Sinister: Feeling sinister about djs

[Stuart Gardiner]

>Well, you really asked for it, didn't you?  I'd agree that Peel does play
>probably.....ooh, often as many as two crappy techno records in every show,
>but come on..........where else (in the world?) are you going to hear such
>great and diverse music as Peel plays ON ONE SHOW?  The man's (virtually)
>irreplaceable - forget Radcliffe (whom I like, but..), forget Lamacq or any
>of your XFM dj's, they don't begin to cover the diversity of stuff that Peel
>does.  I've been listening to Peel for almost 20 years, and have heard all
>the great bands (bar none!) FIRST on John Peel - ok, let's name drop a
>little, shall we.......Joy Division, The Fall, Orange Juice, Fire Engines,
>Gang of Four, Birthday Party, The Smiths, Sonic Youth, Public Enemy, My
>Bloody Valentine, Pavement, Belle & Sebastian(!) - heard 'em all on Peel
>first (and I'm talking their early stuff here, when no-one else wanted to
>know ).  And I don't buy that "Yeah, he used to be good, but nowadays....."
>line either.  Where else can you hear stuff like Neutral Milk Hotel, We,
>Dymaxion (if you've not heard of these, you ain't been LISTENING).  I'm not
>saying that these bands wouldn't have made it without Peel, although I'm sure
>there are many who wouldn't, but no other dj that I'm aware of can claim to
>have championed so many great and deserving artistes.  No one else comes
>close.  Can I have the cheque now please, John?
>
>Nigel

So where does that leave all the excellent bands Peel never played (Pulp
and Blur spring to mind. Or is that too 'mainstream' for you?). He's NOT
first off the block with new bands (only last night he was going on
about playing a record for the first time which he'd heard on Mary-Anne
Hobbs about a month ago, and Radcliffe was way ahead with B&S (who as
far as I know have never done a Peel session)). As for the only measure
of a good radio show being variety, I'd have said any show that plays
the Spice Girls and the Prodigy is pretty diverse, that doesn't make it
good. The problem with Peel is that because he's been around so long,
and in that time he has admittedly played quite a few good groups (he'd
be doing pretty badly if he hadn't), he's been given God-like status by
people who now think whatever he plays must be good. For heaven's sake,
the man still plays Fall records...

Stuart G
>
>
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