today. Those that probably thought he was trouble back in the sixties have grown older alongside him and can doubtless identify with him on a level that they would have thought unimaginable thirty years earlier, but to most of us he was just this amazingly warm-sounding bloke who made us grin and played some truly bonkers music; such was his popular nature John was one of the few to appeal to firm 'establishment' types while still remaining an anti-establishment icon.

I remember working the nightshift in a factory in the mid 90's and looking forward to John's show three evenings a week, wetting myself every time he played a tune at the wrong speed and generally being set up for a dull shift by a combination of that easygoing familiar voice and some seriously eclectic sounds I couldn't have hoped to hear anywhere else. After I left the factory I didn't hear his shows as often but he was always there. The Glastonbury connection made me feel some kind of affinity with the great man despite regrettably never having the guts to approach him when I saw him wandering through backstage. When I found myself working in IT doing long hours and driving long miles I once again found myself, a radio and John Peel together in the right place at the right time. It was comforting. Familiar. Like we'd never been parted and it felt once more as if he was broadcasting his show just for me but that everybody else was welcome to listen if they wanted. And now none of this will ever happen again.

In time we'll obviously look back and smile, but right now it's difficult to accept that we'll never again hear the likes of his uniquely unassuming manner, never hear dub reggae played next to death metal played next to some obscure offering from a three-piece Japanese outfit that sounds like a car crash at the wrong speed, and his family, the UK at large and beyond are truly the poorer for it. Raise your glass: to John Peel

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John Peel OBE, 1939-2004

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