Saturday, May 2, 2009

John Peel's Festive Fifties



Some kind soul has compiled John Peel's Festive 50s into handy Spotify playlists, (more info if you click here). I'd just finished downloading them all as a torrent too...oh well. 

18 comments:

TracyK said...

We'd already downloaded these and cherry-picked out some playlists. Love the rambling between songs too: Peel read out an email once that I sent and mocked my nickname: he also once stopped my husband at Glastonbury because he was wearing an ITFC shirt and asked him what the score was for that day's game. Those are some frighteningly short shorts fella's wearing there though.

tincanman said...

Sounds like a dropbox project to me.
Hint
Hint
...
....

ToffeeBoy said...

(With apologies to blimpy for hijacking this post) I'm sure we all listened to Peel at some time or other, many of us obsessively, but what were The Peel Years for you and what were the highlights, session-wise?

For me, it was undoubtedly 1985-1987 with sessions from Microdisney, The Stars Of Heaven and Half-Man Half-Biscuit standing out in my memory.

Blimpy said...

He's not wearing ANY shorts.....

treefrogdemon said...

Fairport Convention, believe it or not.

Maybe JP is the person all 'Spillers like? or is that too easy?

goneforeign said...

Is that what he looked like in the 50's? He could be my twin. I used to pass about 1/4 mile from his house everyday when I was working in Stowmarket, I'd love to have known him.
Re. bloody Spotify, not clear why but they still won't let us Yanks in even with an invite, is Dropbox a possibility?

treefrogdemon said...

No, gf - he was born in 1939. The 'festive 50' was the list of 50 songs he made at the end of each year.

goneforeign said...

Ah, well I was born in '34 and when I left UK in '58 I looked just like that.

Blimpy said...

I think that's Peel in the 1970s at some point - I'd love to have that many records!

Spotify will conquer the globe shortly, GF, I think it's just a matter of them sorting out the legal stuff in each country and cutting deals with the record labels.

TracyK said...

My favourite era was 1996: I'd just met my ex and we would listen to Peel religiously every night, my ex with his finger hovering over the 'pause' button on the tape player. The week after we met we both had identical shiver-up-the-spine reactions to two tracks: Belle and Sebastian's The State That I'm In (my ex had their Tigermilk on original vinyl, ulp!) and Arab Strap's The First Big Weekend. Lovely summer, young love, passion for music, adoration of Peel, identical tastes in film and music. It wasn't to last, but blimey...

tincanman said...

I couldn't find a decent torrent

TracyK said...

Oh, and one of my favourite Peel shows ever was one of the Christmas sessions recorded live at Peel Acres, on which were our Aberystwyth friends Murry The Hump, Laura Cantrell, and, I think Belle and Sebastian.

tincanman said...

hint

tincanman said...

* checks dropbox

DsD said...

I once met a stallholder with over a dozen 4CD set recordings of Top Fiftys, lovingly taped off the radio, and then pasted together onto discs. Unfortunately his stall was strictly cash, and I could only afford one that day. In the end '1984' won out over 'All-Time', and he said he'd be back at the same place next Record Fair, so I wasn't too concerned. Unfortunately I've never seen him since.

:o(

I can get a copy of that to you, tin, if your hints lay untaken for too long ...

Blimpy said...

i think i found mine via pirate bay. which oddly still seems to be running...

Grimnir said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Grimnir said...

I have a vast amount of his shows and sessions etc. - well over 750 cassettes which are gonna take me years to convert to MP3!!!

If anyone is looking for anything specific mail me via my blog.