Rises to bait - takes hook - pulls IHROOC into the river

Right. Peel is a legend and, as with most legends, most of what is said/remembered is false. I'm with BGB on this. Growing up in the late 70s, early 80s, Peel was a maverick, playing punk tracks that you could only hear otherwise on Captial Radio (anyone remember 'Little' Nicky Horne - 'Music your mother wouldn't like'?). Peel (and let's not forget the late, very great John Walters) listened to all of the tapes sent in to them - he deserves a medal for that alone - and gave bands a chance that otherwise wouldn't have had one.

What you kids don't realise is that the music business in the mid-70s was completely sewn up by the big labels and Radio One's playlist. Peel pulled against that closed door from the inside, while punk bands were kicking at it from the outside. Between them, they broke that fucker down and it's not been mended since.

Peel was a one-man YouTube - giving airtime to anyone with the balls to go for it and a spark of life. There is no 'shit' music - just music you like and music you don't. Peel played the 'music you don't' and stuck two fingers up at anyone that didn't like it.

I've read 'Margrave of the Marshes' and it's rubbish. The man himself had an easier life than he probably deserved, but fuck it! If I could spend my life being over-paid to do my favourite thing in the world with no come back and plenty of plaudits - I'd do it in a second.

I gave up listening to Peel when Hip Hop replaced Punk - he played edgy music for late teens/early 20s - we all moved on, he didn't. Don't knock him now because he can't answer back.

The end.
(Che Grimsdale Best before:, Fri 6 Mar 2009, 13:44, Reply)