The Times (UK) OPINION Aug 18: Centre of attention: John Peel

[Tom Roche]

Wednesday August 18 1999    OPINION

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               Centre of attention: John Peel 

       It's hard to know what Half-man Half-Biscuit would have made
       of it. The DJ who made that group almost as famous as, well,
       Captain Beefheart in the Sixties is still alive, has the OBE
       and is about to have two nights - one on BBC2 and another on
       Radio 1 - dedicated to his survival and his 60th birthday.
       Yes, John Peel, once the glummed-down voice of alternative
       pop, is now, as that other erstwhile rock 'n' roll rebel Tony
       Blair said, "truly a living legend". Or, as his long-term
       producer John Walters put it with cruel irony: "He's like the
       Queen Mother. Everybody loves him." 

       Loves him? This was the man the columnist Linda Lee-Potter
       said should be gagged for his music and seditious opinions.
       This was the man of whom Joe Strummer said: "Listening to him
       is like having a dog be sick in your face." 

       Now it's not so much hip as hip replacement. . . 

       But that was 30 years ago when he was one of Radio 1's first
       DJs. Now rock jock has become schlock jock. OK, he is
       narrating a series on pop, but this is about the Vimto, Fanta,
       children's drink variety. And we have to endure his Saturday
       morning Radio 4 show, Home Truths, a kitchen table
       confessional with its mix of Agas and Angst topped up with
       gooey whimsicality about his family and detached country
       living. . . 

       He talks oft of his wife called Pig (because of the way she
       laughs), and his four children (two have Anfield as their
       middle name, Dad being a Liverpool fan). All very whimsical -
       like his career which started in Dallas, Texas, when the
       Beatles hit it big. That's when the ex-public school boy
       remembered his Liverpool roots, flattened his vowels and hit
       the small time on Radio KMEN. In the Seventies, he segued from
       hippy to punk... 

       His Radio 1 show, often idiosyncratic to the point of being
       completely impenetrable, espoused the causes of Bogshead, T
       Rex, Pulp and The Smiths (what did happen to The Incredible
       String Band?) at a time when Tony Blackburn, and Co. were
       clogging the airwaves with The Carpenters. He kept his cred
       when all about were losing theirs, though the image slipped a
       bit when - to everyone's embarrassment, mostly his - he
       fronted Top of the Pops. Still, it's been gear, sometimes Top
       Gear. Just ask Captain Beefheart. Or your gran. 

    


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