An hour’s worth of John Peel tonight – from his nightly program Nightride on BBC Radio 1 on July 24, 1968.
Every so often you get embroiled in a conversation over the state of Popular Music and that rapidly becoming obsolete medium of Radio. That there is no more Top-40 like there was in the 1970s and early 80s – that radio really started to change somewhere around 1968 when FM Underground became a reality and the term “freeform” wandered into our lexicon and stayed there.
And everyone who was around during those years has a favorite Disc Jockey; the one reliable source of music that wouldn’t let you down, of turning you on to new things – being the first to introduce the listener to a new album or a new group. And all done without the restrictions of a tight playlist, nervous sponsors and focus groups calling the shots as to what got played and what didn’t.
And for much of that reason, a lot of people have stopped listening to radio in favor of streaming, or Spotify and “curated” playlists of new albums and artists by way of an algorithm figured out in some office building on the opposite side of the country.
It’s become more complicated, in many ways, to just turn on a radio and be turned on.
But it wasn’t always that way – on this side of the Atlantic we had the B. Mitchel Reeds and the Harry Harrisons and the Casey Kasems. Over in the UK they had John Peel, who almost singlehandedly changed the nature of Popular Music on the radio.
He made eclectic respectable and keeping an open mind an imperative. And he held court over at the BBC from 1967 until his sudden death in 2004, bringing new bands, new artists and a whole panorama of talent – playing their latest singles or albums or having them perform live in the studio.
It was the live sessions that have become the benchmark of the “FM Underground” today (hardly underground but it’s a toss-back from the 60s where it originated). From established artists promoting latest singles or eps to total unknowns who have gotten word of mouth going via a string of nightclub gigs. Everybody got equal footing and it was shot in the arm for Music and for listeners in general.
It’s a tradition that has carried on today at the BBC, as well as Radio X in London and many college radio stations here in the U.S. – but it got started with John Peel and it was made popular by John Peel and a tremendous amount of gratitude is directed at him for the foresight and the conviction that it was all about the music and that music was a key ingredient to our lives. Always has been and always will.
So, if you haven’t heard of John Peel or haven’t heard any of the programs he was associated with – here’s a one hour sample from July 24, 1968 from his Nightride program as it aired over the BBC and beamed all over the UK.
