John Peel

Yeah.

Can I tell you what it was? Is obviously John Peel is a fucking big reference point for everyone, and I, I don't know whether you ever went through a phase like this yourself, but I early on sort of listened to stuff like Genesis, which I do again now, but not the Phil Collins stuff.

It's like having a fucking unemployed bank manager fronting a fucking band.

I know he's in a wheelchair for-

It

is in a way, though, quite an old argument, because I remember when John Peel was horrified by Art of Noise's inter-battle with the Art of Noise in 1983, the EP that contained, you know, it was put together using the Fairlight, which was, you know, a computer devised to sort of put together fragments of old songs into a new context.

So I suppose this is just taken to the nth degree, isn't

it? Well, yeah, you go back to what you said about choice.

I'm pretty sure...

I heard them on John Peel.

Right.

And then it was just straight down to Keith's and got a copy.

which was amazing.

We really wanted John Peel to like us, so when we played Leeds Futurama, we had everyone bugging him to come and see us.

I mean, there was literally hundreds of bands there.

But he did come and see us, and he loved us.

And we all deserve respect and respect.

And equality, I suppose, you know, they were really, really kind to us.

I mean, it's also validation, isn't it? Because in a sense, what John Peel probably gave you as well, because, you know, I mean, today, I think for people who aren't of our generation, maybe John Peel needs to be more explained, but he was, you know, he was someone who championed uh people who were really on the outside and probably wouldn't have got a chance without him actually being the champion of these these artists so that support and validation that came from him must have been something incredibly special at that that phase of your life

yeah i mean immensely it was i think without john peel i'm not sure it would have moved as quickly as it did um I mean, I would say the one thing about John, because, I mean, I caught up with him every year throughout his life, from when I met him, and my big regret is he's the one person that I never really had a proper conversation with, because he was, I don't know why, but he was the one person that I always felt a little bit in awe of, I suppose, or just...

We do it for the love of the music.

Before getting stuck into your requests, we have the first session track of the day, which is taken from a 1980 John Peel session by Modern English.

And the first track from it is Mesh and Lace.

No time to touch me Death without time for me to receive The full event that took the place of me I felt the pain, saw the strife The walls moved in, a fault was made It's all the time now There's no way out It's all the time now There's no way out It's all the time now It's so much Trapped in a maze of miscellanies Trapped in a maze of miscellanies Talk to the maids in the chalets Talk to the maids in the chalets Talk to the maids in the chalets Trust me, you will need me too In my arms you will be safe and firm I won't leave until Bye.

Bye.

Our first request today goes to Andy Taylor who was asked to hear Honor Me by Salt who were a Swedish trio who were active between 1995 and 1997 releasing two albums and four singles but they had no success here in the UK Honor Me was their third single when it was released in 1996 and before Salt you heard Mesh and Lace the first track of the two from today's Featured John Peel session by Modern English Our next request is for William Barlow who has asked to hear the title track from the Twilight Singers 2006 album Powder Burns.

Greg Dully may have resurrected the Afghan Whigs who have a new album out now but the Twilight Singers have not been disbanded.

No

And it turned out to be this band called Discharge, English punk band who had had some independent hits.

It was played by John Peel in the UK.

And three weeks later, I'm crisscrossing the country with a vanload of Mohawk sporting punks.

And here I am in my purple Izod sweater with a briefcase.

Radio One show with exploring every avenue of music.

It was what John Peel was doing.

for kind of like young indie music.

Alexis was drawing in music from all, you know, world music, I suppose you'd call it now, but he was a really passionate blues, jazz initially, and then that broadened out.