the gaps maketh the man

[Martin Wheatley]

Stig wrote

>Look at his little face! It's almost as if he understands! 

No chance :-)

>I've thoroughly enjoyed the Peelennium so far, but I really don't think it's
>intended to be an attempt to document musical movements and developments
>in any serious way. 

Of course not.  It's to play things that we might not know from areas that
interest Peel musically and which comes from the cutting edge of the time
And may will surprise you to know that Music Hall was not mainstream - it was
working class at the time when most music was middle class - the punk of its 
day.  It doesn't seem that way now because most of the rest of the music
has been forgotten and Music Hall has retained a following so people still
know it
Peel has always followed the cutting edge but time changes things and what's
cutting edge one day is mainstream the next.  Peel was the first to play
Mike Oldfield and Genesis as well as the Clash you know.

>As someone commented, at this stage it's doubtless
>just a question of the very few records that are actually available from
>the years in question. 
This may be true for first few years of the century but even there he's
largely 
stuck to one style when there were many available

>For that reason I made the comment that I can
>imagine it getting a bit samey as we go through the early decades of
>recorded music, since relatively speaking there's not a great deal of
>variety to the kind of music that was being put on records in the early
>half of this century when you compare it to the latter half. 
If what you say is true then Peel has committed himself to playing many
hours of 'samey' music on his show for the next few months.  Doesn't sound 
like the Peel I know.  Trust him!

There was the same width of music available in the 20s, 30s and 40s as there 
is now.  All the way from ethnic to serious classical with popular in between
There were no LPs or CDs so tracks had a length limit but there were a great
many 78s put out.  Peel has access to all of these via the BBC Gramophone
Library
For what it's worth some of the tracks he's played so far have been common
ones
in that they have been reissued on albums but some have not and must have been
put on the minidiscs he plays from original copies in the library.  Since the
researcher on the Peel show is Stig's generation I'd guess there is an expert 
in the library who has prepared them for him.  Later on Peel will no doubt 
select the tracks himself

>The
>interesting thing of course is that by the time we get into the era of
>Peel's own career we'll be positively overwhelmed with possibilities.
>Look at the breathtaking eclecticism of any single Peel programme of
>this year and compare it to the distinct lack of musical and stylistic
>variety in the records being produced in the early decades of the 
>century. 

The true mark of the scholar.  Comparing something you know
with something you know bugger all about.  You'll go far!  
There is a career in journalism awaiting you :-)


>Stiggsy, really rather proud of the gaps in his education
Very much your loss

martinw who has been has been looking for the edges of music for a long time
and hasn't got close yet