Celebrity deaths often seem distant and impersonal to me, more like the cancellation of a popular product than the sad end to a person’s life. John Peel, though, was different. It wasn’t just that he came across as “a normal bloke” or that his influence in the music industry guaranteed the survival of so many bands (among them several of my favourites) who would otherwise have been swept aside by mainstream blandness. It was the way he always seemed as though he was on our side. Cutting through the bullshit of music industry marketing gloss to find the real music… the gritty, music-for-music’s-sake music.
It doesn’t matter what music you like, or even if you couldn’t bear to listen to anything from John’s radio shows… just celebrate what he stood for. Human creativity and freedom of expression. And if you can, play “Teenage Kicks” by the Undertones all day…