Fades in Slowly

As for me, well, at the moment committing to this blog feels more like an obligation than something I’m enjoying, so I’m going to take a couple of weeks off at least. I’m not calling it quits permanently, but I just don’t feel like it at present. There are hundreds of new Peel shows to share with you but they’ll just have to wait a while. Thanks to everyone who has visited, especially those who leave comments. They’re what sustain me through the dark times.

It seems like I’ve acquired an obsession with the punk era recently, although I can’t fully explain why. Perhaps the proliferation of late 70s Peel shows now appearing has something to do with it, coupled with the fact that I’ve just received my first copyright-related slap on the wrist over sharing that bloody K-Tel monstrosity with you. Anyhow, by way of keeping this going, I’m sharing this soundtrack that I recently stumbled upon.

I haven’t seen the accompanying film, and the label ‘cult classic‘ which is regularly applied to it make me feel that I probably wouldn’t want to. There is some great musical accompinments, however.

Info kindly borrowed from Wikipedia:

In Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth I (Runacre) is transported forward in time by the occultist John Dee (Richard O’Brien) through the spirit guide Ariel (a character from Shakespeare’s The Tempest). Elizabeth arrives in the shattered Britain of the 1970s. Queen Elizabeth II is dead, killed in an arbitrary mugging, and Elizabeth I moves through the social and physical decay of the city observing the activities of a group of sporadic nihilists including Amyl Nitrate (Jordan), Bod (Runacre in a dual role), Chaos (Hermine Demoriane), Crabs (Nell Campbell), and Mad (Toyah Willcox).

The film is heavily influenced by the 1970s punk aesthetic in its style and presentation. Shot in grainy colour it is largely plotless, episodic, untidy, confrontational, often incoherent and noisily anti-establishment and anti-royalty (Buckingham Palace has become a recording studio run by a seedy music producer named Borgia Ginz).

Numerous punk icons appear in the film including Jordan (a Malcolm McLaren protege), Toyah Willcox, Campbell (Little Nell), Adam Ant, Demoriane and Wayne County. It features performances by Wayne County and Adam and the Ants. There are also cameo appearances by The Slits and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The film was scored by Brian Eno.

Track listing:

1. Deutscher Girls – Adam & The Ants
2. Paranoia Paradise – Wayne County & The Electric Chairs
3. Right to Work – Chelsea
4. Nine to Five – Maneaters
5. Plastic Surgery – Adam & The Ants
6. Rule Brittania – Suzxi Pinns
7. Jerusalem – Suzi Pinns
8. Wargasm in Pornotopia – Amilcar
9. Slow Water – Brian Eno
10. Dover Beach – Brian Eno

File size: 69mb

I had many mixed feelings about sharing this session with you all. While the original Skrewdriver had a reputation for violence at their concerts, with none other than Bob Geldof being reportedly knocked unconscious by a friend of founder Ian Stuart Donaldson at one concert, they did not openly support any political party during their early years. The reformed Skrewdriver of the 80s did, however, eventually becoming openly supportive of far right wing groups, after a period of denying such claims. This session dates from their earliest days and not their neo-Nazi dickheads era, which is why I decided to make it available to you all.

Skrewdriver were formed in Poulton-le-Fylde near Blackpool in 1976 by Ian Stuart Donaldson (this fact is disputed), after seeing the Sex Pistols in Manchester. In 1978, Donaldson moved to Manchester, where he recruited guitarist Glenn Jones and drummer Martin Smith. This lineup toured extensively, but certain venues were reluctant to book the band because of their reputation as a violent skinhead band. Performing largely for a skinhead audience (which they shared with Sham 69 but, unlike the other band, failed to denounce), the first versions of the band released one album and two singles on the Chiswick label. This version of the band split up in January 1979 after a concert in Warrington, but Donaldson resurrected the name Skrewdriver in 1982 using new musicians and becoming far right morons. This session predates almost all of these events, being recorded in October of 1977. Peel was as big an influence as any in guiding the punk movement away from neo-nazism, with his regular, incessant mix of punk and reggae in his shows of the time leading the way for multiculturalism in his listeners and, therefore, followers of punk. Shame he couldn’t save Donaldson from the path of foolishness.

TRACKLIST

Street Fight
Unbeliever
The Only One
Anti-Social

LINE UP

John Grinton (Drums)
Kevin Mckay (Bass)
Ron Hartley (Guitar)
Ian Stuart (Vocals)

File size: 9mb

John Peel’s best sessions of 1977

This Peel show is an absolute gem for many obvious reasons (look at the songs he plays), but for those of us obsessed with the annual festive fifty lists, it provides some invaluable new info regarding the mythical 1977 list. The fabulous Rocklist website (www.rocklist.net), along with John Horne’s page, was instrumental in getting me started on the road to my JP music quest, and was infamously the source of about half of Mick Wall’s banal, insipid Peel biography which, given that it was released in time for Christmas 2004, Wall must have started cobbling together within minutes of JP’s death, the bastard.

Don’t buy this…

Mick Wall: John Peel

Buy this instead…

John Peel: Margrave of the Marshes

Anyway, back to the ’77 festive chart. Very little was known about this chart, apart from rumours that one existed. Peel first did a 50 in 1976, which followed the format that later charts would use, listeners writing in with their favourite tracks, which JP would compile into a chart. Rocklist has full charts for every year bar 1977, for which it currently lists only a top 13. Well, the end-of-year show you’re about to be dazzled by confirms categorically that Peel did indeed broadcast a full festive chart at the end of 1977, although from what he says in this show, he seems merely to have chosen his favourite sixty tracks for that year.

This show isn’t Peel’s festive 60 for the year; it is the show broadcast the night after he’d completed the list. It is, however, an absolute belter, as Peel showcases his favourite session tracks of the year. This was quite an eye-opener: despite Peel’s later admission that he had tended to let punk dominate his shows during this period, there are many other genres represented, although I can’t imagine why that would surprise me to much.

Part One

The Motors – Dancing the night away

JP confirms the existence of a festive chart, a festive 60 which he appears to have chosen himself, and that this track was his number one.

Frankie Miller – Ain’t got no money

The Lurkers  – Then I kissed her

Mick Wall seems to have based his lame Peel biography entirely around a two-minute encounter with Peel during which they discussed this band.

Steel Pulse – Prodigal son

Elvis Costello & the Attractions – Mystery dance

Begs for tickets for the Chelsea v. Liverpool cup match

Lone Star – Bells of Berlin

The Fabulous Poodles – When the summer’s through

The Stranglers – Bring on the nubiles

Coliseum 2 – Intergalactic strut

The Boomtown Rats – Looking after number one

June Tabor  – Riding down to Portsmouth

The Slits – Love and romance

The Motors – Freeze

The Lurkers – Freak show

Elvis Costello & the Attractions  – Less than zero

Frankie Miller – Name of the track please! Download failure at this point

Part Two

Lone Star – From all of us to all of you

Steel Pulse  – Bad man

The Boomtown Rats  – Mary of the fourth form (Bob Gelding?)

The Slits – New town

The Fabulous Poodles – Mr. Mic

The Lurkers – Total war

June Tabor – No man’s land

The Stranglers – No more heroes

Frankie Miller – Be good to yourself

Elvis Costello & the Attractions – Red shoes

Coliseum 2 – Lament

The Motors – You beat the hell out of me

Frankie Miller  – Be good to yourself (yes, for the second time in the space of 15 minutes)

My eternal thanks to Chris Bussicott for providing this show, and for putting me in my place over the course of our email correspondence, when I suggested that getting to hear this show was right up there alongside the birth of my second son among the very good things to happen this year. Thanks for the reality check, and, admittedly less important in the greater scheme of things, for the chance to use the phrase ‘gloriously washy medium wave’ for the first time in ages.

I’d appreciate anyone downloading this show leaving a comment below to thank Chris for making this available to all of us; he went to some effort to get it onto CD and then mp3ify. Cheers fella, it’s people like you who will help us keep Peel’s legacy alive.

While we’re at it, get yourself over to so it goes site and start reading up on the history of the festive 50. Sorry I’ve not been over for a while, the day job has been inconveniently getting in the way.

Part one:

Part two:

As ever, comments attempting to correct my glaring errors are welcomed.

A special shout out to John Peel Everyday, glad to have you back in action!

Frankie Miller

I’d never seen this before, but actually it’s very similar to the discussion that Peel has with John Walters in episode four of the Peeling Back the Years series (does anyone want me to post these on the blog? Let me know).



‘I am not really into the idea of cloning people’, notes cedricimagelimited on YouTube, ‘but John Peel may be the only person who could be subject to that kind of experiment! he ‘s so unique! What a voice! What a career! Absolute respect!’ Quite well put, I think. 

ColonelWalterKurtz makes another good point, suggesting ’I could listen to John Peel talk about music all day!’ Couldn’t we all, Colonel, couldn’t we all.

I promise I’ll get back to the real business of posting Peel shows next week. Things have been a bit hectic after the month of work.