Search - John Peel :: Fabriclive.07

Canned Peel

R. Lister | Palo Alto, CA United States | 01/08/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you type in "John Peel" at Amazon, you get 23 CD results (in 2005). 22 of them are his legendary John Peel sessions - bands making live recordings for his BBC Radio show, from any point in his 35+ year career. This is the only CD I know that captures what it was he really did on his radio show.



This is *not* your average DJ mix. In fact, there's almost no mixing and the music ranges from soccer chants (featuring around 50,000 people) to doo-wop via hardcore, gabba, bluesy rock, funk, afro-soul, hillbilly banjos...



It's a perfect slice of what DJ Peel's radio show sounded like in it's prime, minus the usual charming banter and DJ'ing blunders. And so, despite being utterly wonderful and something of a genuine cultural artifact, it isn't easy listening. The glory of John was that his musical taste was broader than anybody else on this planet, bar none, including you. I guarantee there is at least one track on this that you'll hate - but a bunch you would never find anywhere else.



Just because without him there would have been no David Bowie, no T-Rex, no Sex Pistols, no Napalm Death, no Cure, no Orbital, no Smiths, no White Stripes (he played them all first), you might like to introduce yourself to the incomparable John Peel.



oh, it also comes in a lovely tin box."