Hello from new list member

[kenandmagda@...]

Dear fellow Peel listeners,

Stuart McHugh of Jockrock has just today brought this list to my attention
and I have signed up immediately. My name is Ken Garner, and a few years
ago I wrote a book called IN SESSION TONIGHT ((BBC Books, 1993) about the
history of Radio 1 sessions, including the Peel Sessions. I have been
listening to Peel on and off since 1975. I am 39 years old. The book was
remaindered in 1995 but I think some of you know of it from comments made
in mailings just today.

What am I doing these days? Am I doing a sequel? First, my day job is  I'm
a lecturer in the Department of Language and Media at Glasgow Caledonian
University, where I teach a bit of broadcasting history and other
not-so-interesting stuff, but I do give a MUSIC option every other year. I
started this job two months before IN SESSION TONIGHT came out. Before then
I'd been a freelance journalist since 1988, and before that worked as a
financial reporter in London (I teach business journalism on our postgrad
diploma in journalism).

But I still am a freelance, in a way: from Oct 1993 to December 1997 I was
radio critic of the Scotsman's Sunday newspaper, Scotland on Sunday; and
since January 1998 I've been radio  critic of the Sunday Express, and I do
daily previews in the daily Express as well. But I don't mention Peel's
show too often - it'd get a bit obvious and boring. My brief is to review
all national UK radio. The paper is better than it was two years ago but it
is still far more conservative overall than the Daily paper, which is now
quite Blairite middle-market under Rosie Boycott - in one bound the paper
leapfrogged the Mail into the middle of the political spectrum! Of course,
I would say this, wouldn't I, but I think you'd be surprised by how
at-times right-on and entertaining the Daily Express is now, if you, like
me, remember it's rabid Thatcherite years.

Second question: no, what with my current academic and journalistic
commitments, I am not working on a sequel right now. One or two producers
at Radio 1 have made encouraging noises, but I've explained that I'd need
six months, a publisher, and guaranteed access - and in the Producer-choice
era BBC, all that would cost, and I'm not sure the BBC would be willing to
pay - don't get me wrong, it's not ME they'd have to pay, I'd do it for
expenses if I could get the time off teaching - I mean one BBC department
would have to physically pay all the archive depts for me to go in and use
them. In the old days of 1991-92 I just walked in and showed my pass, sat
down and plugged in my laptop  and opened the files and started typing the
data in. No more, alas.

Anyway, it's not impossible sometime, just don't hold your breath. To be
honest, given efforts and enthusiasms of people like you I'm sure an update
of another 7-8 years worth would be a lot easier. Also Phil Lawton, R1
archivist, has a tickety-boo thorough contemporary cataloging system. If it
ever happens, any help or checks members of this list might be able to help
me with will be fully acknowledged in print.

I must admit, that given the range of listening I am obliged to do these
days professionally as it were, I tend to miss Peel more often than I catch
him. But I will certainly be taping Wednesday night's BBC MUSIC LIVE 99 gig
from Glasgow School of Art, with the Delgados and High Fidelity. In fact,
as it's just up the road, I'll be there in person. Peel and Sheila (The
PIg) arrived in Glasgow this afternoon after a brief holiday driving around
Argyll - his first in six years. Tomorrow night's and Thursday's show come
live from BBC Radi o Scotland's studios. Anita the producer arrives in town
tomorrow. He's pre-recording his R4 Home Truths show in Glasgow on Thursday
too. He'll also be a guest on Fred McAuley's Radio Scotland show (8.45am)
tomorrow (Tues).

I only know all this because he phoned me up at 7pm and me and my wife
Magda and I have just had a curry with them at Mother India. Before this
all gets too creepily name dropping, I should add that I haven't seen John
since his 30th aniversary on Radio 1 celebration at the ICA in October
1997, and we maybe exchange a brief phone call  2 or 3 times a year. It's
hardly showbiz luvvie stuff, honest. He also was completely unaware I was
writing for the Sunday Express. So I needn't have said those nice things
after all! I did tell him tonight I gave HOME TRUTHS  a bit of stick for
getting so many Sony Radio Award nominations, which he took like a man.

Anyway, this has gone on far too long. I'm looking forward to what everyone
has to say about the show these days. I've not even been to Radio 1 since
they moved from Egton House to Yalding House 2 years ago, and Simon
Garfield's [my opposite number, radio critic now of the Mail on Sunday]
hilarious book THE NATION'S FAVOURITE gives a very good picture of the
Bannister years (1993-1998), whereas mine stopped at the end of the Johnnie
Beerling era, pre-Birt really. But anything useful I feel that I can offer
to our discussions, I shall,

Yours sincerely,


Ken Garner

PS. I do not use emoticons. I do English. It's what I know.

PPS. Has there been discussion earlier in the list about the "whites-only
playlist" allegations made so erroneously in the Guardian and Independent
earlier this year? Journalists, eh? I wouldn't trust them