Peel

Been reading a lot of the obits and tributes to him. Interesting how much attention is paid to the bands he championed post-1976. Much talk of punk, death metal, the smiths etc etc. But little mention of the bands he championed in the 60s and 70s - like Pink Floyd, Capt Beefheart, Zappa.

I've always suspected that his gift was not that he liked all different kinds of music, but that he was able to play lots of stuff without prejudice. I don't think it was the stuff he liked that mattered, but the stuff that he probably didn't care too much for but played anyway.

I only listened to him a little bit - my late night listening under the covers in my formative years was to Radio Caroline, as previously mentioned - but I do remember hearing him play bands like Sham 69 and the The Damned. Now, Sham 69 were extremely naff, and I always thought the Damned were too. The Damned and Sham 69, Adam and the Ants, and many others, were like the Dave Clark Five and Herman's Hermits of the punk era. They were Gerry and the Pacemakers in comparison to the Clash etc.

In a way, I've always thought of him as an institution that was there to help the very young decide what they liked. You didn't have to listen to him forever, and you didn't have to agree with his choices, but he was one of the people who could help you learn to be yourself. Quite important really, and his sideline career on Radio 4, Home Truths, was very much along those lines: about people, families, and learning how to live together with tolerance and love.

Peel was a small corner of quality and decency in an increasingly rubbish world. Modern life is rubbish, you go around thinking, but then the existence of John Peel and the BBC's tolerance of him (even if it was really a fear of the criticism they'd get if they got rid of him), was a small oasis in all the crapness.