John Peel
Althugh I was sorry to hear of the death on Monday of the John Peel
Thanks Bruna and Gaby for both emailng the news to me
Only Brits and those in who spent time in the UK in the 70's and 80s will have known him
I mean the BBC Disk Jockey not the D'ye ken For "Peel's "View halloo" would awaken the dead
Or the fox from his lair in the morning." chappie (Old popular song of England) see:- http://www.know-britain.com/songs/john_peel.html
Although to be brutally honest his mesmerising monotone and penchant for (in the 70's at least) choosing to play the worst music he could find-be it rap or punk or anything as remote as possible
from an enjoyable sound made me an early defector from radio 1 to find the joys of Radio 2
His obituary in today's Daily Telegrah made me smile though
""Adopting a Scouse twang, Peel offered himself on WRR (a Texan radio station) as an expert on all things Beatles-related - more than once he interviewed George Harrison, as played by himself - and almost overnight found himself a celebrity. "I was suddenly confronted by this succession of teenage girls who didn't want to know anything about me at all. All they wanted me to do was to abuse them, sexually, which of course I was only too happy to do."
and
"Peel described his relationship with (his producer John Walters )(who died in 2001) as being that of "the organ-grinder and the monkey. With each one believing the other to be the monkey"."
I bring this up as I have recently been watching a fine 1972 video of a then-young Rod Stewart and his band the Small Faces performing the original i.e.pre Burton Cummings Maggie May where the mandolin solo (at least on this television performance) was played by John
http://www.upload4free.com/files/22526.jpg
John is on the right on a stool Rod (back to camera) was dresed in a very modish scarlet suit
John Fowles
If all of the world is a stage where is the audience sitting?

And here is a better still from the video showing (in fetching yellow trousers) then Small Faces/later Rolling Stone
guitarist Ron Wood, Rod and a hirsute John Peel
http://www.johnfowles.org.uk/lightfoot/johnpeel.jpg
John Fowles
How come wrong numbers are never busy

It really is very sad.
Everyone I know, and at work, have been reminiscing over the last couple of days.
A lot of us remember snuggling under the blankets, with our trannies (not rude!), listening to Radio 1, late at night.
Sorry, John, I can’t agree with you! – his mesmerising monotone and penchant for (in the 70's at least) choosing to play the worst music he could find-be it rap or punk or anything as remote as possible.
I’ve loved listening to his sarcastic, yet mellow and sympathetic voice on the BBC World Service for years.
I’ve wondered why the hell I was still awake when he played some crap from West Germany and really fizzed when he introduced a punk band from Hungary.
I loved him. We have lost a genuinely lovely and unpretentious man and my heart goes out to his wife, Sheila (Pig) and his children.