I think John Peel was a much misunderstood DJ who through the desperation of the BBC and the ignorance of the public became recognised as some kind of musical authority. As an influential man he was able to guide the public into some of the deepest musical lavatories whilst at the same time steering people away from other styles which he hated. This is the attitude of the fool who listens to pop and rock but condemns classical, and the opposite who only listens to classical whilst sneering at rock. Personally I think that his musical appreciation was crude and lacking in any sophistication. Give me good old Bob Harris any day.
The People's Pop Poll: Day 8 12 May 2020 These are the groups for Day 8 of the People’s Pop Poll! Obviously it contains SPOILERS for the day’s matches so if you’d prefer to be surprised read no further!…
And Then I Took Some Of THESE 25 Jan 2018 Mark E Smith, 1957-2018. Some things to read. My favourite ever piece or sequence of pieces on The Fall is our own Kat Stevens' stint on One Week One Band.…
2018 Music Diary Week 4: The Week Of Peel 29 Jan 2018 NEW MUSIC Day 24: FIRST AID KIT – Ruins: Slickly produced, occasionally countrified, notes on romantic disappointment by a pair of Swedish sisters who sing with a Nordics-meet-Nashville twang. There’s…
ELTON JOHN - "Are You Ready For Love?" 11 Feb 2020 Elton John’s best moment at number one comes with a forgotten track from a barely-noticed late-70s EP, lucked onto years later by someone in Sky Sports’ ad agency, remixed (delicately…
BLUE ft ELTON JOHN - "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word" 30 Sep 2019 Blue’s last Number One, and any wisps of street credibility which might have still clung to them melt away. Don’t be fooled by the off-the-peg R&B shuffle in the best:…
A PERFECTER PERFECT DAY -- by !!SCIENCE!! 6 Apr 2014 Imagine YOU have been appointed (time-travelling) decider on the 1997 multi-artist version of Perfect Day? Who would you keep? Who would you drop? Who would you draft? Assume you have…
I Used The NME 8 Mar 2018 My NME was rubbish. I wasn’t there for the underground press invation, or for the Titanic sailing, or the Kinderbunker. I missed the post-structuralist years. I never read about Youth…
About the Author
Steve does most of the pictures, colouring in etc. which is nice.
As well as contributing to Freaky Trigger, Steve has his project portal at ghostfood.uk, showcasing graphic and web design work, video edits, audio mash-ups and music mixes. Truly the media node of node hall.
29 Sep 2014
#817, 21st February 1999 How was I supposed to know that something wasn’t right? It was a gilded age: the commercial zenith of the music industry at the end of the 20th century. In America, its apex as a money-making force came in 1999 when – adjusted for inflation – $71 per head was spent […]
15 Aug 2007
On my eleventh birthday I received a copy of a tape called “Rave ’92” through the post from my sister Grace, who was away at university. It was the second tape she had made for me whilst she was away, (the first being a random mix of grebo, soul, indie and ‘Love Shack’ by the […]
10 Nov 2009
Lists, lists, lists. Its what we do around here, and the end of a decade gives us ample opportunity to look back with fondness over a decade. Music, films, television were all thrown in the mix, and may pop up. But most important to us is the social. From a site that is run by […]
29 Oct 2010
#641, 3rd February 1990 Sinead O’Connor is one of the finest song interpreters not just because she thinks hard about the material and the feelings locked in it, but because she’s so good at placing songs into a situation. A great example of this is her version of “Chiquitita”, warm and homely where ABBA’s is […]
11 Jan 2016
I wrote a thing for here about David Bowie and how I felt about him and what he meant to me, but then Pitchfork kindly decided they wanted to run it, so it’s below. (Original title: He Could Be Dead, He Could Be Not, He Could Be You). And to any other good pieces I […]
11 Oct 2006
The discerning televisual fan will be aware of the vacuum currently residing in the schedules between the 7.30pm end of Hollyoaks First Look and the 9pm commencement of Ghost Whisperer. There are only so many times one can flick between Puff Daddy jiggling next to the Lead Pussycat on TMF and the startlingly abhorrent animated […]
3 Oct 2004
In search of Squirrel – Part two (warning, contains graphic images) Some of you may remember this article I wrote some time ago about my “failure” as a vegetarian and my quest for the different. Well, I’ve done it. Squirrel had become a bit of an obsession, I’d chased up all sorts of alleys (Julian […]
25 Jul 2006
Or: Games I Have Known. For the sake of my patience and yours, I have mostly restricted this to games I either owned or played – ones where I read a friends’ rulebooks and only dimly remember have been ignored, with a couple of notable exceptions. If you want to know more about any of these, […]
I think John Peel was a much misunderstood DJ who through the desperation of the BBC and the ignorance of the public became recognised as some kind of musical authority. As an influential man he was able to guide the public into some of the deepest musical lavatories whilst at the same time steering people away from other styles which he hated. This is the attitude of the fool who listens to pop and rock but condemns classical, and the opposite who only listens to classical whilst sneering at rock. Personally I think that his musical appreciation was crude and lacking in any sophistication. Give me good old Bob Harris any day.
i think you’re an idiot
I second that. Idiot.
An idiot of the category of Julie Burchill, who claimed Peel never played black music (!)
Deepest Musical Lavatories: brilliant name for a club night.