John Peel's Music Collection-Online Museum
Arguably the greatest musical evangelist, radio broadcaster and music collector of our time is set to have his entire musical library made available via The BBC and The Arts Council online between May and October this year
Access with be via PCs, smartphones, tabllets and internet compatible TVs, additional availability will be via red button, and video on demand service on Freeview HD
The documentation spans 25,000 LP's, 40,000 singles plus thousands of titles on CD that will be made available for all to see, discuss and rejoice in for the 5 month period being overseen by The BBC themselves later this year
John sadly passed away in 2004 after 3 decades of broadcasting and a lifetime of unearthing all manner of music he felt passionate about sharing alongside being a champion of the unsigned and those that fell below the music industry radar
For me, my memories and history of listening and learning about music more or less begin with John Peel as he guided me through my early teens whilst I tuned in around the late 70's and throughout the 80's
After receiving a transistor radio for a Christmas present from my parents I was able to secretly break my nightly curfew by pulling up the bed sheets and tuning into John's nightly show, a similar story to many
My first transistor radio (see below)
As the 80's started I was drawn further into John's selection of US Hip Hop with the likes of UTFO, Coast To Coast, Stetsasonic, Marley Marl, Schooly D, The Real Roxanne, The JVC Force and Just Ice which featured heavily on the nightly Peel playlist
At the time living in the middle of the Southwest Countryside as a teenager my route to buying Hip Hop music was at best limited with only the occasional trip up to Bristol to visit the record shops being one of my only sources of musical procurement at that time
Alongside the roadtrips up the M5 with my parents I was also fortunate enough to live near various holiday sites which still populate the North Somerset Coastline to this day
This meant that occasionally a classmate from school would be in possession of a mixtape of new music that had been copied from one of the holiday makers from say London, Manchester or Birmingham who had come our way to stay over the summer
Naturally these tapes would be shared in school and retaped on C60 or C90 cassette for later enjoyment as we started to become fledgling music collectors, all be it via second hand recordable activity
As my thirst grew for new black music and especially when the holiday season had finished John's nightly show became the only constant source of music for me and with a move from transistor radio to a hi-fi with record facility I would hover over the record and pause button well into the mid 80's taping all the music I liked that John was championing and sharing on his show
Not just limiting myself to US and early UK Hip Hop from the likes of The London Posse, Derek B and The Demon Boyz that John was picking up on I was also checking John's interest in the new electronic dance music of the mid to late 80's
My recorded John Peel shows were also including much of the early Todd Terry releases (Swan Lake/Royal House) as well as more underground works from the likes of Baby Ford with Ford Tracks being an instant fave on my mobile listening platform of the time, a Sony Walkman Personal Stereo
Needless to say there's lots of music that I haven't recounted for which I am eagerly awaiting the opportunity to do so via the documentation of John's music collection.
It's going to be interesting to see how the dance aspect of his library looks and sounds like and what his references were and when they began
Having read the release documentation we are told that this is only just the beginning of more John Peel related musical insight to come
Really looking forward to yet another music experience with one of the greats
Arguably the greatest musical evangelist, radio broadcaster and music collector of our time is set to have his entire musical library made available via The BBC and The Arts Council online between May and October this year
Access with be via PCs, smartphones, tabllets and internet compatible TVs, additional availability will be via red button, and video on demand service on Freeview HD
The documentation spans 25,000 LP's, 40,000 singles plus thousands of titles on CD that will be made available for all to see, discuss and rejoice in for the 5 month period being overseen by The BBC themselves later this year
John sadly passed away in 2004 after 3 decades of broadcasting and a lifetime of unearthing all manner of music he felt passionate about sharing alongside being a champion of the unsigned and those that fell below the music industry radar
For me, my memories and history of listening and learning about music more or less begin with John Peel as he guided me through my early teens whilst I tuned in around the late 70's and throughout the 80's
After receiving a transistor radio for a Christmas present from my parents I was able to secretly break my nightly curfew by pulling up the bed sheets and tuning into John's nightly show, a similar story to many
My first transistor radio (see below)
As the 80's started I was drawn further into John's selection of US Hip Hop with the likes of UTFO, Coast To Coast, Stetsasonic, Marley Marl, Schooly D, The Real Roxanne, The JVC Force and Just Ice which featured heavily on the nightly Peel playlist
At the time living in the middle of the Southwest Countryside as a teenager my route to buying Hip Hop music was at best limited with only the occasional trip up to Bristol to visit the record shops being one of my only sources of musical procurement at that time
Alongside the roadtrips up the M5 with my parents I was also fortunate enough to live near various holiday sites which still populate the North Somerset Coastline to this day
This meant that occasionally a classmate from school would be in possession of a mixtape of new music that had been copied from one of the holiday makers from say London, Manchester or Birmingham who had come our way to stay over the summer
Naturally these tapes would be shared in school and retaped on C60 or C90 cassette for later enjoyment as we started to become fledgling music collectors, all be it via second hand recordable activity
As my thirst grew for new black music and especially when the holiday season had finished John's nightly show became the only constant source of music for me and with a move from transistor radio to a hi-fi with record facility I would hover over the record and pause button well into the mid 80's taping all the music I liked that John was championing and sharing on his show
Not just limiting myself to US and early UK Hip Hop from the likes of The London Posse, Derek B and The Demon Boyz that John was picking up on I was also checking John's interest in the new electronic dance music of the mid to late 80's
My recorded John Peel shows were also including much of the early Todd Terry releases (Swan Lake/Royal House) as well as more underground works from the likes of Baby Ford with Ford Tracks being an instant fave on my mobile listening platform of the time, a Sony Walkman Personal Stereo
Needless to say there's lots of music that I haven't recounted for which I am eagerly awaiting the opportunity to do so via the documentation of John's music collection.
It's going to be interesting to see how the dance aspect of his library looks and sounds like and what his references were and when they began
Having read the release documentation we are told that this is only just the beginning of more John Peel related musical insight to come
Really looking forward to yet another music experience with one of the greats
Lovely read Sir!....
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