"Jarring... unlistenable"

[Dr Mango]

A book review in the Independent on Saturday caught my eye. It's "Hello Again..." by Simon Elmes and it's a book about the history of British radio. The reviewer's comment about John Peelcaused me to reach for my cudgel:

"Occasionally, the dedicated radio listener may feel that Elmes toes the party line too assiduously. He maintains that John Peel 'knew what made compelling, stylish and timelessly hip radio'. In fact, the jarring stuff Peel put out on Radio 1 for his last decade or more was unlistenable for all but a tiny minority.'"

In the last 5 years of his Radio 1 show, Peel championed - off the top of my head - Camera Obscura, Melys, Laura Cantrell, Neko Case, Cinerama, Ballboy, Ronnie Ronalde... Hardly a jarring bone between them. Was the reviewer actually listening to the show? He seems to have swallowed the myth propagated by that hilariously fanciful David Hepworth article in "Word" magazine a few years back.


DM