John Peel – 10 Times Better

Another (sort of) podcast. Two in fact. These are two archival interviews with John Peel in which he chooses his favourite songs at that time…

I’m sure you are like me and have your own personal top ten records and Peelie was no different. And I’m sure the choice of these tracks changed constantly. Here for you now are two items featuring the man himself where he is asked to choose ten bits of music. Both choices as you can expect are very eclectic and very different.

The first pod originally aired on BBC Radio 1 in July 1984 and was recently repeated on 6Music. It was an interview with Andy Peebles and he talks to John about his work, about football and about life in general:

» D/load   [File is 67MB/58 mins long]

The tracks John selected:

1. The Undertones – Teenage Kicks
2. Otis Redding – Old Man Trouble
3. The Faces – Maybe I’m Amazed (Live)
4. Captain Beefheart – Big Eyed Beans From Venus
5. The Mighty Wah! – Come Back
6. Duane Eddy – Peter Gunn
7. Liverpool Kop Choir – You’ll Never Walk Alone
8. Cocteau Twins – From The Flagstones
9. Stanley Winston – No More Ghettos In America
10. Misty In Roots – Mankind (Live)

This next pod was assembled by me and the music taken from an article that appeared in the NME in 1988.

The interview was with Stuart Marconie and the article was scanned and posted over at the rather excellent Archived Music Press. There’s a thumbnail below. Click on the image to view larger.

(A couple of notes about this pod: John mentions Datblygu – Wyau, which is an album, I’ve selected a random track from that LP. – Chinhoyi Superstars, the Zimbabwe group are so obscure that I couldn’t find anything from them so they are not included here.)

» D/load   [File is 30MB/32 mins long]

Tracks selected: The Inspiral Carpets – Keep The Circle Around The Wedding Present – Why Are You Being So Unreasonable Now (Peel Session) The Sidderleys – Sunshine Thuggery Datblygu – Dim Deddf, Dim Eiddo Mighty Force – Thrashing A Dead House Robert Lloyd – Nothing Matters A Guy Called Gerald – Voodoo Ray Dinosaur Jr – Freak Scene Gregory Isaacs – Mind You Dis

(An additional note: It’s been 7 years since… but I’m still discovering some great music thanks to John Peel. I recommend searching out more Mighty Force and Datblygu, who’s lead singer David R Edwards is known as the Welsh Mark E.Smith, which I have to agree.)