I was thinking about this while watching the Peel tribute over the weekend. They should just retire the slot and play whitenoise, anyone who tries to be like Peel isn't going to cut it, and anyone who tries a complete departure isn't going to be liked.
Posted by jnhoj (Member # 286) on :
the big issue this week was saying zane lowe could fill peels spot, righhhhhtttt....
Posted by dervish (Member # 727) on :
Of course the show ill have to change. At least hes young enough to move on and still have a career. Itll high profile him. Simply because no one will expect it to work it can't hurt his career. Unless hes already rubbish of course.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
John Peel was unique in the way that he obsessively listened to the endless piles of demos that were sent to him day after day. Even a true lover of music with a strong desire to hear the very latest new sounds would have trouble maintaining that routine for any length of time. I don't see why it should be expected of anyone.
And it's all very well listing all those great bands that were first played by John Peel, but how many people actually first heard them on the John Peel show? Decent bands will come through one way or another, although I realise that the JP show did give them a good start. I think it was Billy Bragg who pointed out that a play by John Peel would get you heard by the sort of people that book bands for Student Unions and the like, so they'd call you and you'd get to play to an audience away from your home area etc etc. I suspect it will be that sort of thing which will be hard to replace, but someone will perhaps come along to fill the void.
Meanwhile, there's plenty of radio DJs around who play oddities and unusual records, perhaps not quite as odd and unusual as the stuff John Peel would play, but one does wonder if this is always a bad thing.
Posted by dervish (Member # 727) on :